The CGIAR Independent Review, Stake-holders’ Consul-tation, and Change Manage-ment Workshop are ongoing this week (6-10 September 2008) at IRRI head-quarters. Under discussion are (1) the future of partnerships in the CGIAR, (2) rethinking CGIAR governance and structure, and (3) funding mecha-nisms. In attendance are members of the Independent Review Panel, center DGs and board chairs, and representatives from the CG Secretariat, NARES, regional organizations, universities, NGOs, the private sector, and advanced research institutes.

Yesterday (8 September), DG Robert Zeigler welcomed the participants (photo above) to IRRI at this challenging time. He reminded participants that most major advances leading to increased agricultural productivity have occurred only after decades of investment and that the CGIAR has vast accumulated knowledge and resources that must be maintained.

Cooke	Sierra	McAllister	Zeigler and Wang

Rodney Cooke, of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and chair of the Change Steering Team, explained where the system is now in the change process. "Excitement about and commitment to the change process have grown considerably since the first meeting in February," he said. On Sunday, participants looked at the findings of the Independent Review Panel and on Monday the focus shifted to the Working Group recommendations. According to Dr. Cooke, the challenge now is to bring out the best elements emerging from these two parallel and complementary processes and to develop a formal change plan that will be aired at the AGM in Maputo in December.

Kathy Sierra, CGIAR chair, reminded everyone that the ultimate aim is to alleviate the effects of the current food price crisis on those already living in poverty and the estimated additional 100 million who are no longer able to feed their families properly.

On Sunday evening (7 Sep-tember), Ms. Sierra hosted a dinner at the IRRI Guesthouse for the participants and IRRI scientific staff. Click here to listen to the audio of comments made by Ms. Sierra; Dr. Zeigler; Ren Wang, CGIAR director; Dr. Cooke; and Elizabeth McAllister, chair of the Independent Review Panel. The photo above shows some of the participants listening to the speakers.

Click here to keep up-to-date on what is happening during the meetings and to read some stakeholder reactions on the Change Management official blog.

On 26 and 28 August, in Yangon, Myanmar, IRRI scientists T.P. Tuong, David Johnson (center in photo), Abdelbagi Ismail, Ruben Lampayan (3rd from right), and Grant Singleton met with representatives from the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Myanma Agriculture Service (MAS) to discuss how IRRI can assist with developing plans for increasing rice production during the next dry-season crop and the 2009 wet-season crop.

The delegation also made a field trip to Nargis-affected areas, two townships (Kun Yangon of Yangon Division and Daedaye of Ayeyarwaddy Division) on 27 August.

Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar’s Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) Delta area on 2-3 May, leaving more than 130,000 people dead or missing and causing an estimated 1.2 million ton (6%) drop in rice production, jeopardizing the country’s exports.

U San Nyunt, general manager of MAS Seed Division, said that the key needs of Myanmar are more fertilizer for high-yielding varieties (HYVs), improved quality seed production, and a supply of fruit tree seedlings and vegetable seeds to communities. The minister has requested seeds of salt-tolerant rice varieties, and the Seed Division needs equipment to measure saline levels for research on the seed farms.

Dr. Ismail emphasized that salt-tolerant varieties will be important, particularly to replace the low-yielding traditional varieties being grown in coastal areas. He mentioned that IRRI has more than 800 salt-tolerant breeding lines, and can provide a subset of these lines with a set of specifications for MAS to test. continued
 

IRRC advances with improving productivity in Sulawesi

The implementation of the ACIAR-funded project on Improving Productivity in South and Southeast Sulawesi gained momentum as a team from the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) and project partners met in Sulawesi, Indonesia, on 14-21 August.

Farmers from four project villages in South and Southeast Sulawesi had identified constraints to their rice production. Based on those needs, IRRC technologies to improve productivity will be introduced. With the newly appointed project scientist, Dr. Donna Casimero, taking the lead, new activities for the coming months, including the baseline survey, training of partners and extensionists, and participatory farmer trials, were discussed. On 16-17 October, a stakeholder meeting will be held in Maros, South Sulawesi. This meeting will bring together government officials nationally and locally, extensionists, project implementers, and key farmers.

