The CGIAR External Reviews of 1987 found IRRI needing greater clarity and focus in its strategic directions and significant improvement in its management and organization. This External Review finds an IRRI that is visibly different in both scientific and management terms - in many ways a rejuvenated IRRI - an IRRI that has higher promise to lead the world of rice research into the next century.
The main dimensions of IRRI's transformation are:
· a new strategy that is grounded in, and takes its rationale from, the needs of IRRI's clients - present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers - and, in general, provides a clear vision of what IRRI intends to do;· a new programme structure that organizes research objectives in terms of major rice-based ecosystems, and a matrix-based research management system that attempts to provide a balance between achieving programme objectives and furthering disciplinary excellence;
· a new cadre of scientists and managers who are equipped with up-to-date techniques and methods, and a capable, but much leaner nationally-recruited staff;
· a completely renovated physical infrastructure and experimental farm that is likely to serve the institution well for years to come;
· a Board of Trustees that functions as well as any within the CGIAR System and new administrative and financial systems that facilitate reporting and reinforce accountability; and, most important:
· a team of scientists who understand and communicate well with each other.
The institutional transformation of IRRI is not yet complete. Many of the new systems are still at an experimental stage and staff are learning how to work best within the framework of the research programme matrix. The management systems and procedures introduced have placed a considerable administrative burden on scientists and science managers. As a result, IRRI's internationally recruited staff are currently overstretched.
Is There Need for Rice Research?
While IRRI has prepared itself well for future research tasks, will there be a continuing need for an international institution like IRRI?
The Panel's analysis of this question shows that although the current supply of rice appears favourable and rice prices are low, there is cause for concern because:
· production of cereals in the poorer regions will fall short of their demand for at least the next fifteen years;· the current low rice prices have led to sharp curtailments in investments in irrigation and research;
· future yield increases will not come easily;
· yields in some of the more intensively cultivated parts of the irrigated lowlands are beginning to decline.
Hence research is still urgently needed, and IRRI is still urgently needed, to lead the way in addressing the most difficult research problems. The causes of the decline in rice yields have to be understood and remedial measures found. The ceiling on yields in irrigated areas has to be lifted. The problems of rice production in less favourable areas, where most poor people live, need to be addressed.
Such research requires the best scientists from advanced and developing countries and international centres. IRRI is needed to mobilize and energize them.
Is IRRI on the Right Track?
The Panel believes so. Properly, IRRI continues to conduct key strategic research on germplasm enhancement and its widespread use. Organization of the research programme in terms of ecosystems has placed rice improvement in the wider context of the environment and the farming system in which the crop is grown. Also, the ecosystem approach has made more explicit IRRI's goals concerning the less favourable rice production environments.
The Panel has identified one major research need - the yield decline problem - that in our opinion is so large and so serious as to threaten the sustainability of the most productive rice lands, the intensively managed irrigated areas. To meet this problem requires, in our view, a major international research initiative enlisting scientists from around the world in a sustained effort for a period on the order of a decade and on a scale on the order of 50 million dollars over a decade. We believe IRRI should take the lead in organizing this effort.
Generally speaking, the overall directions of IRRI's programmes are appropriate, as is the current balance of effort across programmes. IRRI has had to introduce deep cuts in its planned mix of research projects because of funding shortages. These have limited the Institute's flexibility.
Does IRRI Have a Good Record of Achievements?
IRRI's long term achievements are well known. It has played an important part in the scientific advances that have brought about a doubling of world rice production since the mid-1960s. The Panel has found much evidence of IRRI's continued scientific productivity over the last five years as well. Among its research outputs have been:
· the design and development of higher yielding plant types by an interdisciplinary team of breeders, physiologists and modellers - a new plant type for the high production environments that aims to raise potential yields from the current 10-11 t/ha to 15 t/ha;· successful hybridization with 12 species of wild rice to transfer genes for resistance to pests (e.g., brown plant hopper) and diseases (e.g., blast) into cultivated rice; and,
· research on component technologies for integrated pest management, such as pest-population dynamics, resistant cultivars, and biocontrol to minimize pesticide use.
IRRI's research-related services to and collaboration with national rice research systems have also continued:
· worldwide distribution of specifically targeted genetic materials through many collaborative channels, such as through the International Network for the Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER), which in 1992 distributed to 35 countries 921 sets of 23 different types of nurseries aimed at such problems as pests, diseases and drought; and· collaborative research with many national systems and provision of training programmes focusing increasingly on strategic research topics, such as rice biotechnology; hybrid seed production; simulation and systems analysis in rice production; and quantitative methods in pest ecology.
