IRRI in the News

Surging costs, population growth, and climate change are pressuring world food supplies.  The incentive to use genetic engineering to boost harvests and protect precious crops from insects and other damage has never been greater.  Biotechnology is bound to play an important role in the agriculture of the future, Robert Zeigler, director of the International Rice Research Institute, said in an interview with The Associated Press at IRRI's headquarters south of Manila in the Philippines. Such crops "bring tremendous power and advantages to producers...
 

Policy Support (Trina Leah Mendoza)

The global crisis of high rice prices rocked rice-growing Asia in 2008, and scientists have been working to calm the storm.  International rice prices soared from US $ 400 per ton in January 2008 to more than $ 1,000 per ton in May 2008. Major exporters Vietnam and India cut back exports to ensure enough rice for their domestic needs.  In some countries, food riots led to soldiers guarding food trucks to prevent looting. Two countries strongly affected by the high rice prices are the Philippines, now the world’s largest rice importer, and Indonesia.
 

Policy Support (Sam Mohanty, Senior Economist, IRRI)

In the current issue (October-December 2008) of Rice Today, I wrote a short brief on the aftermath of the rice crisis to highlight the 2008-09 supply and demand situation and the long-term challenges ahead in terms of meeting future demand growth. It seems ages since I wrote that brief because things have changed so drastically in the past few weeks. The world has graduated from a smaller food crisis to a much bigger economic crisis, dubbed by many as the “worst financial crisis in human history.” Global equity markets have been shredded and commodity prices are in...