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ANALYTICAL SERVICES LABORATORY

ISO 17025 accreditation

The Philippine Accreditation Office (PAO) conducted its first surveillance visit and special assessment of IRRI’s Analytical Services Laboratory (ASL) last 6-7 October 2011, almost a year after ASL was awarded its ISO 17025 accreditation as a chemical testing laboratory (see figure). ASL was commended by PAO for the effective implementation of its laboratory management system and maintenance of its techni-cal competence.

In addition to the five test methods under its scope of accreditation, PAO recommended nine soil testing methods to be included in its scope of ac-creditation. ASL succeeded in expanding its scope of accreditation with several important chemical tests. With the ISO 17025 accreditation comes signifi-cant improvement in ASL operations. Routine analy-sis was enhanced. Kjeldahl N digestion was improved with the use of a temperature-controlled hot block digestor; Cd methods for trace levels in plant, grain, soil, and fertilizer samples were developed; and more method validations for other tests not yet included in the scope of accreditation were given priority. Increased efficiency of ASL’s in-house-developed LIMS was achieved with the implementation of its new post―data processing and chain of custody modules and bar coding. Very high satisfaction ratings (excellent = 38%, very good = 50%, and good = 12.5%) were given to ASL by its customers as captured in the Web-based customer survey reports.

Analytical services

ASL performed a total of 87,712 analyses for 23,855 samples received from customers requesting routine analytical services. Plant and grain samples constitut-ed the majority of the samples analyzed (87%); soil samples comprised 10% and solution samples 3% .

The bulk of the samples came from CESD (77%) and PBGB (22%) with multielement analysis by ICP-OES the most requested. A small proportion of samples was received from GQNC and external customers for Kjeldahl N, elemental C/N, and stable isotope ratio analysis of 13C and 15N. ASL also provided technical assistance on such topics as determination of detection limits in gas chromatography, activated carbon, chemical analysis of transgenic rice, chemical waste disposal, and ISO 17025 accreditation procedure.

Non-ASL equipment service assistance

ASL performed in-house repair and troubleshooting of all its analytical equipment and has extended its service support to other equipment in CESD—e.g., restoring the performance of the weather stations and improving the logging process by replacing a defective humidity sensor and installing an additional soil thermometer; and assisting a research group in handling the atomic absorption spectrometer.

Radioisotope laboratory

ASL, through its radiation safety officer, conducted a Radiation Safety Course for IRRI 32P users on 14-17 Feb 2011. Seven participants from PBGB and the C4 Center learned the safe handling of 32P through lectures and hands-on exercises. Projects assisted through the use of radioisotope laboratory facilities and liaison services of the Philip-pine Nuclear Research Institute were as follows:• Rice transformation using disease and pest

resistance genes• Greenhouse gas emission measurement

Research support services

PAO certificate of ISO 17025 accreditation to IRRI ASL.

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Staff training

The ASL staff participated in a series of in-house training activities conducted by ASL consultant Car-lito R. Barril on the following topics:• Method validation• pH measurement• Statistical techniques for data analysis and

quality control• Linear correlation and regression analysis• Estimation of measurement uncertainty They also participated in the RMQA safety train-ing on fume hood use and chemical safety and the Philippine Alliance of Laboratory Equipment Users’ seminar on 24-25 Nov 2011. Selected ASL staff attended these other train-ing courses and events: internal audit training as per ISO 17025 standards, IT PHP training, research data management, ICP symposium, RSO training on handling x-ray facilities, and writing research articles for international publication. L. Molina also completed her MS in environmen-tal science, major in environmental chemistry and toxicology, in October from the School of Environ-mental Science and Management at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

New OU for ASL

The ASL was administratively transferred to the Grain Quality and Nutrition Center effective February.

BREEdINg INfORmATICS

Biometrics and quantitative genetics

TrainingFour in-house and two in-country training courses were conducted. Our staff served as resource per-sons in the training courses organized by the Train-ing Center.

ConsultingWe provided advice and assistance to IRRI scientists, visiting scientists, trainees, and national program scientists in designing experiments, analyzing data, conducting linkage mapping and association analy-sis, and choosing crossing schemes.

Development of analytical toolsThe following tools for data management, basic and advanced statistical analysis of experimental data, plant breeding trials, and genetic analysis are being developed. All the tools have a user-friendly graphi-cal interface. R-CropStat is a computer program designed for data management and basic statistical analysis of ex-perimental data. It makes use of the R language and environment and is intended to run in any operating system. It provides modules for generating randomi-zation of experimental designs commonly used in crop research, data management, and basic statisti-cal analysis, including descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, single- and multienvironment analysis, t-test, and some nonparametric analyses. PBTools is being developed primarily for plant breeders. It is created using the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) and makes use of functions pro-grammed with the R language. In addition to having a menu-driven interface, it has a wizard, making it easier, especially for new users, to execute all steps from importing data to performing statistical analy-sis. It currently provides modules for performing single- and multienvironment analysis for selected experimental designs. QGA is being developed for quantitative genetic analysis. It is also developed using Java Eclipse RCP

Course/workshop Date Partici-pants (no.)

In-house

R-CropStat Demo 3 Feb 20

Experimental Design and Data Analysis Using R-CropStat

14-18 Mar 22

Introduction to R-CropStat 6-10 Jun 18

Introduction to Gene Mapping: Linkage and Association Mapping

28 Nov - 2 Dec

30

In-country

Basic Experimental Designs and Data Analysis using R-CropStat in Agricul-tural and Biological Sciences, University of Nagoya, Nagoya, Japan

14-18 Feb 19

Basic Experimental Designs and Data Analysis using R-CropStat, PhilRice, Nueva Ecija, Philippines

28 Feb - 4 Mar

29

Other short-term courses/workshops

Rice Breeding Course 9-24 Aug 30

Rice Production Techniques for Young Researchers (for Africa)

10-28 Oct 12

Phenotyping for Abiotic Stresses 27 Oct - 11 Nov

24

Rice Research and Production for Re-searchers (for Indonesia)

15 Nov - 2 Dec

15

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and the R language. Currently, QGA performs ge-netic analyses for commonly used mating designs, including NCI, NCII, NCIII, TTC, and diallel crosses. For each mating design, two experimental designs are available: completely randomized design (CRD) and randomized complete block design (RCBD). Analyses can also be done for single- and multienvi-ronment trials. A Web-based tool is being developed for data management and analysis. The ultimate goal is the development of an integrated and user-friendly sys-tem for plant breeders and geneticists. Currently, this tool has functions for querying ICIS DMS, detecting population structure using parametric and nonpara-metric methods, and conducting association analysis using linear and linear-mixed models, taking genetic relationships and population structure into account.

