An adventure in applied science - IRRI books - International Rice ...

IRRI today 169oping cooperative national program — IRRI projects and help coordinateinternational rice testing activities.Obviously, the large increase in IRRI's resident staff and visiting scientistswas accompanied by an expansion of similar magnitude in the amount ofresearch being conducted at the Institute. Proof of this is the fact that IRRI'sAnnual Report for 1972 contained 246 pages, that for 1979 had 538 pages, yet thedegree of detail reported remained about the same.In 1974, a policy change affecting the titles of senior scientists was theaddition of the word principal to the designated positions of a few of the moresenior staff who had been at IRRI for many years. For instance, Ponnamperuma'stitle was altered from soil chemist to principal soil chemist. Likewise,Ou became principal plant pathologist. This made possible the recognition ofsuperior performance over an extended period.Other IRRI employeesAs the research program expanded and as IRRI acquired more experimentalland, it was necessary to add research assistants, secretaries, farm laborers, andother personnel. By way of contrast, in 1972 the number of scientifically trainedstaff below the level of senior scientist (those, that is, with titles of assistantscientist, senior research assistant, research assistant, and research aide) was134. By 1980, the figure had risen to 320. The total number of employees at IRRIin February 1972 was 735; today (1981) it is about 1,800.THE PHYSICAL PLANTBetween 1963, when the initial group of buildings was completed, and 1972,certain secondary additions were made to the IRRI complex. They includedseveral greenhouses, more screenhouse space for the plant breeders, expansionof facilities for Buildings and Grounds, new space arrangements in thelaboratory and administration buildings, and ten new houses in the staffhousing area. The major additions to the complex, however, occurred after1973.In late 1974 the Philippine Government was able to purchase 336 ha of landadjacent to IRRI’s experimental farm and assigned it to the College of Agricultureand to IRRI. At the time, the College did not need quite so much land asIRRI did and thus saw to it that the latter had the use of more than half the newtract. After the acquired land had been properly prepared for experimentaluse, the Institute's area for field research increased from 80 to 320 ha. The landwas used not only for work with wetland, flooded rice but also for drylandexperiments with rice and with the many other crops being studied in IRRI’scropping systems program.In 1974, too, IRRI’s million-dollar phytotron, a gift of the Government ofAustralia, was completed. It contains 6 glasshouse rooms and 18 growthcabinets — 10 artificially lighted and 8 naturally lighted. Temperature, daylength, and humidity can be controlled in each. Interestingly, the originalrequest made in 1971, for a phytotron for IRRI was a relatively modest one.