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An information summary for supporters of international rice research

Published by the INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE June 2004

As part of the International Year of Rice activities in Asia, three major rice research conferences are being planned for September, October, and November in South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan respectively.

The International Rice Science Conference will be held in Seoul, South Korea, from 13 to 15 September 2004. With the t heme “Rice Science for Human Welfare in the 21st Century,” the conference will be divided into four sessions: Increasing the potential of rice yields, Eco-friendly and sustainable rice-cultivating methods, Improving the grain quality and nutritional value of rice, and Social and economic impact of rice cultivation.

For more details, please contact Dr. Moon-Hee Lee, IRSC chairman and director general, National Institute of Crop Science (NICS), Rural Development Administration(RDA). Email : mlee@rda.go.kr.

The Mekong Rice Conference will be held from 15 to 17 October in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. With the theme “ Rice, the Environment, and Livelihoods for the Poor,” the focus will be on how the Greater Mekong Subregion’s rich diversity of resources, cultures, and environments can be applied to make rice farming in the region more productive, profitable, and sustainable.

The conference will also employ and develop the “learning across boundaries” strategy by providing a forum for focused and productive discussions on how to accelerate farmers’ adoption of improved technologies that will enhance their livelihoods at household and community levels.

For more details, please contact Dr. Nguyen Van Bo, d irector, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, 2 Ngoc Ha, Ba Dinh,
Ha Noi, Vietnam. Fax: 84-4-8454319; Email: nvbo@hn.vnn.vn

And finally, the World Rice Research Conference will be held from 4 to 7 November 2004 in Tokyo and Tsukuba, Japan.

The four main themes will be: Innovative technologies for boosting rice production, Perspectives on the place of rice in healthy lifestyles, Adaptable rice-based systems that improve farmers' livelihood, and The role of rice in environmentally sustainable food security.

For more details, please contact Dr. K. Toriyama, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan. Fax: +81-29-838-6342, or e-mail: WRRC2004@ml.affrc.go.jp.

Field studies conducted at IRRI have confirmed predictions from theoretical studies that global warming will make rice crops less productive. Combining a quarter century of climate data collected at IRRI with yield trends in adjacent fields over the past dozen years, researchers further discovered that simulation models underestimated the problem by half because they overlooked the pernicious effect of high minimum nighttime temperatures.

The study, reported in PNAS, the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, found that rice yields at IRRI declined by 10% for every 1 ºC increase in mean daily temperature. Temperatures are projected to rise globally by 1.5–4.5 ºC in the coming century–or 3 to 9 times more than in the past century. Global warming thus threatens to erase the hard-won productivity gains that have kept rice harvest in step with population growth.

The study recorded that the mean minimum nighttime temperature during dry season at IRRI has risen since 1979 by 1.13 ºC, or three times the 0.35 ºC rise in mean maximum daytime temperature. This difference is an expected consequence of increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, and IRRI’s climate records are consistent with warming trends found elsewhere in the Philippines and globally.

The news is that high nighttime minimum temperatures clearly and strongly suppressed rice yields in the seasons in which they occurred, while high daytime temperatures had no measurable effect. Yields fell by 10% for every 1 ºC increase in mean nighttime minimum temperature. Because the increase in night temperature was threefold greater than the increase in daytime temperature, rice yields declined by 15% for every 1 ºC increase in daily mean temperature–double the 7% decline that emerged from theoretical models.

K.L. Heong, IRRI integrated pest management specialist, announces that pesticide use on the IRRI farm continues to decline significantly. Insecticide application in the IRRI plots in 2003 is half of what was applied in 2000. IRRI now only applies 5% of what it applied in 1993 and perhaps only 2% of what it applied in the 1980s.

Thailand hosts international convention on rice; IRRI DG featured speaker

The Thai Ministry of Commerce hosted an international meeting on rice, 26-27 May. The event attracted more than 250 academics and traders from 21 countries who discussed various topics related to the crop, including global rice trading trends.

One of the guest speakers, IRRI Director General Ron Cantrell, discussed the achievements and potential impact of rice technologies on food security and economic development in Asia and the Pacific. Dr. Cantrell said that, "Clearly, there are two integral major challenges–for now and well into the future–involving rice in Asia.

