|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
 |
Media hotlineAn information summary for supporters of international rice research In this issue:
Top scientific journals call for more public funding of rice research The leading scientific journals Nature and Science have both published calls urging renewed financial support for IRRI. “Despite rumors to the contrary, the role of the International Rice Research Institute is as important as ever,” begins an editorial in the 1 May issue of Nature (Vol. 423) entitled Rice institute needs strong support. However, it adds, “In the three years from 2001 to 2003, IRRI’s annual core funding dropped by 26%, and similar cuts are expected in the future.” “It is essential that support for IRRI be mobilized,” states the Nature editorial. “Researchers there, where research that spurred the Green Revolution was carried out, sometimes hear their success in producing abundant, high-yielding rice as a justification for cutting their budget, as if to say ‘your job is over.’ But the institute’s job is not over — it has just begun.” In the same week, the 2 May issue of Science (Vol. 300) ran a broader look at the Green Revolution and the role played by IRRI and the other 15 international agricultural research centers (IARCs) in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). In summarizing the findings of their book Assessing the impact of the Green Revolution, 1960 to 2000, R.E. Evenson and D. Gollin wrote that “the IARCs will have an important role to play in generating and sustaining future advances in agricultural technology for the developing world.” Respected Japanese economist elected chair of IRRI Board of Trustees IRRI has announced the appointment of Keijiro Otsuka of Japan as the new chair of its Board of Trustees. A respected agricultural economist, Dr. Otsuka replaces Angeline Kamba, a public service commissioner from Zimbabwe, who is stepping down after almost two years in the post. IRRI’s independent, 15-member Board of Trustees meets once a year to set the institute’s policies and review its research agenda. Dr. Otsuka is currently a professor at Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and the director of the graduate program of the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development. The foundation conducts development research in Asia and Africa and offers educational and training programs for aspiring development professionals from Japan, other Asian countries and Africa. Dr. Otsuka identified the overarching challenge facing rice-producing countries as the need to create vibrant, economically and environmentally sustainable rural communities in rice-growing areas, which are home to hundreds of millions of the world’s poor. He stressed that IRRI can also make significant contributions toward addressing global environmental issues and meeting the challenge of improving rice farming in sub-Saharan Africa, where people are particularly poor and suffer chronic food shortages and malnutrition. Former IRRI scientist appointed to Order of Australia Harold John Nesbitt was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on 9 June for his “service to agriculture as project manager and agronomist for the Cambodia-International Rice Research Institute-Australia Project and, through this project, to the community of Cambodia.” The award is in recognition of the nation’s gratitude for that service. Dr. Nesbitt will receive the award and medal in a ceremony at Government House in Perth, West Australia, on 12 September. Dr. Nesbitt joined IRRI in November 1988 to head the Cambodia-IRRI-Australia Project and serve as IRRI representative in Cambodia until the project’s completion in December 2001. Major campaign launched to protect rice farmers from insecticide misuse An innovative, award-winning campaign that promises to help protect a million rice farmers in the Red River Delta from the harmful effects of dangerous insecticides has been formally inaugurated in Vietnam. Launched as part of World Environment Day 2004 activities in Asia, the campaign — which will be jointly advanced by a team of Vietnamese, Philippine and Malaysian scientists — will build on a groundbreaking effort that has already sharply reduced pesticide misuse in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. The team’s long-running collaborative effort in Vietnam has been led by K.L. Heong from Malaysia, a senior entomologist at IRRI; M.M. Escalada, a communications professor at the Philippine’s Leyte State University (now seconded to IRRI); and Nguyen Huu Huan, the vice director general of Vietnam’s Plant Protection Department. Last year, the team won the $25,000 Saint Andrews’ Prize for Environment in recognition of their success and immediately pledged to use the money to extend their pesticide-reduction effort to the Red River Delta. First launched in 1994 in the Mekong Delta, the research and subsequent campaign marked a milestone in rice production for two reasons. Firstly, it clearly identified the damage caused by the overuse of insecticides, which kills off friendly insects and so encourages the pests they would otherwise help control. It also developed innovative ways of communicating important information to farmers through popular media (see next item). Insect ecologist brings prestigious award to Asia An IRRI scientist has become the first Asian to win the prestigious Charles A. Black Award for outstanding contributions to public understanding of food and agricultural sciences. In presenting the award to K.L. Heong, a specialist in integrated pest management and insect ecology, the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) honored the 54-year-old Malaysian’s achievements in expanding understanding of the ecology of rice