ICIS Web tools

IRIS Web systemThe IRIS Web system, which includes a germplasm and breeding data query tool, was further improved and the following new features were added: (a) breeding project and study browser, (b) trait browser, and (c) StudyMart. The breeding project and study browser is capable of showing summary statistics in graphical form (e.g., bar charts and histograms). For example, for each breeding project and study, the frequencies of recorded values relating to germ-plasm and recorded values for each trait are available in chart form to give users information about the distribution of values. As a standard feature, infor-mation about each breeding program and study is also available showing other information such as lists of studies (where applicable), the list of germplasm

used in the project or study, as well as a list of traits. The trait browser uses trait as entry point with pop-up charts showing the distribution of values vs study or germplasm. This is useful for researchers who are interested in knowing which germplasm was evaluated for the traits of interest as well as studies conducted involving the traits. They can also look into the field evaluation data and download them in CSV format. StudyMart is a simple data mining tool for retrieval of field trial data using multitrait filters. Users can build their own query using a simple Web-based interface. The results of the query can also be downloaded in CSV format.

Improving ICISTo further improve the efficiency of ICIS, the follow-ing activities were undertaken: (a) design of an im-proved relational schema for storing phenotypic data and (b) development of a software component for retrieving data from the database-middleware layer. Creating a new and simplified schema for storing phenotypic data was an essential step in providing flexibility and improving the efficiency in middleware development, which, in turn, is a critical component to achieve a robust and responsive Web-based query tool, especially for the new features mentioned. This query tool was deployed on top of the existing IRIS/rice database and is publicly accessible at http://webtools.cropinfo.org. This query tool is a replace-ment of the IRIS Web site,which can be found at http://iris.irri.org.

ICIS stand-alone tools

Mobile toolICIS Mobile was developed to record observational data using a hand-held device. This application aims to address problems in data collection such as loss of order when taking sequential data, leading to wrong materials being evaluated, recording the wrong scale of evaluation, and consuming much time in consolidating and digitizing observational data being gathered into a study workbook file. The ICIS Mobile application runs on two different platforms. The first platform is for Pocket PC devices running Windows CE and the second platform is for a Samsung Galaxy Tablet running on Android. Both have features for importing field-book data and a user-friendly data entry interface with data validation and autocomputed values for time-based inputs such as days to flowering. The application also has a record-browsing interface with filtering functionality and the ability to export observational data gathered in text file format. Once data collection is completed, the data can be exported to and integrated with a study workbook in ICIS that can then be uploaded into IRIS.

Cross-PredictorThe Cross-Predictor tool is a stand-alone application developed using the Java Eclipse RCP. It aims to assist cross-selection based on genotypic value predicted using known genes. It predicts homozygous geno-types and the frequencies generated from a cross (two-way or three-way) by using single seed descent or double haploid; it uses the frequency of desirable genotypes to choose the best crosses.

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data management

Thirty-eight yield trials, 3,450 new crosses, more than 185,300 new segregating lines, and 253 INGER trials were recorded in IRIS. In cooperation with the Seed Health Unit (which provides the import listings), 87 batches of imported germplasm materials were recorded in IRIS. An ICIS for Plant Breeder Course for IRRI-ESARO partners was conducted in May in Tanza-nia. Demonstrations and presentations on ICIS were given to the Rice Breeding Course participants.

COMMUNICATION AND PUBLICATIONS SERVICES

Through its visual media, editorial, publishing, Web, and creative support services, CPS designs, pack-ages, and produces a variety of information materials carrying IRRI’s messages for various audiences and provides a spectrum of communication services for the Institute. Traditional books and publications

Through CPS assistance, IRRI produced five titles in 2011: three scientific books, one technical bulletin, and the 2010 annual report on DVD and the Web. Also produced were four issues of Rice Today; three issues of Rice Research for Intensified Production and Prosperity in Lowland Ecosystems (RIPPLE), three issues of the STRASA Newsletter, and one issue of CURE Matters. Currently, around 10 scientific book titles are in the production queue for 2012 and beyond.

Web publishing and IRRI’s Internet footprint

Social media In 2011, IRRI continued to incorporate an online presence on certain social networks and social me-dia. Recognizing that an Internet footprint cannot alone be made by its institutional Web site, IRRI is reaching out to and engaging with its stakeholders and beneficiaries using social media channels and social network sites via online platforms and devices when applicable. For media assets and publications, we are using•GoogleBooks(438publicationsuploadedwith

more than 1,149,000 title views, with nearly 13.9 million page views across these titles)

•Flickr(57,768imagesuploadedwithnearly2.5mil-lion total views)

•YouTube(todate,438videosuploadedwithmorethan 535,000 total views)

•Scribd(637publicationsuploadedwith38,232total views)

•Blip.tv(15videosuploadedwithmorethan1,860total views)

For social utility and topic engagement, we are using, to date,•Facebook(morethan2,300friends)•Twitter(around2,000followers)

To show the power of the social media, our ana-lytics indicate that, during some weeks, the grow-ing number of followers on IRRI’s Facebook page has pushed Facebook as high as the number-one referring social medium. Analytics data also show how deeply visitors to the site are engaged if they are referred there via a social site such as Facebook. The real driver for traffic to the site then are referrals made by people on social networks.

IRRI Web community In 2011, the CPS Web team, which is the core team for IRRI’s Web system, continued to educate, guide, and train the IRRI Web community. To date, there are about 100 staff members in the system, about 40 of whom are active Web community members engaged in managing and providing content in their respec-tive site sections. The CPS Web team conducted for the IRRI Web community a 3-month curriculum-based series of lectures and workshops—called the IRRI Web Labs—about the use of the Web as a medium for engage-ment. The Labs covered optimizing work on the Web as a system of people, their practices, and their shared information objects. Today, most, if not all, of IRRI’s Web community members manage their own sections on irri.org. The CPS Web team continues to determine the design of the system for the community to be able to ef-ficiently and effectively gain from the use of digital and online media. The second annual IRRI Web Summit, which was conducted in January 2012, set in motion IRRI’s Web activities for the coming year. As a digital and online R&D group, the three-member CPS Web team works on three facets of

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the Web—people, processes, and technology—with the help of other CPS sections that generate and produce objects for the Web. IRRI’s Internet footprint now is expanded by the network of people within IRRI and their respective networks outside of the Institute. The CPS Web team will continue to help enhance the IRRI Web system by providing guidance and training to the IRRI Web community.

Site statistics•Visits to the site in 2011 were 481,650, an average

of about 1,320 visits per day for the year.•Ofthese,therewere2.8millionpageviews,av-

eraging 4.7 pages per visit. Each visit lasted an average of 3.39 minutes.

Demographics. The site’s global reach is domi-nated by Asia: South Asia, Southeast Asia, followed by North America, East Asia, and Western Europe. India, the Philippines, and the United States, in that order, continue to be the top three countries access-ing the site. Combined, the Asian continent account-ed for 66% of all visits.

Traffic to the site that came from search en-gines came mostly from South and Southeast Asia. India, the Philippines, together with Bangladesh, the United States, and the United Kingdom accounted for 45% of search traffic.

