Christmas Science

Ako Mismo! Ang kikilos para sa bayan ko

2009-07-10T22:13:00.000+08:00

Revised 12 July 2009 at 0824 Manila time

MANILA – Ako Mismo. If it’s about commitment, I believe I’ve come to the right place: akomismo.org. I Myself, Siak Mismo (Ilocano). I registered with my commitment, ‘Ako mismo will blog creatively’ at about 1600 hours Wednesday, 10 July 2009, with the number of commitments showing 237,279. After about 30 minutes, the total is 237,468. As I am about to finish working on this at 1920 hours, the total is 237,783, or about 30 registering every 10 minutes. (On 12 July at 0905 hours, it's 238,701.)

What about the scientists and scholars of the University of the Philippines, where I happen to graduate from? Will they commit, or will they stay rooted where they are, on their ivory towers, on top of their protestations of love of country?

In the website, on the Wall of Commitments, here are some that I think are representative enough for this little essay:
Ako mismo panatiliin ang kaugaliang Pilipino – I myself will work to preserve Filipino customs & traditions.
Ako mismo ang gagawa at tatapos – I myself will finish what I begin.
Ako mismo tutulong sa mga Pilipino – I myself will help the Filipinos.
Ako mismo magiging malinis ang kapaligiran – I myself will clean my surroundings.
Ako mismo kikilos laban sa kahirapan – I myself will fight poverty.
Ako mismo tutulong sa kapwa ko – I myself will help my fellowmen.
Ako mismo ang susuporta sa musikang Pilipino – I myself will support Filipino music.
Ako mismo ang kikilos – I myself will do it.
Ako mismo ang magra-rally – I myself will rally.
Ako mismo magtratrabaho – I myself will work.
Ako mismo magtataguyod sa pamilya ko – I myself will support my family.
Ako mismo magiging tapat sa pagboto – I myself will be true to my vote.

AKO MISMO
ANG KIKILOS
Para sa bayan ko.

I MYSELF
WILL DO IT
For my country.

Don’t just stand there – do something! Anything!

Simulan mo ang pagkilos tungo sa muling pagbangon ng Pilipinas. Maliit man o malaki, ikaw mismo ang magsasabi kung ano ang gagawin mo. (Start doing it for the rise of a new

Philippines

. Big or small, you yourself decide what to do.)

Ang pinakamalaking problema ng Pilipinas ay hindi kahirapan o katiwalian o kawalan ng kapayapaan kundi ang pagwawalang bahala ng mga mamamayan. (The biggest problem of the Philippines is not poverty, or corruption, or lack of peace and order, but the apathy of the citizens.)

What the hell!? Is Ako Mismo a brilliant, sinister plot of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?!

Calling to arms by calling attention to apathy. Certainly, that’s a huge wake-upper. Ask Jun Lozada and the Sisters who keep him company, as well Randy David, and they will tell you that corruption is the biggest problem of the country. You know whom they mean. Ask the activists in Congress like Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño, and Manny Villar and even Mar Roxas and they will tell you the biggest problem is poverty. You know who they are. Ask those in Mindanao and they will tell you that the biggest problem in the country is the lack of peace and order. You know the extremists. Ako Mismo does not absolve the corrupt and the mendicants and the traitors, but that’s missing the point of Ako Mismo as a movement. A force for good.

Jaime Garchitorena writes to his gang (forwarded mail, 04 May 2009, gangbadoy.multiply.com), very much worried about privacy and being taken for a ride:

To all those that signed up with AKO MISMO! You are now part of SMART telecoms network for potential campaigns in 2010. ¶ The amount of information they have asked is so detailed that they can track you down to your zip code and contact you any time. In all my years of signing up for information, I have never had a site require so much information AS REQUIRED FIELDS. ¶ This makes for a perfect voter mapping database and campaign tool for anyone that wants to pay SMART for the information. Did you think SMART would pay MILLIONS in production and advertising and talent costs for nothing?

Jaime, if you doubt Ako Mismo's intentions, so do I yours. It is not true that Ako Mismo is the only one requiring so much data & information from someone registering. I agree that it is a Smart database that can be used to launch a campaign, any campaign, and that means Smart is really Smart. If you begrudge Smart spending millions and getting back millions more, you must ask the same question regarding your laptop, the hardware and software. Did you think that, for instance, for its Windows Vista and Office 2007 Suite, Microsoft paid millions of US$ in production and advertising and talent costs for nothing?

Ako Mismo is the genius of Smart, I must say. Or, more accurately, it’s the genius of DDB Cares, who created this project. DDB is Doyle Dane Bernbach, the world’s #3 in advertising. I want to give credit to whom credit is due. I worked as copywriter myself for Pacifica Publicity Bureau in 1974, and I remember DDB created the little ads that made the tiny car a big seller: ‘Think small.’ That was the Volkwagen. Understandably, DDB claims that its founder Bill Bernbach started ‘the creative revolution’ 60 years ago. Maybe, but DDB kept that creativity to itself. It was David Ogilvy (Ogilvy & Mather) who unselfishly made advertising a distributed creativity, to borrow from the idea of distributed computing, by writing the Bible of Creative Advertising, his Confessions Of An Advertising Man, where he laid down guidelines for creativity that copywriters follow to this day. Michael C Gray calls it ‘The Little Red Book of Advertising’ in reference to the helpful, incendiary Maoist Bible Quotations From Chairman Mao. Ako Mismo, I might say, is distributed committing.

Of all the bloggers writing on AKO MISMO, what caught most my attention was Martin Perez whose blog happens to have the title AKO MISMO (martinperez.asia). One of his posts is, ‘AKO MISMO: WEB ACTIVISM OR SUGAR HIGH?’ (ALLCAPS – I don’t like allcaps but that’s how he writes it.) He writes:

Is this something truly wonderful, or just an elaborate, high-budget phishing scam? ¶ This may be the cynic in me talking, but I’d like to think it’s also the concerned citizen speaking. For I agree with the likes of Bikoy who worry that this is nothing but a feel-good website masquerading as a social movement. … And this is the dangerous game being played by Ako Mismo. By promising a movement of change and what not, they play on the hopes and dreams of many. Now they will have to follow through on that. For making good on promises is what they should do. We should do. I should do. ¶ Ako mismo, pero paano sila? (I myself, but what about them?)

Martin Perez completely misses the whole archipelagic point of Ako Mismo. Apparently, he hasn’t browsed the website. Martin, it is not the citizen speaking – it is the citizen committing. He is not concerned if he is worried that others are not doing their part. He is not doing his part if he is not committed. He is not committed if he doesn’t begin. What he begins is useless if he doesn’t follow through. What he follows through is nothing if it is not for country. Got that?

You know, all you Martin Perezes out there, I cannot help it but this Filipino in Manila must now quote here my favorite President, and he is John F Kennedy in Boston, saying: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you; rather, ask what you can do for your country.’ If each of us commits to do what is right, that is our distributed committing. Committing to caring.

If you ask me, Ako Mismo is about:
Caring. Ako Mismo in 1 word.
Caring enough. Ako Mismo in 2 words
Caring enough doing. Ako Mismo in 3 words
Caring enough doing right. Ako Mismo in 4 words
Caring enough doing right, Philippines. Ako Mismo in 5 words

No, you don't just commit to caring; otherwise, you're only good for 1 word. Only those 5 words are good enough!

Loving Julius Fortuna. He redefined himself, taught us moderation

2009-07-06T06:32:00.000+08:00

MANILA - ASIDE FROM Neal Cruz, did anybody else notice that Julius Fortuna forgave his enemies? Pag-puti ng uwak, pag-itim ng tagak. A Filipino sarcasm I translate thus: Wait till crows turn white and herons turn black. That will be the day.

Image courtesy of

Arlyn Dela Cruz-Collantes

Impossible! Julius was from the Left. How could Julius Fortuna have forgiven his enemies when he was a UP product, if not graduate? If you are a product of the University of the Philippines, you must be outspoken, fearless, highly theoretical, stubborn, intelligent, unforgiving. In UP, you learn to confront the enemy, not forgive him. I’m from UP; having overstayed 2 semesters more, I should know more. Been there, done that. (I know someone who famously forgave his enemies, but he was from the Ateneo: Jose Rizal, National Hero of the Philippines.)

