| Media Hotline: January - March 2008 |
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| Monday, 31 March 2008 | |
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The Media Hotline is an information summary for supporters of international rice research. In this issue: News
PEOPLE
EVENTS, TRAININGS, AND WORKSHOPS
NEWS
National and international rice specialists took part in a meeting, 5-7 March, at the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), Cotonou, Benin, to launch the African component of the project on Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia. The project, which will be carried out by IRRI and its partners, has been approved for funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a grant to IRRI announced in January. The Africa component of this project proposal was developed by IRRI in partnership with the Africa Rice Center, which will be its main partner in implementing this component. The project targets resource-poor rice farmers in Africa and Asia, who produce their crop under rainfed conditions, in which drought, flooding, and salinity reduce yields and harm their livelihoods. The project aims to make available to such farmers improved stress-tolerant rice varieties, which, in conjunction with improved management practices, are expected to bring about a 50% increase in yield in farmers’ fields within the next 10 years and to benefit at least 400,000 households in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in the short term and 18 million households in the long term. In addition, the project aims to build the capacity of researchers and seed producers and promote the exchange of seed of stress-tolerant rice varieties. ( Back to top )
Dr. Zeigler on BBC's Asia Today ( Back to top )
Svalbard Global Seed Vault officially opens in Norway north of Arctic Circle ( Back to top )
The signing of the amended Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the
Philippines’ Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and IRRI marked the renewal
of IRRI's commitment to safeguard germplasm exchange. Twenty years ago, the first version of this MOA was signed by then BPI Director Emiliano P. Gianzon and former IRRI Director General M.S. Swaminathan. Under this MOA, IRRI’s Seed Heath Unit (SHU) is deputized to undertake major activities in rice seed health testing for plant quarantine certification. The amendment of the MOA was made to address the changes in the international plant quarantine protocols considering the advances in plant breeding technologies and the additional mandate of SHU as a single gateway for incoming and outgoing nonseed biological materials and soil samples in addition to incoming and outgoing rice seeds. After the signing, Director Rudinas and party also visited the T.T. Chang Genetic Resources Center (GRC) Genebank, Seed Health Unit, postentry plant quarantine area, and GRC screenhouse for wild rice. ( Back to top )
The International Rice Research Notes (IRRN) , IRRI’s long-running journal of 32 years, which has expedited communication among scientists concerned with development of improved technology for rice and rice-based cropping systems, is going open access in 2008 using Open Journal Systems (OJS). There will be no more printed copies of the publication. OJS is a journal management and publishing system that was developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) to expand and improve access to research and the quality of refereed research. This open access initiative seeks to improve the scholarly and public quality of journal publishing. OJS is an open-source software freely available to journals worldwide that aims to make open access publishing a viable option. Open access can increase a journal's readership, open up the journal to wider author and subscriber bases, reduce production turnaround time, speed up delivery to end-users, allow real-time exchange of information between and among scientists, reduce publishing costs compared with print and other traditional publishing processes, enhance the management of issues and archives, and improve the indexing and search capacities of the journal. The current editorial board of IRRN consists of Stephan Haefele (editor-in-chief), Parminder Virk (plant breeding), Sigrid Heuer (molecular and cell biology), Sushil Pandey (socioeconomics and agricultural engineering), Abdelbagi Ismail (crop management and physiology), and Edilberto Redoña (genetic resources). ( Back to top )
Dr. Zeigler addresses the Asia Society in Hong Kong During a luncheon meeting on 19 February at the Asia Society’s Hong Kong Center, IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler discussed The end of cheap, plentiful rice. He pointed out that rice is as fundamental to Asia’s success as the oil that drives its industries and the dollars that power its economies. “The region has built much of its success on cheap, plentiful rice,” he said. “Businessmen have made millions of dollars by trading it; Hong Kong’s workers have relied on it to fuel their labor; and its families—for generations—have come together over a meal of rice.” In his first ever presentation in Hong Kong, Dr. Zeigler described rice production as the single most important economic activity in the world. “It employs more people than any other industry in Asia and has one of the largest environmental footprints,” he said. “It can take up to 2,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilogram of rice, and Asia is home to more than 85,000 different rice varieties.” He went on to focus on the facts behind the myths that surround rice and explain the potential impact of high rice prices and supply shortages. Since its establishment in 1990, the Asia Society Hong Kong Center has become the community's premier forum for public discussion of regional and global affairs. The Hong Kong Center hosts approximately 100 programs each year, covering diverse subjects such as economics and business, political change and development, security and defense, environment and society, culture, and arts of Asia. Programs vary from luncheon discussions and evening events to exhibitions, tours, seminars, and conferences.