IRRI is an independent, nonprofit, research and education institute.

Another credit grabbing post from Marcos loyalist.

According to IRRI website: http://irri.org/

IRRI is an independent, nonprofit, research and educational institute, founded in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. 

The advocacy for rice research found serious and solid support from nongovernment organizations like the Rockefeller and Ford foundations. This came as the importance of rice as staple food of “half of mankind” became clear. Such was the precursor to the rising of a research and education complex in Los Baños, Laguna where the strongest academic institution on agriculture in Asia, the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA), is located.

The Philippines raised its rice yields from 1.16 tons per hectare in 1960 to 3.59 tons per hectare in 2009. In 2009, Philippine rice yields were lower than the previous two years due to the damage done by the tropical storms "Ondoy" and "Pepeng". In 2007, average rice yield topped 3.8 tons per hectare and in 2008, was at 3.77 tons per hectare.

Average rice yield in the Philippines is also higher than of Thailand's, the world's biggest exporter of rice, where yields over the last few years have been around 3 tons per hectare.

The Philippine government, starting 2010, is implementing programs to support rice self-sufficiency. It is working closely with IRRI to help achieve these end. In 2011, the Philippine reduced its imports from 2,379,110 tons in 2010, to 707,670 tons in 2011.