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IRRI to receive annual funding of US$1.4m from Crop Trust
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A researcher with the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute takes notes on a trial of rice plants’ response to rainfall in Los Baños, the Philippines. The IRRI is developing rice seeds that can withstand drought as well as those that can withstand flooding. (Courtesy of/www.croptrust.org)
T
he Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will receive annual funding of US$1.4 million from the Crop Trust for the conservation and sharing of 136,000 varieties of the staple crop that feeds over three billion people worldwide, including 267 million in Indonesia.
The permanent funding agreement was signed during an international rice conference in Singapore on Tuesday, which also coincided with World Food Day, the IRRI and the Crop Trust said in a joint press release from Singapore.
Scientists worldwide use the seeds stored at the IRRI’s high-tech facility in Los Baños, the Philippines to develop improved rice varieties that can withstand the impacts of climate change — such as severe flooding and drought — while keeping pace with the growing world population, the IRRI said.
By 2050, annual global rice consumption is estimated to rise from 450 to 525 million tons. Asians eat more than 90 percent of this rice, and the region’s 515 million hungry are particularly dependent on the staple, Ruaraidh Sackville-Hamilton, the biologist who manages the IRRI genebank was quoted as saying.
Scientists at the IRRI have used the rice samples stored in the bank to develop rice varieties tailored to climate extremes such as drought and flooding, which are already threatening production in key rice-producing regions, including India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
One major innovation is set to benefit farmers tending to some 20 million hectares of rice land across Asia regularly hit by flooding.
Conserved in the IRRI genebank are the ancestors and descendants of IR8, the world’s first high-yielding rice, which has also been widely grown across Indonesia. (vin/bbn)
