Crop improvement research in rice in the CGIAR is currently shared by three Centres - IRRI, CIAT, and WARDA. IRRI was founded in 1959 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations with the support and cooperation of the Government of the Philippines to conduct research on rice that would help avert a looming food crisis in Asia where more than 90% of global rice production was, and still is, located. The research during the first decade focused on raising the yield potential of irrigated rice to nearly its present levels, predominantly by changing the morphological and physiological characteristics of the rice plant.
In 1971, the CGIAR was established, with IRRI as one of the four Centres in the System. During the 1970's, IRRI's work was extended to include rainfed lowland and deepwater rice, and expanded in the areas of economics and problem soil research. Interdisciplinary work on evaluation and utilization of rice germplasm and its systematic collection, storage, distribution and testing was established during this period, as was the International Rice Testing Programme (IRTP). During the 1970's IRRI stepped up its institution building role through technical assistance and began to lay the foundation for research collaboration with the national research systems.
During IRRI's third decade, there was further expansion of the research programme, strengthening of national rice research systems, growing concern for women in rice farming and for integrated pest management (IPM), and movement into biotechnology and strategic research in genetics and germplasm enhancement. To provide an effective regional focus, IRTP in 1984 was organized into IRTP-Asia, IRTP-Africa, and IRTP-Latin America and the Caribbean. IRTP-Africa was established in 1985 as a joint project of IRRI, IITA, WARDA and the national rice systems in Africa. The coordinator for IRTP-Africa has been located at IITA and for IRTP-Latin America at CIAT. The global coordinator located at IRRI also served as coordinator for IRTP-Asia. In 1989, IRTP was reorganized as the International Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER).
IRRI's current research is focused on protecting productivity gains already made and in finding ways to further increase rice production potential in favourable as well as unfavourable rice ecosystems. At the same time, it must deal with imperative concerns about sustainability and environmental protection, and the twin challenges of a stagnant yield ceiling and declining factor productivity in the favourable rice growing environments.
The relatively small rice research programme at CIAT began in 1969 when the Centre was established. The programme focuses on Central and South America and the Caribbean, with special attention to irrigated environments, and to acid upland environments. The Memorandum of Understanding between CIAT and IRRI, signed by their respective Directors General in March 1991, provides a framework for coordination of effort.
Research at IITA began in 1976 as a small component of the Cereal Improvement Programme. From the outset, the major focus of research was on varietal improvement for both upland and irrigated environments for West and Central Africa with particular reference to greater yield potential and blast resistance. Rice improvement research at IITA terminated at the end of 1990 when responsibility for lowland rice improvement was transferred to WARDA.
In 1987, WARDA, which had been created in 1971 as an inter-governmental organization, became a full-fledged CGIAR institution to conduct research on rice improvement and rice-based farming systems in West Africa. Prior to 1987, WARDA received CGIAR funding for conducting the Regional Coordinated Trials in West Africa, and for germplasm storage, seed laboratory, plant quarantine and nurseries. The terms of the IRRI/IITA/WARDA Memorandum of Understanding drafted in 1989, and signed by their respective Directors General in October 1991, provided for the transfer of rice breeding activities from IITA to WARDA by the end of 1990, and for WARDA to assume responsibility for rice improvement in West Africa, focused on three major ecosystems: upland/inland swamp continuum (which includes the inland valley ecosystem), Sahel irrigated, and mangrove swamp. While IITA now has no rice improvement activities, it does conduct crop and resource management research in the inland valley ecosystem that is a major part of WARDA's priority rice growing environment, and a WARDA lowland rice breeder is based at IITA.
Rice research geared towards the needs of Eastern, Central and Southern African countries, Madagascar, and the countries of West Asia and North Africa, has been covered by IRRI, initially through direct contacts and later through country projects in Egypt and Madagascar. IRRI's collaboration with IITA and WARDA is facilitated by an IRRI Liaison Scientist and INGER-Africa Coordinator based at IITA. In Latin America and the Caribbean, an IRRI Liaison scientist and INGER-Latin America Coordinator based at CIAT facilitates collaboration in germplasm exchange and evaluation.
The CGIAR endorsed the 1986 TAC recommendation that rice research in the CGIAR System should move towards more basic research because fuller exploitation of genetic diversity was perceived to be fundamental to achieving higher and more stable yields, durable resistance to major pests and diseases, and better drought tolerance. Also, it would be necessary to develop new and better breeding techniques, to increase knowledge of the factors determining resistance and tolerance, and to raise yield potential using biotechnology. TAC therefore recommended that the CGIAR System should emphasize strategic rice research (defined as mission-oriented basic research), which in turn will catalyze and complement basic research in advanced institutes, and play an active role in encouraging the application of new techniques to the rice production problems of developing countries. TAC noted that almost half of the global area under rice production is located in the rainfed lowland and upland rice systems, where production constraints are more complex than those of irrigated rice, and the knowledge base for research is limited. Consequently, the CGIAR emphasis has been shifting towards rainfed rice systems for reasons of equity and sustainability.
In 1991, the CGIAR allocated 20.4% of its core resources to rice research. The relative regional distribution was 61% to Asia, 19% to sub-Saharan Africa, 16% to Latin America and the Caribbean, and 3% to WANA. In the recently completed exercise on CGIAR research priorities, endorsed by the CGIAR at its May 1992 Mid-Term Meeting at Istanbul, TAC recommended a continuation of current levels of CGIAR investment in rice research, but a shift in focus towards more strategic germplasm and crop improvement research necessary to lift the yield ceiling of the crop, and to sustain current yield levels. In the opinion of the Panel the recommended shift in focus is appropriate primarily for Asia, and is much less appropriate for Africa where major yield gaps continue to exist and where research on crop and resources management is at least as important as genetic improvement research.
