IRRI Pioneer Interviews--Challenges for IRRI: Gary Toenniessen
Channel: International Rice Research Institute
Date: 26/06/2009

Read a Rice Today feature based on this interview at http://fr.scribd.com/doc/94615999/RT-... 

In an IRRI Pioneer Interview (http://fr.scribd.com/doc/38290892/The...), Gary Toenniessen, a managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation and long-time collaborator with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; http://irri.org), discusses challenges for IRRI. 

"The biggest challenge for IRRI today is that many of the national programs that it is assisting are also becoming very strong. So, even PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute; PhilRice; http://www.philrice.gov.ph ) today has a biotechnology program thats almost comparable to the program at IRRI. If you get into China, IRRI cant compete with biotechnology programs there just because of the numbers of scientists that they have and their ability to do things on a grand scale, not that the quality of science at IRRI is not as good.

IRRI needs to really find its niche in Asian situations, in which the national programs are now quite capable as well. I think there really is a niche for IRRI. Its doing those kinds of things that can be shared across all of the rice research institutions in Asia or worldwide and that wouldnt likely be done by a national program or, if they were, that they wouldnt get shared. IRRI needs to be a coordinator, a source of knowledge or information, and continually a source of breeding lines, which have traits that have been generated through advanced science done throughout the world that no national program can probably access.

The new Sub1 lines that have submergence tolerance are a good example. The initial real work on that was done at the University of California, Davis. Not only was the technology transferred, but the person who did the work, David Mackill, was transferred as well from California to IRRI. And so, the next phase in that process was done at IRRI and all submergence-tolerant materials are now being shared with the national programs. I really do think theres an important role for IRRI to be the conduit by which and through which the best science in the world gets applied to rice research and then shared with the national programs in Asia."