PhilRice opens harvest challenge

In the tradition of IRRI's own Agronomy Challenge and Rice Survivor, PhilRice is holding Palayabangan, a rice farming contest in which competing teams attempt to produce an ideal rice yield within specific farming input limits.

Palayabangan enforces the 10-5 standard, in which the aim is to produce 10 tons of rice per hectare while spending only PhP 5 worth of input for every kilogram of rice produced.

The competition is held in support of 2013 as National Year of Rice in the Philippines and is open to PhilRice's partners from the public and private sector.

More information, including guidelines and registration forms, can be accessed at the Palayabangan webpage. 


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Former IRRI scientist now heads agricultural biology of RDA

Kyu-Seong Lee has been named director general of the Department of Agricultural Biology under the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) of the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of South Korea.

Dr. Lee is formerly visiting research fellow at IRRI's Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology Division, seconded from RDA where he was senior rice breeder.

Dr. Lee's appointment comes after years of excellent leadership and experience in research and management, especially toward developing new agricultural technologies for the future. He was recipient of the 2010 Senadhira Rice Research Award.

In his new position, Dr. Lee will be responsible for improving the sericulture and apiculture industries through research on the fusion of composite technologies, creation of new value-added products from insect resources, and management and use of microbial resources for profitable and sustainable agriculture.

Prior to his latest appointment, Dr. Lee was director of the Research and Development Coordination Division of RDA's Research Policy Bureau in Suwon.


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IRRI sponsors emergency training for UPLB personnel

Another Neighborhood Emergency Services Team (NEST) training course was conducted by IRRI, this time at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) on 27–31 May 2013.

The NEST training, the fourth in 2013, was conducted by facilitators from the emergency research team, led by Jonathan Palma and Ardith Yangzon, for 43 participants from the various units and offices of UPLB. The participants will henceforth comprise the University's risk and disaster response team.

Training modules included medical and emergency preparedness, anti-terrorism actions, fire and water safety, and evacuation center management.

After the simulation exercises and graduation of the participants on 31 May,  IRRI's Host Country and Community Relations Office (HCCRO) turned over to the UPLB team two spine boards and four medical kits.

Enrique Tolentino, UPLB's vice chancellor for community affairs, thanked IRRI through V. Bruce J. Tolentino, deputy director general for communication and partnerships, for extending the training in assistance to the university.

The NEST training events are facilitated by the HCCRO.


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Philippines: Stakeholders forum held on heirloom rice

A stakeholders forum was recently held in the Cordillera region of northern Philippines to bring together groups and institutions involved in the 'heirloom rice' value chain and establish linkages among them.

Stakeholders who attended were traders; producers; market facilitators; and representatives of farmer groups, NGOs, the regional, provincial, and municipal agricultural offices, and the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments project.

Heirloom rice represents the culture and tradition of the Cordillera region and other mountainous parts of the Philippines and is thus not an ordinary rice commodity. The rigor of producing traditional rice in terraced-fields is the 'lifeblood' of farming in the Cordilleras, home to an indigenous culture that includes preservation of farming practices that help maintain diversity of rice in the northern Philippine region.

Agriculture officers from Kalinga, Benguet, Mt. Province, Apayao, and Ifugao provinces presented drafts of heirloom rice enterprise development plans at the provincial and municipal levels for validation of the stakeholders.

The forum was organized by the Second Cordillera Highlands Agricultural and Resources Management Program, or CHARMP2, which CURE has been partners with 2011 under the Technical Innovation Services component of the project.

Digna Manzanilla introduced CURE and its role and activities in helping partner farmers groups in the Cordillera attain higher yields from some premium heirloom rice varieties that are traded in local and international markets.

Other presentations were on marketing trends in organic rice products, quality assurance policies and standards, and marketing arrangements.

Revitalize Indigenous Cordillera Entrepreneurs (RICE, Inc.), an NGO supporting the farmers’ link to the international market, and rice traders registered with the Organic Certification Center of the Philippines also shared their activities and strategies in raising the income of farmers.

