#224 Phillipines...Thanks Myron!

These four stamps with special postmark were just issued on Apr.14,2010 commemorating 50 years of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

IRRI is an autonomous, non-profit, agricultural research and training organization with offices in more than ten nations, established in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations in cooperation with the Government of the Philippines.

Its research activities began in 1962 and are now estimated to have touched the lives of almost half the world’s population. The IRRI played a major role in sparking the Green revolution on the field of rice when it developed a new breed in the 1960s.

The Institute’s research headquarters includes laboratories and training facilities on a 252-hectare experimental farm on the lower campus of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna, about 60 kilometers south of the Philippine capital, Manila. In addition to rice research, IRRI is also very active in local communities providing educational scholarships; organizing income-generating training activities and arranging other community projects that will help improve living conditions in the poor communities that neighbor the Institute.

IRRI was established to help poor rice farmers in developing countries grow more rice on less land using less water, less labor, and fewer chemical inputs. By helping to greatly boost production and ease the use of farm chemicals during its first 40 years, IRRI clearly showed the importance of rice and agricultural research in helping poor nations develop. The Institute’s importance has been further reinforced by the private sector’s traditional lack of interest in rice research.

The Institute has received many prizes and awards, including the UNESCO Science Prize.

#223 Philippines...Thanks Mark!

The 2009 Philippine Marine Biodiversity souvenir sheet on the cover depict six kinds of sea slugs.

Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell. This is in contrast to the common name snail, which is applied to gastropods that have coiled shells that are big enough to retract into.
All slugs are descended from snails that gradually lost or reduced their shells over time.However, the shell-less condition has arisen many times independently during the evolutionary past, and thus the category "slug" is emphatically a polyphyletic one. The various groups of slugs are not closely related, despite a superficial similarity in the overall body form.
There are marine and terrestrial slugs, but the common name "slug" is most frequently applied to air-breathing land species, while the marine forms are known as sea slugs. Land gastropods with a shell that is not quite vestigial, but is too small to retract into (like many in the family Urocyclidae), are known as semislugs.

The other four 7P stamps are 2007 Wild Ducks issue showing Northern Pintail,Greater Scaup,Common Shelduck and Northern Shoveler.

Northern Pintail(Anas acuta) is a widely occurring duck which breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. This is a fairly large duck, with a long pointed tail that gives rise to the species' English and scientific names. The male has a very distinctive brown, grey and white appearance, whereas the female has mainly light brown plumage and a shorter tail. The male's call is a mellow whistle, whereas the female quacks like a Mallard.

The Greater Scaup (Aythya marila), just Scaup in Europe, or colloquially known as "Bluebill", is a small diving duck. It breeds on the ground by lakes and bogs on the tundra and at the northern limits of the boreal forest across Arctic and subarctic regions of northern North America, Europe and Asia.

The gooselike Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) is a striking bird with its red bill, white and chestnut body, dark green head and neck. Sexes are similar, but the female is duller. The male has a swollen red bill knob in the breeding season.

Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) is unmistakable in the northern hemisphere due to its large spatulate bill.

#189 Philippines...Thanks Myron!

These 4 stamps are from 2009 Lobsters issue showing Northwest Reef Lobster,Two Spot Locust Lobster,Locust Lobster and Blind Lobster.

#155 Philippines...Thanks Myron!

#113 Philippines...Thanks Ritz!

The 2 stamps above are 2009 Philippines-India joint issue depicting Gangetic Dolphin and Whale Shark. (See Post #053 )

The 2 stamps below are 2009 Philippines-Korea joint issue showing Panagbenga Festival and Hangawi Sonori.

Panagbenga is a month-long annual flower festival occurring in Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines. The term is of Malayo-Polynesian origin, meaning "season of blooming". The festival, held during the month of February, was created as a tribute to the city's flowers and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990 Luzon earthquake. The festival includes floats that are decorated with flowers unlike those used in Pasadena's Rose Parade. The festival also includes street dancing, presented by dancers clad in flower-inspired costumes.

Sonori (Cow Play) in Hangawi is a festival that falls on the 15th of August by the lunar calendar is one of the biggest national holidays in Korea, when people celebrate the year’s good harvest and observe worship service to family ancestors. At this time, when newly harvested grains and fruits are abundant, as indicated in the saying “May every day be neither more nor less than Hangawi!”, the Sonori is performed. To the tune of cheerful musical instruments of the farmer’s band, two people put on straw mats shaped like a cow and visit door to door, wishing for a year of good harvest and peace and tranquility.