Foreward

Rice remains central to global food systems, feeding more than half of the world’s population and supporting millions of smallholder farmers. However, the role of rice is rapidly evolving. Beyond sustaining production, rice must now respond to a broader set of challenges that include climate pressures, changing consumer preferences, nutritional adequacy, and the rising burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases.

IRRI’s 2025–2030 strategy addresses this complexity through integrated, demand-driven solutions that connect scientific discovery with delivery at scale. Within this framework, grain quality and nutrition are no longer secondary traits. They are central to driving adoption, market differentiation, and improved dietary outcomes across rice-based food systems.

The Consumer-driven Grain Quality and Nutrition (CdGQN) Cluster, formerly known as the Grain Quality and Nutrition Center, under Rice Breeding Innovations Department contributes to this transformation by integrating complementary scientific, analytical, and delivery-oriented approaches to improve rice quality and nutritional value. By linking research with application, CdGQN ensures that grain quality traits are aligned with consumer expectations, nutritional needs, and emerging market demands.

This integrated approach enables the development of rice varieties and products that combine desirable eatingquality with enhanced nutritional functionality, including low glycemic index (GI) and nutrient value. It alsosupports the generation of evidence and tools that inform breeding decisions and facilitate the deployment of these traits across diverseproduction systems.

Importantly, CdGQN extends beyond discovery to support scaling and adoption through partnerships with breeding programs, industry stakeholders, and community-based initiatives. These efforts enable the translation of innovation into market-ready products and locally relevant solutions that contribute to improved diets, expanded economic opportunities, and more resilient rice-based food systems.

Through these contributions, CdGQN supports IRRI’s integrated solutions by strengthening food security throughquality-driven adoption, expanding demand-driven supply through differentiated products, enhancing nutritionalsecurity, and addressing diet-related health challenges. In doing so, CdGQN helps position rice not only as a staplecrop but as a platform for delivering quality, nutrition, and value at scale.