Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation team visits ISARC, meets scientists

Varanasi: A team of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation visited International Rice Research Institute South Asia Regional Center (ISARC), Varanasi and had a detailed discussion with IRRI scientists coordinated by Uma Shankar Singh, Asia and Africa Advisor for Research & Partnerships, IRRI.According to the ISARC spokesperson, the Seed Without Borders agreement is being facilitated by IRRI with support from BMGF to promote unrestricted movement of seed of improved varieties of different crops across the countries. Ten countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam have signed this agreement. The focal point of discussion was how ISARC and BMGF can work towards expanding this agreement to more countries, particularly in Africa and use this agreement to quickly move high yielding, nutritionally rich, healthy and stress tolerant rice varieties to address food and nutritional security under changing climate.The ISARC scientists explained the status of research and development work being done by the institute on single and multiple stress tolerant rice varieties, Zn rich rice varieties, low and ultra-low glycemic index rice varieties which would be safe for the diabetics, climate resilient management technologies, innovative seed multiplication and out-scaling strategies to take them quickly to the large number farmers in Asia and Africa for the benefit of both farmers and consumers.Foundation’s Director (Global Growth and Opportunities) Purvi Mehta and Senior Program Officer (Agriculture Development) Siddhartha Chaturvedi actively participated in the discussion and gave suggestions to improve the strategy. The specialists present at the event also discussed strategies to leverage the “Seeds Without Border” agreement to quickly move the seed of new varieties across Asia and Africa so that farmers across the globe could have access to the better quality of seeds of new improved varieties.Mehta emphasized on expanding the agreement to more countries, particularly to Africa so that more and more farmers could be benefitted through the initiative. She described SWB as the best initiative of One CGIAR, through which multiple stakeholders come forward to work towards shared goals of poverty alleviation and hunger reduction. She also urged IRRI scientists to work collaboratively to address the issues and challenges related to climatic change along with ensuring food and nutritional security.
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