Ridiculous! After all, Julius Fortuna had been a member of the national council of the radical Kabataang Makabayan (Young Nationalists) and Secretary General of the Movement for a Democratic Philippines, which coordinated and organized ‘the massive demonstrations now collectively known as the First Quarter Storm of 1970,’ and had gone underground in August 1971 when he learned he was ‘in the order of battle of the military’ according to ANN (author not named, 24 June 2009, businessmirror.com.ph). ‘Can Ethiopians change their skin, or leopards their spots?’ (Jeremiah 13: 23 NRSV).

Aboveground, out in another battlefield, Julius Fortuna died on 23 June from a massive heart attack, dead on arrival at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City. He was 61 going on 62 (30 July), a native of Odiongan, Romblon. He left his wife Sabina, son Amilkar and daughter Jillian (philstar.com). Among other things, he had been writing a regular column ‘East and West’ at the Manila Times (manilatimes.net) and hosting the news forum Kapihan sa Sulo (Hotel) in Quezon City. He was also Vice President of Samahang Plaridel. By the time he died, Julius had long turned from Radicalism to Moderation and, from all indications, he had loved this new role. He had redefined himself. An Ethiopian can change his skin; a leopard can change his spots. ‘Be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Romans 12: 2 NRSV).

We too have to redefine ourselves. Thank you, Julius Fortuna, for showing us that we can redefine ourselves, that we can renew our mind.

He had other lessons for other people. Ducky Paredes thanks Julius ‘for having been a friend’ (duckyparedes.com):

I will miss Julius Fortuna. We had plans – about looking up old friends when we had the time and so on. What I learned from Julius was the importance of not letting go of old friends and acquaintances. Julius cared about just anyone that he met in this life. Now that he is gone, I can only add: Thank you, Julius Fortuna, for having been a friend.

Fernando Gagelonia writes of Julius Fortuna and ‘his calm demeanor, his depth of knowledge of Philippine and world affairs, his commitment to freedom’ (24 June 2009, midfield.wordpress.com).

Samahang Plaridel (Plaridel Society), where he was an officer, writes of him (26 June 2009, philippinereporter.com):

Regarded as a commentator of high repute, he wrote on a variety of raging nationalist, geo-political and diplomatic issues affecting the Philippines, the peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the internal squabbles in Malacañang, the Senate and the Lower House.

Known far and wide for his insights into the events of the day and the political possibilities in the future, Fortuna also became an officer of the National Press Club of the Philippines for several years and assisted other organizations of journalists in pursuing welfare issues.

Jonathan De La Cruz says ‘he was selfless to a fault’ and writes of him (28 June 2009, tribune.net.ph):

Julius Fortuna, beloved son of Odiongan, Romblon, a friend and mentor to thousands, a brother to a whole generation of Filipinos and a dear friend to a growing circle of katotos (close friends), is gone. Pareng Jules to his closest pals or Komisar to friends and foes alike, he is now resting in the bosom of the Lord. He will be truly missed.

Paul M Gutierrez writes (30 June 2009, journal.com.ph) that ‘he was never quick in judging people and was always there for valuable advice.’

Nicon Fameronag (30 June 2009, manilatimes.net) mourns ‘the loss of a Romblon icon in journalism whose voice has been heard and listened to around the country’ and reports that Awe Eranes of the Romblon Sun mourns the loss of ‘a mentor and godfather.’ He writes:

I was also thinking of Manong Jules’ good fortune to have lived in an era that recognized – was grateful for – his transition from a life of revolutionary activism to a life of battling society’s iniquities through a more powerful weapon – the Word.

Manong Jules lived a full life regardless of his early death. That fullness he achieved when he chose to become what he became: a revolutionary, a thinker and a journalist who engaged the world when many others in his era opt to be co-opted and, therefore, are in danger of losing their souls while still alive.

That’s all news to me. I forgive them all for their ardent views on Julius and Odiongan, whether they are from Romblon or not; I am glad I am not from Romblon and I have never visited that island, so I can write about Julius from a distance.

I never even heard (or don’t remember hearing) of Julius Fortuna until my good friend Jerry Quibilan began attaching to his emails columns of Julius, the first one sent to me 14 September 2008; it was Julius’ column dated 06 November 2007, ‘No ouster for GMA and JdV.’ He was right. In that same column, Julius said Jerry Quibilan had predicted that General Alexander Yano would become the next Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He too was right.

Still and all, the most poignant of all the tributes to Julius Fortuna was written by Neal Cruz, another journalist I also don’t know from Adam; this is what he said (29 June 2009, opinion.inquirer.net):

During those eight years (under Martial Law), he was tortured repeatedly by the military, but Julius gritted his teeth and bore the pain patiently and silently without ratting on his colleagues.¶ Years later, after he was released, he bore no grudge, no ill-will, no hatred, no anger and no desire for revenge against his torturers. On the contrary, when he became a journalist, he helped many military officers, colonels and generals who could have been among his jailers and torturers. Often, Julius would arrange interviews for journalists over lunch or dinner with news sources who were military officers. Such was the forgiving nature of Julius.

I was awestruck when I read that last line. Forgive your enemies? That’s not a difficult act to follow – it’s just not practical, not doable at all. It’s so much easier to just say, ‘Lord, I love my family, my friends. I love my neighbors. It’s those other people I hate. They have made my life miserable.’

And so, learning from Julius Fortuna, I challenge those in high (and low) places in any church or group to achieve the unachievable, to love the unlovable. Faith is not enough. The Bible is all theory until you put it into practice.

‘Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive’ (Colossians 3: 13 NRSV). Even those who cling to the Bible as the only source of wisdom know that there is more where that came from; here is Matthew 5: 43-48 NRSV:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I like to call Jesus Christ a sadist because, of all commandments he gave, it was this impossible one: Love your enemies! How many Catholic – and Protestant – preachers can do that, have done that? It’s so much easier to damn your enemies, to blame those whom you hate, to point your fingers at those who are corrupt (a few people) and never point at those who corrupt them (countless other people).

Oh, of course, I’ve heard this refrain many times: ‘I can forgive, but I cannot forget.’ I don’t think the Good Lord will forgive and forget you for behaving like that!

It’s impossible until we try. Thank you, Julius Fortuna, for showing us Christians how to be obedient to God’s Law of Love.

From the news, I learn that professors of the University of the Philippines support the Reproductive Health Bill being considered in Congress (Domini Torrevillas, 27 June 2009, cited in tucp.org.ph). Do they know and subscribe only to the theory of Thomas Malthus that the growth of population will always overtake the growing of food? I thought UP professors were more intelligent than that.

The Malthusian theory has long been debunked (see also my ‘The Yankee Dawdle,’ 04 February 2007, americanchronicle.com). Thank you, Julius Fortuna, for showing us UP graduates the need to stop running naked and to sit down, to listen, to know more, and to protest less.

Julius Fortuna was an intellectual model, in part because he read and absorbed. Nicon tells us (as cited):

With Manong Jules, you always get quality minutes of intellectual discovery. The book I saw last in his hands was Thomas Friedman’s bestseller, The World Is Flat. He spent money on books and foreign newspapers, in the same manner that he was generous to struggling friends in the media. ¶ As a thinker and journalist, Manong Jules can slice through a conversation and insert a gem of wisdom, usually his take or view on a topic enriched by reading and distilled by years of experience in observing events and human nature, and of course, by regular interaction with the powers-that-be. ¶ All the years, however, he retained his wit and firm anchor on his Asi (Romblon) roots.

‘The world is flat’ means globalization is here and it’s an irresistible beast – you might as well tame it to your advantage. You have to think outside the beast.

And when I read more about Jules from other sources, I learned more. Here’s part of a long and fervent tribute from Fel Maragay (27 June 2009, manilastandardtoday.com):

He became a columnist for the People’s Journal and the Manila Times, creating a reputation for himself for his sharp and in-depth analysis of every unfolding significant national event.

