OSAKA &#8212; With Asia's recent decades of economic prosperity and rising middle classes, the idea that rice, a staple for billions, may soon be in short supply is unthinkable.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>But this critically important food faces severe threats both natural and man-made, warns Robert Zeigler, director general of the Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'International rice prices are at a 10-year high, and global rice stocks are at a 30-year low. Some nations are now shifting land that was once used for rice cultivation into feed grains and are preparing to use it for biofuel production. Meanwhile, trends possibly linked to global warming have meant extreme weather patterns that are –

havoc with rice crops," Zeigler said in an interview last month.

Rice is a staple in more than 100 countries and provides 20 percent of the calories humans consume. About 90 percent of the land used to grow rice is in Asia, with India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines accounting for 80 percent of the total.

Recent meteorological data show the mercury rising, raising concerns about Japan's rice crop. A Yomiuri Weekly report in September noted that in parts of Kyushu, the average daily temperature for early August has risen 4 to 6 degrees since 1980.

Zeigler's institute, known as IRRI, was founded in 1960 with money from the Rockefeller and Ford foundations. Its purpose was to become a modern research center on rice with the aim of preventing famines in Asia. Zeigler was in Japan to accept the sixth annual Iue Asia Pacific Research Prize, which was established by the Asia Pacific Forum Awaji Conference Japan, in Hyogo Prefecture, in 2000.