Review on the Trends of Social Sciences Research in the International Agricultural Research Institute - Focused on the International! Rice Research Institute (IRRI) -

국제농업연구기관의 사회과학연구 동향 고찰 -국제미작연구소를 중심으로-

The purpose of this paper is to review research evolution and achievements, major activities, research manpower, and difficulties for social scientists, using IRRI's internal web site and Social Sciences Division's research literatures. The major findings are as follows: 1) Social research started with the establishment of Agricultural Economics Division (AED) in 1966, and it was developed into the Social Sciences Division (SSD) in 1990; 2) Their research has been geared towards developing technological and policy interventions that improve food security and raise the well-being of rice farmers through sustainable increase in the productivity of a rice-based production system; 3) Major activities of social sciences research for about four decades can be classified into the identification of technology needs, technology impact assessment, policy analysis, research prioritization, and capacity building for social science research in NARS (National Agricultural Research Systems). They have become increasingly important in alleviating the poverty of the rice growing and consuming population; 4) Social researchers at IRRI include economists, anthropologists, gender specialists, geographic information specialists, and rural sociologists; 5) Finally, this paper discusses the difficulties faced by social researchers.