He wasn’t a run-of-the-mill journalist. His mind was sharp, his reading was wide, his grasp therefore had length, breadth and depth. Still from Fel Maragay (as cited):

Jules’ versatility as a media man was used to the full when he explored another field, that of hosting and moderating media fora like the Kapihan sa Manila (Hotel) and Ciudad Fernandina. But it was his brainchild, the Kapihan sa Sulo (Hotel) every Saturday morning where he excelled as a forum moderator. He had the natural ability to shoot straightforward and intelligent questions that make the guests and resource persons think deeply and come out with sensible, enlightening and newsworthy answers. … Truth to tell, Jules is one of the few media practitioners who have mastered the art of interviewing newsmakers. This explains why the Kapihan sa Sulo has become the premier coffee shop press forum in the country, and that is no exaggeration.

I can imagine that to be a good host and moderator at the same time, you have to know the subject at heart, so you can moderate the exchanges and ask provocative questions, because you may have to; and you have to know Robert’s Rules of Order, so you can mediate any dispute, because you always have to.

Jules will be remembered as a crafty journalist who showed the way in raising the standards of his chosen profession, a generous person with a soft heart for distressed colleagues and who never lost his humility and virtues while he rubbed elbows with the powerful and mighty and reaped the fruits of his labors.

I asked Fel Maragay by email for more on Julius on his being a model moderator, and in today’s (05 July) email he writes, and I shall quote it in full (in italics) because it is a comprehensive lesson in moderation courtesy of the Man from Romblon:

Journalist Julius Fortuna might not have been another Ric Puno Jr, the virtuoso television talk show host. But as a moderator of media fora, he was a class on his own. ¶ In the last few years before his untimely death on June 23, I witnessed how skilled he was in his role as Moderator of the Newsmakers Forum at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City every Saturday. ¶ He always had the right questions to ask of the forum guests and resource persons. He was equipped with this talent because of his intellectual caliber, his organized mind and his firm grasp of unfolding events or burning issues.

It’s easy to see that as a moderator you have to be better-informed. Even then, when you ask the right question at the right time, you may or may not know the right answer. You just try to stir up more life into the discussion, or steer someone away from a dead end, or a dangerous one.

Whether the resource person was a Senator, a Cabinet member, a military general, a spokesman of a political party, a top executive of an ill-starred inter-island ship, a survivor of a disaster, a leader of exploited farmers or a promising sportsman, Julius knew how to make them talk spontaneously and squeeze the juiciest and accurate information from them.

I never had the privilege of attending any of the Kapihan sa Sulo sessions, but I can imagine it all in my mind. I have been conducting interviews myself for a book I’m writing. Actually, what I do is not a proper interview – I ask the first question that comes to mind, or take the cue from the first things I see or hear. And so my interview usually lasts 4 hours – imagine that! That’s not an interview, that’s a conversation. I want the fellow relaxed so he can talk spontaneously and so that I can ‘squeeze the juiciest and accurate information’ from him. I have to be an interested listener, an active asker of questions. I even get to the point where I get some excellent, unexpected answers to some questions I didn’t anticipate I would ask! You have to be alert all the time.

Although we never bothered to ask him about his secret for steering a fruitful discussion, we had the impression that he always saw to it that he had enough background information about his guest or guests for the day and about the topic at hand. But oftentimes, he need not exert so much effort in getting the information he needed because most of these things were already stored in his brain. That is the advantage of being a voracious reader, a walking encyclopedia and a journalist who had a nose for news that Julius was known to be.

I’m a voracious reader myself, and for all of those 34 years of writing, while listening to someone, I have developed a feel for something new or improved or different. When I’m interviewing, I listen more than I ask questions. If you listen, it puts the other fellow at ease. Everybody loves a listener.

I believe the best moderating is not unlike the best interviewing – it doesn’t show. The other fellow doesn’t feel being moderated; it doesn’t look like he’s being interviewed. If you don’t know the answer, you ask the question. Even if you think you know, you should still ask – you can be wrong, or he may have some other things in mind that no one has ever thought of, and it may turn out to be a gem.

When a resource person tackled the hot issue of the day, Julius had the uncanny ability to raise a series of questions to make us understand its implications and significance from a wider perspective or from the viewpoint of national interest.

If you cannot escape the confines of your group’s ideology, if you cannot think outside the box, you cannot be a superb moderator. Sometimes you have to think without thinking of a box at all.

He would throw difficult, provocative and intriguing questions without sounding offensive or inquisitorial. When a person gets nervous, he loses his concentration. But Julius knew how to put the resource person at ease and in command of his thoughts. He would make the guest feel that he was doing great in his response and explanation. But that was only when the guest was saying sensible things. He also made it a point not to interrupt the guest when it was the latter’s turn to speak. That is a common fault of many a talk show or forum moderator that turns off the guest.

This is the point where you really need to know much more than the other fellow. If you want to ask intelligent questions, there is no substitute for knowledge beforehand. I can imagine Julius Fortuna thinking holistically, that is, thinking of the parts while thinking that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. With what he already knew, I can imagine he would be thinking vertically (as Tony Buzan with his mind map would) and thinking horizontally (as Edward de Bono with his lateral thinking technique would). I can also imagine the constant temptation to show off what he knew. The best moderator has the widest open mind, and Julius Fortuna must have been the best. I wish I had met him.

The task of the host-moderator is to break the ice, build up interest in the subject and keep the discussion flowing smoothly. He should know when to pause and let the panel of moderators and the audience have their turn to raise questions. That is a basic rule that Julius knew by heart and faithfully observed. In the same manner, he never hesitated to rule out any kibitzer asking nonsensical questions even it meant causing him embarrassment. Otherwise precious time would just be wasted and the forum would be taken for a ride by pseudo or hao-shiao newsmen.

That is to say, whoever the Kapihan guests were, they had met their match in Julius Fortuna, Moderator to the Max. Thank you, Julius Fortuna, for teaching us mortals the Virtue of Moderation.

Finally, I’m intrigued with the note that his friends Ding Gagelonia and Richard Rivera had cajoled him into blogging. So he uploaded on 12 January 2009 to his blog ‘East West Online’ (eastwestonline.blogspot.com) a post of 119 words in all, the first 2 sentences being:

It is my pleasure to join the new force in the field of information known as the blogging community. I must confess that I am not that familiar with computers and blogs, hence, I am glad to be inducted into this group, courtesy of my friends Ding Gagelonia and Richard Rivera.

He never followed up that small note in his blog. Julius Fortuna had met his match.

Bill Gates: Rich reach poor in South Asia

2009-06-30T12:58:00.000+08:00

BILL GATES IS THINKING of the poor; now, the poor must be thinking themselves. Today, 30 June 2009 Manila time, represented by Ellen McCullough and Austin Walters, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ICRISAT and partners launched a climate-change project in a meeting at the ICRISAT campus in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India. This is another hint that Bill Gates practices what he preaches: Creative Capitalism, the rich reaching out to the poor.

The project, with the long title 'Tracking change in rural poverty in household and village economies in South Asia,' aims to measure the changes in the climate of poverty in Bangladesh and India: western Gujarat, Maharashtra, northern Karnataka, Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkand, and Bihar.

An apt project, as ICRISAT is the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, dedicated to 'science with a human face.' The partners include the National Centre for Agri-Economics & Policy Research of India, SocioConsult, and the International Rice Research Institute.

The project is essentially the gathering of diverse data over time on the dynamics of poverty at the household and village levels, for scientists to be able to describe and prescribe. With the advent of Climate Change, it is necessary more than ever that Policy and Projects be based on the verifiable realities in the field: biological, technical, social, economic. Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr said, 'Nothing exists until it is measured.' And no measure amounts to anything until it is applied.

At the launching, Director General & Captain of Team ICRISAT William Dar explained the choice of study site:

In many ways, South Asia is sitting on a tinderbox. By 2050, its population is likely to exceed 2.2 billion from the current level of 1.5 billion. About 70% of South Asians live in rural areas and account for about 75% of the poor. Most of the rural poor depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The sector employs about 60% of the labor force, while it contributes only 22% of regional GDP.

