Roundtable Discussion Tackled Why IRRI Should be Closed

Leaders of farmer’s organizations, health professionals, scientists, non-government organizations (NGOs) and other concerned individuals gathered in a roundtable discussion on the 50 years of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Spearheaded by the Resistance and Solidarity Against Agrochemical TNCs (RESIST! Agrochemical TNCs), the talk focused on natural calamities such as drought, El Niño, and climate change and how these severely affected Philippine agriculture. The discussion scrutinized IRRI’s role in the country’s goal of achieving self-sufficiency in rice.

IRRI claims to “help feed almost half the world’s population”. It is an international research institution established in 1960, assigned by the United Nations to safeguard the diversity of the world’s rice germplasm at its International Rice Gene bank, and mandated to support the development of rice research within national agricultural research systems. IRRI is part of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research, which is composed of different agricultural research institutes around the globe.

IRRI is the so-called “home of Green Revolution in Asia”; the central institution through which the Green Revolution model for rice expanded throughout Asia in the 1970s.

The Philippines, as the host country of IRRI, has had access to the technologies that IRRI developed. But after 50 years of applying IRRI’s programs on rice farming, the country is now the world’s largest rice importer, procuring 10 percent of its rice requirement from the world market because Philippine agriculture has remained backward and farmers have been made dependent on agrochemicals. IRRI only served the business interest of transnational corporations (TNCs), including the propagation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and corporate farming.

The 50 years operation of IRRI propped up expensive technologies not beneficial to poor farmers. Rice farmers were forced to use expensive pesticides and fertilizers leading to costly production. Furthermore, farmers could no longer exchange seeds because of IRRI’s rice varieties which tampered with the natural regenerative attribute of seeds. With over a billion people suffering from undernutrition and some 2.3 million deaths due to hunger, IRRI has clearly failed to address hunger and malnutrition around the world.

MASIPAG (Farmers and Scientists for the Development of Agriculture) National Coordinator Dr. Chito Medina said that IRRI defends GMOs and puts a seal of legitimacy on the products of TNCs. This has led to increasing commissioned research, which depends on the priority of TNCs. This research is not environmentally sustainable or viable as a solution to climate change. For example, aerobic rice, a variety that needs less water, is in essence a high-yielding variety (HYV) that still requires so much fertilizers and pesticides. MASIPAG said that it is very clear that IRRI’s new seeds and technology have not offered a workable solution.

To score IRRI’s 50th anniversary, RESIST! Agrochemical TNCs has come up with 50 compelling reasons why IRRI must be shut down.

Among these are:

• IRRI has changed the nature of rice research in Asia; research that should be geared to genuinely address the needs of Asia’s people.

• IRRI has systematically deceived farmers by introducing HYVs of rice to boost crop yields. But HYVs are a threat to the environment and agriculture of the Philippines and all countries where HYVs are planted.

• IRRI has declared its Green Revolution a success in increasing crop yields. But the Green Revolution has also led to the poverty of farmers and the people.

• IRRI cannot deny its influence on government policies on agriculture. It has never been neutral. Governments have used the Green Revolution as an effective instrument to divert the clamor of farmers for genuine agricultural development to fake development focused on high crop yields.

• From the establishment of IRRI, agrochemical TNCs have been the sole beneficiaries of IRRI’s programs and technologies. IRRI is a stamp pad for technologies created by TNCs.

IRRI must be replaced by a rice research institution that will serve the genuine interests, capacity and needs of farmers and the people.

The discussion also raised problems faced by IRRI workers. More than 700 workers of IRRI face job insecurity due to the management’s current retrenchment scheme targeting those near retirement age. Other labor issues at IRRI include a management-established union that involved managerial-level employees and use of agency-hired workers to skirt labor standards on hazardous work conditions, particularly exposure to harmful chemicals.

The roundtable discussion was part of the year-long protest against IRRI’s 50th year dubbed “Year of Rice Action (YORA)” that started last April 4, 2009. Every month different activities were conducted in 14 countries in Asia. The YORA culminated on April 12, 2010 in the Philippines, while simultaneous actions were held in different countries in Asia. It was led by the Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific with the participation of members of the Asian Peasant Coalition.

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Felix Canimo is a former coordinator of the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, a network of grassroots groups of small food producers particularly of peasant-farmer organizations and their support NGOs working towards a People’s Convention on Food Sovereignty.