"The first is the ability of nations to meet their national and household food security needs with a declining natural resource base, two of the critical resources being water and land," he added. "How the current level of annual rice production of around 545 million tons can be increased to about 700 million tons to feed an additional 650 million rice eaters by 2025 using less water and less and is indeed the great challenge in Asia. The second is–as has been stated by the United Nations as one of its eight Millennium Development Goals–the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger."

More than 20 senior officials and scientists of the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD), Institute of Research and Development (IRD), and IRRI met at Narai Hotel, Bangkok Thailand, 25-26 May. Participants reviewed current collaborative activities, identified new activities, and agreed on future collaboration, including how to improve the current mode of partnerships.

In his welcome remarks, Deputy Director General for Research Ren Wang emphasized that IRRI is very serious in its collaboration with French research and development institutions because the mutual benefits derived from previous and current partnerships are very important to all the institutions involved.

Dr. Christian Hoste, in charge of Partnerships at CIRAD and head of the French delegation, emphasized the need to explore new modalities and strategies for working together because of the changes in the external environment. He also emphasized France's interest to continue developing a closer relationship with IRRI and challenged the participants to explore new ways of sharing information and adding value in working together.

The participants agreed to continue existing French-IRRI collaborative activities and made several proposals, indicating time frames and persons responsible in the following areas: Generation Challenge Program, Challenge Program on Water and Food, upscaling of SAM phase 1 and 2 impacts, collaboration in grain quality, Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE) activities and initiatives for Africa, interinstitutional agreements to facilitate exchange of genetic materials and information among International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), IRRI, CIRAD, IRD, and West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), and further improvement of France-IRRI collaboration through joint conferences and workshops, joint training opportunities with national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES), and exploration of funding opportunities to support joint activities and staff secondment.

In the area of scientist exchange, CIRAD and IRD have agreed to accommodate IRRI staff, particularly promising nationally recruited staff, to be trained at Montpellier while IRRI will train young French scientists.

In conjunction with Thailand’s activities for commemorating the IYR, the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE) conducted its third annual Steering Committee meeting, 2-4 June in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand.

Mr. Chawanvut Chainuwat, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, and Cooperatives of Thailand and IRRI Director General Ronald Cantrell were the special guests. Participants included about 25 NARES collaborators representing the member countries of CURE; CURE Steering Committee members; CURE key-site coordinators from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam; and directors from 15 rice research centers throughout Thailand.

The Steering Committee elected Dr. Limthongkul of Thailand as the next chairman and endorsed the appointment of IRRI Social Sciences Division Head Mahabub Hossain as the new CURE coordinator, replacing principal scientist Tom Mew. Indonesia has been selected as the venue of the next Steering Committee meeting to be held in June 2005. A special seminar on “Sustainable rice-based production systems in fragile rice environments” and a workshop on “Innovative research methods and strategies” were also held as part of the activities.

The Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA) Project, in partnership with the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and funding by the Department for International Development (DfID), United Kingdom, organized a one-day closing program at the Winter Garden, Hotel Sheraton, Dhaka on 13 July. The program was held to celebrate the successful closing of the 5-year PETRRA Project.

During the program, a dialogue on "Agriculture Technology and Innovations for the Poor" was held. It aimed to exchange views toward sustaining the innovations of the project in the existing system. The dialogue was chaired and moderated by the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, A.S. M. Abdul Halim, and renowned media personality Mohammad Jahangir, respectively.The Honorable Minister for Agriculture Mr. M.K. Anwar and Honorable State Minister for Agriculture Mr. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir were the guests of honor.

Prior to the panel discussion, two presentations were made: ''PETRRA Technologies, Extension, Innovations and Impact," presented by IRRI Representative and PETRRA Project Manager Noel P. Magor, and ''PETRRA Approach and Policy Overview,'' presented by IRRI Social Scientist Mahabub Hossain.

IRRI-PETRRA subproject holds final review meeting

The final review meeting was held for the IRRI- PETRRA subproject Development of High-yielding Rice Varieties for Coastal Wetlands of Bangladesh at Rigs Inn Hotel, Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 28-29 April.

The Department for International Development (DfID), UK, funded the 3-1/2-year project. The meeting was led by subproject coordinator Glenn Gregorio, and principal investigators M.A. Salam and Nilufer Hye Karim, heads of the Plant Breeding Division and Biotechnology Division of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), respectively; and Zeba Seraj from Dhaka University.

