irri ar 2011 - an update from the director general

7/31/2019 IRRI AR 2011 - An Update From the Director General

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Documentation of IRRIs impact:

* Brennan JP, Malabayabas A. 2011.

International Rice Research Institutes

contribution to rice varietal yield

improvement in Southeast Asia.

ACIAR Impact Assessment Series

Report No. 74. Australian Centre or

International Agricultural Research:

Canberra. 111 p.

* Maredia MK, Raitzer DA. 2012.

Review and analysis o documented

patterns o agricultural research

impacts in Southeast Asia.

Agricultural Systems 106(1):46-58.

these three countries alone exceeds

the Institutes total budget since it

was ounded 52 years ago!

Adding support to the ACIAR

report, the Michigan State study

showed that around 90% o the total

documented benets o agricultural

research over the last 5 decades in

Southeast Asia were due to rice re-

search. This means that rice researchis a good choice i you want to help

people increase the amount o ood

they produce, which can lead to

reduced hunger, better nutrition,

higher returns, and better lietime

prospects or armers, their amilies,

and communities.

These impact studies demonstrate

to donors and philanthropists who are

investing in rice research that their

contributions are making a really big

dierence where it counts. Hopeully,

this will inspire others to also support

rice research i they want to improvethe lives o people. We always need

ongoing investment or ongoing im-

pact.

Our research and resulting im-

pacts continued in 2011. In act, there

was so much exciting progress in

global rice research in the past year

that we decided to actually produce

two reportsthis 51st IRRI annual

report and, or its successul inaugural

year, the 1st annual report o theGlobal Rice Science Partnership

(GRiSP), which highlights the work o

this initial research program o the

new CGIAR.

In this IRRI report that you are

reading, youll learn among other

things about advice rom our Grain

Quality and Nutrition Center on

An update from the Director General

Whats

importantour reputationand our people

Reputation and peoplethese

are the two most important ba-

sics o any organization such as

IRRI. Our reputation integrates our

mission, our science, and our impact.

Our people make it all happen.

Reputation-wise, IRRIs position as

the fagship center o the global agri-

cultural research system is well estab-

lished. The developed and developingworlds recognize us as a leader in sci-

entic innovation that results directly

in measurable impact. For example,

the value o our long-term germplasm

improvement eorts was validated in

2011 by the Australian Centre or In-

ternational Agricultural Research

(ACIAR) and in a study released in Jan-

uary 2012 by Mywish Maredia o

Michigan State University and our

own impact assessment specialistDavid Raitzer.

In its landmark study, ACIAR cal-

culated that the annual benets to the

Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia

averaged US$1.46 billion per year

across the three countries rom 1985

to 2009. Indeed, i my math is correct,

the annual impact o IRRIs research in

ChrisQuintana


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choosing the right rice or a healthy

diet; our novel experimental platorms

or designing uture intensive rice-

based cropping systems; our eorts to

make ood production cleaner and

greener by nding ways to turn un-

wanted rice residue into a renewable

source o energy; and our MAGICrice populations now in various phases

o development. These populations

are showing a magical wide array

o genetic variation or such important

traits as good plant type, high yield,

and tolerance o both biotic and

abiotic stresses. Details o these and

other thrilling projects are highlighted

in both the ollowing pages o this

printed version and the award-win-

ning (most recently, the 2010 annual

report) DVD and Web ormats that

have become acclaimed digital stan-

dards over the last 4 years.

detail in the Milestones section o

the attached DVD and the mirror-Web

version, I would like to call special

attention to several here.

Keeping in line with the reputa-

tion theme, in February, IRRI won the

BBVA Foundation Frontiers o Knowl-

edge Award in the DevelopmentCooperation category or our contri-

bution to reducing poverty and hun-

ger in the world by means o rice

research and armer training, in the

words o the awarding jurys citation.

IRRI was praised or the quality o its

research work, which has led to the

development o new rice varieties

adapted to dierent cropping areas in

Asia and providing improved yield and

sustainability across multiple climate

regimes. We are using the

US$550,000 prize money to urther

support our rice research and training

work.

Bill and Melinda Gates are aware

o our reputation as well. In March,

while visiting the Indian sites o STRA-

SA (Stress-Tolerant Rice or Arica and

South Asia) and CSISA (Cereal Sys-

tems Initiative or South Asia), they

both showed keen interest in IRRIs

food-tolerant rice, anaerobic germi-

nation, and the quantity o seeds be-

ing distributed to armers through

minikits. They were also interested in

the views o women armers (photo

below) on the availability, planting,

ertilizer needs, and eating quality o

the food-tolerant rice variety Swarna-

Sub1. The couple expressed their ap-

preciation o the eorts o STRASA

and CSISA to make new varieties and

sustainable technologies available to

armers in the region and or the op-

portunity to interact with the scien-

tists, partners, and especially the armers

In June, agriculture ministers who

met in the lead-up to the G20 Sum-

mit in Paris later

in October de-

clared their sup-

port or rice re-

search and the

need or better

trading environments or rice and oth-

er commodities. TheMinisterial Decla-

ration:Action plan on food price vola-

tility and agriculturestated: We rec-

ognize the importance o rice or ood

security, as the main crop consumed

in Asia and increasingly in Arica. We

The GRiSP report largely chroni-

cles collaborative work with our part-

ners, particularly AricaRice, CIAT, and

JIRCAS. In that report, youll be

brought up to speed on the genes

that may beat the AIDS o rice in

Arica, Latin hybrid rice or the

tropics (photo above), and networking

supported by Japan aimed at blast-

ing rice blast rom armers elds.

