IR8


IR8 is a high-yielding semi-dwarf rice variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute in the early 1960s. In November 1966, “the variety was first introduced in the Philippines and India.” Promoters such as the IRRI and farmer benefactors of IR8 have called it miracle rice, and celebrate it for fighting famine.
IR8 was the eighth of 38 crossbred rice varieties in a 1962 experiment by IRRI. It was a cross of a high yield rice variety from Indonesia, Peta, and a dwarf variety from Taiwan, Dee-geo-woo-gen. The semidwarf-1 gene, which encodes an enzyme in the production of gibberellin and affects plant height, improved its yield. IR8 was well suited to the places it was first introduced. However, it “did not fit most rice-growing situations,” which involve heavy monsoons or deep flooding.