fields and in packaging that knowledge in a way useful to farmers. CAST, an international consortium based in Washington, DC, that combines 37 scientific and professional societies, annually presents the Thomas A. Black Award to a scientist who is actively engaged in research and has demonstrated excellence in communicating the importance of his or her scientific achievements to policymakers, news media and the public. Dr. Heong and his collaborative team distilled the complex scientific details of their discovery into a simple rule of thumb — “No early insecticide spray” — and have experimentally used popular media, including short radio dramas, leaflets and posters, to deliver the message to farmers. The first such media campaign, in the Mekong Delta province of Long An in 1995, prompted farmers in the test area to slash their insecticide use by 53%, from an average of 3.4 to 1.6 sprays per season, with no yield loss. They have since maintained this low level of spraying. By 1997, 17 other Vietnamese provincial governments were using their own resources to launch similar campaigns, and the simple rule had reached about 2 million farmers in the Mekong Delta, reducing insecticide spraying by 70%. The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture endorsed the no-early-spray rule in 1998 and stopped registering insecticides for controlling leaf folder. In 2001, Dr. Heong’s team repeated the experiment with a campaign in central Thailand, the results of which are undergoing analysis. The collaborators launched another media campaign in the northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh on 5 June, coinciding with World Environment Day 2003. Interim material transfer agreement implemented The forthcoming International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture promises to revitalize international germplasm exchange by establishing internationally agreed standards. Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, head of the Genetic Resources Center at IRRI, reports that the process has been difficult and protracted. “Many steps have already been completed, but there are still many to go,” Dr. Sackville Hamilton says. “The latest step is the implementation of the interim material transfer agreement (MTA) for the distribution of in-trust germplasm.” When the treaty was adopted in 2001, signers agreed that its governing body should develop a new standard MTA. However, as this process may take several years, it was subsequently agreed that the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) should revise the old FAO MTA to produce a more acceptable MTA for the short term, to be used until the new standard MTA is ready. The interim MTA is the result. In 2002, IRRI’s Board of Trustees approved the interim MTA for use by the institute, and all CGIAR genebanks started to use it on 1 May 2003. Sulfate tolerance is transferred through wide hybridization IRRI scientists have transferred into the popular rice cultivar IR64 the ability of Oryza rufipogon, a wild relative of cultivated rice, to grow in acid sulfate soils. This was achieved by a backcrossing program that produced 460 breeding lines, which IRRI shared with Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute (CLRRI) in Vietnam. Selection of lines for improved plant type and performance in both target (acid sulfate conditions) and nontarget conditions were assessed through CLRRI’s yield-testing network. One of these lines, IR73678-6-9-B, has been released for commercial cultivation in Vietnam as national variety AS996. The variety resembles IR64 in most of its characteristics and is resistant to the brown planthopper pest and rice blast disease. Besides maturing 5-10 days earlier than IR64, it is suitable for moderately acid sulfate soils — a condition that severely reduces rice productivity. AS996 has become popular with farmers and currently occupies 100,000 hectares in Vietnam. Recognizing the popularity of AS996 in less favorable areas, the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Association recently awarded the variety its VIFOTEC prize. In a related development, resistance to tungro virus has been transferred from O. rufipogon to IR64. A breeding line, IR73885-1-4-3-2-1-6, has been released in the Philippines as a stopgap variety for cultivation in the areas prone to tungro. IRRI in Timor-Leste, the world’s newest country IRRI has been active in Timor-Leste (East Timor) since shortly after independence, when Edwin Javier, coordinator of the International Network for the Genetic Evaluation of Rice, began leading the rice component of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)-funded Seeds of Life project. To further strengthen ties, the Timor-Leste government used World Bank funds to support a recently visit by Mark Bell, head of IRRI’s International Programs Management Office, to review their rice situation and to look at the potential for further collaboration. During the visit, members of the crops division received training in the use of the leaf color chart and the Rice Knowledge Bank. While tremendous progress has been made, Timor-Leste still has pressing needs. In particular, the country needs to build its human resources and has asked for support from IRRI in various areas relating to statistics, economics and basic rice production. IRRI-India office organizes regional consultation for World Bank A regional consultation on “The role of agricultural science and technology in reducing hunger, improving rural livelihoods and stimulating environmentally sustainable economic growth” was recently organized at the National Academy of Agricultural Science in New Delhi by the IRRI-India Office in collaboration with the Soil Conservation Society of India. The consultation was