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President Estrada urges continued support for rice research

Philippine President Joseph Estrada has urged international donors to increase their support for rice research to help solve poverty and food security problems in Asia. Speaking at the Presidential Palace in Manila during celebrations on 4 April marking IRRI's 40th anniversary, President Estrada called for a renewed commitment to the use of science and technology to solve the problems of the developing world. "Research on and the development of new technologies are overwhelmingly directed at rich-country problems," he said.

While international donors helped build most of the existing agricultural research and extension programs in the developing world, Mr. Estrada said the current international system failed to address the scientific and technological needs of the world's poorest. "Even when the right institutions, such as IRRI, exist to deal with the pressing food security issues facing the poorest countries, they are generally starved for funds, authority, and even access.

"There should be no doubt that the money invested in rice research over the past 40 years has helped improve the lives of millions of poor people, not only here in the Philippines but all across Asia," Mr. Estrada added. "In terms of investments, rice research has probably been one of the best ever made by the international donor community."

He also supported the continued presence of IRRI in the Philippines. "I look forward to the Institute celebrating not just its 50th anniversary in the Philippines, but many more after that, because it will take many years to finally overcome our food problems."

IRRI, one of Asia's most respected research organizations, celebrated 40 years of scientific effort combating poverty and hunger around the world on 4 April. Several major events were organized with more than 200 leading scientists, researchers, donors, and senior government officials from around the world attending.

The anniversary events kicked off with the opening of the 23rd International Rice Research Conference (IRRC) at IRRI on 31 March with Rice Research for Food Security and Poverty Alleviation as its theme. The event, with more than 150 participants, ended successfully on 3 April.

Then, on 4 April, IRRI held its main 40th anniversary event under the theme Rice Research for the New Millennium. Among those who attended were the Executive Secretary of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), Mr. Alexander Von Der Osten; Mahmud Duwayri, Chair of the Steering Committee of the International Rice Commission and Director of the Plant Production and Protection Division of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); and Paul C. Ma, the only surviving member of IRRI's first Board of Trustees.

IRRI director general Dr. Ronald P. Cantrell said he was especially pleased that all the surviving past directors general of the Institute were also present on 4 April. "Over the past 40 years, IRRI has become the center of a worldwide family of rice scientists," he said. "In the process, it has helped transform a small research initiative into a global movement for improved agriculture in the developing world, not to mention the ways it has bettered the lives of millions of poor rice farmers and consumers.

"Perhaps the most important of our many partners have been the donors, because, without them and their financial support, IRRI would have achieved nothing in the past 40 years, and would not be here today," Dr. Cantrell added. In recognition of this crucial role, IRRI presented plaques to representatives of donors at a special ceremony on 4 April.

As part of the ongoing anniversary activities, IRRI will also host the Fourth International Rice Genetics Symposium from 22 to 27 October, where leading scientists will discuss the latest developments in rice systematics and evolution, cytogenetics, classical genetics, tissue and cell culture, genetic engineering, and genomics.

The world's rice-producing nations, which feed well over half the people on the planet, have been warned that research efforts to ensure the food security of their burgeoning populations could be affected unless they prepare proper laws on plant variety protection (PVP) and intellectual property (IP). The new concepts of PVP and IP are creating concerns about the exchange and use of material for research.

The Chairman of the Council for Partnership on Rice Research in Asia (CORRA), Dr. Joko Budianto from Indonesia, said that "these PVP and IP legal requirements are new for many of us in rice research and production, but we have to study and introduce the necessary legislation as quickly as possible. These new laws will require us to introduce the concept of ownership with all the rights this will involve. But we must do this without having a negative impact on our research efforts."

Dr. Budianto was speaking after a recent meeting of senior representatives of the 12-nation CORRA at IRRI. A wide range of international experts on IP rights and PVP from the public and private sectors attended the three-day event titled Impact on Research and Development of Sui Generis Approaches to Plant Variety Protection of Rice in Developing Countries.

IRRI deputy director general for partnerships Dr. William Padolina said, "Any new laws that aim to protect the genetic resources of a country will definitely affect the way research is conducted and germplasm is exchanged in the region. Eventually, this will also affect how rice is grown, processed, and sold." IRRI is also concerned that new rules on PVP may have a major impact on the operation of the International Network for the Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER), which it coordinates. For many years, INGER, the world's leading rice germplasm exchange and testing network, has facilitated the free exchange of such genetic material. It has also played a significant role in developing new and improved rice varieties in many countries.

Recent developments in rice production technology as well as new economic trends are encouraging farmers to shift from traditional transplanting to direct seeding. This change in sowing method is expected to have a large impact on Asian rice production efforts and on the region's economies. This is because one of the main forces driving such changes has been shrinking resources in the region, especially available land and water.

Direct seeding is already the dominant sowing method used by farmers in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Its importance as a leading method of crop establishment has also increased during the past three decades in the Philippines, Thailand, and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Transplanting, however, remains the major method used in other rice-producing countries in the region.

IRRI agricultural economist Sushil Pandey and assistant scientist Lourdes Velasco said the trend toward direct seeding has been brought about by "rising wage rates, a growing scarcity of water, the improved availability of chemical weed control agents, and the increasing intensification of rice land." They further stressed that the shift in farming methods has also been encouraged by the availability of high-yielding, short- duration varieties that have made double cropping of rice in humid tropical Asia feasible for the first time—especially where irrigation during the dry season could be developed. "The expansion in double-cropped rice area also increased the demand for labor," they said.

