When the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was set up in Los Baños, Laguna, in 1960, with the support of the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Philippine government, it proceeded to undertake research that led to the development of new and improved rice varieties and of rice crop management techniques and practices. Many of our neighbors in Southeast Asia have benefited from this research. Thailand and Vietnam today produce rice surpluses which they export to the world. It is a bit of irony that the Philippines, where the IRRI did all its research on a 250-hectare experimental farm at Los Baños, is today the biggest importer of Thai and Vietnamese rice.

Agriculture remains our greatest hope. (2015, January 7). Manila Bulletin, p. 10.