Agricultural advances in the past 3 decades have made remarkable progress in providing affordable cereals to most of the poor in the developing world. As a result — and despite the continuing plight of 800 million desperately poor — we hear less these days about famine and severe calorie and protein deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two most vulnerable...

(Photo: IRRI) A simmering controversy boiled over a couple years ago when newspaper articles accused American plant breeders of seeking to undercut Thailand’s...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) believes that meeting three fundamental needs of developing nations — ensuring food security,...

Almost everyone acknowledges that the Green Revolution has substantially increased the yield and supply of cereals in the developing world during the past...

Farmers in Laos weed upland rice, an activity that absorbs up to half of the crop’s labor demand. (Photo: Bruce Linquist) Phath Kantannam and her husband,...

Easy access: training and courseware specialist Albert Atkinson demonstrates how to use the Rice Knowledge Bank to Mark Bell, head of the IRRI Training...

(Photo: IRRI) The most recent World Food Summit, in 1996, set the target of halving by 2015 the number of people who go to bed hungry. Such rapid progress...

(Photo: IRRI) A defining moment in the history of biology was the elucidation of the laws of genetics by Gregor Mendel, whose work was rediscovered and...

Rice and wheat grown in rotation account for one-third of the cropping area of both grains in South Asia. Maintaining soil fertility and boosting yields...

(Photo: IRRI) India is a world away from Indiana, and none would mistake Sister Sajita Isaac for Johnny Appleseed. But the peripatetic Catholic nun calls...