The world food crisis is prominent in today’s news. The sustainable production of food and household food security are high on the agenda globally. World food reserves are low, and the spike in food prices is alarming. The Millennium Development Goals will need to be revised, as many households again sink back into poverty and as many, and more, remain mired there.
Students’ experiences in other countries change their lives forever. We have seen that this is especially true for students participating in research in the developing world. Exposure to the basic unmet needs of people around the world puts in perspective the value of research and teaching in agriculture. Many of today’s issues, such as the doubling of the price of basic staples, the dwindling stockpiles of food grain, and the number of people with essentially no income (162 million people live on less than US $0.50 per day [6]) highlight the need for urgent action on behalf of the world’s most deprived peoples and clearly have an impact on all of us. From the perspective of a university student, the professional path to a career in international agricultural research and development may not be obvious. Many students aspire to be part of the solution but have no idea how to contribute or where they might fit in.
We are aware of many factors contributing to the current food crisis. For rice, there has been the unseasonable weather with extensive flooding and a severe cyclone in Bangladesh, prolonged drought in Australia, and the current tragedies in Myanmar and China. Coupled with these has been a brown planthopper pest and associated disease outbreak in Vietnam. The news media have also highlighted the neglect in funding for agricultural research [1]. In addition, we have become acutely aware of climate change and the impact that this may have on food production systems.
International agricultural research centers (IARCs) such as the Future Harvest Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) are places where the application of science is clearly a powerful way to make a difference in this world. In this paper, we would like to highlight the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). IRRI was founded in the Philippines in 1960 as a center for rice research and education to meet the threat of famine in the Asian region. IRRI’s program embraced both technical and policy research aimed at developing strategies for reducing the risk of famine and building food security. The second and equally important role that IRRI took on was in building a generation of scientists in the region. This thrust through the 1960s and 1970s gave rise to the Green Revolution in rice (and similarly in wheat at IRRI’s sister institute, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo). IRRI has continued its research and education in and out of season, with abundant or scarce resources. Even in the recent climate of fewer resources, IRRI has recognized the need to develop the next generation of rice scientists to meet the long-term challenges to rice food security. A global network of scientists, along with alliances for impact, must underpin the rice systems of the future.
It is strikingly clear that even short-term exposure to the IRRI research agenda provides students with the intrinsic feeling that they are doing something important. The serious, positive philosophy that students detect at such centers will likely have a major impact on their future careers. The 15 CGIAR centers (http://www.cgiar.org/) sponsor research in more than 100 countries. These centers have an educational obligation in addition to research, so the opportunities for students are overwhelming. In addition to the CGIAR centers, there are many other IARCs contributing to these goals.
The traditional approach to providing international agriculture exposure to students is to do a thesis or part of a thesis at an international center (in so-called “sandwich programs”). The primary challenge is that international thesis research requires a commitment of several years overseas and this may not fit the agenda of the great majority of students. Thus, most students do not acquire any exposure to the needs and opportunities for international agricultural research. Today’s students place great value on receiving a cutting-edge education using the latest technology and instrumentation. They are well aware of the level of competitiveness required to be successful in their fields. The average age at which a new independent investigator receives his or her first grant is 42 [4]. Students are keenly tuned to the need to be well informed and well trained in a variety of sophisticated research strategies and technologies, and most students do not see a way to integrate technical training with international agricultural research. Consequently, they graduate with little or no understanding of the international research infrastructure and how it achieves useful results in the developing world. Furthermore, reductions in core funds within the CGIAR [2] have seriously eroded the capacity to launch new training initiatives in recent years.
The World Food Prize Youth Institute, developed by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, provides bright high school students with the opportunity to experience 2-month terms of in situ exposure to research at an international agricultural research center. This opportunity opens a whole new world to them. Many US university faculties also have had short-term experiences in various countries and return better informed and more deeply committed to providing similar opportunities for their students. The challenge is to bring together people with diverse intellectual backgrounds and focus their energy into a common scientific tour de force to address global problems in agriculture. Per Pinstrup-Andersen, former chair of the CGIAR Science Council, recently identified a worthy challenge. He noted, “The global food system is in disarray…and the focus of science for the global food system should be on creating more with less, assuring sustainability in the management of natural resources and utilizing all appropriate scientific methods” (2008) [5].
The question raised by the current scenario is how can we encourage students interested in the latest scientific methods to consider a career in international agricultural research? We believe that short-term exposure at an IARC can provide students with insights that will make them more likely to apply for positions at IARCs. We would like to highlight two programs that are designed to help orient students in their professional journey, especially as they seek ways to become engaged in responding to the rice crisis, and become involved in finding solutions.