Attending were 42 representatives from BRRI, Department of Agricultural Extension, nongovernment organizations, Dhaka University, PETRRA, the local media, and IRRI.

The IRRI Social Sciences Division (SSD) and the Bangladesh Center for Policy Dialog held a policy dialogue on rural poverty alleviation on 26 May in Dhaka. More than 100 people attended the event, which featured a presentation by SSD Head Mahabub Hossain about the results of IRRI's collaborative study with three Bangladesh institutions on mapping rural poverty to identify hot spots of high poverty incidence, and their determinant socioeconomic and biophysical factors.

Chief guest Mr. Mushfiqur Rahman, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Finance Ministry, indicated that he would bring the findings of the study to the Finance Minister and expressed the need for better managed anti-poverty programs supported by strong political commitment and collective efforts involving government and nongovernment organizations.

A policy dialogue on Women's Contribution to Rural Economic Activities: Making the Invisible Visible was held on 23 April at the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The dialogue was organized by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) as part of its activities under the CPD-IRRI Collaborative PETRRA subcomponent on Dynamics of Livelihood Systems in Rural Bangladesh funded by DfID.

IRRI social scientists Thelma Paris and Mahabub Hossain presented the background keynote papers, which drew on the lessons from implementing the PETRRA project. Around 70 agricultural scientists, senior government officials, academicians, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), development partners, women activists, and gender specialists participated in the event, including PETRRA Project Manager Noel Magor and members of the Parliament.

In her keynote paper, Dr. Paris observed that women's managerial role in agricultural production has been growing with growing rural-urban migration of men. The IRRI-PETRRA project has demonstrated that women from resource-poor families can adopt knowledge-intensive agricultural technologies equally well as men who are the traditional target of agricultural extension.

Dr. Hossain suggested that government should initiate special projects for training women in improved agricultural technologies and for supporting women's income generation activities around the homestead. He also recommended that following the successful example of NGOs delivering microcredit through women's groups, agricultural credit should also be channeled through women.

Imagine this: 2,000 poor rice farmers, whose average farm income is around US$100 per year, suddenly take on the role of agricultural scientist. Over the course of 2 years–four seasons–they prove that insecticides are a complete waste of time and money, and that they can significantly reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer they use. They save, on average, $17 per year. It might not sound like much to some, but it’s a 17% pay rise for people who struggle to provide sufficient food for themselves and their families, and enough to help put children through school or buy grain to tide rice-deficit farm families over to the next harvest.

Sounds unlikely? Well, it just happened in Bangladesh. In the last 2 years, the Livelihood Improvement Through Ecology (LITE) project, led by IRRI, has trained 2,000 farmers to perform experiments in their own fields, which demonstrate that insecticide can be eliminated and nitrogen fertilizer (urea) applications reduced without lowering yields. Four thousand more farmers are currently in training.

LITE–part of the IRRI-led project Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA), funded for Bangladesh by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID)–set out to discover the exact cause of an assumed drop in rice yield when farmers stop spraying insecticide. The ultimate aim, explains LITE principal investigator and IRRI senior entomologist Gary C. Jahn, was to identify safe alternatives to insecticides.

19th RDA-IRRI Collaborative Research and Training Workplan Meeting held at IRRI

Eight scientists from the Rural Development Administration (RDA) and the IRRI-Korea Office (IKO) met with their IRRI counterparts on 19 April at IRRI. The meeting ended on 20 April with a signing of the 2004-05 collaborative workplan between RDA and IRRI.

Participants assessed the progress of the 2002-03 collaboration and developed the 2004-05 RDA-IRRI collaborative workplan, including the approval of new project proposals. The meeting also highlighted the achievements of 40 years of Korea-IRRI partnership on rice research and development.

IRRI Director General Ron Cantrell, in his welcome remarks, acknowledged the uniqueness of the RDA-IRRI collaboration and emphasized the invaluable support of RDA in the establishment of the IRRI-Korea Office and its increasing financial support to its partnership with IRRI. He also highlighted the preparations and support of RDA in the forthcoming activities in Korea in September, namely the International Year of Rice (IYR) Symposium and the Board of Trustees and Council for Partnerships on Rice Research in Asia (CORRA) meetings.

