 three new technologies that reach farmers over time. Here is a generalization of some of the things that are in the pipeline. We have a number of solutions that are quite advanced in the development stage. You can see hybrids, for example, or new generation of the stress-plorn varieties, conservation agriculture, a lot of hornly solutions like size-specific nutrient management, where we really want to accelerate the uptake, dissemination, getting it out to farmers through more Christian public and private sector channels. But at the same time, we need to invest in this program in the new generation of technologies that may have an impact 10 years from now or only 20 years from now. And you can see some of those lists that we expect to become available or become more important over time so that we can then keep up the entire productivity and efficiency improvements that we need to achieve. If we are able to do this, our preliminary assessment suggests that the investment in such a program would have a higher rate of return. So if we assume that over a 25-year period we invest in R&D at the level that we have suggested, which would add up to about $3 million over 25 years, then by the year 2035 we would have significant production in net price prices compared to not investing in R&D. We would have lifted at least 150 million people out of poverty. Or in other words, the cost of lifting one person out of poverty through the investment in R&D of this global program is $20 per person. So it has also significant impacts on reducing hunger and improving health and nutrition. And we're hoping to have significant impact also on reducing externalities or negative environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions. So this is the potential that a program like this has. It can only be realized if research is more focused, if research is better aligned, if it avoids duplication, needless competition, and instead of that it's based on synergies. And that's where the different partners play a significant role. And I think in this process we have already identified a lot, many of these roles. But this is not finished. We need to continue the dialogue with many partners to find a role for everyone. In addition to contributing to your own countries, to your own institutions, or even to your personal research interests, hook up with the global rice community, rice research community, become part of the global program and then therefore also make a contribution in other countries and other parts of the world. We're in the process of setting up a basic website, but those of you who wish to download the entire full document of over 200 pages, you can go to this website and download it right there. I will stop here, and I'd like to give an opportunity to each of my colleagues to see a few words, to give a different perspective to this, and maybe we start with the consultant board chair, Carlos Terresti Castillo. I came for this very comprehensive introduction, and thanks for the opportunity of expressing some views from the consortium board on how we see the launching of this important program. First of all, I would like to say that I have been a witness during the course of this year of the tremendous effort that ILLI, Africa Rice and SEAD have put forward in order to improve the contents of the program, to meet the criteria that was set up, the high quality criteria that was set up in order to get this approved, and the number of hours and efforts that were dedicated in consultation with hundreds of stakeholders in order to incorporate into that project the views of all concerned. And we were very happy in the consortium board to be able to approve that program, to send it to the fine council, and as you know the fine council approved it last week, and is now ready for financing it. My first comment would be to highlight that we feel that this development of Chris has given a great impulse to the reform process in the CGIR. International agricultural research has always played a key role, and we continue to play a key role in contributing to increase the food production in the world to meet the growing demands of a growing population, and as such to have an impact on the kind world and the quality. But now, and as I mentioned, this is a world that International Reserve will continue to fulfill, but at present there are a number of new challenges that have been incorporated into the agenda and that will have to be taken care in the formulation of research programs in the future. Most of these challenges have been the subject of discussions of the last few days, but let me just enumerate them because they are important. One of these challenges is the commodity price crisis. We had one in 2008, we may have another one soon, but I think that international research has to be conscious that the impact that these commodity prices may have on the one hand on producers and on the other hand on consumers have to be taken into account, and this is something that many times has not been incorporated. The second crisis that we are facing is the natural resource crisis. We know that we live in a world in which we have to produce more with less water, with land degradation, depletion of fish stocks, deforestation, and all these aspects will have to be incorporated into any research program for the future. Then we have the energy crisis, and the energy crisis not only because it contributes to increasing the inputs, but also because of the agricultural inputs that are used for price reduction of other crops. But we also have that link with biofuels, and biofuels is also linked with world food security, and all these things have also to be taken into account. Finally, we have kind of changed, which I think has already mentioned, mitigation, adaptation, the mission of green houses, and the changes in ecosystems, and the final crisis that we are facing is the financial global crisis, which means that there will be less resources perhaps for development in general, and less hope that it will not affect research, but also there will be a much greater look from Don's into the money that is put into international agricultural research in order to make sure that the results are there. And as a result of all these challenges, I think that research should not continue as business as usual, and the new approaches have to make sure that the research is much more strategic, it's much more focused, it's much more collaborative between actors, and it's driven by partnerships and by innovation. And I think that the merits of risk is that it follows that pattern. And without going into details, I think that what Chris has done is on the one hand introduce a number of innovations, firstly, by working together with other centres specialising in price research, while ongoing it along. It has value for collective actions, it has value for the contributions that other centres can do and the synergies that can be created. Secondly, I think that risk has been able to address all the problems in a holistic manner. We have seen that they are not only working on crop, on crop genetic improvement, but they're dealing with production systems, with agricultural practices, capacity building, with harvest losses, with gender, with the planning chain, with market, with technology. And I think that this is a very important component of this new programme. The third thing is that they have done in partnership with, you mentioned 900, 900 partners have been involved into this process. And I think that this is essential if we want to make sure that the impact at the end of the day will be there. And finally, they have shown a clear impact pathway. I think this Chris shows outputs, outcomes, and eventually he projects these outcomes into the future and the impact that they can have on poverty alleviation, welfare security and environmental sustainability. So I think that the implementation of Chris will provide very good lessons for the development of other CRPs that are now being developed. And it will also allow us to better define the interactions among the different CRPs and the boundaries. It has been an extraordinarily and creative process, which I think has brought many benefits to all of us. And I can tell you that it has certainly set up the bar very high for the other CRPs that are now looking for being implemented and appropriate for social work. So my congratulations to Yuli, to Moomoo Sia and to Africa Rice for their job well done. And I wish you success in the implementation of this project.