As it is, the poor do so much and contribute only so much. Why? Poverty in the villages of South Asia must be understood in terms of globalization, feminization of Agriculture, resource crises, democratization, population, labor markets, including incidence of HIV/AIDS.

South Asia is only the beginning of the project. Dar said:

Let me highlight that the agricultural data from this project will be a launch pad for a more systematic organization, synthesis and use to track agricultural and rural development not only in South Asia but also in other semi-arid and humid tropics of Asia and lessons can be learned for similar (environments) in Africa.

Personally, I'm interested in being able to see, out of the data gathered, how one would be able to gauge how much investments are made and how much returns are received by the farming villages themselves, not only by the government and private sectors. The farmers have too much time in their hands; I know, I am a farmer's son. I say: Let the poor ponder too about the verifiable realities of life, what they can do,

'The task of ensuring that the voices of the poor are heard is left to us,' Dar said. 'Let us make them be heard!' In this direction, I say, the rich have much and they can do much more if they want. Given that, the poor themselves must be encouraged to do much more than always and ever expecting manna from heaven.

ICRISAT develops Climate Change-ready crops

2009-06-07T17:56:00.000+08:00

When the world gets warmer with climate change, the dryland tracts will become even drier making it more difficult for the farmers to grow crops in this region.

The improved crops developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT and its partners are able to withstand severe droughts, tolerate higher temperatures and mature early, enabling the farmers to be ready to meet the challenges of climate change. For crop improvement and seed distribution, ICRISAT has public and business partners in most countries where it operates, in Asia and Africa.

According to William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, the current research strategy at the Institute is to improve the heat-tolerance and drought-resistance qualities of ICRISAT’s mandate crops.

'We at ICRISAT, along with our NARS partners, shall further strengthen our efforts to develop crop varieties that will overcome the adversities of climate change, and thereby reinforce the food, nutritional, and income security of the poor in the developing countries,' said Dar. By NARS, Dar refers to the national agricultural research systems in-place in those countries, mostly in Asia and Africa.

ICRISAT’s research is focused on crops that are nutritious and important for the livelihoods of the people in the dryland areas. They are pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeon pea and groundnut; these are the mandate crops of ICRISAT. These crops have several natural evolutionary advantages for the global warming scenarios.

Both pearl millet and sorghum have high levels of salinity tolerance, and hence are better adapted to areas that are becoming saline due to global warming. Some of the pearl millet varieties and hybrids, developed from ICRISAT’s germplasm, are able to flower and set seeds at temperatures more than 42 degrees centigrade, in areas such as Western Rajasthan and Gujarat in India. Improved sorghum lines have also been developed that are capable of producing good yields in temperatures of 42 degrees C, and have stay-green traits that can enhance terminal drought tolerance.

Short-duration groundnut varieties such as ICGV 91114 have good levels of drought tolerance, and are already replacing more susceptible and older varieties. For chickpea, ICRISAT has developed extra-early (85 to 90 days to maturity) and super-early (75 to 80 days) varieties that can escape terminal drought. More recently, ICRISAT researchers have identified chickpea lines that have high levels of heat tolerance, which will enable them to be grown in areas with higher temperatures during heat-sensitive pod filling stage.

For further information, contact Dr CLL Gowda, Global Theme Leader for Crop Improvement, atc.gowda@cgiar.org.

Tony's Will. Power grows out of the banging of a gavel

2009-06-07T07:44:00.000+08:00

REVOLUTIONS ARE MADE OF THIS: Understanding political power and its use. As a rebel, I will advocate one kind of Revolution, I will abhor the other.

07 June 1966, Mao Tse Tung's Thoughts immortalized by Liberation Army Daily: Great Leader Mao Tse Tung said, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' A prophecy made to happen by the prophet himself. It was carried out mostly in the battlefield, following the precepts of The Art of War by Sun Tzu (artofwarsuntzu.com). 'The art of war is the art of deception' – Ria (goodreads.com). I do understand even managers make good use of it. I have lost my copy of it, which means it didn't do me any good. Well, I've always preferred to make love, not war.

05 June 2009, World Environment Day, Manila: Great Lawyer Tony Oposa Jr said, in effect, 'Political power grows out of the banging of a gavel.' A prophecy that cannot be made to happen only by the prophet himself. It is to be carried out initially in the courtroom, following what I shall refer to here as The Fine Arts of Law where, at will Tony invokes politics, philosophy, audio-visuals, paintings, sculpture, literature and poetry, not necessarily in that order.

That is theory and practice. Indeed I have seen and heard Tony execute the fine arts of the law at least 3 times, but most memorably during the Oral Arguments before the Supreme Court meeting en banc on the merits of the case Metropolitan Manila Development Authority v. Concerned Residents of Manila Bay (GR No 171947-48). Tony the Lawyer speaking invariably begins with the line 'Let me tell you a story ...'

The fine arts of the law applied on the Manila Bay Case finally worked, after 10 long years. The test case had been filed by Tony Oposa Jr on 29 January 1999 yet at the Regional Trial Court at Imus, Cavite – the 'Imus Litmus Case' I called it (see my 'The 5th Right of Man,' 29 March 2009, americanchronicle.com). In the oral arguments, on 12 August 2008, before the Supreme Court, the lawyers for the petitioners were Tony Oposa Jr, Sigfrid Fortun, Carl Castillo, Linda Jimeno, Rico Agcaoili and Rolly Vinluan.

08 December 2008. The Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice Reynato Puno, ruled against MMDA and 9 other government agencies: Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Budget and Management, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police Maritime Group, and Department of Interior and Local Government. The Supreme Court ordered these agencies to 'coordinate for the cleanup, restoration, and preservation of the water quality of Manila Bay' (Jay Rempillo, 17 February 2009, sc.judiciary.gov.ph). Tony's Will had become the Supreme Will.

Tony's Will. We are not talking about the rule of law and development, where the World Bank says (web.worldbank.org) 'the rule of law (is) important to economic, political and social development.' That is correct; that is also old hat. Rather, we are talking about something new, the role of law in development, the power of law to move public people and public policies and processes. This is in high contrast with something old, civil disobedience, which is the power of the person to flout authority and disrupt development. Henry David Thoreau is passé.

The December 2008 Manila Bay decision of the Philippine Supreme Court was itself a Revolution in legal jurisprudence. The International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, INECE Director Durwood Zaelke commended the Court for the decision and said it had 'become an international beacon of hope in the arena of environmental jurisprudence' for its 'groundbreaking ruling' by 'holding not only the current government accountable for Manila Bay but future administrations as well' (Rempillo as cited). The Court had upheld the petitioner's plea of 'inter-generational damages.' By the same token, the Court was engaged in 'a mission to do justice' (if we may borrow from US Chief Justice Earl Warren) to this generation and the next.

Power grows out of the banging of the gavel. The banging was loud and clear and was heard all over the

Philippines

and all over the world. This banging of the gavel is political power wielded in the name of the people by way of the law. 'Communism is a hammer, which we use to crush the enemy,' Mao Tse Tung said (versobooks.com). Environmentalism is a hammer, which we use to crush the enemy called Climate Change. THE ENEMY IS US.

'The American War for Independence,' says ANN (pbs.org), 'established a nation based on a revolutionary idea: self-rule and the inalienable rights of all its citizens.' The list of inalienable rights should now include ecology, as I have written ('5th Right of Man'), as the decision of the Supreme Court had underscored it, citing Sec 16, Art II of the Philippine Constitution: 'The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of Nature.' Where in the world do they have a Constitution that says anything like that? Only in the Philippines!

'We live in the Global Location Age,' Penn State Public Broadcasting says (geospatialrevolution.psu.edu). 'Where am I?' is being replaced by, 'Where am I in relation to everything else?' I say, with Marshall McLuhan: We live in the Global Village. So I think there is a more important question to ask: 'Where am I in relation to everybody else? That is a lesson in local ecology, in global climate change.

