For many decades IRRI focused on improving traditional varieties of rice, grown in fields that are flooded at planting time. Lately it has shifted its attention to climate change. It now offers drought-tolerant varieties, including one that can be planted in dry fields and subsist on rainfall, as corn and wheat do. There’s a salt-tolerant rice for countries like Bangladesh, where rising seas are poisoning rice fields. “Farmers don’t realize the salt water is coming into their fields,” says Gregorio. “By the time the water is salty enough to taste, the plants are already dying.