Communication support to the Institute

CPS provides communication support for the entire Institute, including editing, graphic design, art and illustration, audiovisual, photography, video, and printing. For example, in 2011, 55,170 new digital photographs were produced, 45 video programs were produced, and 45 shorter clips were provided for the Bulletin (IRRI’s weekly newsletter for staff, BOT, and alumni) and PowerPoint presentations. Also, in 2011, graphic artists produced 90 illus-trations, laid out 3,066, pages for publications, and prepared and printed 421 posters on the CPS large-format printer. IRRI editors worked on more than 2,100, pages for refereed journal articles, more than 470 pages appearing in IRRI’s scientific books, plus 54 pages for the International Rice Research Notes, four issues each of Rice Today and the newsletter RIPPLE, and more than 3,200, pages of additional conference papers, abstracts, proposals, posters, do-nor reports, concept notes, press releases, and other items. The more than 70 long abstracts coming out of the 2010 International Rice Congress that went online in 2011 were the equivalent of a 200-page book.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

media releases

In 2011, 21 media releases were prepared and dis-tributed:

1. Stop abusing insecticides in rice (16 Dec)Burundi releases two new rice varieties for better lives (15 Dec)

2. Green: the new color of rice (2 Dec)3. Vietnamese president visits IRRI (27 Oct)4. Feeding 9 billion mouths – a Singapore exhi-

bition (13 Oct)5. No more “no rain, no rice” in Bangladesh

(7 Oct)6. Rice breeding brings billions to Southeast

Asia (29 Sep)7. Indian dirt scientist wins international service

award (1 Sep) 8. Singapore invests in regional rice security

(12 Aug)9. Women of war turn to rice in Burundi

(21 Jul)10. “Chalky” discovery could increase value of

rice by 25% (14 Jul)11. Mozambique gets new designer rice (21 Jun)12. IRRI supports Thai move to stop insecticide

use in rice (1 Jun)13. IRRI and Japan launch rice training program

for Africa (18 May)14. Singaporean to promote philanthropy for

food security (20 Apr)15. New partners join forces against vitamin A

deficiency (14 Apr)16. IRRI gives top varieties to Filipino farmers at

field day (28 Feb)17. IRRI wins award for mobilizing rice knowl-

edge to alleviate hunger (25 Feb)18. Higher rice production a phone call away for

Filipino farmers (24 Jan)

New visitors continued to increase in all subregions, 50% more than in 2010.

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19. Nepalese farmers to enjoy bountiful harvest from drought-proof rice (21 Jan)

20. Green Super Rice is coming (14 Jan)

media mentions

In 2011, we recorded 167 media mentions in our database. One topic that received good media atten-tion was the impact assessment of IRRI’s rice breed-ing work by ACIAR. Mentions of IRRI throughout 2011 occurred in numerous major news outlets, including major international news wires (e.g., AFP), internationally recognized media outlets (e.g., the New York Times and the BBC), national media outlets across Asia (e.g., China Daily and Viet Nam News), and major science news outlets (e.g., SciDev.Net and Nature).

media interviews, visits, and events

IRRI continued to receive regular media requests for information and to interview scientists in 2011. As in

previous years, Dr. Robert Zeigler and Dr. Achim Do-bermann were frequently requested for interviews, as was Dr. Sam Mohanty. In addition, IRRI hosted 38 media visits to our headquarters (nearly double those of 2010)—rang-ing from foreign correspondents to documen-tary producers, international journalists, and local journalists. We arranged media attendance at IRRI’s farmers’ field day.

Social media

As of 31 December 2011, we had more than 2,300 “likes” for the IRRI Facebook page—up from 1,000 the previous year. IRRI’s Facebook page has become a major director of traffic to the IRRI Web site. We also commenced management of IRRI’s Twitter account, which by the end of the year had around 2,000 followers.

media contact database

As of 31 Dec 2011, IRRI had 1,292 media contacts recorded in Salesforce, which was an increase of 106 from 2010. These are journalists with whom PR or other OUs have had contact and who were recorded as an institutional contact. During 2011, we transferred distribution of our media releases to a self-subscribe system on the IRRI Web site via Acymailer/Joomla, to which we added pre-existing subscribers (around 2,500), including media and other contacts. By the end of 2011, we had recorded around 6,000 media release subscrib-ers.

Web site contributions

The PR team continued to be a major contributor to the IRRI Web site in the following sections:

• News and events: media releases and hot topics• Our science • Staff profiles • Country profiles • About rice

We also facilitated blogs for Dr. Zeigler and Dr. Mohanty.

ExPERImENT STATION

2011 will be remembered for two things at ES: a growing research program and incessant rain. Both of these factors exerted pressure on our systems at ES, stretching our capacities to facilitate the work asked of us. Highlights of the year included making a number of our full-cost-recovery (FCR) charges more understandable and transparent, significant refinements to our administrative processes to allow

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Date Title Media outlet

20 Jan Simple bags save the harvest Voice of America

27 Feb IRRI rolls out high-yielding rice Manila Bulletin

20 Apr Trial for vitamin A rich rice soon Daily Star (Bangladesh)

26 May New rice crisis cannot be ruled out: research group AFP

18 Jul Scientists find rice 'chalk' gene, eye yield rise The Straits Times (Singapore)

3 Oct Rice research starts to pay off Viet Nam News

9 Oct Time to wake up on rice, secret weapon against Asian upheaval

The Australian

19 Dec Scientists ramp up sequencing of rice varieties SciDev.Net

Examples of media mentions.

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quicker and more direct response, commissioning two energy-efficient prototype dryers, and creating a multipurpose seeder capable of seeding rice, maize, and other crops. ES released a revised set of FCR charges in mid-2011, which reflected our best current estimate of the cost of providing services to IRRI researchers. Land rental, irrigation, and phytotron charges in particular increased substantially. Although this has helped ES cease recording losses each season, these charges have proved a shock to researchers and their programs. ES looks forward to bringing these costs down again through economies of scale, labor efficiencies, energy efficiencies, and infrastructure investments.

field maintenance group

Land useA total of 211 ha were dedicated to research, an increase of 13 ha from 2010, whereas production rice declined to 77 ha (ES Table 1). PBGB was again the biggest land user, occupying 161 ha.

"closed season," scheduled to provide a period of rice-free fields for tungro control, was compromised by wet weather on two occasions in 2011. When confined to wet preparation techniques and when awaiting the go-ahead from users, ES is limited as to the speed at which it can cultivate fields. Even after cultivation, persistent wet conditions allow many mature rice plants to persist in the field, defeating the purpose of the closed season. We urgently need mechanisms of weed control that are both quicker and more efficacious in maintaining clean fields in the closed season. Strategic glyphosate applications should offer such an alternative and they seem to complement cultivation, so this technique is being reintroduced in 2012. Similarly, in early 2012, ES will assume control over the timing and method of field preparation, to ensure timely operations.

field operations group

The field operations group diligently prepared the fields and maintained roads as required. The persis-tently wet conditions presented them with the afore-mentioned challenge to prepare fields on time when relying heavily on rototilling. Similarly, persistent wet conditions and a grader renowned for breaking down made road maintenance more difficult. A new grader and a road stabilization program planned in 2012 should help our roads greatly. Late in 2011, the field operations group faced up to the challenge of constructing wide bunds on a significant portion of the ES. These bunds will consume a truckload of soil for every 4 m of bund, so the task stretches at least 2 years ahead of us. Success in this massive earthmoving exercise will see 3-m-wide bunds between fields, which will allow

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ES Table 1. Land use (ha) at ES, by OU, 2011.

