IRRI Annual Report 2009

In the face of unrelenting pressure on rice production in Asia and other parts of the world and as we prepare for our second half century of innovation and achievement, 2009 was a year of rapid and unprecedented growth at IRRI. For a long period during the year, we were hiring 14 new persons every month and a new member of the Institute staff was joining every 0.65 working day. This sudden growth spurt took place, in part, to sustain our efforts with such exciting projects as Stress-Tolerant Rice for Poor Farmers in Africa and South Asia (STRASA), the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), and using the sun to end hunger (C4). However, to keep these and other projects on course, we need to chart our future very carefully. That is why, in late Novem- ber, we launched a US$300 million fund-raising campaign at our IRRI Fund Singapore office to support our critical rice research mandate. Organized to mark our 50th anniversary in 2010, the 5-year campaign has already raised $59 million, with just over $50 million being provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to support the three specific projects I just mentioned. Although we obviously have a long way to go, we are very grateful to BMGF for giving the campaign such a strong philanthropic launch. During the special launch pro- gram, Mr. Mah Bow Tan, Singapore’s minister for national development, stated: “We look forward to more col- laboration and greater synergy with IRRI’s expertise in rice research to contribute towards the sustainability of rice production in Asia.” Also on the funding front, during the first-ever meeting in Japan of the IRRI Board of Trustees, 28 September-2 October, which was held at the Tsukuba International Congress Center and hosted by the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), it was announced that Japan was pledging $20 million for international rice breeding efforts. An additional $5 million was earmarked for extension training of African rice specialists. So, all in all, I am quite optimistic about the current funding trend for the Institute