This proposal for a Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) represents, for the first time ever,
a single strategic and work plan for global rice research and how it can contribute more
effectively to solving development challenges at regional, national and local level. It streamlines
current research for development activities of the CGIAR, aligns it with numerous partners, and
adds new activities of high priority, in areas where science is expected to make significant
contributions. GRiSP provides new opportunities for partnerships in research and development,
bringing together advanced research institutes and universities, national research, education
and extension systems, international and regional fora and development organizations, CGIAR
centers, emerging strong national research systems, the private sector, and civil society
organizations involved in grass-roots work with male and female farmers.
The urgency to re-orient and align the world’s main research efforts on rice-based agricultural
production systems is illustrative of the crop’s importance to the world’s growing population. For
every one billion people added to the world’s population, 100 million more tons of rice (paddy)
need to be produced annually—with less land, less water, and less labor, in more efficient,
environmentally friendly production systems that are more resilient to climate change and also
contribute less to greenhouse gas emissions. Projected demand for rice will outstrip supply in
the near to medium term unless something is done to reverse current trends of slow productivity
growth and inefficient, often unsustainable, management of natural resources. Steep and longterm
price increases would wreak havoc on the lives of the poor and send dangerous tremors
across the political and economic landscapes in the world’s most populous regions. This is the
fundamental challenge for another, greener Green Revolution in the world’s major rice-growing
areas, to which GRiSP will make vital contributions.