Taiwan University Inks Agreement with IRRI

Taiwan's National Taiwan University (NTU) has become the nation’s first academic institution to sign a research cooperation agreement with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a partnership in rice-related research to boost global rice production.

The agreement, signed by NTU president Lee Si-chen and Robert Zeigler, a representative of the IRRI, comes at a time when global rice stocks are at their lowest levels in a quarter of a century. Under the accord, NTU will serve as an intermediary platform between IRRI and Academia Sinica, the Agricultural Research Institute under the Council of Agriculture, as well as other academic institutions specializing in rice research.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned in a report last year that with global rice stocks falling to a 25-year low because of global warming, world rice prices are expected to increase over the next few years.