 We have just completed one week of deliberations on issues related to rice research and directing particular attention to the global rice supply situation. It's been in the headlines every day for the last several weeks that a number of countries around the world are facing problems with supplying sufficient rice. Other countries have ceased or blocked their rice exports. This has caused a lot of concern around the world and a lot of questions have been asked about what is the source or what is the reason behind these shortages. Well, the short answer is that the world has been eating more rice than it has been producing. We have seen for a number of years global rice stocks declining and the question is why is that? Well, we've had demand, international demand or global demand for rice has increased. That's been driven by population growth, by economic growth. We have had production problems because of storms in Bangladesh. We've had some pest outbreaks in Vietnam. We, of course, have had the biofuels of Mania and a number of countries have diverted food crops away from food and into biofuels. We've had the conversion of prime rice lands from agricultural production to urban uses, residential areas, shopping malls, etc. We've had water being diverted away from agriculture and into other uses, industrial uses, for example. All of these different factors have come together to really have a negative impact on rice supplies. And of course, if your rice supply shrinks and demand grows, then you have an economic response, which is higher price. I think it's particularly timely to have the Erie Board of Trustees meeting this week when rice is so much in the headlines in Asia. Erie has been established now for 48 years as an international collaboration working to address the problems of the poor and particularly the poor that depend on rice as their state of thought. We are in a unique position to bring together the experience and insights of international experts together with these scientific partnerships that Erie's developed with a whole range of national agricultural research and extension services in rice-producing countries around the world to be able to address rice supply. Erie, of course, has been involved in this problem before our work in the context of the Green Revolution and in producing new high yielding rice and rice. We specifically aimed at the situation where we found the world's poor, who were dependent on rice, badly affected by lack of supply and by price. So our focus this week has been very much on looking at both the short, medium and long-term opportunities to see how we can actually have the same Green Revolution. And also we are aware that Africa now because you cannot know rice, most of it is imported from the Asian continent. And so as we see reducing rice supply in recent costs, we are aware that Africa also is suffering. Already we are reading about the rise on the African continent because of rising food prices and clearly rise of social issues. So as the Asian continent continues to experience rice shortages and having a rice crisis, Africa is clearly affected and the whole world really is affected. So these are global implications and we hope that as a whole here we can begin to... The current rise is actually be caused by the high yielding rice price. Usually called for the concerted default among Asian nations. Korea must be the top of that. He is the most prominent and superior institution in globalized Argentina. And also the fact that we work hard to help the Asian rice farmers as well as the poor who are really dependent on the rice as their main step to poor. So we can actually internationalize these issues to really build a path in overcoming the current food prices as well as future food prices. In Bangladesh last two months we had two floods and a devastating cycle which really declined the domestic production of rice. We had to go for large imports. Within the last nine months we already had import about 2.7 million tons. And more imports are coming but it is not very difficult. It is not easy to import because rice are just considered imposed by an ordinary source. We can have special demonstrations with India, Vietnam, Myanmar to try to bring in more import but there may not be a shortage of supply not much shortage of supply but prices will be high or get lost and it is almost double. The international prices have gone up. The real problem is that real issues are affordability. People cannot afford to buy rice at a time price so there is not much shortage of supply. There is some panic in the country and they are worried about the future and traders are also feeling an increase in profits. I must say that the Japan experience shows the very theory, the importance of R&D which Japan has a long history of flourishing world with E. I must say that now it is a good opportunity for us to recognize again the importance of R&D with E to cooperate with the international world. Last year we were given farmers three certified seeds and other capitalization of extension services to manual farmers to implement new technology and some come from Italy and also building and renovation of a multi-facel. It has not only affected buildings but has been affecting all the other countries that are seeded and represented on this table on this board. What is key for me to note as I listened to all of them was that we are grappling all in the same situation but the issue of prices and common consensus of the board members as Dr. Shibu Zaman has said we are looking at a situation of firm prices at least in the next 18 to 24 months. What is also key is the fact that all of us are trying to look for innovative solutions in our countries on how to address not only the issue of supply but the issue of prices on how to bridge the gap between the two four countries can be and how this is really affecting the poor of our country. But what is also very clear is after all as we sat here in the meeting is that there are solutions and we can move forward from where we are today which is why the EU report is very strong in coming out with partnerships on technology and in fact with the Philippines and the international rise research into this collaborative very strongly in addressing issues of coming up with not only planting technology but also coming up with the right seeds the weather has changed how we should plant the weather has made imperative that we come up with better quality seeds short-stated seeds seeds that can weather disease seeds that can weather changes in temperature seeds that can weather less water in different types of conditions seeds that can weather areas that can be invaded by semi-definition we have these programs and in the coming weeks the president will be visiting the international rise research institute to sign a stronger agreement firming up between Philippines and the EU