Origin and Evolution of IRRI
Rice is the world's leading food crop, and the major source of livelihood for most rural people in Asia. More than three decades ago in 1959, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations formally laid the groundwork for the International Rice Research Institute. The agreement they reached then, with the support and cooperation of the Government of the Philippines, was to conduct research on rice that would contribute to averting a looming food crisis in Asia where more than 90% of global rice production was, and still is, located. In 1960, IRRI's headquarters and research facilities were constructed at Los Baños, adjacent to the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, on some 80 hectares of land that was purchased by the University with funds from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and was made available to IRRI on a long-term lease at nominal rent.
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. IR8, the semi-dwarf, early maturing, non-photosensitive, nitrogen responsive rice that launched the modern changes in the rice world in the mid-1960s, was followed by varieties with increased insect and disease resistance and improved grain quality, such as IR20 and IR22 in 1969. Work on upland rice began in the early 1960s as well. Accompanying the crop improvement research was a programme of institution building to develop and strengthen national rice research systems through training and information dissemination.
In 1971 the CGIAR was established, with IRRI as one of the four centres in the System. During the 1970s, 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 1970s IRRI stepped up its institution building role through technical assistance and began to lay the foundation for research collaboration with the national research systems. The successes of the first decade were followed during the second decade by varieties with multiple stress resistance and improved grain quality, such as IR24 in 1971, IR32 and IR34 in 1975, IR36 in 1976 and IR42 in 1977. IR36 was broadly accepted, due in part to its resistance to nine pests and tolerance to seven adverse soils and drought, and became the world's most widely grown crop variety.
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 on genetics and germplasm enhancement. In 1985, IRRI produced IR54, the first IR cultivar with highly palatable grain plus high yield potential and multiple pest resistance, followed by success with its IPM programme in several Asian countries. By the mid-1980s, IRRI had published 120 books in 34 languages and distributed them in 25 countries.
By the end of the third decade IRRI was successfully applying biotechnology to accelerate genetic studies and wide hybridization, had defined new plant types that it hoped would further raise yield potentials, developed its 'Strategy Toward 2000 and Beyond', and had trained some 6000 national programme scientists and technicians. Also, to reflect its full scope of activities, IRTP was redesignated the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER) in 1989. INGER today is the largest single pathway for distributing, exchanging and testing new rice varieties and elite breeding lines in the developing world.
At the time of the third external review in 1987, IRRI's research was organized and managed through 13 disciplinary research departments, and employed some 72 internationally recruited staff (IRS) (62 core and 10 complementary), and 2,300 nationally recruited staff (NRS) in its core and complementary programmes as of 31 December 1987. Since then, IRRI's research management has evolved to a project-based system implemented through a matrix involving five ecosystems-based programmes and eight disciplinary-based divisions. Currently, IRRI employs 81 IRS (61 core and 20 complementary) and 1,787 NRS.
IRRI enters its fourth decade as a partner in a growing community of national rice research systems especially in Asia, and facing a far more complex rice farming world (see Chapter 1). IRRI today must participate in defending productivity gains already made and in finding ways to further increase rice production 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.
Organization of Rice Research in the CGIAR
Crop improvement research in rice in the CGIAR is currently shared by three Centres - IRRI, CIAT and WARDA. 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. The terms of the IRRI/IITA/WARDA agreement drafted in 1989 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 valley continuum, Sahel irrigated, and mangrove swamp (tidal wetland). While IITA now has no rice improvement activities, it does conduct crop and resource management research in the inland valley ecosystem that represents WARDA's priority rice-growing environment, and a WARDA lowland rice-breeder is based at IITA as part of this team.
Rice research geared towards the needs of Eastern and Southern African countries, and Madagascar, and of countries in 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 the exploitation of genetic diversity was fundamental to achieving higher and more stable yields, resistance to major pest 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 by 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 support 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 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.