requested by the World Bank and coordinated by Rita Sharma on behalf of the Indian Ministry of Agriculture. More than 110 participants from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India participated, including high officials from the public and private sectors, NGOs and farmers’ associations, and representatives of the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Development Research Centre, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, and IRRI. The main objectives were to analyze the challenges of reducing hunger and improving livelihoods and to assess the role of science and technology in meeting them. IRRI scientist receives Philippine achievement award Tom Mew, head of IRRI’s Entomology and Plant Pathology Division, received the Philippine Phytopathological Society Achievement Award during the society’s recent 40th anniversary celebration in Cebu City. The award recognized his contribution to rice pathology and crop protection. Dr. Mew is recognized as the world authority on rice bacterial blight. His work has led to the planting of blight-resistant rice varieties carrying different Xa genes over millions of hectares in Asia, including the Philippines. He has also helped establish seed health services to ensure safe exchange of germplasm. He was the first to study the microbial community of rice seed and seed-associated microorganisms to improve rice-disease management in tropical environments. His leadership and promotion of pathology research programs has produced a large cadre of plant pathologists who are now leading worldwide efforts in crop protection for rice. IRRI participates in first National Rice Summit IRRI participated in the first-ever National Rice Summit held recently at the Philippine Social Science Center, Diliman, Quezon City. The event, sponsored by the Philippine Peasants Institute, attracted 150 farmers, 88 NGO and government representatives, and 32 speakers from IRRI, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and Institute of Plant Breeding, among others. Seven IRRI scientists gave workshop presentations: Senior Associate Scientist Rhoda Lantin discussed climate change, Senior Associate Scientist Flora de Guzman talked on germplasm management, Assistant Scientist Alvaro Pamplona spoke on seed issues and varietal development, Plant Breeder Glenn Gregorio discussed Golden Rice and other forms of rice biofortification, Assistant Scientist Ruben Lampayan talked on aerobic rice technology, Gender Specialist Thelma Paris tackled gender issues in rice farming, and Senior Associate Scientist Jojo Lapitan focused on rice-technology transfer. New genomics Web site launched The new Web site of the International Rice Functional Genomics Consortium (IRFGC) was recently launched worldwide via the IRRI Web site, which is serving as its host. One of the core mandates of the IRFGC is to share information about its rice functional genomics activities. The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, begun in 1998, was a major milestone in international collaboration to accelerate rice gene discovery. The rice genomics research community recently decided that a similarly structured consortium would facilitate research in the post-sequencing functional genomics era. A meeting was convened in San Diego, California, on 11 January 2003 to form the IRFGC with an interim steering committee of scientists representing 18 institutions from 10 countries, IRRI and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Plant Biotechnology Journal article announces indica Golden Rice A paper by IRRI staff members and cooperators on indica Golden Rice appeared in Plant Biotechnology Journal — 1(2):81-90 (March 2003) — officially announcing the institute’s development of a tropical, or indica, Golden Rice. Entitled Bioengineered 'golden’ indica rice cultivars with beta-carotene metabolism in the endosperm with hygromycin and mannose selection systems, the paper is authored by Karabi Datta, Niranjan Baisakh, Norman Oliva, Lina Torrizo, Editha Abrigo, Jing Tan, Mayank Rai, Sayda Rehana, Salim Al-Babili, Peter Beyer, Ingo Potrykus and Swapan Datta. Since the development of Golden Rice using a japonica model, there has been tremendous global interest in this nutritious rice for tropical Asian countries. According to Swapan Datta, plant biotechnologist in Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry and leader of the Golden Rice project, IRRI scientists have now bioengineered several Asian indica varieties with genes for beta-carotene biosynthesis. Selected lines — including genotypes of IR64 (the most popular variety in Asia), BR29 (a popular Bangladeshi variety), and Mot Bui and Nang Hong Cho Dao (popular Vietnamese varieties) — have showed normal phenotypes with expression of beta-carotene. Combating anemia by enhancing the iron content of polished rice Anemia, caused by a lack of iron in the diet, is the world’s leading human nutritional disorder. Rice represents the single largest source of calories for more than two-thirds of humanity. Although brown rice in general is high in iron, polishing causes considerable loss of iron and other micronutrients. IRRI’s Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry researchers, in collaboration with Japan, have introduced in indica rice an iron-enhancing ferritin gene that expresses itself in the rice endosperm. Thus, after polishing, the rice grains contain three times more iron than usual. Says Swapan Datta, plant biotechnologist in Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry, “This is the most significant increase of iron ever achieved in an indica rice variety and could have significant benefits for the 3.5 billion people in the world who have iron-deficient diets.” IRRI report now available