"At the same time, countries in East and Southeast Asia, where the pace of economic growth has been the most rapid, were already facing escalating farm labor costs as traditional laborers found other better-paying work. Also, direct seeding of short- duration varieties facilitated crop intensification through double cropping of rice in some rainfed areas. These factors, combined with the availability of chemical weed control methods, have helped encourage the use of direct seeding in tropical Asia."

Dr. Pandey and Ms. Velasco were two of the 14 IRRI scientists who participated in a recent international workshop on Direct Seeding in Asian Rice Systems: Strategic Research Issues and Opportunities in Bangkok.

IRRI develops five rice varieties for the Philippines

Five promising rice lines bred at IRRI have been recommended for release as varieties for the irrigated lowland and saline-prone rice lands in the Philippines. The new lines have undergone extensive field testing in different regions of the country through the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

Dr. Gurdev Khush, IRRI principal plant breeder and head of the Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biochemistry Division, said that it took IRRI seven to eight years to develop the varieties. 

"We expect that the new varieties for irrigated lowland conditions will be used widely and result in greater impact, as there are more irrigated rice areas in the Philippines than saline areas," Dr. Khush said. He added that the salt-tolerant varieties are expected to have a high impact in rice areas that suffer from saltwater intrusion. Parallel breeding programs have been under way at IRRI to develop varieties for rainfed lowland and upland rice areas as well. Modern rice varieties developed by IRRI and other research institutions are approved for release by the National Seed Industry Council of the Philippines. "We will continue to make available rice breeding lines to PhilRice and to our other partners in the rice-growing countries and we hope to release more rainfed lowland and upland rice varieties in the next three years," Dr. Khush added.

The sisters of nutrition

In a quiet suburb of the Philippine capital Manila, a group of 27 young sisters at a Roman Catholic convent has been playing a vital role in research that may prove to be a key step toward improving nutrition for millions of poor people in the developing world.

For six months, their convent has been a laboratory. Every mouthful of their food has been measured, every activity monitored, every change in body weight noted. And about every month, their blood has been taken for testing. It has been an extraordinary act of charity, helping to prove that a new variety of rice could, at no cost to anyone, wipe out the misery of iron-deficiency anemia in the world's poorest regions. Initial trial results have delighted IRRI researchers, along with colleagues from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, Cornell University (USA), Adelaide University (Australia), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Many of the religious sisters, between 20 and 30 years old, were mildly anemic while on their normal diet of ordinary market rice. But, after eating IR68144, an experimental rice variety, the serum ferritin levels in their blood leaped—in many cases two or three times higher. It was the first large human consumption trial for a rice variety developed at IRRI and found, quite by chance, to be high in both iron and zinc, vital micronutrients that are normally deficient in a rice-heavy diet. Initial results of the research were announced in IRRI's 1999-2000 annual report, The Rewards of Rice Research, which was released on 4 April, the Institute's 40th anniversary.

"One thing people might find most interesting about this work is that the results have been achieved using conventional breeding," IRRI director general Dr. Ronald P. Cantrell said. "No biotechnology was involved." He said, however, that IRRI remained firmly committed to pushing ahead with planned research that will use biotechnology to try to enrich tropical rice with vitamin A. "As responsible scientists, we need to evaluate all the different research alternatives available to us, not just focus on one at the expense of another. Nutrition is an enormous problem in the developing world, and we are dedicated to finding solutions to help the governments involved improve the health of their rice-consuming citizens."

The coordinator of the research involving the Catholic sisters, Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio of IRRI, said that the project sought to discover whether the high levels of iron and zinc in IR68144 could be absorbed by the human body after rice had been processed, cooked, and digested.

"In spite of the positive results, we will begin a larger human consumption trial soon, in a final effort to convince nutritionists that the new rice is as good as it sounds," Dr. Gregorio said. This trial will involve nearly 200 religious sisters from six to eight convents in the Manila area. "Half of them will be fed high-iron rice, the other half ordinary market rice, over a nine-month period," he said. Scientists from the Philippines and the United States will supervise the trial.

One of the world's most respected plant breeders has been honored with another major international award for his services to agriculture and contributions to food security.

Dr. Gurdev Khush, principal plant breeder and head of IRRI's Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biochemistry Division, has been awarded the 2000 Wolf Prize for Agriculture.

Dr. Khush was unanimously chosen by the Wolf Prize Jury for his "extraordinary contribution to theoretical research in plant genetics, evolution, and breeding, especially of rice, with regard to food production and alleviation of hunger." The jury noted Dr. Khush's remarkable achievements in rice research, and in developing new approaches and mobilizing new techniques to breed better rice varieties. The genetic maps of molecular and traditional markers in rice, which Dr. Khush and his team developed, are now widely used in studying the origin and evolution of other important grain crops such as wheat, maize, and barley. Dr. Khush and his colleagues also established the first molecular genetic map of rice and tagged many genes for disease and insect resistance as well as for stress tolerance.

In addition to the Wolf Prize for Agriculture, the president of his home country, India, also honored Dr. Khush. On 26 January, India's Republic Day, it was announced that the renowned plant breeder had won the Padma Shri Award for contributions to food security.