Megatrends, Innovation, and IRRIs Future Business Model

Achim Dobermann
IRRI Seminar January 5, 2012

Vision
Reaching 7 million farmers (more than 5 millions ha of rice area) by the end of next 5 years with stress-tolerant rice varieties thereby ensuring more than 5 million tons extra annual rice production in South Asia.

Work Plan
Search for additional partners and resources Assist in release of new varieties by national systems, coordinate seed multiplication and dissemination and capacity building. Next 5 years plans for these activities are as follows: Work 1 2 Year 3 4 5

Umesh Singhs 5-year vision

New stress-tolerant I: 4 I: 2 I: 2 I: 3 I: 4 rice varieties B: 2 B: 2 B: 2 B: 2 B: 2 released N: 3 N: 2 N: 1 N: 2 Seed multiplication (t/ha) of newly released stress-tolerant rice varieties Formal sector 6000 10000 20000 25000 30000 Informal sector 2000 20000 50000 125000 250000 (farmer to farmer) Area coverage 0.2 0.75 1.75 3.75 5.75 (Mha)

Farmers covered (millions) Training events with NARES

0.22 10

0.8 10

1.9 10

4.2 10

7.0 10

I = India; B = Bangladesh; N = Nepal Facilitate the change in policy issues affecting varietal release, seed multiplication and dissemination of varieties. Also promote regional cooperation on these issues among India, Bangladesh & Nepal.

The world we live in keeps changing

Six megatrends in agriculture

Productivity increase Skillful, precise agriculture Integration of value chains Connection to health Multiple objectives Interactive knowledge
R. Rabbinge, WUR

Farmers Leave for the City, China Looks to Neighbors for Rice Oryza News, August 8, 2011

What can IRRI do best?

Be a global innovation leader: A-level science done by A-level people

What are our future innovations?

Groundbreaking germplasm products New rice systems and value chains Unique information & decision tools New ways of reaching out People

2 in 1: Drought + submergence tolerance

- QTL

+ QTL

- QTL

Three drought yield QTLs pyramided in Swarna sub1 BC4F2 population with three QTLs under genotyping at IRRI Anjali, Savitri, TDK 1, Saro 5, Supa, NSICRc 222, MR219, MRQ74 improvement underway Swarna Swarna + DTY

QTLs work in different grain shapes and germplasm classes

IR 60/6461 Long, bold Not chalky 6993/6461 Medium, chalky

93-11/6461 Medium bold chalky

Teqing/6461 Short chalky

Markers delivered soon

IRRI hybrid rice germplasm shared with partners

HRDC has 57 public and private sector members HRDC Formed 38 members

End of ADB project

GRiSP Product 5.3.1. Global rice monitoring and forecasting system

Regular observations throughout the season show how much planting dates can vary over small distances
Color shows crop establishment

cyan late Dec to early Jan blue mid-Jan red & green still under land
preparation in mid-Jan

The mapping component provides rice area estimates planting dates damage estimates (drought/flood) crop growth status

Apps for farmers

Cereal Knowledge Bank Agriculture AppsLab Additional knowledge and Apps

Personalized, precision farming for small-scale farmers

Best bet farming practices Monitoring

Suite of services for farmers

Total number of scholars that came to IRRI 2007-2011 (Completed + On-board) Category BS MS PhD On-the-Job Trainees 2007 0 37 73 19 2008 0 41 74 9 2009 2010 7 42 76 13 15 36 77 15 2011 13 46 95 31

Fellows
Interns

8
57

14
54

10
30

3
63

2
46

Total

194

192

178

209

233

IRRI is a nonprofit independent organization that, through rice

research, aims to
reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers,

ensure that rice production is environmentally sustainable.

How are we going to develop and distribute our innovations in the future?

then and now

US$ million
80 70 60 50 40 Restricted Unrestricted

30
20 10 0 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Inflation adjusted IRRI funding (GDP deflator, 2005=100)

100%

70-80%

50-70%

30-40%

CRPs W1-3 Other SRF, Other income

IRRIs funding sources in 2011 US$ 71.3 million from 80 different sources
27 Private (3%) CGIAR W1+W2 27%

3 Foundations (27%)

9 Other CGIAR (5%) 7 Intl. Org. (9%)

100%

21 Governments (27%)

70-80%

50-70% 10
Universities (2%)

30-40%

then and now

IRRI Restricted grants No. of grants Total volume (US$ million) Avg. size (US$ million) No. of grants <0.1 million No. of grants 0.1 -1 million No. of grants >1 million 2005 2006 2008 2010 2011 73 103 143 139 122 20 25 117 151 132 0.28 43 26 4 0.24 67 31 5 0.82 74 48 21 1.09 58 55 26 1.08 53 50 19

tomorrow
Concentrate on core competencies Focus on innovative products and big discoveries

Protect high-value IP
Brand and actively market IP, products and services Generate revenue streams for supporting core programs Use bilateral grants as strategic supplements Outsource more Choose donors and partners carefully Be more efficient

One more thing

Why do we still have big yield gaps?

< 20% 20-30% 30-40% 40-50% > 50%

Lets talk about nitrogen

Higher yields with less nitrogen

Farmer 300 kg N/ha 30% pre-plant 30% ET 25% MT 15% PI Researcher 150 kg N/ha 25% pre-plant 30% ET 35% PI 10% booting

Jiaxing, Zheijiang province, China Source: G.H. Wang, Zheijiang University

10-20% more yield 30-50% less N losses Less fossil fuel Less N2O emissions Less water pollution Less pests At least 10% more profit

Maybe we dont know about our impact?

Uruguay: increase in yields with the same varieties

Average rice yield, t/ha
9.0 8.5 8.0 7.5 7.0 50% 100% 90% 80% 70%

Varieties

60% 6.5
6.0 5.5 5.0 FLAR/CFC/INIA Project 4.5 4.0

40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

2007

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2008

2009

El Paso 144 Source: ACA and INIA statistics

Tacuar

Olimar

Otras

2010

The rice checks in Australia

Simple, objective to aid understanding & decisions

9 yield (crop management) checks 2 sustainability checks 2 grain quality checks

Source: John Lacy

Source: John Lacy

Get out there, observe, measure, record, innovate

Source: John Lacy

Lets start in our own backyard

2012 Agronomy Challenge Block D7

Varieties? Water management? Weed ecology and management? Nutrient management? Soil health? Pest management? Machinery? Energy and GWP? Economics? ......

Lots of Ideas

Fun at Work

IRRI
Brilliant People

Amazing Products