Food & agriculture · 1966

IR8 miracle rice

A semi-dwarf rice from IRRI that could yield up to ten tonnes a hectare.

Released by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines in 1966, IR8 roughly doubled yields over traditional varieties with fertilizer. It carried the Green Revolution to Asia's rice bowls and helped end chronic food shortages in the region.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Green Revolution 1961
Domesticated rice 7000 BCE

What it led to 2

Golden rice 2000
C4 photosynthesis in rice ~2040

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Cereal yield Latest: 4.21 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Nitrogen fertilizer per hectare of cropland Latest: 67.7 kg/ha (2023) Source: Our World in Data

World population Latest: 8.09B people (2023) Source: Our World in Data