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gives funding to help poor rice farmers succeed amid various challenges The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced, on 25 January, a grant to IRRI for US$19.9 million over 3 years to initially help place improved rice varieties and related technology into the hands of 400,000 small farmers in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers are expected to achieve a 50% increase in their yields within the next 10 years. The grant to IRRI was part of a package of agricultural development grants announced by Bill Gates, co-chair of the foundation, at the World Economic Forum in Davos. All of the grants are designed to help small farmers boost their yields and increase their incomes so they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. IRRI is receiving this significant new funding to harness major scientific advances and address some of the biggest unsolved problems in agriculture. IRRI’s new project will help develop and distribute improved varieties of rice that can be grown in rainfed ecosystems—where farmers have little or no access to irrigation—and withstand environmental stresses such as drought, flooding, and salinity. IRRI will draw on its past success in improving incomes for millions of poor farmers to reach its ultimate goal: more than 18 million households benefiting from improved rice varieties that will generate income increases and help lift farmers out of poverty. IRRI will work closely with other national and international agricultural research centers, including the Africa Rice Center (WARDA). In addition, the project will build the capacity of researchers and seed producers in poor rice-dependent countries. ( Back to top )
PEOPLE
Dr. Dobermann is new IRRI Deputy Director General for Research Achim Dobermann has been appointed as IRRI's new Deputy Director General for Research effective 1 April 2008,. Dr. Dobermann is a highly regarded and internationally recognized agricultural research scientist with many years of experience working with rice in Asia and Europe. Initially a soil scientist, he expanded his research interests to cover a rich array of crop and social sciences. He received his undergraduate degree and PhD from the Institute of Tropical Agriculture, University of Leipzig, Germany. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America and a recipient of numerous national and international awards. He worked at IRRI from 1992 to 2000 and then moved to the University of Nebraska ( Lincoln) and rapidly rose to the rank of full professor. During his tenure, he continued to maintain strong research linkages with East, Southeast, and South Asian colleagues in the national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) and the private sector. ( Back to top )
IRRI-India staff member is new president of ISCA Agriculture Dr. H. Pathak, co-facilitator, Rice-Wheat Consortium, IRRI-India Office, New Delhi, has been elected as the president of the Section of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) for 2008-09. ISCA is the largest association of scientists and technologists in India. It aims to advance and promote the cause of science in India; hold an annual congress at a suitable place in India; publish proceedings, journals, and transactions; and popularize science. ( Back to top )
Former IRRI scholar receives award ( Back to top )
New chair and three new members on the IRRI Board of Trustees
As of 1 January 2008, Elizabeth Jean Woods ( Australia) is the new
chair of the IRRI Board of Trustees (BOT), replacing Keijiro Otsuka (
Japan), who had served the Board since 2002. Her role there is to provide leadership in the areas of agribusiness and rural management to enhance the University’s service to tropical Australia and Asia. Dr. Woods is recognized as an expert in tropical and subtropical agriculture and agribusiness, especially in relation to broad-acre farming systems and the horticultural industries. She has a broad knowledge of Australian farming systems and related R&D activities in several Asian countries, especially Indonesia. She also chairs Australia’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC). Also joining the IRRI BOT as of 1 January are new BOT members Drs. Mutsuo Iwamoto, Seong-Hee Lee, and Achmad Suryana, who are replacing, respectively, Drs. Otsuka, Eun-Jong Lee (2002-07, Korea), and Achmad Fagi (2002-07, Indonesia). ( Back to top )
During Republic Day on 25 January, Indian President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil conferred the country's annual Padma Shri Awards on 71 eminent persons. The awards are generally given to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity, including the arts, education, industry, literature, science and engineering, sports, and social and public life. This year, former IRRI plant breeder Sant Virmani, now living in Texas, is among this prestigious group, winning in the science and engineering category. ( Back to top )
IRRI VISITORS
Hon. Gabriel Kapris
, minister for commerce and industry of the Independent State of Papua
New Guinea and party, including Hon. Damien Gamiandu, ambassador of
Papua New Guinea to the Philippines, visited IRRI on 25 March to get an
overview of the Institute’s research activities. Dr. Jungchaee Kang, president of Chonnam National University (CNU) , South Korea, and party visited IRRI on 17-19 March. During their visit, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding between IRRI and CNU and got updates on the research agenda of the Institute and its collaboration with Korea. H.E. Kristie Kenney, ambassador of the United States of America to the Philippines, and her party of nine visited IRRI 10 March, to obtain updates on the Institute’s research agenda and to talk about collaboration with the United States Ambassador Kenney also had lunch with IRRI's American community.
