IRRI Education opens three courses on rice research, breeding, and sustainable cultivation

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Education opened on rice research and production, rice breeding, and sustainable rice cultivation.

The Rice Research to Production (RR2P) face-to-face course kicked off on 05 September at the IRRI headquarters with 69 research and extension staff of the Department of Agriculture (DA), DA attached agencies, local government units, and state universities and colleges participating in the 5-day training. The program is part of the fourth rollout of the RR2P course, which started on 27 June, where the participants will get to apply what they have learned from the online component of the course under the guidance of IRRI’s resource experts. This RR2P program is under the DA-IRRI project, Strengthening the capability of the national research for development and extension partners for research, development, and extension of information and technologies to improve productivity and resilience of rice-based farming communities in the Philippines.

The two-week, face-to-face, and hands-on rice breeding course held its opening program on 05 September also at IRRI headquarters. IRRI Education organized the course in collaboration with Dr. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, the country breeding lead at IRRI Bangladesh, to share the OneRice breeding strategy with rice scientists from Bangladesh. The course imparts knowledge and skills on the stages and components of a molecular breeding program and the tools and techniques required for the program. As part of the course, the participants visited the institute’s rice breeding facilities, seed processing, and seed management facilities. By the end of the course, participants are expected to design and execute their own product-oriented rice breeding programs.

Additionally, IRRI Education is delivering the online course Driving Sustainable Rice Cultivation: Understanding the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) Standard and Performance Indicators. The opening program was held on 05 September attended by Dr. Nguyen Thi My Phung, IRRI consultant; Dr. Tran Nguyen Ha Trang, agricultural project and international cooperation specialist at Loc Troi Agricultural Research Institute, and IRRI Education Head Gopesh Tewari. Twenty-five participants from Loc Troi Group, are learning the SRP Standard for sustainable rice cultivation, the world’s first voluntary sustainability standard for the crop.