IRRI Pioneer Interviews: Making a difference (Part 1)
Sunday, 2018/05/13 | 07:06:42
|
Gene Hettel | May 7, 2018 – RICE TODAY
Walter Cronkite, the late great reporter for CBS News in the U.S., once said, “A career can be called a success if one can look back and say, ‘I made a difference.’” By this measure, four new International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) alumni, who retired in 2017, have been extremely successful. It is poignant that Roland Buresh, J.K. Ladha, Noel Magor, and Nollie Vera Cruz all boxed their papers and passed the baton on to their successors last year. But, it is certainly uplifting to revisit their time at IRRI over a combined 119 years of service to the institute. Fortunately, they were able to include me in their busy schedules for respective well-earned Pioneer Interviews before they departed for new adventures in retirement. In Part 1, Roland and J.K. discuss their days at IRRI. Part 2 will feature Noel and Nollie in the April-June issue of Rice Today.
Forty years in the mud
With an MS degree in soil science from North Dakota State University and a PhD in marine sciences from Louisiana State University, Roland, at IRRI, focused on site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) as well as sustainable management of intensive irrigated rice, crop residue, and rice-maize cropping systems. He also guided IRRI’s Long-Term Continuous Cropping Experiment (LTCCE), one of the world’s longest-running agricultural trials. As a spin-off from the SSNM work, Roland pioneered the development of various innovative knowledge transfer tools, culminating with Rice Crop Manager, which specifically aids small-scale farmers in Asia.
“When I came to IRRI in 2000, I inherited the institute’s SSNM research,” he explained. “This concept had been pioneered by agronomist Achim Dobermann and other scientists. In the 1990s, IRRI had already been very successful in developing and publishing the scientific principles for better site-specific management of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers.”
See more http://ricetoday.irri.org/irri-pioneer-interviews-making-a-difference-part-1/ |
Back Print View: 334 |
[ Other News ]___________________________________________________
|