CGIAR Rice Breeder Wins 2004 World Food Prize

Dr. Monty Jones from Sierra Leone, a former rice breeder at WARDA-The Africa Rice Center won the 2004 World Food Prize. He shares the prize with Professor Yuan Longping of China. The award, given by the Iowa-based World Food Prize Foundation, carries a cash prize of $250,000.

"The scientific and technological advances we applaud today offer an historic opportunity to put food on the tables of hungry millions and to lift them out of poverty," said U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, while congratulating the winners at the award ceremony held in April at the U.S. Department of State. Secretary Powell was joined by Ann M. Veneman, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and Jacques Diouf, Director General, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Jones was awarded the prize for pioneering research that led to the development of New Rices for Africa (NERICAs) while working at The Africa Rice Center in Côte d'Ivoire during the mid-1990s.

"We are delighted that Monty Jones has won this prestigious global award," said Ian Johnson, CGIAR Chairman and World Bank Vice President for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development. "It is a fitting tribute to the power of modern science successfully mobilized for improving human well-being in Africa and beyond."

NERICAs combine the toughness of native African (Oryza glabberima) rice varieties with the phenomenal productivity traits of Asian (O. sativa) rice varieties that were the mainstay of the Green Revolution. They are specifically adapting them to suit the harsh growing conditions of upland rice ecologies of Africa, home to 70 percent of the region's poor rice farmers, most of whom are women.

"Monty Jones has done us proud," said Francisco Reifschneider, CGIAR Director. "The award celebrates quality science for people-centered development, led by an African scientist, conducted in Africa, for the benefit of Africa and beyond."

Of a total of 22 World Food Prize laureates, ten CGIAR scientists have won this prestigious award widely considered to be the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for food and environmental sciences. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has designated 2004 as the Year of Rice.

Dr. Jones is a graduate of the University of Sierra Leone and received his M.Sc. in Plant Genetic Resources (1979) and Ph.D. in Plant Biology (1983) from the University of Birmingham, UK. In 2002, he was appointed Executive Secretary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), based in Ghana.

For more information, www.worldfoodprize.org