Los Baños, The Philippines
April 9, 2015
Senior officers of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) are at the International Rice Research Institute this week to see for themselves the work being done at the world’s premier research center on rice.
Leadership from the BMGF, including Pamela Anderson, Director of the Agricultural Development Program, and Gary Atlin, Senior Program Officer in the Ag Dev team, were at the Institute for a site visit this week to tour IRRI’s research facilities and hear updates on the science and the partnership between the two organizations. Scientists gave briefings on key advances, including the latest on climate change-ready rice and healthier varieties that aim to help solve micronutrient deficiencies, which afflict about 2 billion people globally.
“We are thankful that the BMGF has come for updates on the food and nutrition security initiatives that they support,” said Robert Zeigler, Director General of IRRI. “The foundation is a staunch partner in applying the best of science so that people in the rice-eating world will not go hungry.”
IRRI scientists showed the BMGF leadership experimental rice plots in which flood or drought tolerance is being studied. The group also visited a facility that simulates drought conditions year-round. The climate change-ready rice varieties that have reached millions of farmers in Asia were developed by IRRI and its partners under the BMGF-funded project, Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia or STRASA.
These stress-tolerant varieties hold the promise of improving the livelihoods of some of the world’s poorest farmers who till lands most vulnerable to climate change—and securing the granaries of many countries—by ensuring a good harvest, for instance, even after over 14 days of flooding. Non-tolerant rice varieties would normally die after four days of submergence.
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