RICE — CRIST 



515 



Figure 1. — Architect's sketch of proposed International Rice Research Institute to be 

 built in the Philippines by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. Left, administration 

 building; center, dormitory and community hall; right, laboratory building. 



The two foundations decided to establish an international research 

 institution as the best method for meeting the urgent need for rice 

 improvement, and the Philippine Islands were selected as repre- 

 senting an excellent combination of advantageous factors. This In- 

 ternational Rice Research Institute will be dedicated to the study of the 

 rice plant and of its improvement, protection, production, and utili- 

 zation. The institute will serve as a research center w^ith a staff of 

 senior scientists, as a training center at which younger scientists will 

 receive instruction and gain experience in research methods under the 

 direction of the staff members, and as a documentation center for 

 the collection and dissemination of research results to interested work- 

 ers in all the rice-producing countries of the world. The Govern- 

 ment of the Philippines has vrholeheartedlj'' supported tliis project 

 and has generously furnished land for the institute buildings (fig. 1). 



In joining in this venture in better food production, tlie Ford and Rockefeller 

 Foundations and tlieir colleagues in Asia hope tliey are embarking on a i)rogram 

 wliich over the years may become of increasingly vital siguilicance to tlie citizens 

 of those countries whose basic food crop is rice. As improved materials and 

 methods, and increasing numbers of trained scientists specializing on rice begin 

 to flow from the institute, higher quality rice will become increasingly available 

 at costs within the reach of average consumers.* 



RICE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN 



EGYPT 



Eg}'pt is the most important rice-producing country in the Mediter- 

 ranean Basin, with an area (1957) of 307,000 hectares and production 

 of 1,709,000 tons. Grain for seed is carefully selected and the plots 

 are heavily fertilized. Production is largely in lower Egypt, where 

 year-round irrigation can bo practiced, and where (lie soils can be 

 progTessively "flushed'* of their salts. Formerly the grain was sown 

 broadcast, but more and more rice seedlings are hand planted. Weed- 

 ing, particularly of panicmn, is done by hand. Exports were well 

 over 100,000 tons in the early j)ost- World Yinv II period, then they 



5 The President's Review, from the Rockefeller Foniulatlon Ann. Rop. for 19r»9, p. 25. 



