PhilRice leads international consortium

The Philippines’ rice research agency is this year’s lead institution for the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE). The Consortium has recently designated Dr. Leocardio S. Sebastian, executive director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) as chairperson of the CURE Steering Committee. PhilRice is the national center for rice research and development activities.

CURE aims to improve the productivity and stability of rice production in unfavorable and rainfed rice environments in many parts of Asia. It is an international organization coordinated by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in Los Baños, Laguna with member-agencies from the national agricultural research systems (NARS) in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.

Dr. Sebastian, for one year, will lead the implementation of the CURE work plans as approved during consortium’s meeting on May 12-13, 2003, held at Philrice,Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Aside from the research management experience, CURE banks on Dr. Sebastian’s expertise in plant breeding and genetics to help solve problems in unfavorable rice environments.

CURE categorizes unfavorable rice environments into: drought and submergence-prone lowlands, saline and problematic soil lowlands, sloping uplands, drought-prone plateaus, and favorable plateau with long rain season, which are common in the Philippines.

The PhilRice executive director took over from Dr. SN Shukla, assistant director general, Food and Fodder Crops of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in New Delhi, India.