Third External Program Review of IRRI, 1987

External program review (EPR) of IRRI conducted in 1987 concurrently with an external management review (EMR), by a panel chaired by Sir Ralph Riley. The document contains extracts from CGIAR discussions of both the EPR and the EMR at the meeting of October 1987, and of the IRRI medium term plan and EPR at the meeting of October-November 1989. In addition to the text of the EPR, transmitted by the panel chair, it contains the TAC commentary and the IRRI board's comments of October 1987 on IRRI's strategic plan. The response of the IRRI board to the EPR proper is in a separate record. The report was discussed at TAC 43 and TAC 48.The reviews were conducted at a time when IRRI had not completed its strategic planning exercise, and a new director general was coming on board. Final TAC and CGIAR action was deferred until the plan was completed, in 1989. Among the issues addressed were the tradeoff between research on non-irrigated systems which had been given increased priority by TAC, and maintenance research on irrigated systems which dominate rice production, and the importance of strengthening national systems to assume the latter responsibility. TAC endorsed the panel's view that release of finished varieties should be progressively reduced, in favor of parents for crossing. Recommendations from TAC on the sharing of responsibilities between IRRI and the other institutes working on rice were still awaited. TAC saw a limited IRRI role in training candidates from outside Asia.TAC also endorsed the approach to farming systems research as a multidisciplinary activity rather than a separate discipline. The review also addressed research on soils and water, and biological nitrogen fixation. It endorsed the continuation of IRRI research on farm machinery. IRRI was advised to strengthen interdisciplinary work on socio economics, but maintain capacity for the analysis of aggregate sectoral and policy issue