International Rice Research Institute

IRRI was established in 1960 with the support of the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Government of the Philippines.{{Cite book |url=http://books.irri.org/9711040638_content.pdf |title=An Adventure in Applied Science: A History of the International Rice Research Institute |last=Chandler |first=Robert Flint |publisher=International Rice Research Institute |year=1982 |isbn=9789711040635 |language=en}}

An International treaty titled: Agreement Recognising the International Legal Personality of the International Rice Research Institute was tabled in Manila on {{dts|19 May 1995}}.[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/2001/6.html "Agreement Recognising the International Legal Personality of the International Rice Research Institute (Manila: 19 May 1995) ATS 6 of 2001“]. Australasian Legal Information Institute, Australian Treaties Library. Retrieved on 18 April 2017.

Image:Landmark of and Entrance to the IRRI Headquaters via the University of the Philippines Open University Gate 26Nov2012.jpg with Mt. Makiling in the background.]]

IRRI is well known for its contribution to the "Green Revolution" movement in Asia during the late 1960s and 1970s, which involved the breeding of "semi-dwarf" varieties of rice that were less likely to lodge (fall over). IRRI's semi-dwarf varieties, including the famous IR8,{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38156350|title=IR8: The miracle rice which saved millions of lives|last=Rowlatt|first=Justin|date=2016-12-01|newspaper=BBC News|language=en-GB|access-date=2016-12-05}} saved India from famine in the 1960s.{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/growing-a-second-green-revolution-1416613158|title=Growing a Second Green Revolution|author=Hugo Restall|date=21 November 2014|work=WSJ|access-date=7 December 2015}} The varieties developed at IRRI, known as IR varieties, are well accepted in many Asian countries. In 2005, it was estimated that 60% of the world's rice area was planted to IRRI-bred rice varieties or their progenies.{{cite news | title = IR varieties and their impact |isbn = 9789712202063| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=z-LL_xQZbZYC|last1 = Khush|first1 = Gurdev S.|year = 2005| publisher=Int. Rice Res. Inst. }}

A report published by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research in 2011 assessed the impact of IRRI's breeding work in three countries in South East Asia between 1985 and 2009. It found IRRI's breeding work delivered an annual benefit of US$1.46 billion and boosted rice yields up to 13%.{{cite news | title = ACIAR report: International Rice Research Institute's contribution to rice varietal yield improvement in South-East Asia | url = http://aciar.gov.au/publication/IAS074}}

IRRI, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and BGI (formerly known as the Beijing Genomics Institute) have "identified the exact genetic makeup of more than 3,000 different families of rice for the first time in what is being heralded as a major advancement in rice science."{{cite news |last=Chandran |first= Nyshka |date=22 September 2015 |title=Asia scientists take big leap toward 'rice of the future' |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asia-scientists-big-leap-toward-rice-future-021448007.html |work=CNBC |access-date=28 September 2015 |via=Yahoo! Finance}}

For five decades, IRRI has provided a place for scientists and future leaders in rice research to learn. Since 1964, over 15,000 scientists have undergone training at IRRI to conduct rice research.{{cite web|url=http://irri.org/about-us/our-facilities|title=IRRI - Our facilities|access-date=7 December 2015}}

IRRI is pursuing the development of "golden rice". Geneticists inserted two genes into the rice plant that allows it to produce beta carotene, which makes its grains yellow. Because the human body converts beta carotene to vitamin A, golden rice has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of millions of people around the world, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia, where vitamin A deficiency is an especially common malady that can cause blindness and increases the risk of death from disease. Children are particularly vulnerable; according to the World Health Organization, "An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight". In August 2013, anti-genetically modified organism protestors broke into IRRI's research facilities and destroyed field trials of golden rice.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports IRRI in its development of golden rice.{{cite web |url=http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Agricultural-Development/Golden-Rice |title=Agricultural Development Golden Rice |access-date=3 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203145910/http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Agricultural-Development/Golden-Rice |archive-date=3 February 2016 |df=dmy-all }}

File:IRRI BBM rice drone demo 2.jpg

IRRI's website states that their research themes consist of:{{cite web|url=http://irri.org/our-work/research|title=IRRI - Research|author=Kenneth Lojo|access-date=7 December 2015}}

{{quote|THEME 1: Harnessing genetic diversity to chart new productivity, quality, and health horizons

THEME 2: Accelerating the development, delivery, and adoption of improved rice varieties

THEME 3: Ecological and sustainable management of rice-based production systems

THEME 4: Extracting more value from rice harvests through improved quality, processing, market systems, and new products

THEME 5: Technology evaluations, targeting, and policy options for enhanced impact

THEME 6: Supporting the growth of the global rice sector}}

Additionally, the organisation describes their expertise as including:

conserving, understanding, sharing, and using rice genetic diversity; breeding and delivering new varieties; developing and sharing improved crop and environmental management practices; adding to the economic and nutritional value of rice; broadening our impact by supporting strategic policy and market development; and facilitating large-scale adoption of technologies.{{Cite web|url=http://books.irri.org/IRRIbrochure.pdf|title=IRRI brochure|publisher=IRRI|access-date=13 August 2016}}