Very promising for the future, in the Panel's view, is evidence of important innovation in approaches to research:
· development of a new approach to collaborative research through consortia (for the upland and rainfed lowland ecosystems) and research networks to encourage research using advanced methods;· collaborative work between social scientists and natural scientists in characterizing the farming systems of the less favoured environments to identify the key areas for research;
· establishment and enhancement of a biotechnology research capacity in tissue culture, development of techniques for successful regeneration of plants from protoplasts, and linkage studies with DNA markers enabling gene mapping;
· establishment of a modelling capability to assist in several key areas of research including: prediction of yields in relation to the environment, nitrogen management and sustainability of high yielding systems, designing new plant types, and linking with Geographical Information System data for environmental characterization.
Looking ahead, the Panel would anticipate fairly rapid progress on some issues, such as obtaining useful genes from wild species. On some of the harder tasks, such as yield decline and increasing production in less favourable environments, progress will necessarily be slower.
Is IRRI Managed Efficiently?
The short answer is "yes, but...". IRRI has gone through a radical transformation and it will take some time for the Institute to reach stability. In the meantime, inefficiencies are being and will continue to be experienced and these need to be attended to by the Board and management.
IRRI's future efficiency will depend to a large extent on its current scientific excellence and how it is maintained over time. This is in part a function of how IRRI fosters and maintains scientific quality and excellence in the divisions. The emphasis placed (rightly) on the 'output' side of the matrix at the beginning of the shift to a new research management system now needs to be modified to help the divisions maintain and enhance their disciplinary strengths.
The systems and procedures introduced over the last five years for managing financial, human, physical, and information resources of IRRI are a vast improvement over what existed five years ago. IRRI manages its finances well, and the external and internal audit functions are effective. There is need, however, to strengthen further the human resource management function, particularly for the nationally recruited staff. IRRI's information technology is moving in the right direction, but it has some distance to go.
Should IRRI Undertake Additional Responsibility in the CGIAR?
The Panel has three comments.
First, as the System's global commodity centre for rice, IRRI must attack the hardest scientific problems concerning rice in less favourable as well as more favourable environments.
Second, IRRI should give the bulk of its attention to Asia, where more than 90 percent of the world's rice is produced. Roles of the different CGIAR centres working on rice research in Latin America and Africa are being examined by the review panel commissioned to look into inter-Centre rice research issues in the CGIAR.
Third, IRRI has before it a full plate of important, challenging and unfinished research on rice-based ecosystems. Its work on these ecosystems has placed IRRI squarely in the midst of natural resource management research issues of a strategic nature relating to the major ecoregions in Asia. IRRI's new strategy has given the Institute a dual responsibility: global commodity work and ecoregional work for rice-based ecosystems in Asia. The Panel finds this a highly appropriate assignment which will require all of IRRI's energy and resources for the next few years. We believe that it would be a mistake for IRRI to make a premature commitment to a broader ecoregional role.
LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Chapter 3 - Research Programmes
3.1 The Panel, recognizing the threat posed to food supplies by yield decline and decreasing factor productivity in intensively managed ricelands, recommends that IRRI lead a major research effort, enlisting the best talents available in the world, to seek solutions for this complex of problems - a task that may take a decade or longer to complete.3.2 The Panel recommends that IRRI explore the feasibility of combining with cultivated rice the ability of some wild species to grow under low solar radiation, in order to increase wet season rice productivity.
Chapter 4 - Research Management
4.1 The Panel recommends that IRRI adjust the matrix management system to provide the Divisions more authority and means to strengthen disciplinary capabilities and rigor, and to ensure that the emphasis on ecosystem research programmes does not lead to an erosion of disciplinary expertise.
Chapter 5 - International Programmes
5.1 The Panel recommends that IRRI make every effort to mobilize required resources to protect the integrity and the worldwide effectiveness of INGER, and to maintain the high level of management capability required for INGER's success.5.2 The Panel recommends that, in replacing its retiring librarian, IRRI employ a professional who has demonstrated competency as an international leader in the diverse areas of library and information services management.
5.3 The Panel recommends that IRRI, together with colleagues from national research systems, seriously consider the future of and IRRI's participation in the two Networks ARFSN and INSURF.
Chapter 7 - Organization and Management
7.1 The Panel recommends that the Board further improve the way it selects and orients its new Trustees.7.2 The Panel recommends that future peer reviews include a critical assessment of scientific quality.
7.3 The Panel recommends that IRRI continue to conduct impact assessment studies.
Chapter 8 - Administration and Operations
8.1 The Panel recommends that in reality the HRD Manager report directly to the DDG for Finance and Administration and that human resource management responsibilities be consolidated.8.2 The Panel recommends that the Chief Security Officer position be filled by a person from outside IRRI's present staff and that IRRI increase the proportion of contract security officers among its security staff.
