IRRI Annual Report 1999-2000 Rewards of Rice Research

Why should anyone give money to rice research? What would the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) achieve with it? What should an ”investor” hope to accomplish by donating it? These are perhaps three of the most important questions facing IRRI and its partners in 2000—the year of the Institute’s 40th anniversary and the start of a new millennium. In 1999, IRRI and the other 15 centers that make up the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) were all urged to rename their donors, investors. This was done because most donors are increasingly seen as wanting some kind of r”eturn”onthemoneytheyaregivingtoagriculturalresearch. IRRI welcomed this move. This report is part of our ongoing efforts to make sure the rewards of rice research are obvious to everyone—not just those who have supported our work for so long, but also those who we hope will support it in the future. The easy answer to the question, What are the returns on rice research?, is that it helps to ensure food security and alleviate hunger and poverty. This is the basic reason that so many nations, organizations, and groups have given so generously to IRRI over the past 40 years. But in an era of stiff competition for development assistance, that is clearly no longer enough. Although we still face the same problems of hunger and poverty, we cannot expect people, organizations, or governments to continue to give without showing them more clearly what we have achieved in the past and can achieve in the future. The theme of this report, the rewards of rice research, is just the first step by IRRI to deal with this most important of challenges. We are determined to show the world, and our investors, that it is essential they continue to invest in rice research if they are sincerely committed to eradicating hunger and poverty in Asia. At IRRI, we have adapted an old saying to read "Give people a bowl of rice and you feed them for a day; help them grow better rice and you feed them, their families, for a lifetime." This is the real reward of rice research: a safe and secure future for all those who eat it