 All right, so finally, we get to begin. So on behalf of the International Rice Research Institute, we would like to again welcome our guests from the press. Thank you so much for coming today for the International Rice Congress press conference. And I hope that you thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the HQ facilities and our projects this morning. I heard that some of you already asked for a bit more time to shoot some of the sites. So I take that as a positive. And I believe RU is more than willing to facilitate any follow-ups in case you want to pursue more stories about IRC and ERI in general. So once again, thank you so much for all of that. And I hope that our scientists were able to give you a peek into the latest in terms of rice research and innovations as far as ERI's work in the Philippines and around the world is concerned. My name is Casey Santos. I'm from the communications and advocacy team of ERI. And I would just like to do a quick round of introductions before we proceed, after which I will also give a very brief overview of IRC, just so you know the bare bones of this very, very important milestone conference. Afterwards, we will proceed with our 15-minute round of Q&As. I will also be moderating that discussion, so looking forward to that segment. First, I would like to introduce our panel for this morning, beginning with Dr. Yusef Mercedita-Sombilia, Undersecretary for Policy Planning and Regulations of the Department of Agriculture. Good morning, ma'am. And she also serves as the alternate co-chair of our IRC 2023 High-Level Advisory Committee. Welcome again, ma'am. It's nice to see you. Followed by Dr. Ajay Kohli, who's our deputy director general for research delivery and innovations at ERI, who also sits as the chair of the IRC program and science committee, sir. And finally, we have Dr. Alice Laborte, our ERI research coordinator for the Philippines and the chair for the International Rice Research Conference of one of the three featured scientific conferences within the IRC. And she heads the program and science committee. So again, good morning. Allow me to give a welcome, of course, a warm welcome to our guests from the press. From the New York Times, we also have correspondence from the Radio Free Asia, Ajans-France Press, CGTN, Ben Arneuse, the day named Manila Shimbun. If I missed anyone, my apologies, welcome. Now I'd like to, oh, I also would like to acknowledge the presence of our chief of staff, Mr. Ajay Ponson. So there you go. All right, so a very brief overview of the International Rice Congress. This year's theme is on accelerating transformation of rice-based food systems from gene to globe. Now, this isn't the first time that we're holding the IRC as ERI, and this is our flagship scientific conference. We've had this for five times in the past already in different major cities and countries. So we're excited to finally bring the IRC home in the Philippines where the ERI is headquartered. And of course, we're most proud of the fact that we're co-organizing it with the Department of Agriculture. So it's really a major collaboration between these two institutions. We already have the partnerships on research outside of IRC anyway, but this is definitely a good marker of our continued and sustained collaborations for our Filipino farmers and the Philippine rice sector in general. It's going to happen on October 16th to 19th at the Philippine International Convention Center. So if you wanna join us there, I'm sure we'll be able to facilitate the arrangements. We also have a trade show component for the IRC where we partnered with the German Agriculture Society or DLG. So they're known across Southeast Asia and Europe for organizing successful trade shows specific for agricultural companies. So we're proud to have them as our partner for the trade show component of the conference where we already have an exciting growing roster of exhibitors from international and local private sector. So again, this is the sixth edition. These are just some quick numbers from our International Rice Congress Editions in the past in Beijing, Delhi, Hanoi, Bangkok, and in 2018 in Singapore. So we hope to add more to these numbers in the 2023 edition and your help in spreading the word about IRC is going to be very, very vital for us to achieve that. Our roster of sponsors and exhibitors are growing pretty fast by the day. And we're still trying to close more agreements with other meaningful private sector and international organizations to join this roster. So you can expect keynote presentations from the CEOs and leaders of these organizations alongside our national government speakers from the government sector. So obviously we're expecting about 1,500 participants to attend this four day engagement conference. We hope you take part in this big undertaking. So again, it's going to be a hodgepodge of all of the rice value chain actors participating in this four day event. So it's primarily a science conference, yes, as it's always been, and we're very proud of that. But we're also trying to make it as inclusive as possible by inviting all of the rice value chain actors that are also instrumental in the growth of sustainable food systems. Gretchen. Hello, hi, I'm Gretchen Malalad from CGTN, China Global Television Network. So my question is, with the onset of El Nino phenomenon, how can we ensure the rice supply in our country? I think that's best addressed by Yusef Sombilia. Actually, I just made a presentation of the EDG Economic Development Group, it's a group of secretaries in the DA, and they were also asking about concern about this El Nino. The good thing is that the El Nino will not affect so much the rice industry, or the rice production rice sector. It may, but not really as much as we were expecting before. Because Pagasa, the recent weather update of Pagasa is that El Nino will come, will pick from October to December. So what the DA has done already is already advancing the planting calendar. So all rice areas that have been already harvested with dry season cropping, they have already been distributed with the high yielding varieties and started already their planting. So they would be able to harvest most, if not all, of the areas cultivated to rice by between October and November. And that means to say that the yield, the impact of