| Vietnamese pays second visit to IRRI |
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| Thursday, 01 November 2001 | |
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Thursday, November 01, 2001
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) on 15 November welcomed Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong to its campus at Los Baños, Laguna Province, Philippines. President Tran Duc Luong (left) is shown inspecting IRRI’s long-term continuous-cropping experiment with Vice Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan, IRRI Director General Ronald Cantrell, an interpreter, and (back to camera) Vietnamese Trade Minister Vu Khoan. This was President Tran Duc Luong’s second visit to the world’s leading international rice research and training center, illustrating the strong ties between IRRI and one of its most important national partners. In 1978, when a recently reunited Vietnam signed its first memorandum of agreement with IRRI, the country produced 10 million tons of rice. By 2000, this figure had climbed to 33 million tons, an increase of 230 percent in 23 years. Vietnam regained self-sufficiency in rice in 1989 and has since established itself as the world’s second largest rice exporter. Today, rice is Vietnam’s second most important export, accounting for a tenth of total exports by value. The role that IRRI has played in the return to health of Vietnam’s rice-based agricultural sector is indicated by the country’s high rate of adoption of modern varieties. More than 60 percent of Vietnam’s total rice area, and 90 percent of its irrigated rice area, is planted to IRRI-originated varieties. Today, IRRI has 34 internationally recruited scientists working on projects in Vietnam, reflecting a level of activity surpassed only in India and the Philippines. |