User Dry season Wet season Total

PBGB 81.9 79.6 161.4

CESD 12.2 19.9 32.1

GRC 6.8 5.6 12.4

GQNPC 0.3 0.9 1.2

C4 1.6 2.7 4.3

Research total 102.7 108.7 211.4

ES 43.6 33.8 77.4

Total 146.3 142.5 288.8

Production riceThe area of production rice declined a little to make way for the increase in research area, a trend that has continued into 2012. As a consequence, ES has now begun sourcing paddy from outside IRRI, which is then milled in our rice mill to supply staff rations. Indeed, IRRI staff prefer ES’s production rice, as it is a high-quality variety, harvested and milled to maxi-mize eating quality. ES harvested a total of 406 t of paddy from the 77 ha, with an average yield of 5.2 t ha–1.

Crop nutrition and protectionA total of 71.2 t of chemical fertilizers were applied to both research plots and production rice. These included urea, ammonium sulfate, complete, muriate of potash, solophos, zinc oxide, and zinc sulfate. The choice of fertilizer rate remains somewhat arbitrary, as indicated by the application of potassium to fields that generally have plenty of potassium in the soil and receive more from irrigation water. Similarly, fertilizer application is still predominantly manual. Although experienced hands apply fertilizer reason-ably uniformly, this may not be uniform enough for a research institution. We need mechanized applica-tion techniques to achieve benchmark uniformity. All ES fields continue to be managed according to an IPM strategy—do not apply a pesticide unless the need has been demonstrated and alternatives have been explored. Snails are often managed with the strategic use of field drainage, for example. Weed control has generally been adequate, de-spite limited use of herbicides, although Leptochloa chinensis is presenting more of a problem in several fields, particularly those that were direct-seeded. The

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much better access for land preparation, pesticide and fertilizer application, all field operations for re-searchers, and even high-precision plant monitoring in some circumstances. Success begins with the first steps, which were taken in late 2011.

Irrigation and drainage services

The irrigation and drainage system, the lifeblood of experiments here at IRRI, especially in the dry season, generally provided a reliable water supply in 2011. Its capacity was tested later in the dry season as crop demand peaked and rainfall diminished, particularly in the upland section of ES. A total of 152 ha of lowland fields and 15 ha of upland fields were supplied in the wet season. In the dry season, the area was 159 ha in the lowland and 7.3 ha in the upland. Irrigating the upland fields in the dry season is especially demanding, as pres-surized supply is required several times a week using our portable pumps. Unfortunately, we know little about what volumes of water were applied. We are blessed with a thorough network of re-ticulated supply that makes it easy to supply any field when required and of drains installed (through the vision of Dr. Ernest Nunn) that give us easy access to field drainage when and where required. We are not blessed, however, with the ability to control drain-age from the field or the ability to catch and recycle this drainage. In 2011, we constructed prototype overflow-type drainage inlets and also began plan-ning for a drainage-recycling system to overcome these deficiencies.

greenhouses, screenhouses, and phytotron

Both the greenhouses and screenhouses remained in high demand during 2011. Average occupancy was 96% for greenhouses and 100% for screenhouses, although less-than-full use of reserved space remains an issue. In 2011, ES reintroduced an insect-monitor-ing program in the greenhouses and screenhouses, which allows insect infestations to be dealt with in a more timely fashion, and also allows some analy-sis of the efficacy of the pesticides and application techniques that ES uses. After the release of the new FCR charges, usage in the phytotron gradually declined in late 2011. Many researchers felt that the charges for the indoor growth chambers, in particular, were too high to permit their use. Given the large proportion of the cost being represented by electricity to cool and light the facility and drive ventilation, little can be done with the current facility. ES continues to explore ways to reduce this cost, and new facilities should offer substantial energy savings and hence lower cost.

grounds maintenance

Keeping the IRRI campus lawns and landscape in good shape for the attraction of visitors and com-fort of staff was the main concern of the grounds crew of ES-Bioenvironment. The regular schedule of garbage collection and hauling every Monday and Thursday maintained clean and well-kept surround-ings. The main issue on proper waste segregation, especially on the campus, is still prevailing in spite of efforts to provide orientation to constituents and put labels on waste bins. With the new contrac-tor for garbage collection, the ES also generated and converted plastics, papers, and other recyclable

materials into modicum revenues. The small project on vermi-composting succeeded in converting bio-degradable wastes into useful soil conditioners. This initiative also attracted some residents at the staff housing, which could eventually reduce the amount of household and kitchen wastes being disposed of in garbage bins. The deployment of the skip loader truck with 10 units of 3-m3-sized skip bins provided much ease in declogging greenhouse/screenhouse zones of soil and plant wastes that are openly disposed of in waste bins. The collection and hauling schedule also proved to be helpful to researchers at the green-house/screenhouse facilities in tidying up the work-ing areas.

Equipment, fabrication, repair, and maintenance

Machine shop staff continued to repair and main-tain the fleet of tractors, implements, and other machines at ES. In particular, a steady stream of front-axle-bearing replacements was required in the tractors that work long hours in the mud. Moving away from heavy reliance on wet cultivation would reduce this task. The machine shop staff oversaw several con-struction projects in 2011. A new dryer was built that uses waste heat from an air-conditioning unit; a second dryer was built that draws heat from hot wa-ter to dry harvested samples. Both dryers demanded a lot of creativity and, at times, long repetitive work, but the staff rose to the challenge. Similarly, our three-point-linkage disc drill was renovated so as to seed either rice or maize into a cultivated or uncul-tivated seedbed. The result is a very clever creation

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that is unknown in the commercial world and fits our requirements very well. It will undergo further refinement in 2012 to improve seed placement(see photo below). In 2011, ES began a program of testing our mechanical threshers. We face unquantified cross-contamination between samples threshed in at least some of these threshers. Assessing cross-contami-nation against a common benchmark allows ES to identify threshers that need repairs, alterations, or even replacement. Perhaps the highlight of 2011 in the machine shop was the rapid repair of two old dump trucks and the gradual repair of the old Mitsubishi bulldoz-er. The dump trucks were consigned to the grave but were skillfully repaired and are now a crucial part of importing soil for our new wide bunds. The bulldoz-er has great strategic value, as its light weight and wide tracks help it float on very soft soil, which is a common enemy for much of the year. This equip-ment has now rejoined the fleet, with great benefit to ES.

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Administration

Our administrative staff fill perhaps the least recog-nized but most central role in ES. They continue to do this with great diligence and patience. Several parts of ES administration were refined in 2011 with the help of our information management specialist. The IES02 request process, which begins almost any action on ES, is now fully online and its handling upon receipt has been further automated. Likewise, the IES01 land reservation request is now online. Space reservation in the greenhouses and screen-houses is now online, making the process more di-rect and importantly more transparent, which should increase the efficiency of their usage over time. Internally, we have digitized our own warehouse inventory, which enables us to use stocks where we have them, buy when we need to, and, hopefully, in time, forecast this in advance a little better than in the past. Finally, ES has supported the administrative processes of Top Gem Cooperative to both provide and account for manual labor as requested in as timely a fashion as possible.

