The EPMR Panel summarizes, below, its main findings and recommendations. These highlight IRRI's recent evolution, programme accomplishments, managerial effectiveness and its future over the next decade. The Panel has also made a number of important suggestions which should be considered in conjunction with the recommendations.
Recent Evolution
During the first half of the Review period, IRRI completed a major infrastructure rehabilitation and refurbishment programme for which the then DG had successfully canvassed for funds. In 1996, the IRRI Board elected a new Chair to take over from the previous Chair who had served for 16 months. About halfway during the review period, a new DG was appointed, with a management style that was different from that of the previous DG. After his arrival, IRRI implemented a Staff Restructuring Programme (SRP) starting in late 1996. During 1997, several members of the senior staff, including the DG, resigned or retired. These events have meant that IRRI has been through a difficult period. The Panel believes that there was a need for an SRP but it is highly probable that the optimum staffing level was not obtained in every case, so that in some research programmes and divisions, the ratio of NRS to IRS is below optimum.
Since the last review in 1992, the external environment of IRRI has become even more sophisticated and complex. The new sciences - biotechnology, informatics, NRM research - have all made remarkable advances, opening new opportunities for strategic and applied research for IRRI and its partners. The most prominent of these advances has been in biotechnology, which has enabled major discoveries to be made concerning the rice genome, thus presenting real prospects for employing new strategies for genetic enhancement of rice germplasm with novel material and its incorporation into improved genotypes. The relevance of this achievement to the CGIAR goals is obvious, but the Panel points to the need for IRRI, in concert with its partners, to examine urgently its policies on protecting germplasm and on intellectual property protection of discoveries in the light of the current attitudes in public and private research organizations elsewhere. Any decisions by the IRRI Board and Management should be taken in the light of the policies determined by the CGIAR, and in consultation with its partner countries.
Programmes
The Panel found that by and large IRRI's priorities are consistent with its mission and the CGIAR's goals, and that the quality of science is generally good, ranging from acceptable to excellent. Nowhere did the Panel find scientifically deficient work. The Panel is pleased with IRRI's overall performance, which includes some outstanding achievements made possible by its scientific and high-quality support staff. IRRI can boast about several of its accomplishments including those in germplasm enhancement and biotechnology using marker technology and genetic transformation, in shifting the yield frontier with the hybrid rice and the new plant type, in IPM, and in understanding the cause of productivity decline in intensive systems.
Plant breeding, in which IRRI has such a distinguished history, is linked closely with biotechnology and plant protection. It continues to produce improved germplasm for the irrigated ecosystems, including the more radical achievements such as the hybrid rices that are now being used by several of IRRI's partners. In addition, research on the new plant type has made steady progress. For the rainfed ecosystems, the Panel noted the slow pace of achievements, and has recommended that the three rainfed ecosystems programmes should be combined into a single programme so that complementarities across these ecosystems are captured and that resources are allocated where prospects for success are greatest.
Research on natural resources management is well integrated with productivity improvement research. Since the last EPMR, IRRI has mounted a sizeable programme to understand the reasons for productivity decline in intensive rice systems observed on experiment stations. However, the Panel concluded that this work requires organizing in ways that allow the interdisciplinary potential to be realized in a strategic programme.
Other accomplishments have opened up new opportunities for strategic research. For example, the successful implementation of the IPM strategy against insect pests in some Asian countries is leading to new possibilities for the application of integrated management tactics for diseases and weeds.
The relationships of IRRI and its partner countries and their NARS are changing significantly, while at the same time the global rice community has become even more complex and diversified. IRRI has responded well to the rapid development of some NARS, and the Panel is pleased with the ways by which IRRI is managing the evolution of its partnerships within the global rice community. The new consortia have impressed us, and the networks INGER (International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice) and CREMNET (Crop Resources Management Network) have continued to be valued very highly by IRRI's partners, as is the ARBN (Asian Rice Biotechnology Network).