Professor Xiuxin Deng , president of the Huazhong Agricultural University, China, together with other colleagues; and Dr. Victor Kovalev,
deputy director for research of the All-Russian Rice Research
Institute, together with four other colleagues, visited IRRI on 27 and
28 February, respectively. H.E. Dr. Peter Sutter, ambassador of Switzerland to the Philippines, and Dr. Felix Gmünder, representative, Basler and Hofmann/ Elchrom Scientific, Switzerland, visited IRRI on 26 February.
( Back to top )
EVENTS, TRAINING, AND WORKSHOPS
IRRI and Bangladesh partnership made even stronger
IRRI and Bangladesh share a significant history of collaboration since
the 1960s that has brought tremendous impact to the agricultural sector
of the country, helping it to achieve rice self-sufficiency. After the successful launch of its South Asia component in New Delhi, the project planning workshop on Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia,
funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), was held in
Bangladesh on 30-31 March to map out the strategies and develop the
work plans of the project with the Bangladeshi partners. At the BMGF planning workshop, member of the IRRI Board of Trustees Mr. Syeduzzaman, chief guest during the inaugural session, expressed his happiness that the project has come to Bangladesh at an appropriate time when there is a pressing need for more food. He recognized IRRI’s global responsibility when it comes to rice, on which many of the world’s poor rely for survival. IRRI made substantial progress in discovering genes for better adaptation to unfavorable environments; however, the deployment of this requires collaboration of national actors such as the national agricultural research and extension systems, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and private and public sectors to address these complex situations of drought, submergence, and salinity. Furthermore, Mr. Syeduzzaman underscored the importance of getting the latest knowledge and information to farmers, which will help pave the way for a second Green Revolution in 17 countries, including Bangladesh, where the project will be implemented. He recognized the contribution made by Bangladesh for the CGIAR system and thanked the BMGF for its charitable purpose and contribution. Dr. C.S. Karim, agricultural adviser of Bangladesh, shared the same views that knowledge and technology will help increase food security in the country. Several opportunities have to be explored to enable the country to achieve sustainable food security. Citing several farmers’ concerns such as the scarcity and high cost of inputs; seed quality and production; abiotic stresses such as flooding, drought, and salinity; Dr. Karim conveyed to scientists his hopes for their help in finding relevant solutions in collaboration with national stakeholders. The Green Revolution in Bangladesh, however, is not yet over and will reach out through initiatives such as the BMGF project, which can lay the foundation in the long term in improving productivity in rainfed environments. On the other hand, this needs to be accompanied by significant commitment and investment from local partners. Dr. Achim Dobermann, IRRI’s deputy director general for research, encouraged local partners to treat the project as locally owned and to recognize their complementary roles. The project partners making contributions on their own will certainly bring huge impacts on farmers’ livelihoods. He also urged them to seek support within their organizations and continue to remind the local officials that the project needs government and policy support. Meanwhile, the secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture of Bangladesh, Mr. M. Abdul Aziz, mentioned the importance of maintaining a cordial relationship with IRRI, which has always extended cooperation toward Bangladesh. He recognized that IRRI has always been a good provider of technologies and emphasized that his ministry will support the implementation of the project in the country. The BMGF planning workshop was an avenue to gather the national players, led by the Ministry of Agriculture of Bangladesh, together with the Department of Agriculture Extension, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), and several partners from NGOs, universities, and the media. Dr. Nur-E-Elahi, director general of BRRI, mentioned that submergence, salinity, and drought, along with climate change, particularly affected rice production in the country, and he thanked the BMGF and IRRI for having chosen Bangladesh as one of the target areas. He hoped for national capacity to be enhanced to enable delivery of the right varieties in the right environments to eliminate a shortage of rice and hunger. The partners were able to formulate and discuss detailed work plans and establish local teams for their accomplishment. Complementing the BMGF Project, the GCP project on salinity aims to speed up progress in developing salt-tolerant rice varieties by incorporating the Saltol quantitative trait locus (QTL) associated with salinity tolerance into widely grown rice varieties and elite breeding lines using marker-assisted breeding and their dissemination in target areas. Collaborators in this project also include BRRI, BINA, and Dhaka University. ( Back to top )