In his opening remarks, Director General Moon-Hee Lee of the National Institute of Crop Science, RDA, encouraged the participants to explore opportunities where partnership can be further improved as the 2004-2005 workplan is developed.

IYR launched in Korea

The Republic of Korea's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officially launched its celebration of the IYR at the Agricultural Trade Center in Seoul on 28 May. Six hundred participants, including many ambassadors, rice stakeholders, representatives of the public sector, administrators, and agricultural scientists attended this important event. "Our hope and purpose is to ensure the sustainability of agriculture as the basis for renewing our rural areas as clean, stable communities," said Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sang-Man Heu in his opening remarks. "Let us use the United Nations' declaration of IYR to realize the importance of rice and agriculture in our society."

The IYR celebration in Korea will culminate with the International Rice Science Conference in Seoul, 13-15 September. The theme is Rice Science for Human Welfare in the 21st Century.

As part of its ongoing development of information technology-based courses, IRRI implemented a Compact Disk-Integrated Pest Management (CD-IPM) training course in Malaysia for 29 research and extension personnel. The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) coordinated, organized, and implemented the program, while the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) provided the training venue and facilitated board and lodging at its training center at Alor Setar.

In Vietnam, the Department of Plant Protection and College of Agriculture of Can Tho University jointly coordinated, organized, and implemented the program. The training venue was at the College of Agriculture of Can Tho University in Can Tho City in the heart of the Mekong Delta.

Similar courses have shown that such in-country training (based on information in the Rice Knowledge Bank) allows IRRI to reach more participants with fewer resources.

The course was structured around the themes of ecology, updates on pest management practices, sociology, and the communication and implementation aspects of IP M. Major groups of rice pests such as insect pests, rice disease, weeds, and pest rodents were covered. In addition to the standard IPM courses, topics were included to cover special pest problems of Malaysia such as weedy rice and golden apple snails.IRRI scientists K.L. Heong and Zahirul Islam organized the course.

A radio soap opera series designed to communicate integrated pest management (IPM) principles and practices to rice farmers in Vietnam was launched in Vinh Long, Vietnam, on 7 July.

"This is an excellent way to reach farmers and I am glad to note that agriculture and broadcast people are working closely," said Vietnam's Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Biu Ba Bong at the launching ceremony.

A team of scientists from the Plant Protection Department and the Voice of Ho Chi Minh, headed by Vice Director General Nguyen Huu Huan, spent the last 18 months studying the audience, the farming communities, their daily farming chores, and relationships.

Broadcast twice a week by the Voice of Ho Chi Minh and Radio and TV Vinh Long, the serial will be aired for the next 12 months. Plant protection stories on biological control, plant compensation, and hazardous effects of pesticides together with human drama such as love affairs, conflicts, new babies, and deaths are being seamlessly weaved into each episode.

"There are numerous aspects of biological control, such as the feeding behavior of a predatory bug on planthopper eggs, which is difficult to observe, that are more effective when presented as stories that farmers can relate to," said IRRI scientist K.L. Heong, who initiated the project in 2002. The drama serial uses the Entertainment-Education approach, which has been successfully applied in fields of public health and social change, to reach rice farmers.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on 31 May joined the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and IRRI in launching the Vietnamese observance of the International Year of Rice (IYR) 2004 in Hanoi. The ministry has set up a committee to coordinate activities, including the Mekong Rice Conference 2004 in Ho Chi Minh City on 15-17 October, a rice-farming contest, a rice-cooking festival, and an exhibition on scientific and technological advances in rice cultivation.

Addressing the IYR launch ceremony, Deputy Minister Bui Ba Bong said Vietnam–the fifth largest rice producer in the world, with an annual output of 34.5 million tons–is willing to share its experiences in rice farming and cultivate international cooperation in this field.

"Rice production in the country has been expanding over the past 20 years, with annual increases of nearly 1 million tons in output and 2 t ha -1 in productivity," he said, adding that this achievement has helped ensure food security for this country of 80 million people and maintain rice exports of 3.5-4 million tons per year.

On the same day, Vietnam presented IRRI Director General Ronald P. Cantrell, with its medal for Agriculture and Rural Development in recognition of his contributions to agricultural development and research over the years. The award cites not only his contributions at IRRI since 1998 but also as director in 1984-90 of the Maize Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico.