These and other eatures showcasing

GRiSPs noteworthy achievements can

be accessed online at www.grisp.net.

Although all o IRRIs major events

and activities in 2011 are covered in

IsaganiSerrano

An update from the Director General: Whats importantour reputation and our people


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stress the importance o strengthening

rice research and development and

the dissemination o its outcome and

relevant cultivation technique to accel-

erate production and productivity

growth in rice-producing countries,

particularly in Asia and Arica, throughamong others IRRI, GRiSP, CGIAR, and

theCoalition or Arican Rice Develop-

ment (CARD).I am very pleased to

see that rice was given prominenceI

believe in no small part due to IRRIs

reputation.

And then, during the 33rd meet-

ing o the ASEAN

Ministers o Agri-

culture and Forestry

in Jakarta in Octo-ber, the ministers,

representing the 10

member countries, ofcially endorsed

GRiSP. They see it representing an im-

portant expansion and development

o 2008s ASEAN Action Plan, as well

as contributing to the proposal on pi-

lot testing o the ASEAN Rice Trade

Forum to be implemented under the

ADB Technical Assistance on Food Se-

curity.O course, an institutions reputa-

tion can be enhanced best by the peo-

ple who do the work. 2011 was a

banner year or both our national

(NRS) and international (IRS) sta

members, who garnered numerous

high honors and recognition. From the

2011 Norman Borlaug Award to the

Glory o India Award, you can read

about them all in the Milestones and

Honors and Awards sections o theenclosed DVD.

In a bitter-sweet state o aairs, I

cant remember a year when we lost

so many pioneer international sta

due to either retirement or beckoning

new adventures elsewhere. These

were David Mackill, IRRI principal sci-

entist and long-time rice breeder at

the Institute over two periods (1982-

91 and 2001-11); Darshan Brar, long-

time IRRI plant breeder and most re-

cently PBGB head (1987-2011);To

Phuc Tuong, principal scientist and

water management engineer, CESD

(1991-2011); Sushil Pandey, senioragricultural economist, SSD (1993-

2011); William Padolina, deputy direc-

tor general or operations (1999-

2011); M.A. Hamid Miah, IRRI liaison

scientist or Bangladesh; Richard

Bruskiewich, senior scientist, GRC;

and Melissa Fitzgerald, senior scientist

and head, GQNC.

But, even with what some might

call an alarming rate o attrition, do I

worry? Well, not too much, because Isee knowledgeable and enthusiastic

young scientifc and support sta

coming in to take up the slacklured,

or sure, to the Institute by our long-

standing reputation and our well-

planned portolio o research activi-

ties, projected to be supported by

IRRI


GRiSP and other unding o nearly

$94 million in 2012. I can say without

exception that each o theseeven

those who let IRRI or retirement

remain deeply engaged in our re-

search programs. Those who have had

the good ortune to work with IRRI orany length o time know that they

never really ever leave the Institute.

They are just paid by someone else!

In 2011, we hired more than 15

new people every month or, in other

words, a new sta member every

three-quarters o a working day. In

December, we were still actively re-

cruiting to fll 69 vacancies across the

Institute. As the graphic shows, we

have continued to grow since 2009across all classifcations o sta, reach-

ing 1,194 employees at years end. I

we add project scientists, visiting re-

search ellows, collaborative research

scientists, short-term consultants and

emergency hires, seasonal arm labor-

ers, and the like, the complete num-

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ber of employees is actually pushing

2,000.

Every year in recent times, as part

of our holiday celebration in Decem-

ber, we assemble the staff for a family

portrait. Although weve published

the annual photo in past annual re-

ports, I cant resist doing it again this

year to merely cement the fact of

what a unique research community

we are.

When we put the photo (below)

on IRRIs Facebook page, Hubert Zand-

stra, IRRI agronomist (1975-80) and

our deputy director general for re-

search (1989-91), posted from afar:

What a wonderful scope of dedi-

cated persons! I couldnt have said it

better!

Robert S. Zeigler

Director General


1,000 100 100

Headcount

A total o 1,194 IRRI employees

2009 2009 20092005 2005 2005

901

836 78

73

5

13

4

7 9

14

14

113159

823

763

47

24

31 29

71

76

79

864904 84

52

9093

28

16

38 38

977

1,063

Legend

NRS - Country Ofce

IRS - Country Ofce

PDF - Country Ofce

PDF - HQ

NRS - HQ

IRS - HQ

NRS

IRRI continued to grow in 2011

PDFIRS

2010 2010 20102011 2011 2011

800 80 80

600 60 60

400 40 40

200 20 20

0 0 0

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irri ar 2011 - an update from the director general

Documents