Thirty-five years ago, the Ford and Rockefeller foundations of the USA in cooperation with the Government of Philippines, set in motion an unprecedented global experiment. Together they established a research center to unite within a developing country the talents of international and national scientists to raise the yield of the world’s most important food crop, rice. Rice was the staple food for 90 % of the world’s poor people, and the goal was to avert what was widely seen as an imminent threat of mass starvation among them.
The research center, of course, was International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). A statement of its first director, Robert F. Chandler, Jr., in IRRI’s first annual report (1961-62), exemplifies the visionary spirit that animated the Institute from the beginning. Dr. Chandler wrote that it should be possible to produce a rice plant with the characteristics needed for the necessary increased yield within five years. Only four years later, IRRI had done just that, with IR8. The new variety followed by many others, triggered the Green Revolution, which led to a doubling of rice production throughout Asia and saved hundreds of millions of lives.
The research center, of course, was International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). A statement of its first director, Robert F. Chandler, Jr., in IRRI’s first annual report (1961-62), exemplifies the visionary spirit that animated the Institute from the beginning. Dr. Chandler wrote that it should be possible to produce a rice plant with the characteristics needed for the necessary increased yield within five years. Only four years later, IRRI had done just that, with IR8. The new variety followed by many others, triggered the Green Revolution, which led to a doubling of rice production throughout Asia and saved hundreds of millions of lives.
