Peter Jennings: Focusing on agronomy to increase rice yields in Asia
Channel: International Rice Research Institute
Date: 18/11/2011

See full pioneer interview of Peter Jennings,  IRRI's first rice breeder (1961-67), at http://archive.irri.org/publications/today/Jennings.asp

The constraint on farms today in Asia, as in the Americas, is largely because the management is not appropriate, it is clear that the focus should be on the agronomy. The next big jump is going to be agronomy. 

How do you do agronomy? Where do you do agronomy? I've never known, in 50 years maybe, of the real impact coming from some sort of agronomic research that was experimented and evaluated and proven at an experiment station. I just don't believe it. I think it's got to be done on farms under the real conditions where the farmers are doing the planting, incorporating whatever suggestions the specialist is telling them to do.