Invitation to the virtual HRDC Annual Meeting 2020 Dear HRDC Member, Greetings from the Hybrid Rice Development Consortium. We hope your organization is coping well with the many challenges brought about the COVID-19 pandemic. This global crisis has highlighted the need to strengthen food security around the world, to make it more productive, adaptable, and sustainable. Hybrid rice can be a key factor in this goal, so it is now more important than ever for us to continue to work together to advance hybrid rice research and development. Because of this, HRDC will continue with its planned annual meeting to gather its members together and advance the consortium’s activities. Due to travel and gathering restrictions, the meeting will be held virtually through a teleconference on Google Meet. This year’s theme, “Ensuring Food Security amid COVID through Hybrid Rice Technology”, will look towards how to harness new innovations in hybrid rice research and development to strengthen food and nutrition security in rice-growing countries, especially in light of disruptions caused by crises like the pandemic.
The HRDC 2020 Annual Meeting will be on 27 October 2020, starting at 12:30 Philippine Time. HRDC members will be emailed a link to the teleconference at least one hour before the meeting. The 4-hour teleconference will have 15-minute presentations on various topics followed by 10-minute Q&A sessions. Topics will include the following: Updates on last year’s research activities and the impact brought by the pandemic Updates on research activities for the next year, taking into account the continuation of pandemic restrictions Introduction of the new Platinum Membership level and its features Introduction of new exclusive HRDC services like Grain Quality Evaluation and QTL Deployment Introduction to PathoTracer, a web-based diagnostic toolkit for pathogens New developments in direct seeding for hybrids New developments for incoming and outgoing seed shipments New licensing opportunities for HRDC varieties Introduction of innovative products and services for hybrid rice research and development We look forward to seeing you there at the meeting. If you have any inquiries or would like to request more details, please do not hesitate to contact Pauline Trespalacio-Jasmin at p.trespalacio@irri.org. Thank you. HRDC Secretariat