online The Report of the Director General 2002-03 is now available online via the IRRI Web site. This annual publication contains research progress in 2002 organized by project. Each project file contains a brief summary, highlights of achievements in 2002, and a summary of next step activities for 2003. Partner institutions and IRRI contacts are also provided for each project. The Report of the Director General also contains some sections that used to be in the annual Program Report before that publication was discontinued. These include the annual listing of staff publications and seminars, accomplishments in research support services, memoranda of agreement, special-funded projects, staff honors and awards, staff changes, degree and postdegree training, finances, the weather summary, and the complete IRRI staff list. IRRI to collaborate on crop-animal systems project IRRI and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), together with the national agricultural research and extension systems in five countries of Southeast Asia, are currently undertaking a collaborative project on “Sustainable food-feed systems and improved livelihoods of the poor in rainfed lowland areas,” with a focus on the socioeconomic aspects. The ILRI-coordinated project is being supported by the System-wide Livestock Program of the CGIAR. As part of the project activities, the first project workshop was held recently at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand. The project has the overall objective of characterizing the evolution of crop-animal systems under various economic development settings in the region, and identifying policies that would promote the sustainable development of these systems. National collaborators in this project include the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Research Institute for Rice and Research Institute for Animal Production in Indonesia, Philippine Rice Research Institute and Central Luzon State University, Khon Kaen University in Thailand, and Cantho University and Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute in Vietnam. Project on More Rice With Less Water meets at IRRI A work-plan meeting for the project More Rice With Less Water, supported by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research, recently took place at IRRI. Convened by To Phuc Tuong, project leader and head of IRRI’s Crops, Soil and Water Sciences Division, the meeting reviewed the achievements of the project over the past year, planned for individual subproject activities for 2003, and discussed integration among the different project components. The project’s full title is “Growing more rice with less water: increasing water productivity in rice-based cropping systems.” IRRI’s main partners are the International Water Management Institute, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s Land and Water Griffith Laboratory (Australia), and Wuhan University (China). The main activities take place at two sites in China and one in Australia. The goal of the research is to promote water-management techniques in rice-based irrigation systems that sustain the environment and allow crop production to be maintained or increased in the face of stiffening competition for freshwater resources. The project will continue until June 2005. Rice research council goes on line The Council for Partnership on Rice Research in Asia (CORRA) has launched a new Web site detailing its objectives, membership and representatives. Annual country reports list country priorities at both the farm and national level. CORRA was established in 1996 to make partnerships more effective in meeting the challenges of the global rice research. The 7th annual CORRA meeting will be hosted by Malaysia on 11-12 October 2003. William G. Padolina, IRRI’s deputy director general for partnerships, is the institute’s primary contact for CORRA. Rodent ecology and management course at IRRI Rodent Ecology and Management — a combined Australian Academy of Technical Sciences and Engineering Crawford Master Class/IRRI Training Class — was conducted recently at the IRRI Training Center. Heading the faculty for the course was Charles Krebs, emeritus professor of the University of British Columbia and retired Fellow of the Community Ecology Group at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Other visiting instructors from CSIRO included Peter Brown, an ecologist who has been working on rodents in Asia for 7 years; Ken Aplin, a specialist in the taxonomy and systematics of rodents, and in farmer-participatory research, who has been working on rodents in Asia for 2.5 years; and Grant Singleton, the leader of the CSIRO Community Ecology Group and an IRRI consultant on rodents. IRRI staff who contributed to the course were Zahir Islam, K.L. Heong, Arnold Manza, Moni Escalada and Flor Palis. The Australian Center for International Agricultural Research co-sponsored the course through its support of four participants and two presenters. Planning workshop for biodiversity project held in Laos The planning workshop for Phase II of the Lao PDR-IRRI Biodiversity Project recently too place at the National Agricultural Research Center in Vientiane. The IRRI-Lao Office, headed by Karl Goeppert, IRRI representative to Laos, organized the meeting, which attracted about 45 participants. The workshop officially started Phase II of the project. Lao officers and IRRI scientists discussed and clarified various issues such as in-situ conservation, training issues, and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. They also agreed on thesis topics for two PhD and two MS students and integrated their research into project operations. Planning workshop on managing crop residues completed at IRRI Fifteen participants