LIBRARY ANd dOCUmENTATION SERVICES

The IRRI Library and Documentation Services (LDS) continues to be the hub of all research activities of IRRI, playing a significant role in facilitating the crea-tion and dissemination of knowledge. Its range of services, comparable with those of the best libraries in the world, includes reference and consultation, online public access catalog and circulation, docu-ment delivery, resource sharing, information alert service, and ICT-enabled Web-based services. Besides holding an excellent print collection of more than 200,000 volumes of books, journals, theses, reports,

and pamphlets, it also provides access to more than 40,000 rice articles, electronic books, and journals. The LDS continues to offer its services to both inter-nal and external clients.

Collection development

The Acquisition Unit of the LDS has continuously built a comprehensive rice literature collection and various agricultural research materials to support IRRI’s rice research (LDS Table 1). This is being done through careful and intensive selection and evalu-ation of materials that are to be included in the resource pool.

BooksAdded to the collection were 184 new titles, 74 of which are mainly about rice research and the rest on related subjects.

LdS Table 1. Collection development in 2011.

Publication type Added in 2011

Total col-lection

Monographs (books, pamphlets) 479 120,797

Print 184

Electronic 10

Theses (print and electronic) 27 4,802

DVDs/video cassettes 8 244

CDs 56 240

Rice articles (print) 10 27,886

Rice articles (pdf) 5,970 31,065

Total collection (print and digital) – excluding journals

6,744 185,034

Online databases

Linked to Web site 4 76

Subscribed 1 4

IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011 10 of 17

E-books and E-readersThe Library bought eight E-readers for the use of the IRRI community. There were also 15 E-books (agricul-tural titles) purchased.

 E-journalsThe Library continued to enhance access to publica-tions by adding 59 free electronic journals. Our free E-journal collection has now reached 1,897.

SubscriptionsThe Library has online subscriptions to 386 journals and 30 journals in print, totaling 416. As subscrip-tion to these journals is very costly and as part of the CGIARLISC mandate, the Library shares 90 journal subscriptions with the Consortium to reduce costs.

Rice articlesRice articles (10) that were not available from the library journal subscriptions were purchased. Around mid-2011, rice articles were acquired from the Current Contents Connect: 691 rice articles were recorded either for downloading from the library journal subscriptions or to fill requests from authors.

Books and subscriptions for other unitsBook purchases and subscriptions for other units of IRRI are facilitated by the Library. LDS was able to buy 92 books and 7 articles and facilitated 15 sub-scriptions for other offices (LDS Table 2).

Collection organization

LDS has persevered to maintain the largest and most comprehensive collection of rice and rice-related lit-erature. The Library has increased its collection with

193 new titles purchased by the Library and 88 titles by other IRRI units. The collection has further grown with the inclusion of 479 titles from many authors and partner organizations. Of these, 34 electronic re-sources, fully accessible through dedicated comput-

ers, were added. Also made available were 66 theses and dissertations; of the 28 IRRI-assisted theses, 26 full-text versions were linked. Overall, we added 762 new titles to the collection.

Other activities

The Library donated 205 titles to three institutions. Two academic institutions were visited this year as part of the unit’s information-sharing activity. Library personnel were able to share their best practices with colleagues and expand their library network as well.

LdS services

Library Web site and OPAC databaseThe number of online users of the LDS Web site in-creased notably. There were 3,570 unique visitors for the year, with 14,872 page views and 7,327 visits. All these were external clients. The OPAC is one of the most heavily used da-tabases of the Library and is accessible 24/7 via the Library Web page. Besides listing all the documents

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LdS Table 2. Journal collection in 2011.

Acquisition mode Titles (no.)

Journal subscriptions (paid) 114

Print 27

Electronic 87

Joint subscriptions 43

Journal titles received as gifts or in exchange 1,144

Journal titles available via ScienceDirect subject collections (free in 2009 only)

195

Freely available E-journals linked to LDS Web site 1,582

Total active journals 3,035

Total current E-journals accessible to IRRI staff on campus

Paid subscription 87 ScienceDirect 195

1,864

Free E-journals from the Web 1,582

Archival E-journals 251

Distribution of 2011 collection, by type of materials.Distribution of 2011 collection, by subject.

Agriculture (nonrice)

Rice or rice-related

Human resources and management

Political science, law, and education

History, geography, literarture, and art

Environment and ecology

Socioeconomic development

Information, computer science, and technology

Books

Theses

Articles and related materials

Electronic resources

For IRRI units

IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011 11 of 17

available in the Library, it allows on-line renewal, circulation, and status identification of a particular book. The OPAC is searchable by author, title, words in the title, call number, subject, and several other fields.

Reference, consultation, and circulationReference Service helps users make full use of library resources and services. It assists users in locating in-formation or documents of their choice. The Library loaned 2,085 books and other documents to clients during the year. In addition to IRRI researchers, 2,543 walk-in clients, including students, research schol-ars, and faculty members from nearby universities, used the Library. In April, the Library started open-ing at lunch time to accommodate more users. The “Ask the Librarian” link encourages users to use the reference service virtually. The Wi-Fi facility in the reading area gives users seamless access to electronic resources.

Sharing of resourcesThe Library maintains excellent relations with librar-ies of the CGIAR, UPLB, ADB, and other institutions around the world through the exchange of books, journals, and photocopies of other materials (LDS Tables 3 and 4).

Information alert serviceThe Library continued to provide topic-based alerts to staff covering the following subjects: rice and starch, rice tolerance, rice and yield loss, rice and dis-ease, rice and sheath blight, rice and IPM, transgenic environment, rice and zinc, transgenic crops, roots and drought, drought-QTL-rice, and sheath blight-blast spots.

Rice bibliography

An integral part of the LDS is the Rice Bibliography section where scholarly articles on rice are processed. Indexing the articles is its flagship project. Processed entries are available in both print (Rice Literature Up-date) and electronic format, which can be accessed through the rice database. The rice database continues to grow to provide researchers with convenient and instant access to the world’s rice technical literature. Last year, the section indexed 1,013 bibliographic records in the database; downloaded 1,292 rice articles in pdf from free and subscription online journals; and provided links to 5,970 full-text rice articles in pdf within the database for easier access.

Staff development

The Library has a team of talented and dedicated people who were involved in various academic activi-ties. During the year, they presented papers in semi-nars and conferences, delivered lectures in various training programs, served on various committees as resource persons, and guided research staff to meet their information needs.

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LdS Table 3. Information services provided to CgIAR cent-ers and other institutions.

Institution Documents delivered (no.)ADB 6AfricaRice 4Bioversity 45CIFOR 6CIAT 5CIP 69ICIPE 1ICARDA 7ICRISAT 60IFPRI 10IITA 2ILRI 5IWMI 9IRRI 341ICRAF 6CIMMYT 4

LdS Table 4. Information services provided, by country.

Country Documents delivered (no.)

