The author (left) with former Viet Cong political officer Tran Van Rang on the Xa No Canal in the lower Mekong Delta in 1988. Rang has just explained why...

(Photo: Ariel Javellana) At least 840 million people worldwide do not have enough food to meet their daily energy needs. In addition, more than three...

IRRI Senior Scientist Hung-Goo Hwang (center), Visiting Research Fellow Kyu-Seong Lee (right), and IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler inspect one of...

(Photo: Jose Raymond Panaligan) Rice and agriculture are still fundamental to the economic development of most Asian nations, not to mention their cultural...

LAO farmers tend vegetable terraces on the Nam Khan River near Luang Prabang. Improved rice production allows farmers to diversify their crops, and therefore...

Drought is a major constraint to rice production in Asia, where at least 20% of the total rice area is drought prone. When rice is grown under rainfed...

The Alimit River winds through remote northeastern Ifugao Province, Philippines. (Photo: IRRI) In the overleaf that follows, the breathtaking bird’s-eye...

Africa is labeled as a “poverty continent.” While respectable progress has been made in reducing poverty in other regions of the developing world, the number of African people living on less than one dollar per day has increased, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The region, which includes countries in central, eastern, western, and southern Africa, is now the main...

THE NEW blast-resistant jasmine rice shortly before harvest. (Photo: Ubon Ratchathani Rice Research Center) Rice improvement efforts supported by the International...

Rice research can play a major role in achieving many of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly those that call for the eradication of poverty and hunger, and for environmental sustainability. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) conducts research that regularly leads to validated technologies that have the potential to improve...