IRRI rice museum draws visitors all year round

Ever heard of Gondwana­land?

It’s a supercontinent that fractured and drifted about 135 million years ago and became the continents that humankind knows today.

At the museum of the International Rice Research Institute called IRRI Riceworld, one gets to know that the distinct ancestors of rice probably originated in Gondwanaland.

“World rice plants were probably already growing in the humid zones of South and Southeast Asia tens of thousands of years ago,” a caption of Gondwanaland at the starting point of the rice museum states.

It adds: “Prehistoric man gathered the seed of these wild rices for food, then later learned to cultivate the plant. Today, rice is the major food source for billions of people.”

Opened a decade ago, the IRRI Riceworld is a permanent as well as a learning center about rice production and research on the importance of rice in global food production. It is dedicated to rice farmers all over the world.

Admission to the IRRI Riceworld is free. Each year, more than 80,000 students, teachers, farmers, researchers, policymakers and foreigners visit the museum.

Set up through a grant provided by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTC), the IRRI Riceworld depicts the different ways rice is grown, the geographical zones where rice is planted, the challenges involved in improving productivity, the problems associated with sustainable rice production in various ecosystems, the conservation of rice genetic diversity, and the potential of research to meet the challenges and solve the problems.

Exhibits at the IRRI Riceworld start with the history and origins of rice. Its centerpiece shows carbonized rice grains and hulls dating to 2,500 B.C. The carbonized rice grains were found in archaeological excavations in Ban Na Di and Non Nok Tha in northeast Thailand.