Australia 1

Bangladesh 5

Belgium 1

Brazil 1

China 5

Egypt 8

India 44

Indonesia 1

Iran 3

Italy 4

Malaysia 1

Peru 14

Philippines 128

Spain 1

Syria 2

Uganda 2

Uruguay 1

USA 7

Vietnam 3

IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011 12 of 17

EVENTS ANd VISITORS OffICE

The Institute welcomed 26,327 visitors in 2011 (EVO Table 1). These included distinguished guests such as His Excellency Troung Tan Sang, president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, five ambassadors, 43 government officials, various members of the diplomatic community, and representatives of donor and international organizations, including the United States Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and the Australian Agency for International Development.

distinguished visitors in 2011

Members of the diplomatic corpsH.E. Luca Fornari, ambassador of the Italian Repub-

lic to the Philippines, and Mr. Joseph Kalingag, commercial officer, Embassy of the Italian Repub-lic to the Philippines, 21 Jan

H.E. Stephen Lillie, ambassador of the United King-dom to the Philippines, and party, 22 Mar

H.E. Christopher Thornley, ambassador of Canada to the Philippines, and party, 12 May

H.E. S.A.O. Egurube, ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Philippines, and party, 23 Sep

H.E. Thierry Borja de Mozota, ambassador of the Republic of France to the Philippines, and party, 23 Nov

Legislators and government officialsH.E. Truong Tan Sang, president of the Socialist Re-

public of Vietnam, and party, 27 OctHon. Dennis Araullo, assistant secretary, Philippine

Department of Agriculture (DA), and party, 27 Jan

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Mr. Akio Isomata, minister for economic affairs, and Mr. Takehiko Sakata, first secretary (agriculture), Embassy of Japan, 8 Mar

Mr. Dante Delima, director, Bureau of Plant Industry, and coordinator, National Rice Program, and party, 8 Jul

Ms. Janet Stormes, professional staff member, United States Senate Committee on Appropria-tions, and Ms. Dorothy Rayburn, congressional liaison officer, and party, 27 Aug

Dr. Eufemio Rasco, Jr., executive director, Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), 30 Sep

Visitor group Philippines Asia USA South America

North America

Australia Europe Africa Total

Students 17,498 624 128 0 4 5 107 0 18,366Faculty members, university staff,

parents1,848 133 24 0 3 2 36 0 2,046

Donors 38 63 28 0 0 1 19 4 153Staff of UN agencies, CGIAR, etc. 232 45 6 0 0 0 6 9 298Scientists, researchers 45 105 8 0 0 3 9 32 202Private sector 299 543 38 0 0 2 30 0 912Media 15 14 3 0 0 0 6 0 38Farmers 784 20 0 0 7 0 1 0 812Staff of government agencies 922 264 3 0 0 0 2 17 1,208Government officials/politicians 4 30 0 2 4 0 3 0 43Representatives of nongovernment

organizations407 160 83 0 6 0 17 3 676

Religious groups 119 14 1 0 2 0 60 0 196Conference participants 69 150 0 0 0 0 8 10 237Tourists 11 419 15 0 0 0 3 0 448Others 498 73 79 0 13 7 22 0 692

Total 22,789 2,657 416 2 39 20 329 75 26,327

EVO Table 1. IRRI visitors, by group, in 2011.

Representatives of various organizationsDr. David Bergvinson, senior program officer, and Dr.

Brian Love, program officer, Science and Technol-ogy, Global Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), 7 Jan

Ms. Diane Scott, public affairs and communications officer, Global Development Policy and Advocacy, BMGF, 24 Jan

Dr. Jean-Marcel Ribaut, director, Generation Chal-lenge Program, 31 Jan

Ms. Lucy Sutro, managing director, Fleming Family Partners, and Mr. Simon Cox, principal, Savanna Capital Management Limited, 2 Mar

Dr. Romel Carlos, operations officer and program manager for Sustainable Energy, Finance Advi-sory Services, Philippines; Anup Jagwani, princi-

IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011 13 of 17

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pal investment officer, Manufacturing, Agribusi-ness and Services Department; and Ms. Patricia Wycoco, investment officer, Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services Department, Interna-tional Finance Corporation, 17 Mar

Mr. Rikin Gandhi, chief executive officer, Digital Green, New Delhi, India, 17 Mar

Mr. Robert van Zwieten, director, Capital Markets and Financial Sectors Division (PSCM), Private Sector Operations Department; and Mr. Stefan Hruschka, principal investment specialist, PSCM, and head of Project Administration Unit, Asian Development Bank (ADB), 17 Mar

Mr. Owen Williams, segment manager, SAK HMC, Leica Geosystems Technologies Pte. Ltd., Singa-pore, 23 Mar

Dr. Andrew Green, director, Environment, Health and Sustainability, International Zinc Association, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 4 Apr

Mr. Rafael Alunan III, president, Lopez Group Foun-dation, Inc., and party, 7 Jun

Mr. Tony Tan Caktiong, chairman and chief executive officer, Jollibee Foods Corporation, and party, 23 Jun

Mr. Herve Thieblemont, ICS rice business manager APAC, and Mr. Chu Viet Ha, global head of Rice Seeds Portfolio, Syngenta, 1 Jul

Ms. Clara Reyes Lapus, president, Mama Sita Foun-dation, Inc., 18 Jul

Dr.NatalieDiNicola,director,SustainableYieldInitia-tive Development Partnerships, Monsanto, 5 Aug

Mr. Geoff Lucraft, president and chief executive officer, Philippine Christian Foundation, Inc., 31 Aug

Dr. Anil Menon, senior research scientist II, Global Insecticide Research, BASF, RTP, North Carolina, USA, 6 Sep

date Title Participants (no.)

Countries represented (no.)

5-7 Jan C4 Rice Annual Planning Meeting 60 910 Jan Syngenta Business Meeting 7 1

25-27 Jan Golden Rice Communications Strategic Planning Meeting 20 42-4 Feb Cyber-Village Phase 2: Luzon Workshop 45 115 Feb Seminar on Implementation Experience and Regulatory

Compliance to DA-AO 8100 1

21-23 Feb Asia Regional HR Heads’ Meeting 10 422 Feb Rice Advisory Board Meeting 10 528 Feb IRRI-DA Farmers’ Day 700 122 Mar HRDC Annual Meeting 70 3

23-25 Mar GRiSP Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop 15 813-15 Apr IRRI Board of Trustees’ Meeting 15 115-6 May CCARA Annual Project Meeting 45 2

24-25 May Golden Rice IBC Team Meeting 40 430-31 May Workshop on Developing Financial Products for Precision

Agricultural Products and Services for Small-Holder Rice Farmers30 4

9 Jun FIN Management Workshop 35 225 Jul-5 Aug Training-Workshop on Technology Evaluation and Impact

Assessment23 10

26 Jul-18 Aug CGIAR OCS Process Workshop 22 729 Aug Concluding Meeting of the GSR Asian Annual Review 45 3

13-15 Sep GCP Project Meeting/ Workshop 28 620-22 Sep ICON Project Workshop 51 2

3-8 Oct GRiSP Asia Review and Global Science Forum 56 1925 Oct 15th CORRA Annual Meeting 16 16

27 Oct-10 Nov Training Workshop on Phenotyping for Abiotic Stresses in Rice 24 12

21-26 Nov Country Office Representatives’ Week 20 1129-30 No Sustainable Rice Platform Meeting 25 57-9 Dec Digital ICT Workshop 67 11

14-16 Dec C4 Rice Annual Meeting 60 9

EVO Table 2. International and regional conferences, workshops, symposia, and meetings hosted and co-sponsored by IRRI in 2011.a

aAll held at IRRI headquarters.

IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011 14 of 17

Dr. Fabrizio Bresciani, senior agricultural economist, Sustainable Development Department East Asia and Pacific, Indonesia, World Bank Office, Jakarta, Indonesia, 22 Sep

Ms. Maria Herrero, global regulatory manager, and Ms. Jayne Walz, regulatory manager, Valent Biosciences Corporation, 30 Sep

Prof. Tim Wheeler, deputy chief scientific adviser, De-partment for International Development, United Kingdom, 6 Oct

Dr.LeeYoung-Yi,researcher,NationalAcademyofAgricultural Science, South Korea, 21 Nov

MediaTV crew from Agence de Presse-LPBV-Elle est pas

belle la vie!,11 JanMr. Thilo Thielke, correspondent, Der Spiegel, 12 JanMr. Carl Gierstorfer, journalist, Deutsche Welle, Ber-

lin, Germany, 17 JanMs. Carol Selva Rajah, crew executive producer,

“Grasshopper in the Field,” 25 JanMr. Eric San Juan, journalist, Agence Efe, 2 FebTV crew from “Mel and Joey,” GMA Network, Inc.,

16 FebTV crew from “Why Not?,” ABS-CBN Foundation,

Inc., 8 MarMr. Michael Lenz, correspondent, Wissenschaft On-

line, Germany, 8 MarMedia crew from The Asahi Shimbun, 22 MarMr. Ernst Herb, Asia correspondent, Finanz und

Wirtschaft (Zurich), 21 JunMs. Hana Saito, journalist, The Japan Agricultural

News, 28 JunMark Zavadskiy, chief Asia correspondent, Expert,

18 AugMr. Sam Eaton, journalist, Marketplace, 1 Sep

RICEWORLd mUSEUm ANd ExhIBITS OffICE

IRRI organized a two-in-one exhibit during the Philip-pine National Rice Awareness Month in November at SM City, Calamba, Laguna, Philippines. The exhibit featured newly developed GRiSP information posters that summarize IRRI technologies and projects. The exhibit was done in tandem with an art exhibit by Paul R. Hilario and Manuel Bactong, Jr. of Riceworld Museum. The art exhibit was about the influence of rice in culture. Two of the artworks were featured in the 2012 IRRI and The Rice Trader calendars. In 2011, the Riceworld Museum and Exhibits Office (RMEO) also participated in four other exhibi-tions:

• Wonderama, Syensaya, Baker Hall, UPLB, July

• Rice Exhibit at Learning Links Academy, South Forbes City, Silang, Cavite, September

• DTI exhibit, SM Calamba, October• SSD exhibit, DA, Quezon City, October

The Riceworld Museum was closed to the public in September 2011 to pave the way for renovation and construction of a new rice gallery. It reopened in January 2012. The RMEO conducted a thorough inventory and appraisal of IRRI-owned artworks at IRRI headquar-ters and at the IRRI Guesthouse. The Vicente Reyes painting in Umali Hall was professionally restored. The Office also coordinated with the Interna-tional Rice Genebank in growing and multiplying various Philippine rice varieties to assist the newly opened Mind Museum at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, in putting up a rice display.

SEEd hEALTh UNIT

Phytosanitary certification

The Seed Health Unit (SHU) issued 600 phytosanitary certificates covering 89,462 nontransgenic seedlots (2,593 kg) sent to 55 countries worldwide from January to December 2011 (SHU Table 1). By region, Southeast Asia received the highest total number of shipments (233) and seedlots (24,384;1,529 kg). In addition, through the SHU, 22 phytosanitary certifi-cates covering 739 transgenic seedlots (66 kg) were issued and sent to 10 countries worldwide (SHU Table 2). North America received the highest total number of shipments (8) and seedlots (195; 64 kg). SHU Table 3 shows the nature of shipments, regional destinations, and corresponding total number of shipments and seedlots. The highest number of ship-ments was for nontransgenic rice seeds: 548 cover-ing 87,165 seedlots (2,567 kg); these were sent to 10 regions worldwide. The exported materials came from different organizational units: C4 Rice Center, Development Office (DO), Grain Quality and Nutrition Center (GQNC), Intellectual Property Management Unit (IPMU), Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnol-ogy (PBGB), Seed Health Unit (SHU), and T.T. Chang Genetic Resources Center (TTC-GRC) (SHU Tables 4a and 4b). PBGB sent the highest number of nontrans-genic and transgenic shipments with 354 shipments (covering 74,402 seedlots and weighing 2,225 kg) and 10 shipments (covering 338 seedlots and weigh-ing 63 kg), respectively. The nontransgenic ship-ments included dehulled seeds, milled and polished rice, paddy seeds, and wild rice seeds, whereas the transgenic shipments included unhulled seeds,

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IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011 15 of 17

dehulled seeds, polished Golden Rice, and milled Golden Rice. Fifty-five phytosanitary certificates covering 36,066 seedlots (915 kg) were also issued to INGER-PBGB for their nursery seed distribution to 29 coun-tries worldwide (SHU Table 5). By region, East Asia received the most shipments, 15, while Southeast Asia got the highest number of seedlots, 15,752. The different fungi detected with corresponding affected seedlots and detection levels are shown in SHU Table 6. Routine seed health tests conducted on 3,487 nontreated, outgoing seedlots showed that Curvularia spp. affected 96.4% of the seedlots, followed by Trichoconis padwickii (92.2%), Phoma spp. (80.6%), Nigrospora spp. (49.9%), Sarocladium oryzae (47.7%), Bipolaris oryzae (26.9%), Fusar-ium moniliforme (24.4%), Microdochium oryzae (17.5%), Tilletia barclayana (10.1%), Pyricularia oryzae (1.7%), and Aphelenchoides besseyi (0.6%). All exported rice seeds were cleaned for objects of quarantine importance and their health status tested. These were treated using standard ASEAN seed treatment methods—hot water 52―57 °C/15 min. This was followed by fungicide slurry treatment with benomyl and mancozeb, both at 0.1% by seed weight, except for countries that do not allow seed treatment. Fumigation with phosphine was also administered to all outgoing seeds.

Advance testing for TTC-gRC seeds

The health status of 5,323 GRC seedlots was as-sessed before storage. The different fungi detected with corresponding detection level and number of affected seedlots are shown in SHU Table 7. Routine seed health testing of 3,360 nontreated seedlots

revealed that Curvularia spp. affected 100% of the seedlots, followed by T. padwickii, 88.1%; Phoma spp., 75.9%; Nigrospora spp., 69.2%; B. oryzae, 22.2%; S. oryzae, 11.0%; F. moniliforme, 5.6%; A. besseyi; 3.3%, M. oryzae; 0.5%, P. oryzae, 0.2%; and T. barclayana, 0.03%.