According to Justice MN Rao of India, judicial activism is not new; it is more than 200 years old in fact; it started in 1804 when US Chief Justice John Marshall declared, in the Marbury writ-of-mandamus case, that in a conflict of law versus the Constitution, the Constitution wins, and that 'it is for the court to say what the law is' (2009, Cogitocrat, geocities.com). In my country, the Supreme Court says the law is ecology.

Back to 05 June 2009. At the conference hall of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, IBP located along Doña Julia Vargas Avenue, San Antonio in Pasig City in Metro Manila, led by Tony Oposa Jr, the Global Legal Action against Climate Change, GLACC is launched almost quietly, no fanfare. Innovative and inspiring Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward S Hagedorn honors it with his presence, and so does incoming IBP President Rolando Vinluan, as well as a few Miss Earth 'beauties for a cause' – they are all in the right place at the right time. Lovely! Karla Paula Henry is Miss Earth 2008; she is from the Philippines. We Filipinos must be doing something right! For a change.

At the same time, the simultaneous filing of legal actions all over the country is announced. The legal petitions call the government's attention on implementing laws or initiating (here's a few):

(a) solid waste management

(b) marine conservation

(d) delineation and on-the-ground demarcation of final forest lines and protected areas

(e) establishment of critical habitats of endangered Philippine species

(f) transforming the transport system into less environmentally damaging systems.

Rolly Vinluan, incoming IBP President, the #1 trial lawyer of the ACCRA Law Office (ca.judiciary.gov.ph), promises during the conference: 'I assure you IBP will be 100% behind you.' Under the banner of GLACC are concerned citizens, environmental groups, youth, and non-government organizations. (How about you?)

After the conference, a novel legal Petition for Inter-Generational Damages (damage to future generations) is to be filed in a duly designated Environmental Court. I understand this legal action, hardly ever used, will allow the petitioner to gather the evidence existing and available at present, especially environmental damages, to determine who will be held liable for present and future damages.

All the legal actions are designed to complement and assist government agencies in implementing environmental laws to help mitigate climate change. ‘Law will not solve the problem,’ says Tony. ‘We are only using it to push things a bit.'

Elsewhere, 'We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems,' UN Secretary General Kofi Annan once said, 'if only we can find the political will.' That is a defeatist attitude, certainly unimaginative. 'Where the political will is lacking,' says Tony, ‘we will supply it by law.’ That is imaginative, creative. Will is not a noun – it's a verb! You have to exercise it. You have to invoke it. Will is not response; it's initiative.

Why do wars on corruption fail? 'Because they lack crucial political and institutional elements,' says Andrzej Zwaniecki (19 May 2009, america.gov). He is equating political will only with government policies and efforts. The same is true in the Philippines with our monotonous opposition and boring activists, always and only complaining about the lack of political will of the administration to, for instance, get rid of corruption in government. Political will is more than commitment; it is power exercised. And you invoke it on yourself first. Tony's Will is invoked on Tony first. To invoke political will on others, you may invoke the law, if the law is on your side.

What's the metaphor for lack of political will? Paper tiger. It's all policy, all politics, no will, no action. But we have the law. So, armed with the law, 'Where our leaders fail,' says Tony, 'let us take action. It can be done. Failure is not an option.' The action is a Revolution, led by GLACC (website glaccier-ph.ning.com). GLACC is a Revolution of Arms (of Lawyers and Law Enforcers) and of Hands (of Scientists) and of Minds (of Media people). This trinitarian marriage of Science and Law and Media is a modern Revolution.

Caveat lettore, reader beware! On 19 July 2001, a US study came out with the conclusion that there has been a decade-long pattern of judicial activism by American judges – against environmental protection – most of them appointed by Ronald Reagan and George W Bush (Cat Lazaroff, 19 July 2001, ens-newswire.com). Now then, the brown race is showing the white race how to behave on earthly matters.

Political power is political will actually, and it can be exercised in favor of or against. 'Activism and advocacy emphasize direct action in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue' – Alumbo (alumbo.com). When the judge bangs the gavel, political power can go either way.

We're blessed that in the Philippines, we have the gavel banging in favor of the Earth. Still, activist justices and judges are not enough – we need more warm bodies to carry on the Revolution. And so, we go back to Mao Tse Tung and learn from what he taught.

In June 1921, as members of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, Mao Tse Tung, Zhu De and Zhou Enlai borrowed the ideas of Vladimir Lenin and adapted these to

China

. 'They argued that in Asia, it was important to concentrate on the countryside rather than the towns, in order to create a revolutionary elite' (John Simkin, spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk). Thus, the CCP ran against the Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy; Mao had 'come to believe that the greatest potential for revolution in China lay with the peasantry rather than the urban proletariat' (Bruce Harris, moreorless.au.com).

Now then, for the Manila Bay Revolution, it is clear that we need to create a Manila Bay revolutionary elite and, necessarily, we need to decide whether the vanguard should be rural or urban proletariat, led by the GLACC as party. Mao chose the peasantry. My personal choice is the city rather than the country working class heroes. Pollution of the soil, water, air and mind is hardly the territory of the rural workers; I say that without implying that they are not intelligent. Another way of saying that is this: The intellectuals must be the vanguards of climate change activism. As a matter of fact, with GLACC they already are.

And what would the Manila Bay revolutionaries do that would be worthwhile and productive? On World Environment Day, Tony Oposa said around 200 letter-petitions were to be filed around the country: 21 in Davao, 33 in Laguna, 35 in Batangas, 40 in Iloilo and 45 in Cebu (Alcuin Papa, 06 June 2009, newsinfo.inquirer.net). That is only the beginning.

Was Mao's Revolution perfect? Ours isn't too. At the IBP conference hall, Bonar Laureto was trying to contact correspondents by Yahoo Messenger and the reception was at first good (voice and image), turning to poor (no image), graduating to bad (no contact). Technology is a 2-way street, but sometimes it suddenly becomes a dead end. It was billed an 'International Media Conference.' It could have been a multi-chat event. But you don't give up after an embarrassment like that. Like: Try Skype next time.

Apart from a media conference every now and then, I recommend that GLACC come up with a continuing media campaign. The Manila Bay case and the launching of GLACC were only 2 steps in a journey of a thousand miles.

It must be a differently led media, a new operation of mass media, neo-media: proactive, sustained, committed, intelligent, constructive – in sharp contrast with current models and manners. Initially, it can comprise print & online newsletter campaign to raise more funds to raise more consciousness on the perils of climate change and what people can contribute to GLACC in terms of warm bodies, kind hearts and tech-savvy minds and hands. At the beginning, it will be an intellectual Revolution, but it must spread to the grass roots, to the universities, eventually high schools.

Aside from the political will of the law, the political will of multi-stakeholders must also be mobilized: governments, civil society, the business community, international organizations, academe, and even the media, to borrow from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Report from the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy). So, it is wrong to say, as Stephen N Asek of Cameroon does, that 'political will in developing countries rests in the hands of the government and ruling political parties' (tigweb.org). It is also wrong for Lori Post to say, 'Political will can be thought of as support from political leaders that results in policy change' (quoted by Sina Odugbemi, blogs.worldbank.org). Political will is too important to be left to politicians alone!

Wielding political power is necessary for sustainable development. 'It is weird how one can be given power but still has the inertia to wield it,' says Asek (cited). 'Political will remains a particular challenge for developing countries today.' I say No. Political will remains a particular challenge for developed countries today – for refusing to share political power with the developing countries.

At one time, Mao Tse Tung began to criticize 'the reformists who claimed to be able to save the country through education' (Zhuo Qingjun, 1994, ibe.unesco.org). Unlike Mao and like our National Hero Jose Rizal, I believe in education as an excellent tool for reformation. We have the greatest tools for education more than anytime in history, and the Internet combines them all: chats, letters, newspapers, magazines, videos, essays in websites and blogs – and you can have any of them in an instant. 'Education, education, education of our people,' Jose Rizal wrote to his Austrian friend Ferdinand Blumentritt on 22 November 1889 when he was in Paris, when he was working on his Annotations to Morga. 'Education and enlightenment.'

