Roundtable with Dr Robert Zeigler, Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

Join Asialink, Asia Society AustralAsia Centre and the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute for a roundtable with Dr Robert Zeigler,  Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). " We thought we'd solved the problem of poverty and hunger in Asia. That's clearly not the case." As population continues to grow in the rice-dependent parts of the world — principally Asia, Africa and South America — what's needed is nothing less than a second Green Revolution, and Dr Robert Zeigler an American plant pathologist who has headed the IRRI since 2005 is making it happen.

Under his leadership, the IRRI has redoubled efforts to breed strains of rice that can survive both drought and flooding, preparing for a future in which there may simultaneously be too little and too much water.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/innovators/article/0,28804,1614837_1663720_1663744,00.html#ixzz0tSPpnGRe

Enquiries: f.fleming@asialink.unimelb.edu.au