Water-saving workshop held at IRRI Co-organized by Drs. Ruben Lampayan and Bas Bouman of IRRI, the workshop was a joint undertaking by the Water-saving Workgroup of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium and the project “Developing a system of temperate and tropical aerobic rice (STAR) in Asia” of the CGIAR-Challenge Program on Water and Food. The workshop brought together agricultural engineers, irrigation system managers, scientists, and extensionists who are working on the development and dissemination of water-saving technologies in irrigated rice area in the Philippines. The workshop aimed to present and discuss the current status of the development, dissemination, and adoption of water-saving technologies in rice production at scale levels ranging from field to farm, irrigation system and sub-basin; document the water-saving impact-pathway experiences in the Philippines; collect “more evidence” from small-scale local success stories on the adoption of water-saving technologies; identify research gaps and opportunities (in management technologies at field level, implications for variety development, adaptation and adoption, and upscaling issues); and identify opportunities for new proposal development. The workshop was also organized in several thematic sessions ranging from field-level technologies to upscaling issues. The last day of the workshop was devoted to plenary synthesis, identification of gaps and opportunities, and planning sessions. Papers presented at the workshop will be reviewed and published as a proceedings. ( Back to top )
Crop Research Informatics Laboratory holds its first in-house bioinformatics workshop The IRRI-International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Crop Research Informatics Laboratory (CRIL) held its first In-House Bioinformatics Workshop for IRRI staff, 24-29 March at the IRRI Training Center. This course was based on the GCP Online Bioinformatics Course also developed at CRIL. The first 3 days explored Sequence Analysis and the remaining 2 days tackled Genetic Analysis. Twenty-eight participants and five observers from different IRRI divisions were given hands-on tutorials on the basic bioinformatics tools and databases. Regular participants were Rejbana Alam, Partha Sarathi Biswas, Cecilia Diana Calapit, Venea Dara Daygon, Marjorie De Ocampo, Shalabh Dixit, Rico Gamuyao, R.P. Veeresh Gowda, Hosneara Hossain, S.V. Krishna Jagadish, Dongyang Lei, Aihong Li, Ma. Reina Madamba, Reena Sellamuthu, Untung Susanto, Prashant Vikram, Wensheng Wang, Maria Celeste Banaticla, Mohammad Akhlasur Rahman, Ma. Elizabeth Naredo, Kofi Bimpong, Ming Li, Aye Min, Rakesh Kumar Singh, Rachid Serraj, Il-Ryong Choi, Hong He, and Namrata Singh. Observers were Minerva Macatangay, Michael Gamalinda, Mayee Reveche, Sheila Quilloy, and Gay Carillo. There were also several keynote lectures on phylogenetic analysis (Kenneth McNally), phylogenome databases (Matthieu Conte), gene tagging and introduction to Qgene (Michael Thomson), computational approaches on QTL analysis (Arvind Kumar), MapManager (Suzette Madamba), QTL Cartographer (Jerome Bernier), introduction to R (Thomas Metz), quantitative analysis using R (Beng Bartolome), and candidate gene analysis (Jun Ulat). The whole course was facilitated by members of the CRIL Bioinformatics Data Curation team: Nelzo Ereful, Jun Ulat, Jeffrey Detras, Samart Wanchana, Ramil Mauleon, Genevieve Aquino, and Richard Bruskiewich. The participants had this to say about the workshop: “The workshop was good. It gave lots of information and useful topics and software for our work.” "This workshop was very well planned with lots of information and it will definitely provide us with more information to improve our own field of work.” “It was a great effort from the team to have pulled off one interesting and interactive workshop. I look forward to be part of the advanced course.” “Overall, the course was very good and informative. It will be very useful for many of the researchers.” ( Back to top )
Course on research data management held at IRRI A training course on Research Data Management was held at the Information Technology Services (IT) Learning Center, 26-28 March. The course was conducted by Dr. Thomas Metz and Ms. Emmali Manalo (CRIL) with assistance from the IT Learning Center and IT Services. Ten IRRI staff members attended this problem-oriented course, which covered file management at the research group level, disciplined use of spreadsheets for data capture, minimal use of databases for managing data, and various tools for visualizing and analyzing research data. The emphasis was on the database part, with the aim of drastically reducing manual (cut-and-paste) data transformation in spreadsheets. Participants learned how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of data flow from data capture to analysis. ( Back to top )
