Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

296 Agricultural Revolutions and Change

between the Philippine government and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.
This was the first of a family of new research institutes equipped with first-class
laboratories and adjoining experimental plots located on good, irrigated land.^14
Excellent living conditions and international salaries added to the ability to attract
the best scientists from around the world.
The Ford Foundation became a partner partly because its community develop-
ment programme in India, started in 1951, had underlined the importance of
agricultural research. The programme, largely run by social scientists, had assumed
that improved technology was readily available and needed only a programme of
vigorous education for it to be implemented. However, the village extension work-
ers often proved inexperienced in agriculture and, more important, encourage-
ment of increased fertilizer use turned out to be ineffective because the traditional
cereal varieties lodged. Forrest Hill, an agricultural economist and vice-president
of the foundation, concluded that the foundation had ‘got the cart before the
horse’. What was needed, he believed, was innovative agricultural research to sup-
port the extension work.
The first director of IRRI was Robert Chandler. He assembled a team of rice
experts drawn from the US, India, Japan, Taiwan, Ceylon and the Philippines.^15
Experience in Mexico with the wheat programme and the knowledge already
obtained from breeding programmes in India provided a blueprint for the new
rices that were required (Box 13.1). A large collection of rice types was quickly

Box 13.1 A blueprint for the new rice varieties

A short, stiff stem (90–110cm), giving resistance to lodging

Erect, narrow leaves, resulting in increased efficiency of sunlight utilization

High tillering and a grain to straw ratio of 1:1, producing high fertilizer responsive-

ness

Time of flowering insensitive to day-length, giving flexibility in planting date and loca-

tion

Early maturity (less than 130 days), giving increased output per hectare per day

Resistance to the most serious pests and diseases: stem borer and rice blast

Wide adaptability in Asia

Highly nutritious, with a high protein content and a better balance of amino acids

High palatability

Source: Stakman et al, 1967 (n. 7) and Barker et al, 1985 (n. 13)