Governance and Management
The Panel has pointed out that the IRRI Board and Management must remain aware of the Institute's two great needs. The first is the need to stay at the forefront of scientific research in its various subjects, to continue to attract and retain world-class scientists, to make the right decisions regarding its initiatives in molecular biology and its relationships with the private sector, and to show clearly that its research is having impact. If IRRI can meet these needs, then it has nothing to fear.
The second is the need for institutional stability so that staff can give their undivided attention to their research and its application by IRRI's partner countries to raise rice output. The Panel has recommended that IRRI should concentrate on putting matters right within the current structure. The arrival of an Interim DG and the search for replacements in senior positions are steps in the right direction, but the Panel has recommended that no major structural reorganization should be made until some time after the new DG and other senior staff are in post, and then only if they conclude that they can develop an organizational structure that is significantly better.
In addition, the Panel has recommended changes so that the Board and Management can improve their understanding and reporting of financial results.
Future of IRRI
The Panel believes that the task ahead for IRRI is clear and well-documented. Asia's agricultural economy will continue to be dominated by rice, which is a staple food for most of the rural and urban dwellers. The demand for rice is expected to rise by more than 60% by 2025, and IRRI in partnership with NARS must concentrate on more and better rice grown in more sustainable ways. The Panel believes that no other organization is better placed to do so than IRRI, which has a long record of delivering both scientific advances and impact. The Panel has no hesitation in concluding that IRRI has a central strategic role to play in achieving sustainable food security in the future, and represents a high return to investment that deserves the full support of the CGIAR.
CHAPTER 4 - RESEARCH PROGRAMMES
1. The Panel recommends that the Rainfed Lowland, Rainfed Upland and Flood-prone Programmes be combined into a single Rainfed Rice Programme, in which related lines of work can be brought together, emphasizing those where prospects for success are greatest.
2. The Panel recommends that the research staffing in the Irrigated Rice Programme be reassessed with the aim of filling key positions, including an IRS agronomist with wide experience and certain skilled support staff in critical areas of work .
CHAPTER 5 - RESEARCH DIVISIONS AND SERVICES
3. The Panel recommends that IRRI evaluate carefully the developments in bioinformatics with a view to determining IRRI's future in this area.
4. The Panel recommends that: (a) a meeting of CORRA be convened with a specific agenda to design a high-quality INGER which meets NARS and IRRI's breeders' needs and achieves scientific ends of value to all; (b) IRRI give the highest priority to running INGER according to this agreed programme; and (c) the vacant position of INGER coordinator should be filled as a matter of urgency with an energetic and respected rice scientist.
CHAPTER 6 - ISSUES
5. The Panel recommends that IRRI, the donors and the NARS convene to address potential problems related to IRRI's current private sector and intellectual property policies, after the reports of the CGIAR Panels on Biotechnology and Proprietary Science are published.
6. The Panel recommends that a strategic programme on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics in flooded soils should be designed and mounted in collaboration with appropriate centres of excellence.
CHAPTER 7 - ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
7. The Panel recommends that the Board undertake annual self-assessments, and annual assessments of the DG, and that records be kept.
8. The Panel recommends that no major changes be made to the current organizational structure before the new DG has had time to consider whether changes are necessary.
9. The Panel recommends that a review be undertaken of management methods, including rewards for carrying managerial responsibility within the matrix; the efficient conduct of meetings; streamlining the interface between research, finance and administration; and appropriate delegation. This initiative must be seen to have the full commitment of the senior management team.
CHAPTER 8 - ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATIONS
10. The Panel recommends that IRRI prepare a current Capital Plan, that IRRI
Management and the Board of Trustees decide the appropriate level of the Capital Fund, and that all future adjustments to the Operating Fund and Capital Fund be carefully and clearly documented.
11. The Panel recommends that IRRI ensure that the internal audit function becomes fully effective in improving internal financial and operational controls, by reviewing the current level of skills available within IRRI for the Internal Audit function, deciding which skills it is necessary to have internally and which skills might be out-sourced, and implementing the organizational and staffing changes required.