Initiative on rice salinity tolerance maintains momentum Founded on previous progress and its potential, the initiative on rice salinity tolerance maintains its momentum with the launch of the BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development)-funded project, Enhancing and stabilizing the productivity of salt-affected areas by incorporating genes for tolerance of abiotic stresses in rice, on 19 March at NASC Complex, New Delhi, India. The project, which aims to increase and stabilize food productivity and enhance livelihood and food security in salt-affected areas through salt-tolerant rice varieties, is expected to benefit large areas of rice production in South and Southeast Asia, which suffer from salinity and other related soil problems that make them less productive. The project will help rehabilitate these lands through higher yielding salt-tolerant varieties of rice and help provide food and livelihood to many poor farming communities in both coastal and inland salt-affected areas. The launch was hosted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Speaking at the launch, ICAR’s Deputy Director General-Crop Science, Dr. P.L. Gautam, expressed his hope that this initiative based on previous experiences will lead the project to success and, aside from bringing all stakeholders together, the initiative will give everyone the satisfaction of doing something good for the rice crop as a whole as well as for humanity. He also said that ICAR is available to assist in better implementing the project and to ensure that targets and milestones are achieved. He likewise said that everyone was happy that ICAR and the centers were partners in the initiative. Meanwhile, Dr. Shanker Nath Shukla, assistant director general for food and fodder crops of ICAR, encouraged all partners to continue to capitalize on previous achievements and to move ahead. He expressed his confidence in the people involved in running the project, and that, having been given additional funding, they will certainly deliver. Following the launch, the work plan meeting commenced with a discussion and outlining of the 3-year project activities by scientists from IRRI and participating NARES centers from Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam. Collaborating in this project are the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Central Rice Research Institute-India, Central Soil Salinity Rice Research Institute- India, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology-India, and Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute-Vietnam. These centers will help in the field testing of breeding lines, validation of management options for salt-tolerant varieties, participatory varietal selection trials, knowledge dissemination, and seed production and distribution. IRRI, on the other hand, will be responsible for the physiological and molecular components, the molecular breeding, and the initial evaluation of tolerant varieties, as well as overall management of the project. IRRI’s delegation was headed by Program 1 leader, Dr. David Mackill, who gave the opening remarks. The project team from IRRI consists of Drs. Abdelbagi Ismail, senior plant physiologist and project leader; Hei Leung, plant pathologist and Program 5 leader; Thelma Paris, socioeconomist and gender specialist; Stephan Haefele, soil scientist and agronomist; Glenn Gregorio, rice breeder for Africa; Ed Redoña, plant breeder and INGER coordinator; R.K. Singh, plant breeder-salinity; and Michael Thomson, molecular geneticist. The German counterparts, Max Planck and University of Hohenheim, will develop the chip-based system for genotyping and strategies for multiple QTL introgressions through marker-assisted breeding. The inception and planning meeting was held back-to-back with the 3-day launch and planning workshop of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – funded project, “Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia.” ( Back to top )
In South Asia: stress relief to uplift rainfed rice farmers After a successful African launch in Benin, 3-5 March, the project Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), is having a parallel inauguration in South Asia on 16-19 March at the NASC Complex in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by 150 senior scientists, researchers, and representatives of NGOs, private companies, and seed producers from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. Over a 10-year period, the project aims to reach 18 million farm households, 84% of which would be in South Asia, with improved varieties tolerant of drought, submergence, and salinity. This is expected to result in a 50% increase in yield in farmers’ fields, translating into an annual increase in income per farm family of at least 15%. In the short term, or within the project period of 2008-10, the project will accelerate the development and delivery of improved rice germplasm to about 300,000 farm households in the major rainfed ecosystems in South Asia. The project will also enhance capacity in national research systems and will develop a network for seed production and adoption.
The South Asia launch was
hosted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Dr.
