Rice research goes global : Nature NewsThe world's leading rice research institutions are joining forces to improve rice yields and breed improved varieties. The aim is to help to secure future affordable food supplies for the world's poorest people.The 5-year US$600-million global partnership is being led by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in Los Ba ±os, the Philippines, part of a consortium of leading agricultural research centres called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).The initiative  ” known as the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP)  ” is being launched today at the third International Rice Congress in Hanoi and will be the biggest global science partnership on rice. We are bringing together several independent research entities that were all going in their own direction to identify major global problems and develop coherent research agendas, says Robert Zeigler, director-general of the IRRI. This is huge added power.Rice is the most important food crop of the developing world and is the staple food of more than half of the world's population. But, owing to falling research funding during the past 10 -15 years and a lack of commercial interest in the crop, the average global growth rate in rice yields has slowed to less than 1% per year since 2000. As the climate changes and temperatures rise, productivity is likely to drop further. By contrast, yield rates for maize (corn), a developed-world crop with considerable commercial interest, are growing by more than 2% per year. The IRRI estimates that demand for rice will outstrip supply within the next few decades unless the crop's productivity is improved.In a nutshell, we will need to produce a lot more rice in the coming years to feed the world's population with less land, less water and less labour, in production systems that are more resilient to climate change, says Marco Wopereis, director of AfricaRice, a research centre with temporary headquarters in Cotonou, Benin, that is also part of the CGIAR and of the global partnership.GRiSP will study the genetic diversity of rice, by sequencing and analysing more than 1,000 rice strains to identify genes for desirable traits such as improved yield and climate tolerance. The partnership, which also includes the French research organization CIRAD, based in Paris, and the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences in Ibaraki, will seek to improve rice nutrition and quality.In addition, researchers will look at how to reduce the environmental impact of rice farming, including reducing methane emissions created during its production, and water use. Working with industry and farmers, the partnership will translate its discoveries into products and services, and will deliver them to farmers' fields. The project aims to boost rice supplies to levels that will offset the anticipated 6.5% increase in rice prices expected by 2020. Consequently, the programme estimates that it will help to lift 72 million people out of poverty and reduce hunger in Asia by 7% over that time period.
Wayne Powell, a crop geneticist at Aberystwyth University in Wales, says the partnership is creating a new kind of scientific environment that puts translation at the heart of the science.  This breaks from the traditional biomedical model, in which basic science is separate from the application of the discoveries, he says.Most of the partnership's existing funding is not new money. Instead, current budgets from the centres involved will be reoriented towards the initiative's research goals. However, Zeigler says that the initiative aims to secure further funding from research centres and philanthropists in Asia to boost its annual budget from around $100 million in 2011 to about $140 million in 2015.