Agriculture Business Week

• A total of 864 rice varieties developed and released in 78 countries.

• Average yields in rice-producing countries more than doubled.

• About 109,000 rice types collected from across the globe.

• Countless rice scientists, researchers and farmers trained.

• And many more.

Indeed, as the Los Baños-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) observes its golden anniversary this year, it can look back to the past 50 years with pride and achievement.

And, with optimism, it is confidently looking forward to a more challenging but similarly productive future as it continues to address the Herculean task of helping food a hungry world.

IRRI was established in Los Baños in 1960 following a search throughout Asia that identified the town as the most advantageous location for an agricultural research program to expand food production in the region.

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IRRI books move from dusty shelves to the virtual library. Need a book? Google it.

From its huge volume of research results on rice and rice-related subject matter, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has, for nearly 50 years, generated and disseminated knowledge and technology as public goods to rice farmers via its partners in the developing and developed world.

Since 1962 (when IRRI began publishing), the Institute has produced some 500 scientific titles encompassing around 100,000 printed pages, in the form of monographs, workshop proceedings, field guides, and manuals. “These books have always been distributed for free or at minimal cost to our partners in the developing countries primarily through their institutional libraries,” says Gene Hettel, head of IRRI’s Communication and Publications Services (CPS). “Many titles are published solely by IRRI; some are co-published with reputable science publishers, such as World Scientific, Elsevier, Wiley, Kluwer, CABI, and others.”

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