Benigno Aquino III presidential campaign, 2010

Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III visits IRRI, 14 February 2013

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• published: 14 Feb 2013
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For the full story, see: http://irri.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view;=item&id;=12480:rice-research-in-spotlight-as-philippine-president-visits-irri⟨=en Also see: http://youtu.be/-Gz_YISTBC4 and when the first President Aquino visited IRRI more than 26 years ago on 15 October 1986: http://youtu.be/czp9NjqQnzs Philippine President Benigno Aquino III visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; http://irri.org) on Thursday morning, 14 February 2013. This video shows a montage of his activities during the visit including conferring IRRI management, visiting the gene bank, and mingling with IRRI staff members waiting outside, The President was given an overview of IRRI's history in the Philippines since 1960 and an update on the collaboration between the DA and IRRI to support the FSSP. During his visit, the President asked that his deep and heartfelt thanks be extended to all IRRI staff who welcomed him to IRRI headquarters, and provided him with a deeper appreciation of IRRI's scientific work for the benefit of the Philippines and the world. IRRI's Deputy Director General for Research, Dr. Achim Dobermann, said, "The Philippines is more focused than ever before on improving productivity in its rice sector to meet its rice self-sufficiency targets." "With the support of the President and Secretary Alcala, the Philippine government is providing IRRI with unprecedented financial support to ensure research and development outcomes help rice farmers," he added. In total, 101 IRRI-bred varieties have been released in the Philippines suited to irrigated, rainfed, upland, low-temperature, and saline environments. "One of the IRRI-bred varieties released in the Philippines is a submergence-tolerant rice called Submarino that can survive floods brought about by typhoons, which are likely to become worse and more frequent with climate change," said Dobermann. A recent impact assessment study showed that Filipino farmers have gained an additional Php2,300 (US$52) per hectare from using improved IRRI-bred rice varieties. The President also toured the International Rice Genebankthat conserves more than 117,000 different types of rice, including nearly 10,000 from the Philippines.