In 2010, the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) was launched, which IRRI leads in Asia, the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) leads in Africa, and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) leads in Latin America. It aims to "dramatically improve the ability of rice farmers to feed growing populations in some of the world's poorest nations".{{cite press release|url=http://www.cgiar.org/newsroom/releases/news.asp?idnews=1111|title=Media release: Improved rice availability and reduced environmental impact forecast through new Global Rice Science Partnership|publisher=Cgia.org}}

In 1969, IRRI was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding.{{cite web |url=http://www.rmaf.org.ph/newrmaf/main/awardees/awardee/profile/207 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923150325/http://www.rmaf.org.ph/newrmaf/main/awardees/awardee/profile/207 |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 September 2015 |title=International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) - Citation |website=Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation |access-date=19 May 2015 }} The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award was established in 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City, with the concurrence of the Philippine government, to "perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society". This award is Asia's highest honor and widely regarded as the Asian equivalent to the Nobel Prize.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/851034.stm|title=BBC News - ASIA-PACIFIC - Activists share 'Asian Nobel Prize'|access-date=7 December 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-bureaucrat-and-whistle-blower-sanjeev-chaturvedi-anshu-gupta-of-goonj-to-get-ramon-magsaysay-award-2109139 |title = Bureaucrat and whistle-blower Sanjeev Chaturvedi, Anshu Gupta of Goonj to get Ramon Magsaysay Award}} The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation posited that IRRI represented "the first coordinated international attempt in the tropics to solve a major problem of world agriculture", while also stating:

Distilling more than three millennia of accumulated insight in cultivating man's leading cereal crop, the International Rice Research Institute, with its creation of "miracle rice", inaugurated a "green revolution", promising nearly one-half of humanity the prospect of suffficiency in its staple food.

Additionally, IRRI received the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the category of Development Cooperation. This was awarded for the organization's contribution to "reducing poverty and hunger in the world by means of rice research and farmer training", and "for the quality of its research work, which has led to the development of new rice varieties adapted to different cropping areas in Asia and providing improved yield and sustainability across multiple climate regimes". IRRI was nominated for the award by Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. The award jury also pointed to:

IRRI's success in transferring the results of its research, by working with local teams and organizations in Asian and sub-Saharan countries and making its varieties freely available to farmers. By this means, the IRRI has secured the effective dissemination of its innovations with the resultant increase in production of this basic crop.{{cite web|url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/desarrollo.jsp|title=BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards|access-date=7 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107223315/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/desarrollo.jsp|archive-date=7 January 2016|url-status=dead}}

There are scheduled shuttle buses (mainly for employees and quantity depend on the timing, usually only one) that move back and forth from the UPLB campus to the IRRI lobby and three other buildings for free.

IRRI's headquarters in the Philippines is located on a {{convert|252|ha}} experimental farm with modern laboratories and glasshouses, and a training center. The land is owned by the University of the Philippines Los Baños and is leased to the institute. It also houses the International Rice Genebank and Riceworld Museum. The {{visible anchor|International Rice Genebank}} holds more than 127,000 accessions of rice and wild relatives and is the biggest collection of rice genetic diversity in the world.{{cite web|url=http://irri.org/our-work/research/genetic-diversity/international-rice-genebank|title=IRRI - The International Rice Genebank|access-date=7 December 2015}}{{cite web | last=Greenwood | first=Veronique | title=Why seed banks aren't just for doomsday | website=BBC Future | date=2022-03-31 | url=http://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220331-why-seed-banks-arent-just-for-doomsday | access-date=2022-04-09}} The {{visible anchor|International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice|International Rice Testing Program}} (INGER) was created by IRRI in 1975 as the International Rice Testing Program IRTP.{{cite web | title=INGER (International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice) | website=International Rice Research Institute | date=2020-05-15 | url=http://www.irri.org/inger | access-date=2022-04-09}} INGER accepts accessions and then holds, multiplies, and distributes them to researchers without restriction, including restriction on commercial use.

{{wide image|WV_Los_Baños_Laguna_IRRI_banner.jpg|1600px|Panoramic view of the three main/initial buildings of the International Rice Research Institute in November 2010}}

File:Aerial view of IRRI compound (1-2ps 00238).jpg

IRRI has offices in the following rice growing countries in Asia and Africa:

• Bangladesh
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• China
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Laos
• Mozambique
• Myanmar
• Nepal
• Philippines
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Vietnam

• Banaue Rice Terraces
• Irrigated Rice Research Consortium
• Rice paddy

{{Reflist|2}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{official website|http://www.irri.org}}
• [http://www.grisp.net/main/summary Global Rice Science Partnership]
• [http://irri.org/resources/publications/annual-reports Annual Reports] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905200019/http://irri.org/resources/publications/annual-reports |date=5 September 2015 }}
• [http://books.irri.org Downloadable (free) books published by the International Rice Research Institute]
• [http://irri.org/about-us/our-history Important Dates in IRRI History, 1960-2011]
• [http://irri.org/ricetoday Rice Today magazine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921193633/http://irri.org/ricetoday/ |date=21 September 2015 }}

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Category:Scientific organizations established in 1960

Category:1960 establishments in the Philippines

Category:International research institutes

Category:Research institutes in the Philippines

Category:Organizations based in Laguna (province)

Category:Rockefeller Foundation

Category:UNESCO Science Prize laureates

Category:Rice organizations

Category:Ramon Magsaysay Award winners

Category:Los Baños, Laguna

Category:Rice research institutes

Category:Agricultural organizations based in the Philippines

Category:Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Merit (Philippines)