The important role, and impact, of women in rice research has
been highlighted with the awarding of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science awards
for 2007.
One of the women recognized this year is a Peruvian scientist
studying in the Netherlands . The award will enable her to further her studies
on how rice production in the paddy fields of northeastern Thailand could be
improved, while protecting the value of other associated plants used for food
and medicine by local residents.
Gisella Cruz García, 29, is a PhD student in the Crop and
Weed Ecology Group at Wageningen University , where her research focuses on the
biodiversity of paddy rice ecosystems. The field work for her PhD will be
carried out in cooperation with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
in the Philippines , which she will join as an international research fellow
later this year.
"We’re delighted that Cruz García has been honored with this
prestigious award," the Institute’s Director General Robert S. Zeigler said.
"She joins a small but very impressive group of world-class female rice
researchers that have worked at IRRI over the years. The work of many of these
women, and the extraordinary impact some of them have been able to achieve, has
been one of the great untold stories of rice research for far too long."
Dr. Zeigler said there were two very important aspects to
Cruz García’s research. "She is one of the first researchers to try to quantify
and model the plants – ranging from the truly wild to the intensively managed –
in any agroecosystem. This is despite the fact that many of these resources are
common to agroecosystems not only in Asia , but around the world. Second, her
work will radically expand the modeling of agroecosystems and so enhance what we
can achieve with crop modeling for rice as well."
In announcing her award, L’Oréal-UNESCO said that rice fields cover 135
million hectares of arable land in Asia. "As well as their importance to
agriculture, these fields are also considered to be a unique source of
biodiversity, with more than 100 useful plant species growing alongside the rice
plants."