Education and enlightenment for a Revolution no less. It must be massive. 'What defines a Revolution,' says Herbert E Meyer (20 May 2009, americanthinker.com), 'and this is the crucial point to grasp – is that when it's over, a country has changed not merely its leaders and its laws, but its operating system.'

'Can law be emancipatory?' asks Madalena Duarte (25 July 2007, allacademic.com). My answer: Only if you invoke it. As I believe adapting a parliamentary form of government for the Philippines would show - it will emancipate us from bureaucracy and, therefore, corruption. As I believe the Manila Bay Revolution is trying to show. 'We are not threatening anyone,' says Tony Oposa (Papa as cited). 'We would like to extend the hand of cooperation. We can volunteer experts to help.' But if local officials fail to act on their petitions within 15 days, administrative cases will be filed against them.

You can look at law another way. According to political philosopher and Nobel Prize winner (Economics) Friedrich von Hayek, 'the purpose of law is to preserve order' (cited by Remigijus Simasius, 27 May 1999, freema.org). Precisely! Pollution is a symptom of disorder, and that is why law must be invoked.

Tony's Will has shown us how to think out of the box when it comes to environmental activism. Excuse me while I write out of the box.

Blue Ocean, Brown Rice. If you can’t beat them, junk them!

2009-04-24T06:40:00.035+08:00

‘The color of truth is gray,’ says Andre Gide. What a dull world! What I’m about to show you is that truth is a coat of many colors. Color your world.

Gide, French author, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947. ‘He sought to uncover the authentic self beneath its contradictory masks’ (answers.com). What I’m about to show you is that what Gide sought in his personal life is an apt metaphor to what companies should seek in their business life. And yes, it has something to do with colors other than gray.

The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg, was a reel-life depiction of the sexual abuse by their own father of 2 African American women (imdb.com). These are the infrequent times when family breeds contempt.

The color red is a real-life description of bloody murder in the lives of men and women in business, as the collapse of Wall Street quite dramatically has brought it up. These are the frequent times when competition brings out the animal in you. So? Avoid competition!

So? I have myself learned in writing to avoid competition – I avoid the negatives that others compete to bring out in the mass media. A cockeyed optimist, I always look at the world through rose-colored glasses. But in fact, being a Virgo, my favorite color is blue.

‘Blue is beautiful,’ read the TIME report of almost 40 years ago, when psychologists and toy makers found colors did influence a child’s intelligence and imagination (17 September 1973, time.com). Blue was beautiful, and so was yellow, yellow-green or orange. The beautiful colors increased the kinders’ IQs up to 25 points on the average within 18 months. In another study, in imitating actions shown in books, 30-month old toddlers did better with color photographs than with black & white images (Gabrielle Simcock & Judy DeLoache, cited by medicalnewstoday.com). Color is beautiful.

‘Black is beautiful: Rubens to Dumas’ was an art exhibition in Amsterdam in 2008, a study of black people as seen through the eyes of artists in the

Netherlands

(codart.nl). Elsewhere, in that same year, black was elevated to the zenith of power. So now we have Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States of America. Black is powerful. Beautiful is a different story.

‘Brown is beautiful,’ according to Meena Iyer (2007, timesofindia.indiatimes.com), referring to health-based products, bread and confectioneries. ‘But we’re not even breaking even on the health stuff,’ Iyer quotes bakery owners Ajay Gadiyar & Kedar Naik in Andheri. ‘Even though there is good demand, prices are so high that there’s not much profit.’ Andheri is ‘one of the most important (parts) of the lively city of Mumbai’ (mapsofindia.com). Brown was also rejected by the kinders of TIME (as cited). Brown has problems with IQ and health.

Same story with Asia Rice Foundation and brown rice. On 11 August 2000, headed by its ChairEmil Q Javier, Asia Rice launched a campaign to promote brown rice as a health food at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, targeting the LBSC, Los Baños Science Community in the town of Los Baños in Laguna, some 60 km south of Manila. I didn’t know about that until today, surfing. I don’t know if they have been successful. I only know they have not been successful in convincing me to advocate brown rice. Of course, I’m rather difficult to please.

Around the middle of last year, during a lull in a public hearing on the rice crisis, Javier asked me pointblank, ‘Frank, bakit ayaw mo ng brown rice?’ Why don’t you like brown rice? And I answered frankly, ‘Hindi masarap.’ Not my taste. Truth hurts. (He didn't ask me if I could help promote brown rice. Another different story.)

Also last year, Ted Mendoza, a UP Los Baños professor, gifted us with about 5 kilos of brown rice and we cooked it 85% brown to 15% white rice, gave it another try at 50% brown to 50% white, then 25% brown to 75% white. What happened to the taste test? 100% white was best. I said taste; I did not say anything about health.

Health, February 2008 – The experts are urging more consumers ‘to eat more brown rice’ (Sosimo Pablico, 8 February, philstar.com). Brown rice, according to Pablico, ‘is known for its high nutrient content’ and can very well solve malnutrition among Filipinos – ‘hidden hunger,’ as Asia Rice Foundation Chair Emil Q Javier refers to it (beta.irri.org). On his part, Cezar Mamaril, a consultant of PhilRice, Philippine Rice Research Institute, prefers IR841 for brown rice for its good eating quality, aroma and soft texture. In fact, Pablico says, any rice can be milled as brown rice. (That’s news to me.)

Pablico quotes Mamaril as saying, ‘Through brown rice, we can easily make up with (our) rice shortage.’ He tells us the milling recovery of brown rice is 10% higher than white rice. That is to say, if we got 1 million cavans of rice milled white, we could have gotten 100,000 cavans more of rice milled brown. (That should be news to Philippine rice policymakers.)

Health, July 2008 – ‘Eat brown rice and stay healthier,’ writes Rudy A Fernandez (quoted in linafarm.com). Fernandez quotes the Committee on Los Baños Pinawa (a brown rice) as saying, ‘The perception that brown rice is a poor man’s food can be reversed through a campaign promoting its class appeal by introducing high-quality brown rice in hotels, restaurants, health food stores and airlines.’

Brown rice for your health, anyone?

One website shows a figure showing ‘the anatomy of rice’ as an illustration for the article ‘Why brown rice is healthier’ (salagram.net):

Can you guess which highly processed and very popular food contributes to diabetes and, if it wasn’t fortified with vitamins by the manufacturer, a deadly disease – beriberi? That’s right. It’s white rice.

The vast majority of rice eaters won’t touch brown rice. They consider it peasant’s food or animal feed. Yet, the modern health food movement has proven unprocessed grains, including brown rice, to be healthier than their refined counterparts. Certainly, for thousands of years everyone ate brown rice, for the complex processing equipment needed to make white rice was invented only in 1860, in Scotland.

The DA, Department of Agriculture of the Philippines is promoting the use of brown rice as ‘the healthier, more nutritious’ kind (da.gov.ph). One journalist claims that brown can ‘fight colon cancer’ (23 April 2009, malaya.com.ph). ‘Why Filipinos should eat brown rice’ is the title of an article that appears in an online weekly (agribusinessweek.com).

Okay, but I can give you a hundred more reasons why Filipinos don’t eat brown rice.

Just the other week, during the week-long fiesta celebration in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, for the first-ever Asingan Agricultural Trade Fair, I was witness to a cookfest, a competition on recipes with the eggplant as the common ingredient. CoordinatorsRoger Daranciang and Nestor Salvador asked me to help in the judging. To be practical, they had decided on using only 3 criteria: Presentation, Appearance, Taste. Really, the contestants came up with many different recipes, never mind the specific garnishings. Never mind the results, but I was thinking like this:

Presentation is #1. If I don’t like how it looks in the overall, that’s a loser. Garnishing is important to the eater, and that’s me. Appearance: If I don’t like how the food itself looks in particular, how it looks after cooking (or not cooking), that’s a double loser. I won’t even taste it.

