IRRI urges staff to eat brown rice

Brown rice has more Vitamin B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), and B3 (niacin) than white (milled) rice, as 60–80% of these vitamins are removed during the milling process to attain white or polished white.

As part of Nutrition Month celebrations in the Philippines, IRRI is promoting the consumption of brown rice among its employees. IRRI’s larger brown rice campaign is part of its activities in keeping with the country’s National Year of Rice.

The  week-long promo started on 15 July 2013 and is being carried out in all three cafeterias at the IRRI Headquarters. Concessionaires are offering a free serving of brown rice during lunch time if an employee buys a vegetable dish.

The brown rice promo comes with a three-point pledge and commitment to the principles of Nutrition Month: to not waste food, to try eating brown rice, and to add fruits and vegetables to one’s meal.

IRRI staff  are also invited to join the Kanin Get It photo contest, open until 31 July 2013, in which they may share photos of one another eating nutritious food, especially brown rice. Interested parties can send photos as entries by email to bulletin@irri.org.

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Tamil Nadu Agricultural University signs research agreement with IRRI

As part of the 2013–16 IRRI-India Work Plan, the Institute and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) signed a memorandum of understanding on 28 June 2013 at TNAU to promote research, training, and exchange of information and technology on rice and its farming systems and value chains.

Under the MoU, scientists of TNAU and IRRI will exchange improved plant materials, publish and disseminate research findings, and develop technologies that will improve the productivity and sustainability of rice farming systems. This includes developing and disseminating resource conservation technologies such as improved crop establishment methods, tillage practices, and water and fertilizer management practices.

TNAU Vice Chancellor K. Ramasamy thanked IRRI for strengthening collaboration between the two institutions and offered working space for IRRI staff at TNAU. He also invited IRRI to establish a hub in any of the TNAU campuses.

TNAU's new research director is M. Maheswaran, who is an IRRI alumnus, and will be the key contact under the MoU together with J.K. Ladha, IRRI representative for India and Nepal.


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IRRI promotes eating brown rice among its staff

In support of the ongoing celebration of Nutrition Month  and the National Year of Rice in the Philippines, IRRI is promoting the consumption of brown rice as part of Nutrition Month ‘pledges’ that include:

• To not waste food, especially rice 
• To try brown rice, and 
• To add fruits and vegetables to the meal 

A week-long promo will be implemented in IRRI next week (15–19 July 2013) to encourage all staff members to buy a vegetable dish and get a free serving of brown rice from either the Filipino or the international food counters.

Brown rice, also known as unpolished rice, is now served as an option in all IRRI cafeterias every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

As part of the brown rice promo, IRRI has also launched the Kanin Get It photo contest, in which IRRI staff may share photos of one another eating nutritious food, especially brown rice. Photos can be posted as entries at the International Rice Research Institute Google+ page until 31 July 2013. Winners will be notified through email.

To read more about the health benefits of brown rice, listen to the latest podcast, Rice and Nutrition by Michael Joyce on IRRI Radio or read Nourishing a nation by Alaric Francis Santiaguel  from the latest issue of Rice Today.


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Online rice statistics tool updated

The Social Sciences Division (SSD) has recently updated World Rice Statistics (WRS), an online query facility, which may be accessed hereon at http://ricestat.irri.org:8080/wrs2.


WRS is a compilation of national and subnational data on rice production and yield, import and export prices, supply and demand, and others. Data may be viewed according to user-set parameters and downloaded as an Excel or CSV file.

The SSD Research Data and Management team that collects and maintains WRS welcomes comments and feedback to further improve the online facility. WRS is continuously updated and includes the latest data from SSD's resources, including its own collection.

Please send questions and suggestions to Josephine Narciso (j.narciso@irri.org).



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IRRI joins the Philippines in celebrating Nutrition Month

IRRI joins the 39th celebration of the National Nutrition Month in the Philippines, with the theme “Gutom at malnutrisyon, sama-sama nating wakasan! (Together we can end poverty and malnutrition!)”

Nutrition Month was launched in Manila today, 2 July 2013, an event that brings focus on the country’s need for active stakeholder participation in addressing the basic causes of hunger. The annual campaign, held for the month of July every year, aims to create greater awareness about nutrition among Filipinos and is coordinated by the National Nutrition Council and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.

To support this campaign, IRRI activities have been lined up that include an IRRI media day titled Kanin Get It  to be held on 16 July 2013; Nutri űp! Health Options and Choices on 25-26 July, organized by the Human Resources Services; and a feeding program, called “nutrition rehabilitation,” among marginalized families particularly women and children in Los Baños and Bay. This third activity will be coordinated by the the Provincial Nutrition Action Council of Laguna, the Host Country and Community Relations Office, and SUHAY, a charity group composed of IRRI spouses.

IRRI with its concessionaires will promote brown rice by serving it as an option at the IRRI cafeteria for the month of July 2013. Special promos on brown rice and a variety of other healthy dishes will also be offered in the cafeteria on certain weeks.

Currently, about one sack, or 50 kilograms, of polished (white) rice is consumed at the IRRI cafeteria in Harrar Hall in a day.


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Training course on phenotyping for abiotic stresses held for Asia and Africa scientists

IRRI's second regional training course on Phenotyping for abiotic stresses, GxE testing, seed storage, and farmer participation is ongoing at its Training Center, with 28 young rice scientists from Asia and Africa attending.

At the opening session, Bruce Tolentino, IRRI's deputy director general for communications and partnerships, underscored the significance of the course as a “merging” of IRRI’s mission and national food security goals. 

Soledad Castañeda, chief of the Atomic Research Division of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), also welcomed the participants.

The course offers participants the latest in phenotyping approaches for stresses such as salinity, drought, submergence, and other soil problems; proper seed multiplication and management, and participatory approaches. It is composed of a series of lectures and hands-on exercises delivered and facilitated by resource persons from IRRI, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO,) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

Sponsors of the training course are IAEA; the Agricultural Research Development Agency (ARDA); the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Thailand; the Department of Agriculture and Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Bhutan; the Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) Project; the European Commission (EC); the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD); and IRRI. 

The two-week course runs from 1-12 July 2013 under the supervision of course director Abdelbagi Ismail. It is jointly facilitated by the IRRI Training Center and PNRI.


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Nepal celebrates National Rice Day

Nepal celebrated its 10th National Rice Day on 29 June 2013, with more than 10,000 government and agriculture leaders, researchers, extension workers, and farmers joining the festivities held at farmers’ fields in Bhaktapur District and at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) Research Centre in Khumaltar.

Tek Thapa and Jaya Mukunda Khanal, the minister of agriculture development (MoAD) and MoAD secretary, respectively, emphasized adoption of rice technologies to increase production and productivity for food security in their messages.

Several rice production technologies were highlighted by Dil Gurung, NARC executive director, who also cited the Nepali government's support to rice research through supply of genetic materials; technological development; capacity building of rice scientists; and Nepal's participation in various partner networks based at IRRI that include the Consortium for Unfavorable Environments (CURE), Council for Partnership on Rice Research in Asia, Hybrid Rice Development Consortium (HRDC), and the Temperate Rice Research Consortium (TRRC).

The IRRI Nepal Office was represented by Bhaba Tripathi in the ceremonies.

From 2004, when Nepal joined the United Nation's call to celebrate the International Year of Rice, the government decided to celebrate National Rice Day on 29 June every year.

National Rice Day aims to make people aware of the importance of rice to the national economy as well as in daily life.

The IRRI Nepal Office was represented by Bhaba Tripathi in the ceremonies.


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