El Nino and the yield will not probably be that much. What we are worried about is the dry season crop. Because with El Nino picking between October to December, that means to say the dry season crop will be affected. So the irrigation systems, especially the national irrigation systems, may not have that enough water to sustain the dry season crop. But we hope that if the rain comes towards February or March, then we can again require the farmers to delay the planting calendars in time when the rain comes. So in terms of rice, I don't think we will have to worry that much for 2023. But we may, we'll see what happens in the first quarter of 2024. If the drought continues during the first quarter, then we might totally lost the dry season crop. But if it comes early enough, then we could delay the planting. It's still going to be affected, but really not that much as we have been expecting when Pagasa first announced the warning, the first one, the country about this upcoming El Nino event. And we have actually prepositioned, actually in addition to that, we have actually prepositioned. Just as I said, we're already encouraging farmers to do early planting. We have already also prepositioned some drought planting materials, other than rice that could be planted to the rice farms in case the El Nino happens October, November, December. So that would secure the farmers with their rice income, with their income from not from rice, but from other crops. Plus, of course, we are already preparing for the subsidies that probably may be needed by farmers who are going to be most devastated by this event. But it's a good thing that Pagasa now provides us as early as six months a year from now about these events happening. And so the DA, unlike before, the DA now provides already those, prepares already what they call the program and the budget that would respond to events like that. So I think we are ready for the El Nino. Thank you. Hi, Paul. I'm Camille Alemia, a reporter for the New York Times and Radio Free Asia. My question is more about Southeast Asia. You can share with us, because rice is a staple food in Southeast Asia and we've seen kinds of rice that can grow in flood-brown areas and also those in drought situations. How common are these variants in the countries in Southeast Asia and are they already being used by farmers, planted by farmers? I believe Ms. Alice Laborete could answer this. Dr. Ajay, if you want to add, of course. We do have some varieties already available and released. For example, the Green Super Rice Eight and SigRC480, so that has drought and salinity tolerance. So according to our scientists, it is already being used in the Philippines, particularly in the Visayas areas. And we do have other varieties, as you mentioned, like Submarino one, that can withstand flood-brown areas for a certain period of time. In terms of extent of these varieties that are being grown in different countries, we don't have the statistics for now, but some of these varieties are already being grown, particularly in areas that are being experiencing a lot of flooding or drought periods. And we do expect that in the coming years, with climate change and with frequencies of typhoons and the drought, that we may be needing more of these varieties. So at Erie, what we're doing is looking at where these varieties are needed the most. For example, in the Philippines, we have mapped out the flood-brown rice areas, and we're also looking at the future. For example, where else these varieties would be needed the most? Taking into account different simulations on rainfall and also temperature. Ajay, you start like that. I think Alice, you've mentioned everything that needed to be said. I just would like to quickly add that in South Asia, India, Bangladesh, et cetera, Sri Lanka, these varieties are really, really very common now. In Southeast Asia, apart from the Philippines, Vietnam is using some of the varieties. But I think what I would like to just mention is something that we call seeds without borders. And what that does, because Philippines has recently signed on that agreement. And what that does is that as long as the eco-geographic situation of rice growing in different countries the same, you would not have to test the new seeds two to three years before calling it a variety. And under that agreement, we can import a number of very stress-tolerant varieties, drought, flooding, salinity. And Southeast Asia can benefit, and the Philippines can benefit from that. Just for the benefit of our audience, I'd like to ask what are the benefits for the people themselves when it comes to the availability of these kinds of rice? How will it benefit the ordinary people? Maybe I can just start something and then Alice or Yusef Merci can add to that. Idi actually did an analysis in Bangladesh about what is the benefit, as you ask. And that came to around $92 per hectare of flood-tolerant rice, the sub-wound rice. But I think what I find very interesting in that study is taking it to the next step and asking the question, what do the farmers do with that additional money? And there are obvious answers of repaying the loan, repairing your house and everything. But for me and for really what is very interesting is to see part of the money going in child education. And I think that's where we actually experience transformative change. So imagine in a household, in a typical household in India or Bangladesh where this survey was done, if the parents are not educated but the child gets educated, within a few years, the entire atmosphere of the household changes and the atmosphere of the neighborhood changes. So that's what I call transformative changes. So there are immense advantages to the common man. Simple, if these varieties are available, then the farmers can do their planting in any stressed environment. So varieties are available for flooding, varieties are available when there is drought and they could continue to harvest rice under different conditions. And if rice is available, of course, that will stabilize local production and local supply. And that would sort of stabilize also the rice prices, which like in the Philippines, we are very much concerned about fluctuation of rice prices because it really affects the inflation rate. And of course, especially this staple food as the primary food