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

6 History of the International Rice Research Instituteachieving an appreciable yield increase if they did. He concluded that the FordFoundation, as well as several other agencies working on extension programs,had ”got the cart before the horse,” and that much more agricultural researchwas needed to support extension’s work among farmers growing basic foodcrops.He noted, in addition, that many of the community development workersin India did not have an agricultural background and had never grown a cropof rice or wheat themselves. He reasoned that not only was more agriculturalresearch required but that extension people needed intensive training in thetechniques of crop production.As an agricultural economist, Hill looked also at the larger picture of thetrends in food production and in population growth rates during the pastseveral decades. He saw that the yield of cereal grains in the developingcountries had been essentially static for many years, while population growthduring the same period ranged between 2 and 3% annually.In surveying the agricultural needs of the developing countries both Harrarand Hill deduced that the amount and quality of research on rice in Asia,outside of Japan and Taiwan, were inadequate. Although most of the ricegrowingcountries had a few well-trained research scientists working with thebasic food crops, their number was too small and their research facilities andbudgets were too meager to enable them to develop improved technologycapable of substantially increasing yields.These observations all pointed to the conclusion that a balanced, highquality, discipline-integrated rice research program was needed, along withfinancial support for a long enough period to explore fully the possibility ofincreasing yields.Hill had completed his round of visits to the far-flung programs of the FordFoundation at the time of the historic luncheon meeting on 18 August 1958.Harrar, who had successfully pioneered the Rockefeller Foundation’s MexicanAgricultural Program and had demonstrated what agricultural researchand training could do to increase food production in a developing country, hadreached the firm conviction that a rice research institute was needed in Asia.The situation was ripe for the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations to join forcesto develop a program for rice improvement.After the 18 August meeting, Harrar went back to his files and dusted off thereport he and Weaver had prepared for the Rockefeller Board of Trusteesoutlining the need for an international rice research center in Asia. During thenext couple of months, several conversations took place among the officers ofthe two foundations regarding the actions that should be taken to prepare aplan for a cooperative program in Asia.The first of those exchanges was on 29 August, when Hill and Gant wereinvited to a luncheon at the Rockefeller Foundation. Rockefeller Foundationofficers present, besides Harrar, were President Dean Rusk and Albert H.Moseman, then deputy director for the agricultural sciences. Although thatmeeting was on a joint cooperative program at the College of Agriculture atLyallpur (a plan eventually dropped in view of adequate U.S. assistance to that