Overall Lesson: No, you can’t sell brown rice as health food – the very name is its own non-selling point. Presentation is important; appearance is important. Taste is actually the least of your worries. If you want food value, go look for a nutritionist. You have to package it differently. Like Genmaicha – it’s brown rice tea (Connie Veneracion, houseonahill.net). As tea, brown rice becomes a different product.

Brown rice is a product; you want to make it a commodity so that you don’t have to convince people to go out and buy it. So you have to follow the rules of marketing.

In 2000, Asia Rice Foundation started selling the public the idea of brown rice as a health food. But the ocean of health foods is red – bloody red, because of overcrowding, because of savage competition. The trick is to create a blue ocean out of the red ocean for brown rice.

Let’s take our business lessons from W Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne, a Korean and French team of business strategy professors at France’s Insead, 2nd only to Harvard as the largest business school in the world (2009, blueoceanstrategy.com). Their book Blue Ocean Strategy,with the subtitle How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make Competition Irrelevant, was published by Harvard Business School Press on 3 February 2005 and has since sold more than 2 million copies (blueoceanstrategy.com). This is non-fiction.

From what I have learned so far, the blue ocean strategy has this color lesson for brown rice:

Brown rice can’t hop green island to green island until the brown captain moves his gray ship to a blue ocean.

To create a blue ocean for brown rice, Asia Rice can learn from Casella Wines in Australia, which in less than 3 years became the #1 imported wine in the United States, with 11.2 M cases sold in 2004 alone (Renee Mauborgne, 2005, allbusiness.com).

How did Casella create a blue ocean for its Yellow Tail red and white wines?

First, what they did was think out of the box – instead of looking at competing wines, Casella looked across alternatives to wine: beer, spirits, ready-to-drink cocktails. They came up with ‘a fun, easy-to-enjoy wine for every day.’ That is, they created the demand. They added value to their product. No competition!

Then they got their blue ocean strategy out right. Mauborgne says there are 3 defining characteristics of an effective blue ocean strategy: divergence, focus and a compelling tagline. You need a different product to create your own market. You need to focus so you can cut costs. You need a tagline to speak to your market. When you have all 3, then you’re sailing on a blue ocean.

How does that Casella lesson on red and white wines apply to brown rice? My free, unsolicited advice to Asia Rice is this:

Divergence
First, forget about selling nutritional value – if you insist, you’re stuck in the bloody red ocean where you are right now, and you’ll probably never get out of it alive. Next, create a product different from any of the competing health foods. Stop comparing brown rice with white rice. Look less at white rice and look more at competing products to rice. It’s still brown rice, but you package it (I’m not referring to the material) in such a way that it adds value to the life of your target consumer. Like, come up with a new recipe for delicious, different kinirog (Ilocano word for fried rice), so everyone can look forward to breakfast every single day. Don’t you think the word kinirog is exotic and fun at the same time? Make sure brown rice is what makes the difference in taste. The thing is ‘to create a blue ocean of uncontested market space.’ You create that space. You are the genius.

When you do that, when you find the genius in you, here’s a metaphor for you, as I am reminded of one of my favorite poems of Robert Frost; here’s the last stanza:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

And still another metaphor: Differentiating your product is not unlike Andre Gide ‘uncovering the authentic self beneath its contradictory masks’ – genius, you will love what you see emerges.

Focus
Don’t come up with 200 kinirog recipes – 2 is perfect. Don’t compete against yourself. You want to be different and you also want to cut costs. You want to add value to the lives of your customers and not subtract value to your company. But remember: Cut cost, not quality. And why not? Everybody else is cutting on quality! That, unfortunately, is what Filipinos are known for.

Tagline
Atmosphere is what counts. Remember the long-running Volkswagen? ‘The little car that could.’ And the longest-running Marlboro tagline: ‘Come to Marlboro country.’ And the one I like to quote, that for Nokia: ‘Connecting people.’ For brown fried rice, I can think of several taglines, variations of a theme: ‘Kinirog pa, irog?’ More fried rice, love? ‘Irog naman, kinirog pa.’ Love, more fried rice, please. ‘Iniirog ko ang kinirog mo, mahal.’ I love your fried rice, love. ‘Mahal, nasaan ang kinirog?’ Love, where’s the fried rice? Food and fun, that’s what you make it. Science has brought us brown rice, but there’s no fun in science. Like Casella Wines did, you have to put it in. And you know what? With that tagline, you are making friends out of the Ilocanos (kinirog) and the Tagalogs (irog). Isn't that great? I wish for the fun to begin! To paraphrase, with apologies to George Lucas and Star Wars, this is my wish: May the farce be with you.

Another great tagline, this time in science, is that of ICRISAT, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, with William Dar as Team Captain: 'Science with a human face.' To drive home the point of science with fun, to learn from it, to get the hang of the blue ocean strategy, I will now paraphrase it to say, Science with a human farce.

We can also learn from Isaac Asimov, the great science writer:

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny ...’

In Shrek, the Dreamworks animated movie, Donkey cries out:

Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Oh, this would be so much easier if I wasn’t color blind!

Don’t be color blind; distinguish the red from the blue. There has never been a true blue rose, ever – if you can breed one, you will be famous and a billionaire overnight. The blue ocean is like a blue, blue rose. But now you can do the impossible; you can make yourself one.

And why did I choose fried rice as my product differentiation for brown rice? Because I can whip up a mean kinirog myself even without garlic, without soy sauce, without eggs, without butter,without toppings of any kind, just cooking oil and table salt – to taste is to believe. The secret is in the cooking. I learned my fried rice from my mother. A very shy boy, when I was still that high, I watched my mother and her Singer, and she taught me how to use the needle to saw by hand as if by machine, and to match colors thread to cloth. Thank God for mothers. They color our world. Thank God for colors!

Every Day is Earth Day at ICRISAT

2009-04-22T04:48:00.000+08:00

As the world observes ‘Earth Day’ on 22 April, ICRISAT, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, headquartered in Patancheru, Hyderabad in southern India, is happy to join in the global expression of awareness and care for the environment.

‘A major part of ICRISAT’s mission is to overcome a degraded environment in the dry tropics through better agriculture,’ says ICRISAT Director General William D Dar. ‘At ICRISAT, every day is Earth Day!’

The first Earth Day was observed on 22 April 1970, and marked the modern worldwide environmental movement. ICRISAT, established in 1972, focuses on the semi-arid tropics of the world, chiefly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, which is home to one-sixth of the world’s population. Persistent drought, unpredictable weather, limited and erratic rainfall, and nutrient-poor soils are the farmer’s challenges in these tropics. ICRISAT helps developing countries in the semi-arid tropics to increase crop productivity and food security, reduce poverty, and protect the environment.

Public-private partnership in science is crucial in all this, and it is a flag that ICRISAT has been waving in the forefront. ‘ICRISAT is intensively working with its partners to develop science-based strategies that empower vulnerable communities to cope with the challenges of these dry tropics,’ Dar says, referring to the current day global challenges brought by climate change.

Thirty-nine years ago, before the first Earth Day was celebrated, the New York Times carried a lengthy article reporting on the rising hysteria of ‘global cooling.’ Today the world is deeply concerned about ‘global warming.’ Scientists the world over are discovering more and more evidence that the threat is very real, and that the effects are already being felt.

ICRISAT data shows that increases in temperature will have a marked (8% to 30%) reduction in grain yields of its mandate crops. Recognizing the implications this would have on poor farmers who are at the mercy of nature’s vagaries, ICRISAT’s research is on the ‘poor man’s crops,’ which are already ‘climate-change adapted.’ ICRISAT’s mandate crops – sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut – are hardy crops that can grow in harsh environments. In fact, ICRISAT has developed improved varieties of these crops, which are more pest, drought and disease resistant, and can produce rich harvests despite little or no irrigation.

Besides ICRISAT’s major strides in crop improvement, its scientists are also exploring solutions to environmental challenges through an integrated genetic and natural resource management approach. Well known for its work on watersheds, ICRISAT’s expertise is being sought to help with government programs in India, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Rwanda towards watershed management and rainfed farming systems.

