JIRCAS President, Dr. Masa Iwanaga, attended the Independent Steering Committee (ISC) meeting of the Rice CGIAR Research Program (CRP) held in Montpelier, France on June 7-8, 2018. The Rice CRP is promoted by research institutes (IRRI, AfricaRice, CIAT) under CGIAR together with research institutes from France (CIRAD, IRD). The steering committee meeting held once a year is aimed at evaluating the activities of the previous year and the activity plan for the current year, and providing advice on how to proceed with the research. In addition to the ISC members, the participants also included the members of the program planning and management teams, and leaders of the Rice Flagship Projects.

The first day of the meeting focused on reports of the activities of the 5 flagship projects (Accelerating impact and equity, Upgrading rice value chains, Sustainable farming systems, Global Rice Array, and New rice varieties) with the committee members providing evaluations and also clarifying specific points and problems of upcoming activities. On the second day, an action plan for 2018 was proposed, and the committee members gave specific advice to the project leaders.