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International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
“Based in the Philippines, the IRRI is the oldest and largest
international agricultural research institute in
Asia. It is an autonomous, nonprofit rice research
and training organization with offices in 10 Asian
nations as well as activities in Africa that
included the opening of an IRRI office in Mozambique
in 2006.”
It is one of the 15 international agricultural
research centres supported by the Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Mission
“To reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of
rice farmers and consumers, and ensure environmental
sustainability through collaborative research,
partnerships, and the strengthening of national
agricultural research and extension systems.”
Go to
IRRI’s web site.
“Since 1962, IRRI has been at the forefront of international
collaborative efforts to systematically collect,
conserve, characterize, and share traditional rice
varieties and wild rice
species.”
The International Rice Genebank at IRRI “holds in
trust the world's most comprehensive collection of
rice genetic resources. The IRG conserves the
diversity of the rice gene pool while making seeds
available to the world's scientists in the public
and private sectors. Constructed in 1977--and
significantly 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.”
The collection includes more than 100 000 samples of
cultivated rice and wild species, most of which are
traditional varieties belonging to O. sativa.
The collection is held in trust for the world
community under agreements signed with the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
on behalf of the Governing Body of the International
Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture.
“Many rice varieties safeguarded at IRRI have been restored to
their countries of origin when they have been "lost"
nationally; these countries included Cambodia,
India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.”
Go to the website of IRRI’s
Genetic Resource Center.
Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources
Each of the CGIAR Centres has a representative on
the Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources,
SGRP’s steering committee. The Committee sets the
strategy and priorities for SGRP and meets annually
to review its workplan.
To find out who is IRRI’s representative, please go
to our
Contacts page. |
