Frequently asked questions? 

IRRI

Q. What is IRRI?
A. The International Rice Research Institute, or IRRI, is an autonomous, nonprofit agricultural research and training center whose purpose is to increase total food production from rice-based farming systems, while protecting the environment and sustaining natural resources.

Q. When was it founded?
A. IRRI was established in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations with the cooperation of the Philippine government.

Q. Why was it created?
A. A group of scientists predicted that there would be widespread famine in the '70s, because Asia's food production could not keep up with its population growth. So to avert this calamity, they joined forces and worked together to create an international research center for rice.

Q. Who started IRRI?
A. Dr. J. George Harrar of the Rockefeller Foundation developed the concept of an international center in Asia devoted to rice research. He wrote the first outline of IRRI, and served as the first Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Q. Where is IRRI located?
A. IRRI is located in a 252-hectare experimental farm on the campus of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, about 60 kilometers south of Manila, the country's capital.

Q. Who owns IRRI?
A. No private or government agency owns IRRI. IRRI receives financial support from donor countries and international agencies through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Q. What is the CGIAR?
A.  The CGIAR is a coordinating organization through which funds for international agricultural research are administered to various centers. It consists of donor countries, international and regional organizations, development banks, and private foundations.

Q. Where does IRRI's budget come from?
A. IRRI receives support from more than 30 donors, including foundations and the international aid agencies of 24 governments. IRRI's largest donors are the governments of Japan, the United States, and the European Union. IRRI donors also include developing countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, and the Philippines.

Q. What is IRRI's budget?
A. IRRI's support from donors in 1999 amounted to US$ 32.46 million, down US$ 2.07 million from 1998.

Q. Who is the first director general of IRRI?
A. Dr. Robert F. Chandler.

Q. Who works at IRRI?
A. IRRI employs about 1,030 scientific and support staff, around 85% of whom are Filipinos. About 135 senior scientists are recruited internationally, of whom just over half are from developing countries such as Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Q. What is IRRI's relationship to the Philippines?
A. A harmonious relationship exists between IRRI and the Philippines. IRRI has strong collaborations with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice); the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Resources Research (PCARRD); the Department of Science and Technology; the Department of Agriculture; and other Philippine agencies. IRRI even assists the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA).

Q. Does IRRI store seeds? 
A. Yes. Scientists and governments deposit seeds of traditional varieties that are threatened by extinction for safekeeping in the International Rice Genebank. Seeds are stored for multiplication, evaluation, conservation, and distribution. This is to ensure that rice varieties of wild species do not disappear and can eventually be used as the genetic building blocks of locally improved varieties.

Q. What is the International Rice Genebank (IRG)?
A. Constructed in 1977 - - and renovated and upgraded in 1994 - - the IRG has international standard facilities for medium- and long-term storage of rice seeds at subzero temperatures, a seed-drying room, and screenhouses for multiplying and maintaining wild rice species and low seed stock germplasm.

Q. What do you refer to as the IRG Base Collection?
A. The IRG Base Collection, kept at a frigid -20 to -18°C, is for long-term storage of several decades. Each sample is stored in two 60-kilogram vacuum-sealed aluminum cans.

Q. Describe the IRG Active Collection.
A. The IRG Active Collection is maintained to provide seed samples to requesters and is kept at +2°C. Seeds are stored in hermetically sealed aluminum foil packets. Each sample has about 500 grams of seeds plus several ready-to-go 10 gram packets for immediate exchange.

Q. Should anything happen to the IRG collection, are there a backup sets?
A. A backup set of the IRG Collection is stored in sealed boxes at the National Seed Storage Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture at Fort Collins, Colorado.

Q. Are the seeds used by anyone?
A. Yes, by rice scientists and farmers around the world.

Q. What is IRRI's transgenic greenhouse?
A. The new structure on the IRRI campus looks like an ordinary greenhouse. But this greenhouse is far from typical because of how it is constructed and because of what it contains-- transgenic rice plants. The self-contained, 400-square meter structure is the latest addition to IRRI's biotechnology facilities. The greenhouse is designed to withstand earthquakes, typhoons, and fire, and meets all of the safety features specified by the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines for growing transgenic rice. It will be used by the scientists from IRRI, PhilRice, and UPLB.

Q. IRRI's Phytotron. What is it?
A. In 1974, IRRI's million-dollar phytotron, a gift of the Government of Australia, was completed. This a special facility wherein plant physiologists study the characteristics of some of the parental types in order to understand better the morphological distinctions and physiological processes related to yield capacity. The phytotron contains six glasshouse rooms and 18 growth cabinets, of which 10 are artificially lighted and eight are naturally lighted. Temperature, day length, and humidity can be controlled in each chamber. 

Q. IRRI is in the Philippines, but why is the Philippines importing rice?
A. In the Philippines, the area planted to rice is small compared to its Asian neighbors, and it is getting smaller and smaller because of several factors such as housing, factories, roads, and environmental erosions; meanwhile, population growth increases every year. So the Philippines must import rice to see to it that there is a reliable supply as a matter of national security.

Q. If there is no longer a risk to famine why does IRRI still exist?
A. World population is growing very fast and there may not be enough rice for everyone in a few years. IRRI's mandate is to ensure that global food security will be attained through rice research.

Q. What does the IRRI Library offer?
A. The IRRI Library has the world's largest collection of rice literature. Filipino scientists and students are the largest group of user of the library. With the Rice Bibliography, which contains more than 170,000 references on rice, in at least 80 languages, now available in the Internet, scientists in far-off countries can now avail of the library's information and references easily.

Q. What is IRRI Riceworld?
A. It is the world's only museum devoted to rice. Annually, more than 120,000 people, from near and far, from prime ministers to school children, visit Riceworld to learn more about rice and rice research.

Q. When was IRRI Riceworld established?
A. It was established on 22 September 1994 through the generous assistance of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Techniche Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Federal Republic of Germany. It was formally opened to public on February 1995.

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