 for unveiling and launch of the book itself. And I'd like to introduce to you Dr. Robert Zegler, the Director General of Erie, to launch the book and to share with us a few comments. Thank you very much, Sophie. It's again a pleasure to be able to share a few thoughts with the delegates to this Congress. When I look at the pedigree of the current volume, I think we're very fortunate that one of the intellectual fathers of the whole process of taking the comprehensive look at global research and rice research, the global rice economy, what the implications of current and future trends are for what institutions will be doing, what policymakers will be doing. We're very fortunate that one of the intellectual fathers is here, Randy Barker, who was a co-author of the Bob Burke and Beth Rose on the seminal book. And one of his intellectual children, Prabhu Pingali, from the volume of 1997, that he had to return to, which would make a social intellectual grandchild. So I think it's a special time that we're bringing these generations of serious players of the global social science community together here. I would like to reiterate social's gratitude to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for providing support for this work. It is, I think, recognized that many donors do have a vested interest in understanding the big picture within which their donations operate. And I think this is a very good example of that. We know from throughout the discussions that we participated in this week that there are very serious challenges facing the global rice community, declining growth rates and production levels, population growth continuing, all of which will exert serious pressures on the overall rice system, the overall rice economy. That's exacerbated, of course, by expected impact on climate change, all of which tell us that there will be significant stresses on the rice production systems. The one thing that we have to take into account is that rice production systems do not exist in a vacuum. They exist within a policy universe. Many political decisions, decisions by policy makers, central planners, what have you, can have dramatic impact on the way these production systems move. If these people do not have reason sources from which to draw advice, if they don't have a cadre of experts around them with the expertise to help them formulate their thinking, they will be making their decisions in very short term for a few reasons. It's up to us to provide them with the knowledge framework that will enable them to make informed decisions that will have long lasting influence for the impact that will be positive for the overall food economy of the world. There's no question that policy changes will be required. We've heard a lot of discussion in some of the sessions this week about very inadequate policies that have actually exacerbated food security issues. We've seen improper policies by governments, very short term policies by governments that have currently disrupted international trade. We've heard that trade is unreliable. We've heard that farmers cannot depend on trade. We've heard that the trade, global trade in rice industry will pay. All of these are components of a recipe for future disasters. It's books like this that I believe will provide or shine some light in these areas that will enable policy makers to make more informed decisions. It's quite unlikely that policy makers themselves will read this book, but their advisors certainly will. I think that's a major contribution. So I think that as an institution, there is very proud to be associated with the creation of this next generation of books on the rice economy. I believe that it is one of the roles of an institution like you to contribute intellectually to the global debate. And I think this book is a major step in that direction. So I'd like to congratulate you, social, for your efforts. I think for your vision is to remember the day you came and sat on my albis and said, this is what you would like to do. I thought it was an outstanding idea. And I think we even offered to pay for it. We raised the funds, which we know is nice. But the fact is, as an institution, we consider this to be extremely important. And I'd say congratulations to you, to the authors, to the editorial panel, to the external reviewers, all of whom contributed to make an outstanding drawing. Now I am charged with the launch of the book and the unveiling of the book. And I have here, I'm not sure it's a disrobing of the book, but this is always dangerous. So we have here the unveiling of the next generation of rice in the book. Congratulations to all who were involved in this. Thank you, Dr. Zema.