constitute the biggest in the food basket of our low-income households. So they will most benefit if we have enough supply of rice and not worried about when certain conditions come about and farmers are not able to plant rice or they can plant rice, but they will have low yielding produced of this rice without the right variety that is going to be available or the right variety that is going to be planted in that stressed environment. So I think it's really very beneficial to have already different kinds of varieties that suit different types of environment because that will preserve the income of farmers and hence sustain the availability of rice under different conditions that the country may happen to get into. So it's for the consumers in general, not only for the household, the income of the farmers, getting all their basic needs, putting their children to school and all these things, but also the benefit of the consumers because they will be guaranteed with stable prices, sufficient availability of local supply and of course, more stable prices of local rice in the markets. Dr. Alias? Just to add, we know that in the Philippines, we get an average of 20 typhoons a year and some of these are very destructive. Now if we have varieties that can withstand periods of flooding, then farmers can still get income and still get rice. As mentioned by Yusek Mercy, that helps in availability of food and stabilization of prices. We've had actually an experiment here conducted when we were looking at sub-1 varieties or the sub-marino varieties and we saw like in one area where you grow the normal variety of rice and then in another area where we grew sub-marino, after that typhoon, the normal rice or the regular varieties is gone. It's completely wiped out but you still see the sub-marino varieties standing up. It's not as high yielding, for example, as the hybrid rice varieties, for example, but in situations where there's flooding or in flood prone rice areas, it's the best bet that farmers can do to be able to still get income from rice production. Can you talk about specific rice varieties that are climate, I don't know, climate resistant and what's the latest research and development of EDE? Dr. Ajay. So, well, there are a number of aspects of climate resilience and trying to make it climate friendly. So we have to work on both sides, make it climate friendly and make it climate resilient. We are now very heavily involved in research and innovation in something called the direct seeded rice which uses much less water, much less labor and is very good for reducing the methane emission from the rice fields. So that is trying to make it climate friendly. So you have less greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of resilience, it goes back to the strengths of EDE and our collaborations with our partners all over the world and in the Philippines, of course, which is making it flood tolerant, drought tolerant, heat tolerant, salinity tolerant. So this is something we have been doing for many, many years. And while we have been doing that, it now feeds into a bigger umbrella of climate resilience, basically. So as has been mentioned, we have the sub one which is flood tolerant, we have drought tolerant. We now also have a very good handle on heat tolerance. So one of the things that was mentioned in connection with El Nino is by changing the planting date, what you really want to do is make sure that the heat does not hit at a time when flowering occurs in the plants. And if you can take that away, then the harvest is quite okay. So we have been doing a lot of work on that, but I think we are now also concentrating on climate friendliness. So while we make things climate resilient, how can we get to a situation in future where these problems of climate vagaries don't happen as often? So that's another aspect of it. Are these being used now by our farmers all over the Philippines? Alternative wetting and drying is used. The DSR is being used very little in the Philippines right now. We have a project in the Philippines to use that, but in places like Cambodia, for example, it is being used very heavily. The other aspect is in certain areas it has been used traditionally, but in a very inefficient manner. So we now have processes and recommendations to make it far more efficient. So especially in Cambodia and Vietnam, for example, there's a lot going on for direct seeded rice. We call it DSR, direct seeded rice. Yeah. How come it's not being used yet here? I think it's just a matter of making it more popular. So that is our mission now, to make it more popular. There are some areas already that are using this, but as Ajay said, it has to be advocacy for this should probably be strengthened. And I think DA is already doing that because we have a climate resilience office at DA and all our program banner programs, the rice banner programs, already trying to advocate the use of this, especially with the extreme, the frequency of extreme weather events that are coming in the country. So I'm just a follow-up question. Sadi Aiba, do you see any apprehension or hesitation on the part of the farmers to adopt new samples of rice or new variants? Usually, you know, for farmers, wait and see, when they see it, especially when they are in certain areas, when they see it, they will be surprised. There are a few varieties that are very, very popular to farmers and they continue using that. That's why there are always demo farms that show how this different new varieties would perform. Under certain conditions and under certain, you know, management techniques, no? And, you know, I think it's really more of them being convinced, sometimes the hesitancy, you know, of them adapting immediately, especially when they see that what they're doing, what they're using now is really, you know, doing well. So why do they have to change? But once that, you know, they get to, you know, to make use of another and by word of mouth, you know, that I think that would, you know, it's not really, but there are certain varieties really that are really popular to farmers. In our self, I'm not sure if those varieties that are being distributed by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, Field Rice, I don't know if those are the varieties that are really popular among farmers. Like that I have to check with