The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Capacity Building Program (SPS CBP) is an AusAID-funded, three-year regional program managed by the Office of the Chief Plant Protection Officer within the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry. This year, AusAid collaborated with IRRI for a 7-day (30 August - 5 September) Training Workshop on the Diagnosis of Seedborne Rice Diseases.

The program assists ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) focal countries, namely, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Malaysia, to describe and manage their animal and plant health status, and implement SPS measures consistent with international standards for phytosanitary measures and the expectations of trading partners.

Further information about the program’s background and activities can be obtained from the SPS CBP Web site. continued

New project scientist in CESD to work on farmer participatory research
and development

Madonna (Donna) Casimero began her appointment as a project scientist in CESD on 1 August under an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)-funded project. She will work on farmer participatory research and development, benchmark the agronomic benefits of key technologies of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), identify pathways for the extension of rice production technologies, and analyze factors influencing adoption by farmers.

She reports to Dr. Grant Singleton, IRRC coordinator, and will be based at Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. She will also spend time in Southeast Sulawesi and at IRRI. At IRRI, she can be reached at x2639.

Former CPS photographer, Urbito Ongleo, passes away

Urbito "Bito" Tanjutco Ongleo, 74, former CPS photographer and  supervisor (1961-89), passed away on Saturday, 6 September, in Los Baños. He was interred earlier today (9 September) at the Los Baños Catholic Cemetery. He was among the first batch of communicators at IRRI hired by the Institute's first director general, Robert Chandler himself.

Bito took many historic photos of activities and events at IRRI during the early days, including the famous image below of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in a plot of IR8 with Dr. Chandler, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, and IRRI breeders Peter Jennings and Hank Beachell.

In his pioneer interview, Peter Jennings, former IRRI breeder (1961-67) recalls that day, 26 October 1966: "Sometime around 11 o’clock in the morning, the two presidents and their wives show up. Someone had the foresight  to build a walking area into the field, right in front of the circle, which was between the then administration building [later Chandler Hall] and our laboratory building [later Hill Hall]. There was a plot of IR8 right there. The size of the walkway what looked to me like an aircraft carrier. It was maybe 3 meters wide and perhaps 5–6 meters long. This was so the great man would not fall into the mud." Click here to view a 00:34 video clip of Jennings' recollection.

Unbeknownst to even Jennings, it was Urbito Ongleo who had arranged the construction of the platform so that he would have a perfect angle for taking the famous photo. Upon hearing of his death today, Jennings sent this email note from his home in Florida: "Another sad message.  I am now the sole survivor of the group (standing in back at left), including the photographer. I remember Ongleo with pleasure: professional, enthusiastic, reliable, nice sense of humor, and a so-so basketball player on our Institute team.  He served IRRI well."

In other emails, former IRRI entomologist Jim Litsinger (1974-92), now in California, wrote: "I just received sad news regarding the passing of Urbito Ongleo, the dynamic photographer from CPS. The first time we went out together was to Cale, Batangas, the Cropping Systems site, to take photos of our plots. He brought along what seemed like five cameras that dangled from his body as well as a 15-foot ladder to take the best angle. It did produce a dramatic perspective and one could better distinguish the different treatments. I also remember once we went to Iloilo for a workshop and, as we were returning to Manila, the last person to enter the plane was Ongleo. He quickly sat next to me. He said in a low voice that he did not have a ticket and just talked his way onto the flight."

Hugh Murphy, former Director of Administration (1974-85), wrote: "Ongleo was an interesting guy and I'm sure he realizes that he was, in addition to being a great photographer, a real Filipino 'bandit.'  I truly enjoyed working with him and watching him operate."

