Background Information

Rice Production was IRRI’s first group training course. Its initial offering was at IRRI headquarters in Los Baños, Philippines in 1964 for a group of young Filipino scientists. In 1967, the course went international and attracted rice scientists from throughout Asia. The course was conducted annually at IRRI until 1992 when the Rice Research Institute, Department of Agriculture, Thailand, accepted responsibility for a research-oriented version of the course.

One of the major accomplishments of the course was the quantity, quality and variety of training materials developed to support it. A key set of materials was a series of 17 self-learning slide-tape modules on various aspects of rice production. These included:

Morphology of the rice plant
Growth stages of the rice plant
Rice races, plant types, and varietal improvement
Land preparation
Methods of growing rice
Soil fertility
Fertilizer materials
Fertilizer calculation
Fertilizer use and management
Weed identification in lowland rice
Weed identification in upland rice
Methods of weed control
Stem borers of rice
Identification of leafhoppers and planthoppers
Methods of controlling leafhoppers
Identification and biology of rats
Methods of rat control

Unfortunately, by the mid-1990’s the slide-tape format was obsolete. Additionally, much had been learned about all the topics and the modules were badly in need of a content revision as well. Thus, in 1999, the process of updating and converting these learning modules to a digital format was begun.