 Rise is the world's most important staple food for some 4 billion people worldwide and will continue to be so in the coming decades. With expected population growth, income growth and decline in rice area, global demand for rice will continue to increase from 479 million tons of milled rice in 2014 to around 551 million tons in 2030. In 2011, several organizations around the world came together to make a bigger difference in the lives of the poor rice farmers and consumers. This initiative led to the formation of the Global Rice Science Partnership, which is the CGIAR research program on rice. It is led by six institutes and aligns programs and collaborative projects with 900 partners across the globe. This unprecedented partnership across continents resulted in enormous exchanges of ideas, information, knowledge and technologies and collaborative mechanisms that supported the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. On poverty, 30 million poor farm households across Asia, Africa and Latin America have increased their annual incomes by $100 to $500 by adopting improved rice technologies. Rice, the staple food of half of humanity, has become more affordable, its price in the global market declined from $485 per ton in 2010 to $360 per ton in 2015. On ending hunger, adoption of improved rice technologies developed by Gris contributed to an increase in average yield of 50 kilograms per hectare globally and rice production around the world increased from 439 million tons in 2010 to 480 million tons in 2015, improving food security. Bere Dan 62, the world's first zinc rich rice variety was released in Bangladesh. This variety is helping reduce the number of deaths in children and women and other health complications such as stunted growth in children. On ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, around 1,300 scholars have been trained in rice science and 40% of them are women. Gris partners trained around 300,000 farmers and rural entrepreneurs in improved technologies, a third of them are women. Indeed, women are not left behind. Tools and training modules are used to strengthen women, farmers, rice production, marketing and business skills. On water resources, water saving technologies help farmers reduce farm water use by 10% to 30%, thus contributing substantially to the preservation of fresh water resources. And to promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth, thousands of young entrepreneurs were trained on new technologies and developed skill along the rice value chain such as improved milling, drying, storage, processing and marketing. To ensure responsible consumption and production, the Sustainable Rice Platform, a gris partner, launched the world's first international standard for sustainable rice. The standard uses the three pillars of sustainability, economic, social and environmental aspects as benchmarks to increase yields for rice farmers, reduce the environmental footprint of rice cultivation and meet consumer needs for food safety and quality. GRISP help combat climate change. Climate smart technologies are disseminated to farmers in Asia that can reduce methane emissions by up to 50%, thus contributing substantially to the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions. GRISP helps preserve biodiversity on rice. Around 150,000 rice germ plasm are preserved and saved from extinction in gene bags. All of this were done through strong partnerships of more than 900 partners from the public and private sectors. Even with this significant progress, we have so much more to do. The population continues to rise. We need to produce more, but with less land and water. On top of this is the challenge of climate change. In the second phase of the CGIR research program on rice, we will build on the success to date and use it to refine the research and focus on poverty alleviation, food and nutritional security, and a sustained and healthy resource base and improve the lives of even more people. Be a partner. Join us.