Mangala Rai, secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and
Extension and director general of ICAR, congratulated the BMGF for its
support of this project and emphasized that the funds would certainly
go a long way toward helping the poorest farmers. He encouraged the
project scientists to disseminate the varieties for drought,
submergence, and salinity tolerance as quickly as possible to fully
exploit their benefits. ( Back to top )
CGIAR holds Senior Managers Course in Thailand The CGIAR secretariat was delighted that 20 managers from the CG system took part in this first initiative and hopes that this course was an enriching experience for all participants. ( Back to top )
Twenty finish Leadership Course for Asian Women In the afternoon, the whole group visited tourist spots in the City of Pines, where the participants enjoyed sightseeing and souvenir shopping. The group visited other tourist destinations in Manila. Toward the end of the course, each participant presented her action plan of how she intends to apply what she learned from the course. IFS Social Sciences Program Coordinator Maria Dutarte flew all the way from Sweden to be part of the panel and listen to the IFS-supported participants’ presentations. ACIAR Philippines Assistant Country Manager Mara Faylon likewise attended the ACIAR-funded participants’ presentations. The course is coordinated by Dr. Thelma Paris with the training team led by Angie Maghuyop. ( Back to top )
International Crop Information System holds Developers’ Workshop and Breeders’ Training Course at IRRI
Twenty-two participants from eight countries attended the International
Crop Information System (ICIS) Breeders’ Training Course, 10-14 March.
The course is designed to show breeders how to use ICIS tools to manage
information from a pedigree breeding program. The workshop reviewed the status of development and deployment of ICIS at each partner site and charted the direction for ICIS development to support molecular data, and decided how to deploy ICIS to facilitate molecular breeding and manage advanced drought phenotyping. Other major topics involved a review of hand-held devices and barcoding for data capture in genebanks and germplasm improvement. ( Back to top )
Workshop on migration, livelihoods, production, and gender roles held at IRRI
A final workshop of the ACIAR-funded research project on the “Impact of migration and/or off-farm employment on roles of women in Asian and Australian mixed farming systems” was held at IRRI, 21-22 February. ( Back to top )
Nineteen complete Basic Experimental Design and
Nineteen participants completed the Basic Experimental Design and Data Analysis Course Using CropStat, 18-22
February. The course was designed to acquaint researchers with the
principles of experimental design, basic experimental designs used in
rice research, analysis of variance and regression, and correlation
analysis. ( Back to top )
IRRI initiates forum on rice policy research A forum on “Rice policy research: key issues from national perspectives” was held at IRRI 18-19 February. The major objectives were to identify key policy issues relevant to the rice industry from the perspective of national systems, prioritize the identified policy issues for research, establish a network of rice policy researchers, and develop a collaborative arrangement for conducting policy research on high-priority issues. Sixteen papers from Asia and Africa were presented on various aspects of rice policy, and a 2-hour panel discussion on implications of rising rice prices was held. Senior policy researchers from major rice-growing countries in Asia ( Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China) and Africa ( Mozambique and Tanzania), and representatives of WARDA, FAO, and the private sector participated in the forum.
The
participants largely agreed that rice is seen by most governments as a
“political” commodity, although the national perspectives on rice
policy issues varied among countries, depending on the national incomes
and the performance of the rice industry. Most countries viewed the
world market as ‘thin and unstable’ and preferred to achieve a high
degree of self sufficiency.
The participants also agreed to establish a network of rice policy
researchers to facilitate rapid exchange of ideas and information among
policy researchers. Such a network will develop linkages with the
existing agricultural policy networks in Asia and Africa. The
modalities of the network operation are now being developed. ( Back to top )
Forum on implementation plans to disseminate submergence- and drought-tolerant rice varieties kicks off The Philippines is one of the six key sites in the Japan-IRRI collaborative project in Southeast Asia in which the collaborating teams seek to formulate implementation plans to disseminate submergence-tolerant rice varieties and associated production practices. The initial sites in the Philippines are San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, and Midsayap, North Cotabato.