Crop modeling course conducted for the first time in China

On 12-16 April, the Chinese Agricultural University (CAU) in Beijing hosted the third training course on "The rice growth simulation model ORYZA2000". After two courses in the Philippines in 2003, this was the first time the course was given in China.

ORYZA2000 is a crop model to simulate the growth, development, and water balance of rice under conditions of potential production and water and nitrogen limitations. It was jointly developed by IRRI and the Wageningen University and Research Center in The Netherlands.

During the course, 53 participants became familiar with the model ORYZA2000 and learned how to use it to support experimental data analysis and to extrapolate experimental results to other conditions.Participants were mostly graduate and postgraduate students from CAU, with some participants from Nanjing Agricultural University, Zhejiang Agricultural University (Hangzhou), Huazhong Agricultural University (Wuhan), Wuhan University, Chinese National Rice Research Institute, and Huibei (Kaifeng) and Tuanlin (Hubei) experiment stations.

The course was organized through the Water Workgroup of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium and the project "Potentials of water savings in rice production" of the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. The fourth training course on ORYZA2000 is scheduled to be held in September in Korea. Plans have been drafted for a second training course in China in 2005.

Both China and Nepal are the latest countries to join the Rice Knowledge Bank (RKB). Offering country-specific information and materials in local languages, these country sites offer an exciting new addition to the RKB. Indicative of the significance of these sites is the fact that the "Tropical Field Problems" manual in Bahasa (Indonesian) was recently the highest visited downloadable file from the RKB.

These sites are developed through collaborative efforts of IRRI and NARES collaborators. Many staff such as Dr. Mahyuddin Syam (Indonesia), Ms. Ding and Dr. Zhao (China), Dr. Noel Magor and team (Bangladesh), and International Research Fellow David Shires and Training Center Head Mark Bell (IRRI) work with national partners to identify priority materials for each country site.

In other recent developments, Bangladesh launched its own RKB site, which will be mirrored on the RKB server.

On 17 July, the United Nations Information Centre-Tokyo (UNIC) opened its annual summer exhibition at the Gallery of the UN House in Shibuya-ku. To celebrate the IYR, the exhibit featured various displays on rice, including the recently published Japanese translation of IRRI’s own Graindell book.

Together with the book, the “Graindell corner”also showcased the animated version of the Graindell story, dubbed in Japanese, 3:39-minute video on the IYR “Rice is Life” theme, and a short interview with Director General Ronald Cantrell. Also featured were six giant “Rice is Life” theme posters, a Graindell poster, and the Graindell web site.

According to Ms. Noriko Minai, manager of the UN Gallery, more than 1,000 people have visited the exhibit, which will run until the end of August. The “Graindell corner” is one of the major highlights of the exhibit, especially during weekends when children visit with their parents.

Dr. Mutsuo Iwamoto, president of the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), visited IRRI on 7 June to learn more about IRRI and discuss new relationships between JIRCAS and IRRI. Dr. Iwamoto was accompanied by Dr. Osamu Ito, JIRCAS agronomist and former head of Agronomy, Plant Physiology, and Agroecology Division at IRRI.

To learn more about the Egyptian rice program and express IRRI's appreciation for the excellent collaboration during the past two decades, Director General Ron Cantrell and Board Chair Keijiro Otsuka visited the Sakha Rice Research Station and the Rice Technology Training Center in Alexandria, 8-12 May.

They were welcomed by Badawi A.Tantawi, head of the Rice Research Program in Egypt. They also met with the Prime Minister Youssul Wally, who is also the Minister of Agriculture. Mr. Wally expressed great appreciation to IRRI for its contributions to the tremendous increase in rice production in Egypt. The average rice yield in Egypt in 2003 was 9.2 tons per hectare, which is among the highest in the world.

Manila hosted a major activity of the International Year of Rice (IYR) 2004 with the opening on 21 June of the Rice Feeds the World exhibit in two major shopping centers. Initiated and developed in France, the exciting, interactive exhibition had something for everybody: families, school children, and teenagers. It had already toured several other Asian nations, including Thailand and Myanmar, and was in the Philippines for a week before heading off to Vietnam.

