The Hybrid Rice Development Consortium (HRDC) had a very successful 3-day Annual Meeting last September 21-23 at IRRI Headquarters in the Philippines. Public and private partners from around the world came together virtually and face-to-face to meet, discuss, plan, and collaborate on the group’s activities for advancing hybrid rice research, technologies, and development for the benefit of global food security.
Day 1 was a whole day program at IRRI, where scientists and speakers talked about continuing developments and showcased progress on various activities, followed by presentations of new technologies and feedback from the members. Day 2 in the morning had the members visit the trialing fields of various hybrid rice varieties in IRRI, while the afternoon was taken up by land travel to Nueva Ecija. There on Day 3 in the rice granary province of the Philippines, the members toured the seed reproducibility trials of the Hybrid Rice at Central Luzon State University and various fields at the Philippine Rice Research Institute.
See the collection of pictures taken during the HRDC 2022 Annual Meeting.
DAY 1
Dr. Hans Bhardwaj provides One CGIAR-IRRI/ Key HRDC updates to the members of the consortium.
For the past two years, HRDC held its Annual Meeting in a virtual mode. This year, the event is held in a hybrid set-up where members joined both virtually via Zoom Meeting and face-to-face at the IRRI Headquarters.
Open forum during the afternoon session in which the HRDC engagement in Africa, business model for NARES, and improvements in HRDC are being discussed.
PhilRice Executive Director, Dr. John De Leon, sharing his thoughts on the HRDC engagement in Africa.
2022 HRDC Annual Meeting Participants with IRRI Scientists & Deputy Director General for Research, Dr. Ajay Kohli.
Welcome Dinner and cocktails at the IRRI Guest House.
DAY 2
Associate Scientist, Mr. Angelito Galang, giving a tour at the F1 Demonstration Plot.
Tour at the F1 Demonstration Plot.
Associate Scientist, Mr. Jerico Bigornia, also provided a tour at the Direct Seeded Rice experimental plots.
Tour at the direct-seeded hybrids demonstration plot.
HRDC and some of the invited IRRI participants at the Hybrid Rice Seed Production plot.
With IRRI’s Director General, Dr. Jean Balie. Photo was taken before the participants left for Nueva Ecija.
DAY 3
Dr. Jauhar Ali, HRDC Lead, providing a short briefing before the start of the field tour in Nueva Ecija.
Showcase of the hybrid rice seed production plot at Central Luzon State University.
Field tour at the hybrid rice seed production plot.
The participants strike a pose before the hybrid rice seed production plot.
Affiliate scholar, Mr. Leonilo Gramaje, providing the tour at PhilRice.
Dr. Susan Brena, from PhilRice, discussing about two-line hybrid rice research.
Participants checking out the NCT-hybrids block.
Taken at the famous rice paddy art at PhilRice. This time, the rice paddy art features Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.
The participants got a “bonus” tour at PhilRice’s new facility.
Tour at the Crop Biotechnology Center by Dr. Arlen dela Cruz.