The Hindu Business Line : `Farm research funding worldwide down 40 pc'

The Director-General of the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, Dr Ronald P. Cantrell, addressing the media with Dr B. Mishra, Project Director, Directorate of Rice Research, in Hyderabad on Friday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , Sept. 19

GLOBALLY there is a 40 per cent decline in the support for agricultural research, according to Dr. Ronald P. Cantrell, Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines.

Dr Cantrell said that even IRRI had to reduce its staff by 25 per cent following the decline in funding. He, however, said that IRRI's activities have not decreased due to reduction of staff. Nearly 30 countries across the globe fund IRRI's research activities.

He attributed the decline in funding to agricultural research to the ever-increasing support to Africa and "lot of international conflicts". International funding was more directed towards Africa at present, while two-thirds of the world's poor were residing in Asia.

Dr Cantrell told presspersons here on Friday that with regard to funding for research, Asia was suffering today from a "little bit of success". At present, many Asian countries have achieved food security even though they had not been able to solve the problem of poverty.

The IRRI chief, who visited the Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) here, had appreciated the significant achievements made as a result of research partnership between the two institutions for a period of over three decades.

The DRR Project Director, Dr B. Mishra, said that the major accomplishment of the institute included release of 690 rice varieties for different rice ecologies in the country and development of crop production and protection technologies for various ecosystems.

IRRI's India Representative, Dr R.K. Singh, who authored a book on Scented Rices in India, emphasised the need for documenting the Indian rice varieties.

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