The exhibit featured a wide range of colorful and interesting materials. A special section introduced the general public to the rice plant, and a scientific section explained current rice issues including the development of new rice varieties, biotechnology, and related topics. Most importantly, it had lots of fun displays–like living rice plants–that engaged families and school groups.

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD) created the exhibit as part of the ministry’s annual French Spring cultural activities. It was brought to the Philippines through the French Embassy in collaboration with the IYR Philippine National Steering Committee. The Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Rice Research Institute as IYR National Secretariat led the Committee. The Philippine Department of Tourism, IRRI, and the Asia Rice Foundation supported the exhibit.

IRRI had the unusual pleasure of having two artists in residence on 26-30 April as part of the Institute's ongoing series of special activities for the IY R.British painter John Dyer produced a series of paintings that interpreted the relationships among people, the rice plant, and the rice ecosystem.

Tim Varlow, one of London's top graphic artists and designers for video, accompanied Mr. Dyer. Mr. Varlow produced a series of black ink sketches of different rice scenes such as harvesting and threshing.

Mr. Dyer and Mr. Varlow agreed to provide IRRI with images of all the work they did during their visit to Los Baños, Philippines, to be used as limited edition posters, calendars, book covers, Christmas cards, and other promotional items for the Institute and rice.

About 100 people attended the Lao celebration of the IYR on 8 April at the National Rice Research Center in Saithani, Vientiane. Mr. Siene Saphangthong, minister of agriculture and forestry and former IRRI Board of Trustees member, 1996-2001; members of the national assembly; and ministers were among the guests of honor who toured the facility.

"Throughout Laos, rice is at the heart of our traditions and is the basis of our life," said Mr. Saphangthong during the field visit at the National Agriculture Research Center, where he observed recent developments and met with staff.

Rice seeds produced by the Center are proving very popular with farmers all around Laos. Breeders there have produced 10 new varieties of sticky rice to meet the increasing demand for domestic rice since the Center began collaboration with IRRI in 1990.

On 7 April, 11 trainees graduated from this year's Hybrid Rice Seed Production Training at the IRRI Training Center. The course aimed to acquaint participants with hybrid rice technology, impart theoretical and practical knowledge on maintenance of cytoplasmic male sterile lines and F 1 seed production. It also enabled the participants to update their knowledge and skills in maximizing hybrid rice seed yield.

On 15 April, a training course and demonstration on integrated crop management (ICM) and modified mat nursery (MMN) was conducted in two villages in Karnal District of Haryana State, India.

IRRI scientists J.K. Ladha and Vethaiya Balasubramanian facilitated the training that included 60 farmers, 10 extension staff members, a local university researcher, research staff from the private sector United Rice Land-Karnal, and two staff members from the State Farms of India, New Delhi. The training started with the current practices for rice nursery and crop management as enumerated by farmer-participants.

The facilitators introduced the concept of ICM for enhancing rice yield, reducing the cost of cultivation, improving the efficiency of input use, and obtaining higher overall profit. They also demonstrated how to prepare the MMN. The Rice-Wheat Consortium will provide the follow-up training, technical support, and additional information on ICM in the local language.

IPMO and TC conduct project management course in Bhutan

As part of the Bhutan-IRRI Workplan, the International Programs Management Office (IPMO) and Training Center (TC) conducted a 3-day condensed project management course on 27-29 April at the Renewable Natural Resources Research Centers (RNRRC)-Bajo in Wangduephodrang.

The course provided technical assistance in developing Bhutan's research and human resource capacity. Sixteen senior Bhutanese research and administrative officers of various RNRRC, Watershed projects, and Natural Resources Training Institute attended.

Led by IPMO Senior Manager Julian A. Lapitan, the course focused on project management topics using group dynamics, games, lectures, and other participative approaches that positively engaged the participants for experiential learning.

Mr. Sangay Duba, program director of RNRRC-Bajo, praised and recognized IRRI for its continuing support to Bhutan in further developing its national agricultural research and extension services, including its research management capacity since 1984.