Management memos

DG Memo No. 2008-025: HRDC Advisory Committee

The Hybrid Rice Research and Development Consortium (HRDC) inaugural meeting was held on 3-4 April 2008 at IRRI headquarters. One major output of that meeting was to create an Advisory Committee that will oversee the operations of the Consortium through the application of the agreed-upon guidelines. The Committee will have the following terms of reference:

* Screen applications for membership and recommend acceptance of membership to the
   IRRI director general.
* Review the annual HRDC work plan and budget for the approval of the IRRI director
   general.
* Determine and recommend the rates of annual membership contributions.
* Recommend to the IRRI director general the proper charges for accessing materials.
* Establish mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the operations and impact of the HRDC.
* Formulate policies and guidelines for the smooth implementation and management of
   the Consortium.

By vote of all the membership, I am pleased to announce the acceptance of the following to serve on the HRDC Advisory Committee:

1. Achim Dobermann, deputy director general for research, IRRI.
2. Fangming Xie, senior scientist, hybrid rice breeder, IRRI.
3. Eulito Bautista, deputy executive director for R&D, Philippine Rice Research Institute.
4. Peisong Hu, head of program management and international cooperation, China
    National Rice Research Institute (CNRRI).
5. Chengshu Zhou, deputy director of international business, Yuan Longping, High-Tech
    Agriculture Co., Ltd., China.
6. P.S. Bhattacharya, vice president – biotechnology, JK Agri Genetics Ltd., India.
7. E. Roumen, rice breeding & hybrid development manager, Bayer CropScience,
    Singapore.

I thank the Committee members for accepting this three-year term from 1 May 2008 to 1 May 2011. Let us give them our full support for this significant assignment.

DG Memo No. 2008-026: Classification Appeals Committee (CAC) - Replacing the JCC

IRRI remains committed to the principle of equal pay for equal work, and will continue to implement a job rating plan to serve as a common yardstick for determining the relative worth of jobs in the Institute. Jobs will be classified, not people, and this classification will continue to reflect the position levels within the current job grading system.

However, the process for job classification will be streamlined and simplified, while maintaining its fairness, transparency, and integrity. Job review and classification will primarily be the responsibility of Human Resource Services (HRS), which will submit job review results to the director for Management Services (DMS) for approval. 

A new Classification Appeals Committee (CAC) will act solely as an appeals and advisory committee. It will conduct a second review of jobs for which the OU’s expectations were not met, will periodically review classification activities, and will recommend policies and procedures to improve the job review process. The CAC will be formed by reconstituting the Job Classification Committee (JCC), which will thereby cease to exist. 

The principal members of the CAC will be Stephan Haefele, R.K. Singh, Terry Jacobsen, Melba Aquino, Pepito Cabauatan, and Remedios Ballesfin. All these members will serve for a period of two years, subject to continuation. The head of HRS will chair the CAC, and will provide advice to the DMS, who will retain approval authority.

Please give your customary support to the CAC and HRS as they undertake this important work. Please read the revised Job Classification Policies and Guidelines posted in the HRS intranet site.

I wish to thank all members of the JCC and CAC for their service and dedication to the goal of ensuring fairness and equity in the classification of jobs at the Institute.
 

Bangladesh and CIMMYT: Decades of partnership, commitment, and achievement
Work by CIMMYT with researchers, extension workers, policymakers, and farmers in Bangladesh for nearly four decades has helped establish wheat and maize among the country's major cereal crops, made farming systems more productive and sustainable, improved food security and livelihoods, and won ringing praise from national decision makers in agriculture, according to a recent report published by CIMMYT.

The journey of a seed
Seed is the lifeblood of CIMMYT research and partnerships. Behind the scenes at CIMMYT, many thousands of seeds are on the move. Constantly arriving and departing as seed is shared with partners, they may journey through rigorous health testing in the laboratory, planting in the soils of the center's research stations, or storage in the icy vaults of the germplasm bank. Includes photo slideshow!