Global Rice Science Partnership for International Agricultural Research Collaboration Development of Korea

The Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) is a partnership coordinated by six research-for-development organizations that brings together over 900 partners from the academic (223), public (394), private (113), and civil society (150) sectors with a stake in the rice development sector. GRiSP was launched in 2011 to pursue the following objectives: (1) increasing rice productivity and value, (2) fostering sustainable rice-based production systems, and (3) improving efficiency and equity of the rice sector. To accomplish those goals, GRiSP has organized and managed 26 product lines (PL) under 6 themes, and a total of 903 organizations from 47 counties are participating in a global GRiSP. The major focal regions of GRiSP are South Asia (31%), Southeast Asia (17%), and Africa (15%) in terms of the number of organizations. In GRiSP, various networks or consortia on a regional and global scale are linked to implement variety diffusion, improving rice quality and nutrition, research on phenotyping and gene function, and sustainable agriculture. As one of the core organizations in GRiSP, IRRI is principally funded by the CGIAR centers/consortium, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S., Japan, etc. RDA in Korea and IRRI have maintained a partnership for 50 years in various areas such as improving varieties, developing cultivation techniques, and studying rice germplasm. However, only three projects are directly linked with the current GRiSP program structure. In this paper, five prospective areas in additional GRiSP programs are suggested for their high value, especially for Korea: (1) developing varieties through molecular breeding, (2) combining ICT and agriculture, (3) establishing an international cooperation system, (4) studying gender roles in agriculture, and (5) training younger researchers for the rice sector and contributing to agricultural policy.