The Bhutan-IRRI Project, supported by the International Development Research Centre and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, ended in June. A new phase of the project, which is being processed, will determine IRRI's role in providing further technical assistance.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has honored Dr. S.K. De Datta, former IRRI agronomist and principal scientist, with a Presidential Citation Award. The award recognizes Dr. De Datta's contributions toward eradicating hunger through improved agricultural productivity and food security, particularly for the production of rice. Dr. De Datta is currently associate provost for international affairs at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Dr. De Datta received the award on 13 April at the opening session of the 17th PhilRice National Research and Development Conference.

Dr. De Datta was the agronomist and principal scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines from 1964 to 1991 and headed the IRRI Agronomy Department from 1966 to 1989. From 1989 to 1991, he provided leadership in the Rainfed Lowland Rice Ecosystem programs at IRRI.

In recognition of his contributions to rice pathology, retiring IRRI principal scientist Tom Mew was conferred with a certificate of appreciation by the Rural Development Administration (RDA), Republic of Korea.

RDA Administrator Young-Wook Kim presented the certificate to Dr. Mew in a special ceremony on 28 April. Dr. Mew was also honored for his devoted efforts to the international cooperation and collaboration between RDA and IRRI, for his significant achievements on the collaborative projects of disease and insect resistance of rice, and for supporting Korean rice scientists through seminars, workshops, and germplasm acquisition. During his visit to RDA, Dr. Mew delivered a seminar, Disease management through biodiversity in rice, to RDA staff.

For his outstanding contributions to improving rice farmers' seed health practices for pest management and crop production in Bangladesh, IRRI principal scientist Tom Mew has been given a certificate of recognition by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).

Dr. Mew was also recognized for being instrumental in the establishment of the Seed Pathology and Molecular Laboratory at BRRI, for the initiation of capacity building among BRRI scientists to address rice seed health-related problems, and for strengthening partnerships with government institutions, NGOs, and farming communities by promoting the clean seed technology in the country.

The ceremony was held on 30 May in Dhaka during Dr. Mew's visit for the Farmers' Appraisal Workshop of the Seed Health Improvement Sub-project (SHIP) of IRRI's PETRRA, of which he is the overall coordinator.

On 28 April, during the Annual Rice Varietal Improvement Group Meeting, the Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biochemistry team of IRRI received a plaque of recognition for the Philippine release in 2003 of two new rice varieties for the irrigated lowlands–NSIC Rc118 also known as Matatag 3 and NSIC Rc122 or Angelica. The award was given by the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC), the Philippine Rice Research Institute, and the Rice Technical Working Group. Matatag 3 is resistant to rice tungro virus and Angelica has high yield as well as good resistance to bacterial leaf blight.

The National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines, named Glenn Gregorio, former IRRI international research fellow, as this year's Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) in the field of genetics.Dr. Gregorio accepted his award during the Academy's Annual Scientific Meeting on 14-15 July.

"I know some people watch Parliament on television as if it's a popular serial," said Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson as he unveiled a rice sculpture of Parliament House in Canberra. "Now I suppose it really is one."

Along with the Australian launch of IYR 2004, the July-September issue of Rice Today, the quarterly magazine of IRRI and official publication of the year, reports on year-related celebrations in Bangladesh, India, Korea, Laos, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Also focused on rice is the 2004 World Food Prize Harvest Festival in Des Moines, Iowa. Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, writes how Monty Jones of Sierra Leone and Yuan Longping of China are the latest of many distinguished laureates of the Nobel-inspired prize awarded for their work on rice.

Other features celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Riceworld Museum and Learning Center and relate how IRRI is capturing decades of experience in environmental protection in its holistic environmental agenda. The issue also explains–in concise, everyday English–how rice researchers develop and use two modern scientific tools: molecular markers for plant breeding and poverty mapping for targeting aid programs.

The July-September issue of Rice Today went on the web in pdf format on 22 June.

IRRI welcomed Melissa Anne Fitzgerald, international research fellow in the new Grain Quality and Nutrition Research Center. Dr. Fitzgerald hails from Australia and has worked as a cereal chemist/research scientist at the New South Wales Department of Agriculture and the Yanco Agriculture Institute.

IRRI welcomed Daniele Marechal, who arrived from Melbourne, Australia, in March as part of the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development program (AYAD). The second youth ambassador at IRRI, Ms. Marechal’s passion for film and video has found her a place in the Communication and Publications Services video unit as a communication officer (video and multimedia).In 2002, Ms. Marechal graduated from Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, majoring in Communication and Cultural Studies, Media, and International Studies.