The first and crucial step for fast and effective
dissemination is to make target stakeholders (regional rice
coordinators, local government units, rice specialists, extension
workers, and farmers) aware of the availability of the
submergence-tolerant (Sub1) and drought-tolerant varieties and
their potential in alleviating production damage caused by flash floods
and drought in the target areas, respectively. It is therefore
imperative to have these stakeholders involved at the very early stage
of the formulation of dissemination strategies so they can support and
cooperate in the successful implementation of the project. It is within
this context that this national forum was held. ( Back to top )
Rice-Wheat Consortium holds 14th Steering Committee Meeting
The Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC) held its 14th Steering Committee Meeting at IRRI, 11-12 February. The RWC promotes (1) research on issues that are fundamental to enhance the productivity and sustainability of rice-wheat cropping systems in South Asia, and (2) various resource-conserving technologies in the rice-wheat systems of South Asia forming entry points for intervention. ( Back to top )
Twenty-four graduate from course on marker-assisted selection in rice Twenty-four participants from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam interacted with 19 laboratory resource persons, including research technicians, researchers, and students, in the Gene Array and Molecular Marker Application (GAMMA) Laboratory during a training course on marker-assisted selection (MAS) in rice held at IRRI, 21 January-1 February. The 12-day course aimed to ensure that participants were up-to-date with the latest advances in molecular marker technologies and application of MAS in modern rice breeding, and acquired competency in associated laboratory skills. Many biotic and abiotic stresses are a continuing threat to rice productivity and sustainability. The major challenge is to overcome these constraints and produce high-yielding rice varieties with multiple resistances to biotic and abiotic stresses possessing improved grain quality and nutritive value. Recent advances in rice biotechnology, particularly in molecular biology and genomics, offer new opportunities to overcome some of these constraints to rice production. Among various biotechnological approaches, MAS is becoming an increasingly important tool in the hands of plant breeders to accelerate breeding programs, particularly where agronomic traits are highly influenced by the environment and are difficult to select through conventional breeding. ( Back to top )
Research Data Management Course held at IRRI The initial offering of the Research Data Management Course was held at the IT Learning Center, IRRI, 29-31 January, with 10 IRRI staff as participants.
This problem-oriented course covered
file management at the research group level, disciplined use of
spreadsheets for data capture, minimal use of databases for managing
data, and various tools for visualizing and analyzing research data.
The emphasis was on the database part, with the aim to drastically
reduce manual (cut-and-paste) data transformation in spreadsheets. ( Back to top )
Submergence project makes waves
Progress for the first year of the project Implementation
plans to disseminate submergence-tolerant rice varieties and associated
new production practices to Southeast Asia was reported at the annual review and planning meeting on 29-31 January, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Fifty scientists from the six Southeast Asian countries involved in the project―Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam―finalized their work plans and defined strategies on how to meet their objectives for the remaining duration of the project (2008 to March 2009). The last day of the workshop was devoted to a field visit at the Agricultural Research and Development Center and the Tan Lap Floating Ecological Village in Moc Hoa, Long An Province. The project was funded by the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ( Back to top )
IRRI holds training program on rice breeding for Myanmar A 5-day in-country training program on “Breeding for Salinity and Submergence Tolerance in Rice” was held in Myanmar in January. Organized by IRRI, upon request from the Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), Yezin, NayPyiTaw, Myanmar, the training program aimed to build the capacity of researchers and provide knowledge to boost rice production, especially in rainfed areas of the country, which occupy 80% of the rice lands. Thirty participants from the main station and outstations of Myanma Agriculture Service and one lecturer from Yezin Agricultural University attended. Mr. U. John Ba Maw, DAR deputy director general, inaugurated the event. Daw Khin Tan Nwe, director, DAR Rice Division, welcomed the participants. The lectures covered the basic concepts of breeding and molecular marker approaches. Major emphasis was given to hands-on training sessions. Training materials were provided. The training was coordinated by Dr. R.K. Singh, IRRI rice breeder for salt-affected areas. He was assisted by one of his students from Myanmar, Ms. Swe Zin Myint Thein, who recently completed her master's degree in November 2007 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and worked on introgression of salinity tolerance (Saltol) and submergence (Sub1) tolerance into one genetic background. The training course ended with the closing remarks of Dr. Toe Aung, DAR director general. Certificates were distributed to the participants. This was the first training of its kind at DAR and Dr. Aung thanked IRRI and expected more knowledge-sharing in the future. ( Back to top )
Scientists develop plans toward sustainable management
In
the past 2 years, Vietnam’s rice production suffered losses of about
0.7 million tons from damage caused by brown planthoppers (BPH) and
virus diseases. ( Back to top ) |
