New genes that can produce rice varieties with higher yields or resistance against pests and diseases, joint initiatives with indigenous people to ensure that age-old varieties are conserved for future generations, link-ups with local organizations to fast track the transfer of technologies. These are just some of the impacts achieved by the CGIAR Research Program on Rice, known as the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) through its strategy of focusing on partnerships.
As GRiSP Director Bas Bouman points out, it is no coincidence that the P in the acronym of the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) that he heads stands for Partnership. Partners are key to the working of GRiSP, from the research end of the scale right down to delivering outputs on the ground. To date, the program has chalked up no fewer than 900 partners.
The launch of GRiSP and other CRPs signals a major change to research approaches in CGIAR, says Bouman. These days, scientists have to take a far more wide-ranging approach, taking care to ensure that outputs are refined to suit their target audience and then made available in the field.
The extra mile
“A program like ours has adopted a whole impact pathway,” said the GRiSP Director. “For example, if you discover genes that make a variety drought resistant, before, the work would stop there. You would publish the results, tell the world there was a new variety, and it would be up to others to take it up and give it to the farmers. But the situation now is that we go the whole mile. We work with partners, to make sure that these varieties actually make it to the farmers’ fields.
“We work much more closely with National Agricultural Research Systems, to co-develop varieties and make sure that they respond to what the farmers want and what people want to eat. Then we work with other partners, including the private sector, to develop seed distribution. Somebody needs to multiply the seeds for farmers to buy. Somebody needs to guarantee that the seed is good quality, and somebody needs to bring it to market.”
GRiSP is coordinated by three members of the CGIAR Consortium – lead CGIAR Research Center the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) – and three other leading agricultural agencies: Centre de Cooperation lnternationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), L’lnstitut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), and the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS).
Together, they manage links with a wide range of partners drawn from the government, non-government, public, private and civil society sectors. Although hugely different in terms of scope, size and geographical location, all of them are united by the common goal of reducing poverty and boosting food security and environmental sustainability.
Last but certainly not least are the end users. Beneficiaries of GRiSP’s research and development products and services are the stakeholders along the rice supply chain, from farmers, millers, processors, and traders all the way up to consumers. Indirect beneficiaries include producers of inputs, such as machinery and postharvest tools and equipment, and of services, as well as buyers and traders of outputs.
Equality is central to the relationship and around 30 percent of the GRiSP budget flows through to non-CGIAR partners. GRiSP partnerships are roughly divided between the research and development sectors, but in both cases it is important that partners and beneficiaries are involved in the design phase of product development and at all stages along the impact pathway, so as to ensure they meet stakeholders’ needs.
New links are being forged with the private sector and GRiSP partners currently include more than 110 private companies or organizations. More than 60 percent of those are small to medium companies operating nationally or locally, collaborating within GRiSP on adapting and disseminating new technologies or information to farmers.
Good returns
There is plenty of evidence to show that GRiSP’s strong focus on partnerships is paying off. A new report reveals that rice research carried out by GRiSP partners produced a sixfold return on investment. The impact assessment report found that a US$12 million investment in natural resource management technologies returned $70 million in benefits to rice farmers and national economies. The initiative was rolled out by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) as part of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) mandate in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. According to the report, the projected benefits could rise to 25 times the initial investment by 2016.
Meanwhile, scientists at the IRRI and JIRCAS have pinpointed the PSTOL1 gene that enables rice plants to grow bigger and better roots to absorb precious phosphorus. The discovery unlocks the potential of rice to produce 20 percent more grain using less fertilizer. Researchers from a number of partner institutions are working to develop a prototype of a new super rice dubbed C4 rice, which has the potential to produce 50 percent more grain, using less water and nutrients.
In West Africa, AfricaRice is working with regional partners to promote policies that will drive local rice production, in an effort to counter the flood of cheap imports. Across Africa and South Asia, rice hubs developed by AfricaRice and the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) are relaying agricultural technology and information from research centers to those who need them most – the local farmers.
Working with women
Gender is a special focus for GRiSP, and partnering with women’s groups, especially those engaged in agriculture and in microcredit programs, is producing good results. The CRP has strengthened the role of women in the design, experimentation, and evaluation of agricultural research for development, as well as improving women’s access to resources and control over output.
In Burundi, IRRI is working with ten groups of ex-combatant women from the civil war, obtaining a hectare of irrigated land for each group and showing them how to grow rice. In Bangladesh, the InfoLadies extension approach is being used to transfer rice technologies to women farmers who do not have access to information. InfoLadies are young female extension workers who disseminate agricultural information using information and communications technologies.
GRiSP makes a point of supporting partners wherever they are, through its combined research agenda, but also through workshops, conferences, study tours and field visits. As it looks towards the next phase of its workplan, the Program is determined to put partnerships even higher on the agenda.
“In the coming years we will be working to give partners a stronger voice,” said Bouman. “We are determined to give them an even greater role in management and priority setting.”
More information
Rice research investment delivers sixfold return IRRI
Rice breeding brings billions to SE Asia (IRRI)
CGIAR Research Program Engagement with Donors and External Stakeholders for more resources relating to the setting of targets and gauging impacts across the CGIAR Research Program portfolio. #LELP2013 #Ag4Dev (Listening Engaging Learning Progressing – LELP2013)
Photo credit: IRRI Images