AYAD places skilled young Australian volunteers, aged 18-30, on short-term assignments in developing countries throughout the Asia and the Pacific every 6 months.

About 100 people attended the IRRI reunion, 25-27 June, at the Kellogg Center, Michigan State University (MSU), East Lansing, Michigan.

Peter McPherson, MSU president and former United States Secretary of State during former IRRI Director General Nyle Brady's time at the US Agency for International Development, welcomed the group and talked about what IRRI had accomplished. He also discussed the pressing needs for more rice research and training throughout the world.

During the program, IRRI principal scientist Tom Mew shared some updates about IRRI and its research programs. He stressed that IRRI is in a sound financial state and also informed the group that Dr. Cantrell has resigned as director general effective end of 2004 after successfully bringing IRRI to its present stage of operation.

The attendees recognized two original staff members in attendance, Lloyd Johnson and Carolyn Moomaw Wilhelm. Hank Beachell participated via speakerphone for part of the program. Bob Herdt gave an update of the work of the Asia Rice Foundation USA (ARFUSA) and encouraged people to financially support the mission of ARFUSA. They also observed a moment of silence in recognition of those who died since the Florida meeting. They also celebrated Wayne Freeman's 2004 Alumni Medallion Award and S.K. DeDatta's 2004 Philippine Presidential Citation.

Farewell ceremony held for R.K. Singh

On 14 April, IRRI bade farewell to R.K Singh, liaison scientist for India, whose tenure at IRRI ended in June. Dr. Singh joined IRRI in 1995 and has served the IRRI-India office for 9 years. The farewell ceremony was held at the India International Center in New Delhi. About 40 senior ICAR officials, vice chancellors of various agricultural universities, scientists from IRRI, and representatives from other CGIAR institutions and IRRI-India staff attended.

Karl Goeppert, IRRI representative and team leader of the Lao-IRRI Rice Research and Training Project, left the Institute in May 2004. Since his arrival in September 2001, Mr. Goeppert worked tirelessly toward the Project's goals. He has effectively networked the project with a range of international and national partners including the Lao government, international and national research organizations, nongovernment organizations, donors, and the local community.

Mr. Goeppert also worked extensively to raise the profile of the Project within the national and foreign communities in the country, encouraged and opened new avenues for the professional growth of Lao scientists, successfully integrated a range of IRRI Los Baños, Philippines staff into the Lao-IRRI Project, and ensured able leadership of the Lao-IRRI Office through the delivery of excellent and timely administrative assistance to collaborating partners and visiting staff.

Albert Dean Atkinson, training and courseware specialist, left IRRI in May. Since his arrival in August 2001, Dr. Atkinson has provided intellectual leadership and information and communication technology (ICT) skills, which resulted in the development of the Rice Knowledge Bank (RKB).

Thanda Wai, intellectual property rights specialist in the Intellectual Property Management Unit under the office of the Deputy Director General-Partnerships, left IRRI recently after completing her contract. IRRI's first specialist in intellectual property, patent law, and technology transfer on staff, Dr. Wai worked out the processes, guidelines, and directions of the Institute's IPR management system. Her work helped IRRI and its partners put a premium on IPR concerns and also contributed to institutionalizing IPR standards at the Institute.

Drs. Guy F. Trébuil and François Bousquet, CIRAD scientists seconded to Social Sciences Division since 2001, have completed their assignments at IRRI and were given a farewell party on 1 June in IRRI's Bangkok office where they have been based.

Dr. Trébuil, an agricultural systems agronomist, developed new applications in the area of natural resource management by integrating role-playing games and multi-agent systems simulation. In collaboration with universities and research institutions in Thailand, Bhutan, and the Philippines, he demonstrated the use of these tools to achieve more holistic understandings with stakeholders on the important issues of water management, land use changes, agricultural production, rice seed selection, and distribution systems.

Dr. Bousquet, a modeler-ecologist-economist, provided leadership in developing the companion modeling approach, using role-playing games and multi-agent systems (MAS) tools, for integrated analysis of problems related to use and management of land and other natural resources. With special EU funding support, he built the capacity of national partners from several Asian countries to apply these tools, particularly through a series of workshops involving European experts with state-of-the-art knowledge on MAS and related topics.

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