After the forum, a buyers-sellers meeting was held.

Also present from IRRI and CURE were Joel Janiya, Annette Tobias, Patria Gonzales, and Isabelita Ona.

Evelyn Gergon from PhilRice also participated as a member of the CURE-TIS team.

The forum was held at Pines View Hotel in Baguio City on 8–9 May 2013. 




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New country rep for Bangladesh

Paul Fox

IRRI welcomes Paul Fox, who is joining IRRI as representative for Bangladesh starting 1 August 2013.

Dr. Fox is currently an IRRI consultant serving as regional program leader for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) based at the Southeast Asia office in Vietnam.


He was research program manager for crop improvement and management at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (2007–11). He also worked in the private seed and biotechnology industry (2000–06) and was a breeder, crop informatics specialist, and project leader at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (1982-2000).

As IRRI representative to Bangladesh, Dr. Fox will be reporting to deputy director general for research and work with IRRI's partners and donors in the country.

Presently, Tim Russell serves concurrently as IRRI representative for Bangladesh and chief of party for the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia.

Zainul Abedin remains as a consultant for IRRI, reporting at the IRRI Bangladesh office. 


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Benin: Gender in rice research reviewed

A workshop held recently at AfricaRice in Cotonou, Benin, reviewed gender in rice research and development, specifically the findings of the study Gender and climate change in stress-prone rice environments in Asia and Africa.

Through the workshop, participants also sought to strengthen research capacity in the region on gender issues and how these may be integrated into the processes of rice research and in technologies.

Attendees of the workshop were gender focal points in AfricaRice member countries Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Uganda, Gambia, Tanzania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Centrafrique, Chad, Cote d’ Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea, and Niger, who all crafted work plans for implementation this year under the African component of the GRiSP Gender Strategy Plan 2013-14. 

The workshop, held on 6-10 May 2013, was opened by Papa Abdoulaya Seck, deputy director general of AfricaRice. It was held with support from the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP).

Resources for the training component of the workshop were Thelma Paris, senior scientist (socioeconomist-gender specialist) and leader of the Gender Team of GRiSP and Joyce Luis, both from the Social Sciences Division of IRRI.

The event was organized by Aliou Diagne, program leader for innovation systems, policy, and impact assessment; and Rita Agboh-Noameshie, socioagronomist and gender task force coordinator—both of AfricaRice. 


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Asian forestry students come to IRRI for learning visit

Delegates from the International Forestry Students
Association learn about IRRI's work from Bruce Tolentino,
IRRI's head of communication and partnerships.

Thirty-seven delegates from the International Forestry Students Association’s (IFSA) visited IRRI on the second day (21 May 2013) of IFSA's 4th Asia Regional Meeting (ARM). The delegates come from several countries around Asia.

V. Bruce J. Tolentino, IRRI deputy director general for communication and partnerships, welcomed the IFSA members to the Institute and gave a presentation about IRRI’s work in rice science and climate change, themes that are in line with the ARM’s theme for 2013—Forestry Mega-Trends in the Asia Pacific.

Dr. Tolentino also discussed the latest developments in IRRI that might be interesting to the IFSA group, composed mostly of students, such as the use of Smartphone applications for extension agents and farmers, research on healthier rice, and scholarships for young scientists in rice research. 

IFSA is a nonpolitical and nonprofit organization of forestry students from around the world that aims to broaden knowledge and understanding about the forest sciences. To strengthen its network and activities in the Asia-Pacific region, IFSA conducts ARM, which involves Asian future foresters who aspire for the improvement of forestry education worldwide.

The ARM participants were from Indonesia (11), Taiwan (8), Japan (3), Australia (1), Slovenia (1), South Korea (6), and the Philippines (7), all of whom were undergraduate and graduate students in various university programs related to forestry, the environment, and natural resources. They were accompanied by an organizing team.



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