Field Rice. There are certain varieties that are being used, but Alice can probably, you know, she's working very well with the Field Rice on this. Actually, Field Rice used the recommendations that came out of this DA funded project, One Rice BH, where they identified which varieties are preferred and also grows well in a different region. So those information were provided to Field Rice and I understand also looking at different conditions like pest and diseases in different locations, also coming out from ongoing initiatives between the Field Rice and Erie. Those were factored in in terms of the distribution of seeds from our self. All right, I believe we're quite short on time, so we can accommodate one last question and then we proceed with our lunch affair. Yeah, we should hear from the guys. Okay, we're pretty interested, where are we now in terms of giving it out to farmers and at the same time, on the part of farmers, on the adoption level if we're already there? So I think where we are, this is something which we are really proud of. This is something that came out of actually a BSC and MSC study of a student from UPLB. We now are at a stage where we can say that low glycemic index rise in the elite background and when we say elite background, what it means is high yielding background is available. But that is still available for testing in the fields, research and farm fields. It still takes a while to make sure that any national organization like DA would have to adopt it, release it as a variety and then it would go to the farmer. So it is still a little further away from the farmer, but it is ready to go to the farmer, it's ready to go to the system for releasing it as a variety, but that takes a little while. But what we have, science wise what we have is that it is in the elite background and it can be transferred into any background, any Filipino background. As Alice said, we have a handle on which variety grows better in which province and we can transfer it into all of those varieties. We will of course need a project for that. We also know that it works, it very clearly works. We have done human trials on that and we have been able to show that if you were to eat low glycemic index rice, your blood glucose will not rise as quickly as from the normal rice. So the science is done. I think what we are now waiting for is the process to take it to the farmer. Dr. Alice, do you want to add or? Just to mention that if you would like to know more about the developments in rice science about glycemic rice, low glycemic rice and others, we'll be good to go to IRC where we have a lot of experts coming in from various countries. Actually we have received already about 750 abstracts for oral and poster presentations coming from 46 countries. So this is a good avenue for rice professionals to get together, know more about cutting edge rice science and also find out what's going on in different parts of the world. All right, maybe some final words of invitation also from Eusek Mercy and Dr. Alice. I think you should really attend that and spread the word about how available are these varieties and how they are helping the countries that have rice as staple food and even other countries. Africa also is now very much into rice as they're shifting to rice as staple food and I think that will stay for years to come. I don't think rice will be substituted by other staple food, especially in the Southeast Asian region. So I hope that you can come. You'll be able to see a lot of this new innovations, research technologies that could really apply also to the Philippines and I think by knowing that, you will be able to help us spread not only iri, but also DA, the technologies of DA, help us to spread this to the farmers so that they would understand better. I think we need also that kind of help assistance because not only from us, to be imparting to the farmers the importance of these new technologies and for them to adapt so that from the media, from your experience and from your seeing a lot of all of these things across the world, I think you could also convince them to do that. Thank you. Okay, Ajay, just a final indication. I would just like to add a small bit to that. Of course, we would really encourage you to come and attend the IRC and get to know a lot more about the new tools and technologies, which is a very widespread array of tools and technologies right from the genes and the genetics and what genotypes we have going all the way from agronomic processes, machinery, it's all there. And it's effects, socioeconomic analysis of the whole thing. So that is one aspect. But I want to go back to what we talked about in terms of low GI. The nutritional aspect of rice is becoming extremely important because what is very well known is that is the only commodity that can stay for a very long time. So one of the things is always asked is, why can't people be eating more vegetables and fish? Of course, one eats as many vegetables and fish as one can afford. But most of the poor people are dependent largely on rice for the nutritional element. What we are doing is really making rice far more nutritious than it is today. And not only in terms of the glycemic index, which is medically important, but in terms of high protein, high resistance starch, high minerals, zinc, iron, et cetera. And all of this will be on the show during the IRC. And I think it's not too far away. You should come and have a look and see how rice can actually make a very big difference to the health and nutrition of the population. So I'll stop there. All right, thank you so much to all our resource persons for the press con. To cap off, you know, Erie and DA have the, obviously are leading the research and innovations for rice and other crops. But there is a wealth of global knowledge possibly still untapped that we may be able to unearth at the IRC. So we really hope that you take advantage of that wealth of information by attending. So again, thank you to our friends from the press and also to you, sex familiar, for coming here today. And obviously our scientists, Dr. Ajokoli and Alice Laborte, we're gonna proceed to lunch at this point. I believe some of our speakers will be attending. So please share the simple lunch that we prepared for you. That is all. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Casey.