Post-entry clearance

Eighty-one incoming nontransgenic seed shipments (14,090 seedlots weighing 1,341 kg) from 26 coun-tries were also processed for post-entry clearance from January to December (SHU Table 8). By region, South Asia had the highest total number of ship-ments (21), while East Asia registered the highest total number of seedlots (6,171). In addition, five incoming transgenic seed shipments from five coun-tries were also processed through the SHU for post-entry clearance (SHU Table 9). The highest number of seedlots came from Oceania (590). The nature of incoming shipments and origin with corresponding total number of shipments, total number of seedlots, and total weight are shown in SHU Table 10. Non-transgenic rice seeds comprised the highest incom-ing shipments in terms of total number of shipments (65) and total number of seedlots (13,831), weighing 1,075 kg. The consignees of these seed shipments are shown in SHU Table 11. PBGB received 68 shipments (7,027 seedlots weighing 666 kg), which included four shipments of transgenic rice seeds (187 seedlots weighing 12 kg). The TTC-GRC got seven shipments of nontransgenic rice seeds covering 5,083 seedlots and weighing 596 kg; the C4 Rice Center received five incoming shipments (2,376 seedlots weighing 6 kg), which included one shipment of transgenic

rice seeds (590 seedlots weighing 0.6 kg); GQNC received four shipments of rice flour and rice seeds (379 seedlots weighing 70 kg); and CESD received two incoming shipments of rice seeds (2 seedlots weighing 15 kg). A post-entry examination conducted on 3,844 incoming seedlots showed that, of the visually inspected seedlots, none were contaminated with weed seeds, damaged by insects, or had soil par-ticles. In terms of general quality, 3,456 seedlots (89.9%) were under category 3 (SHU Table 12). Seed health tests on 338 incoming, nontreated seedlots showed that T. padwickii affected 85.2% of the seedlots, followed by Curvularia spp., 80.2%; Phoma spp., 41.4%; S. oryzae, 39.1%; T. barclaya-na, 30.5%; Nigrospora spp., 29.9%; F. moniliforme, 25.2%; M. oryzae, 24.9%; B. oryzae, 24.0%; P. oryzae, 2.01%; and A. besseyi, 0.60% (SHU Table 13). The prescribed ASEAN standard treatments were applied to all incoming seeds. material Transfer Agreements

The different types of MTA for outgoing (exported) and incoming (imported) transgenic and nontrans-genic rice seeds/grains are shown in SHU Tables 14a and 14b, respectively. There were 744 various MTAs issued for 677 outgoing (exported) shipments cover-ing 126,267 seedlots (3,574 kg). Of these, 702 were standard MTAs issued for 616 shipments covering 113,668 seedlots (2,964 kg). On the other hand, 86 various MTAs were received for 86 shipments of rice seeds covering 14,867 seedlots (1,353 kg). Forty-one incoming shipments covering 7,802 seedlots (937 kg) were accompanied by a standard MTA.

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IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011

Crop health inspection

Crop health inspections were conducted on post-entry quarantine areas and GRC, PBGB, CESD, and GQNPC seed multiplication plots during the 2011 dry and wet seasons at three different crop stages. SHU Table 15 shows the different diseases observed on the seeds with the corresponding percentage of prevalence. Among incoming materials planted during the dry and wet seasons, no disease was observed at the seedling stage. During the dry sea-son, the most prevalent disease observed at tillering and maturity stages was tungro, 3.0% and 3.8%, respectively. This was also true in both stages during the wet season; tungro prevalence was 23.3% and 20.5%, respectively. On the other hand, no seedling-stage disease was observed on materials planted in multiplica-tion plots during the dry season. The most preva-lent disease observed at tillering was bacterial leaf streak (0.9%); at maturity, the most prevalent was false smut (1.1%). During the wet season, the most prevalent disease of the seedlings was bakanae (0.1%). The most prevalent wet-season disease was bacterial leaf streak: 9.3% during tillering and 7.7% at maturity.

Nonseed biological materials and soil samples

Outgoing (exported)Through SHU, a total of 119 shipments covering 17,356 various nontransgenic samples were pro-cessed for phytosanitary certification and sent to 24 countries worldwide (SHU Table 16). By region, East Asia received 19 shipments covering 6,949 samples; Europe and Central Asia, 40 shipments covering 4,390 samples; Latin America, 1 shipment covering

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200 samples; North America, 20 shipments cover-ing 2,830 samples; Oceania, 7 shipments covering 1,296 samples; South Asia, 7 shipments covering 390 samples; Southeast Asia, 20 shipments cover-ing 1,250 samples; sub-Saharan Africa, 2 shipments covering 2 samples, and West Asia and North Africa, 1 shipment covering 43 samples. In addition, a total of 16 shipments covering 670 various transgenic samples were processed for phytosanitary certification and sent to 8 countries worldwide (SHU Table 17). By region, East Asia got 3 shipments covering 22 samples; Europe and Cen-tral Asia, 6 shipments covering 402 samples; North America, 5 shipments covering 169 samples; and Oceania, 2 shipments covering 77 samples. SHU Table 18 shows the sources and total num-ber of transgenic and nontransgenic NSBM and soil sample shipments exported by IRRI. The nature and corresponding number of samples sent by different organizational units are also shown in this table. The C4 Rice Center sent 28 shipments covering 1,790 samples; CESD sent 27 shipments covering 4,382 samples; TTC-GRC sent 6 shipments covering 6,157 samples; and PBGB sent 74 shipments covering 5,697 samples.

Incoming (imported)Forty-eight shipments (covering 11,501 samples) coming from eight regions were also processed for post-entry clearance (SHU Table 19). The nature of incoming materials with corresponding total number of shipments and total number of samples are also shown in this table. The highest number of shipments came from Europe and Central Asia with 19, while the highest number of samples came from Southeast

Asia with 7,820. The highest number of samples was nontransgenic rice leaves with 5,480 samples sent by Vietnam, followed by transgenic rice leaves (dead) with 2,470 samples sent by Taiwan. The recipients of these incoming materials were ASL with 9 shipments covering 33 samples; C4 Rice Center with 12 shipments covering 2,668 samples; CESD with 8 shipments covering 1,382 samples; and PBGB with 19 shipments covering 7,418 samples (SHU Table 20).

Monitoring of disposal and movement of transgenicsPart of SHU’s responsibility is to coordinate with dif-ferent organizational units and assist plant quaran-tine service officers in monitoring the disposal and movement of transgenic materials. SHU Table 21 shows the sources and nature of disposals, while SHU Table 22 shows the sources and nature of movements.

Workshops, training courses, and visitors

SHU also participated in the following activities coordinated by the Training Center and/or National Program Relations: 1) orientation of OJTs, postdoc-toral fellows, MS and PhD research scholars, and interns from different organizational units; and 2) training workshops such as the Rice Production Course with 28 participants from different countries, Rice Research for African participants, Season-Long Training of Trainers on Sustainable Rice Production for agricultural workers of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Quezon provinces, and OJTs from DA-BAR. Visitors included the following: NARES breeders Dr. Zhao Dule and Mr. Then Rathmuny (Cambodia), Dr. Ashu-

IRRI AnnuAl RepoRt 2011

tosh Kumar Mall and Dr. Rupinder Kaur (India), and Mr.RambaranYadav(Nepal);KoreanvisitorsfromRDA:Dr.Young-AhJeon,Ms.JeongHyePark,Dr.Seo-Jun Park, Mr. Mi-Na Park, and Dr. Hyun-Hu Park;

Mr. Kelan Evans and Ms. Wilhelmina Santos-Ousley, United States Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, International Ser-vice, Manila; and students from Central Luzon State

University, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, and UP Los Baños, College, Laguna.

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