from China, Germany, India and the Philippines recently attended a workshop at IRRI on managing crop residues for healthy soils in rice ecosystems. Participants developed work plans for the field-testing of crop residue-management options in China and India and identified methods for characterizing soil organic matter. They also identified information needed for future use of appropriate simulation models and outlined the establishment and operation of a central database and individual training activities. Developed with national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) and German partners during an April 2002 workshop co-sponsored by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and IRRI, the workshop was held specifically for a new BMZ/German Agency for Technical Cooperation project that responds to the priorities of NARES in Asia for developing and testing alternatives to burning crop residues in intensive rice-based ecosystems. Water and Food Challenge Program Theme 1 leader named John Bennett, senior molecular biologist at IRRI, has been named leader of Theme 1 (Improving Water Productivity) of the Challenge Program on Water and Food. Dr. Bennett brings to this critical leadership position a wealth of scientific expertise in drought tolerance, improving crop-water productivity and project management. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Challenge Program on Water and Food was formally approved by the CGIAR Executive Council at the group’s Annual General Meeting in Manila in October 2003. IRRI, as one of the program’s five leading CGIAR centers, is the lead center for Theme 1. New division head for Crop, Soil and Water Sciences IRRI Director General Ron Cantrell has announced the appointment of T.P. Tuong as the new head of the institute’s Crop, Soil and Water Sciences (CSWS) Division. Dr. Tuong served as acting head of CSWS for the past year and, since 1991, has demonstrated productivity and leadership in his specialized area of water-management research at IRRI. IRRI staffers garner communications awards Staff in Visitors and Information Services (VIS) and Communication and Publications Services (CPS) at IRRI continued a recent tradition of garnering international communication awards sponsored by the Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE). Peter Fredenburg of VIS won a gold award in the category of writing for magazines. Juan Lazaro and Gene Hettel of CPS won a silver award in the category of graphic design for covers category. Mr. Fredenburg’s feature, Lost Horizon Restored, appeared in the inaugural, April 2002, issue of Rice Today. “This is a marvelous effort from beginning to end,” commented the judge. “The description lead was handled beautifully, and the piece flows smoothly with natural transitions built in because of logical organization. A thoughtful tone is maintained without becoming stuffy or academic. There are judicious use of quotes and effective sidebars.” Mr. Hettel combined his image of a rice landscape in eastern Bhutan with Mr. Lazaro’s design talents to create the cover for the 3rd edition of the Rice Almanac. The judge commented: “Yellow provided excellent legibility over the well-composed photo. Paper, printing and paper were all good — just simply, nice work.” IRRI poster wins prize at Philippine conference The poster Expression Analysis of Stress-related Genes in Resistant and Susceptible Rice Phenotypes in Response to Blast Challenge won 2nd prize in the best-poster category of the Federation of Crop Science Societies of the Philippines conference recently. The authors of the poster are Bin Liu, Ramil Mauleon and Hei Leung of the Entomology and Plant Pathology Division; Marichu Bernardo of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry; and Violeta Bartolome and Alexander Cosico of the Biometrics and Bioinformatics Unit. Philippine agricultural engineers recognize IRRI scientists IRRI scientists in the water group of Crops, Soil and Water Sciences Division recently won recognition at the 53rd Annual National Convention of the Philippines Society of Agricultural Engineers (PSAE). The PSAE is a society of professionals in the field of agricultural engineering with 5,000 active members. Domingo Tabbal, Sr., associate scientist, was named a PSAE Fellow for his exemplary professional distinction and his outstanding qualifications and experiences in the field of agricultural engineering. Bas Bouman was elected an honorary member for his professional eminence. His research and extension work on water-saving irrigation technologies in the Philippines was recognized as having exemplary significance to human well-being, and for being supportive to the cause, ideals and undertakings of the PSAE. In addition, the IRRI paper Technology transfer for water savings (TTWS) in Central Luzon, Philippines: preliminary results and implications, was acclaimed as the best technical paper in the energy systems, water management and environmental management category. This paper discusses the results of the on-farm development and testing of controlled irrigation and aerobic rice in the Philippine provinces of Tarlac and Nueva Ecija. The coauthors of the paper are Ruben Lampayan, Dr. Bouman, Mr. Tabbal, Lizzel Llorca, and collaborating partners from the National Irrigation Administration and Philippine Rice Research Institute. |
|
|
|
• January-March 2008 • October-December 2007 • July-September 2007 • April-June 2007 • January-March 2007 • October-December 2006 • July-September 2006 • April-June 2006 • March 2006 • December 2005 • September 2005 • June 2005 • December 2004 • June 2004 • April 2004 • December 2003 • October 2003 • June 2003 • March 2003 • December 2000 • September 2000 • June 2000 • April 2000 • December 1999 |
|
|
|
