IRRI Research and Green Revolution

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was founded in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations with support from the Philippine government. IRRI develops superior rice varieties that produce more grain and are more resistant to pests, diseases, floods, droughts, and other natural disasters. This agricultural revolution using modern science is known as the Green Revolution.

In 1966, IRRI released IR8, a high-yielding semi-dwarf rice variety often lauded as “miracle rice” that can fight hunger. The rice required fertilizers and pesticides but produced much higher yields than the traditional cultivars. IR8 swept across Asian rice fields and dramatically increased Asian rice yields from 1-2 tons per hectare to 4-5 tons per hectare. 

In the following years, Japanese agronomists were sent to IRRI to conduct further research on hybrid rice. Although a different political regime was in effect, the new agricultural revolution had the same logic as Horai rice, under the heroic mission to eradicate poverty.

Despite its seemingly impressive outcomes, the Green Revolution had extraordinary impacts on the environment: the extinction of native plant varieties and local wisdom in agriculture, ecological damage, and climate change.

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