Another challenge is the slow extinction of precious crop germplasm. ICRISAT is serious about conserving germplasm, and currently holds the world’s biggest collection of germplasm (>119,000 accessions) of its mandate crops. ICRISAT is also a contributor to the global seed vault in Svalbard, Norway, where 111,000 of its germplasm accessions will be stored for posterity.

‘Earth Day is an excellent reminder about our global responsibility to Planet Earth and our environment,’ Dar says. ‘We continue to work and wish for a happy Earth Day.’

Power in numbers. Science with human faces

2009-04-05T22:57:00.000+08:00

In art, movies are numbers and faces. In science, generations are also numbers and faces. You can choose which to show. I choose both.

Shelter is a movie now shooting by Nala Films of Los Angeles in California, with a budget of $22 M, and yes, they want that ‘Inbred Look’ (David M Brown, 26 February 2008, pittsburghlive.com). Because it’s a supernatural horror thriller, and yes, it’s a story about real people in the mountains who have been inbreeding generations after generations, Nala Films is looking for people with a different kind of look, such as an albino girl and deformed people to depict those West Virginia mountain folk. (In case you’re interested, the movie stars Julianne Moore, winner of Emmy and Golden Globe awards, star of the film Body of Evidence.) With people, inbred is weird. I’ll call that the Shelter Effect. Given generations, among people the Shelter Effect produces not only decadence but a social monstrosity. In the movies, visuals with inhuman faces may produce a box office hit, like Dr Frankenstein's monster – but we’re not in the movies, are we?

With luck, terror in movies makes waves; with luck, error in science makes you waver, and then you go on with a new idea and a new resolve. The Inbred Look is the ultimate dream of Nala Films; they think the ones that look worst will look best to moviegoers. It’s been done before. Quite the opposite, the Hybrid Crop is the ultimate dream of breeders; they know heterosis or hybrid vigor will bring out excellent offspring, plant or animal. With continued inbreeding, with related parents, you get badder and badder offspring, as the Nala movie would show; with continued crossbreeding or hybridization, with unrelated parents, you get better and better progeny. In history, why do royal bloodlines run out? It’s due to inbreeding, or inter-family marriages; they want the family blood to remain pure, and that’s exactly why it runs into family trouble.

Inbreeding is the mating together of blood-related animals or gene-related plants. In people, that would be mother & son, father & daughter, sibling & sibling, half-sibling & half-sibling, cousin & cousin, aunt & nephew, niece & uncle and grandparent & grandchild (Sarah Hartwell, 2008, messybeast.com). Because of the limited gene pool from continuous inbreeding, the deleterious genes become widespread and the breed loses vigor. Denis J Murphy says that that is known as ‘inbreeding depression’ marked by poor performance such as lower growth rate or lower disease resistance (books.google.com.ph), or higher death rate. The Shelter Effect. Not unlike a car runs out of gas, a breed runs out of vigor; to make the same car run again, you buy gas; to make the breed thrive again, you cross it with another, and then you get a new and better breed. There’s power in driving a car; there’s more power in breeding. Nice work if you can get it!

You do have to be careful. And so a ‘Kissing Cousins’ marriage, or that between cousins, as well as any other marriage between close relatives, is against the law; it’s inbreeding, and as seen in cattle, all consequences of inbreeding are undesirable (ext.vt.edu). It’s obeying the laws of love that makes the world go ‘round, along with obeying the laws of genetics.

And, while in theory you can, in fact, no, you can’t get rid of inbreeding, or shouldn’t. You need lines resulting from inbreeding for crossbreeding – that is, in crops, whether plant or animal. You just have to watch out for the Shelter Effect.

Is cloning inbreeding? Like stem cutting in plants, cloning is asexual, that is, no sex is involved; cloning is multiplying the exact same genetic materials. It is not inbreeding, but the results are the same: a multiplication of the same substance, not unlike Jesus’ multiplication of the 5 loaves of bread to feed 5,000 hungry mouths in the New Testament (Mark 6: 41-44). I don’t know about cloning, but a miracle is nice if you can get it!

In inbreeding, there is the production of sameness; in crossbreeding, there is the production of unlikeness. In inbreeding, if you keep planting the seeds of your previous crop over the years, there is a danger that all the recessive traits will crop up (if you will pardon the pun). There is a loss of hardiness and vitality; it is not surprising that rare genetic diseases become more common among inbred crop populations (naturalstandard.com).

From cuttings of an old plant, you get new plants along with the old genes; from seeds of self-pollinated crops, you get the same. From crosses of parent plants from different lines, you get new plants plus new gene combinations that result in character traits that are usually desirable, like much higher yield along with much lower fertilizer cost. Inbreeding perpetuates its own kind; crossbreeding perpetuates hybrid vigor.

Hybrids give you hybrid vigor, the ultimate dream of breeders, plant or animal. If plants, they give you quantum leaps of yield so high that you will jump for joy; if animals, they give you quantum leaps of meat, milk or eggs so much you will jump through hoops.

Another way of saying that is this: Hybrid vigor gives you higher returns on your crop investment, all things being equal. With the same inputs, the higher the output, the higher the net.

That’s science, that’s knowledge. Now, today knowledge has a way of multiplying itself either by printed word or mouth or electronic file. And knowledge, known by publicly funded institutes of science, like ICRISAT, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, is similarly known by private seed companies. Is that good or bad? It can be better.

In India in the 1990s, even as scientists of ICRISAT were aware of hybrid vigor, scientists of private companies in India themselves were aware of it and, thinking business, started developing their own science around their own new and improved crops (CLL Gowda et al, 2004, cropscience.org.au). Since the private companies were closer to the seed pushers (merchants) and users (farmers), this led to the decline of funding in ICRISAT and other research centers of the CGIAR, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which forced significant budget cuts all over CGIAR (icrisat.org). Business was minding its own business, not thinking out of the box. Error. Science was making a similar mistake. 2 wrongs don’t make a right.

You can’t do much science without much funding and without much enthusiasm. In those years, ICRISAT urgently needed new ideas and a new resolve.

In 2000, with William Dar as the young and new Director General of ICRISAT, the Institute woke up from its stupor and, thinking out of the box, among other things saw that the private companies could be enticed to become allies in funding if first they became partners in research. Collaborators all, in a consortium. Thus were born the hybrid parents research consortia for sorghum and pearl millet that year at ICRISAT. At that time, the consortium model was a novel idea within the CGIAR system. This was the first broad-based public-private partnership in the history of that system. If you can’t fight them, join them. This is science with many human faces reflecting work in harmony with one another.

Other CGIAR centers have since been adopting the ICRISAT consortium model in their R&D operations. They know a good thing when they see one.

Here is a list of specific ICRISAT consortia. There is the Desert Margins Program, a 9-country consortium fighting desertification in Africa, funded by the Global Environment Facility (2003, icrisat.org). There is a Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Research Consortium, with Tata Chemicals and Praj Industries of

India

as 2 of the newest members (2007, icrisat.org). There is the Pearl Millet Hybrid Parents Research Consortium that has 35 members (icrisat.org). There is the Chickpea Genomics Consortium on Drought Tolerance (2007, icrisat.org). There is the Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project, a consortium of 7 African and 2 American institutions funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2007, icrisat.org). One of the latest is the consortium for the project of the Government of India called ‘Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Value Chain Development’ with 7 partners (2008, icrisat.org).

Outside of the CGIAR system, MS Swaminathan, former Director General of IRRI and now Chair of India’s National Commission on Farmers, has recommended an ICRISAT-model consortium approach in watershed management for dryland districts throughout his country (2006, icrisat.org). A local innovation with a global application.

They all have seen the power in the consortium:

(1) There’s power in numbers. It’s called synergy.
(2) You have a knowledge base of resource persons working together.
(3) It’s a one-stop shop for clients, not to mention members.
(4) There are education & training opportunities.
(5) You enjoy economies of scale.
(6) There’s access to resources otherwise unavailable.
(7) You participate in a focused project with a clear-cut objective – by itself, a definite benefit.

It works of course if you have teamwork, and that requires a Team Captain.

I’m coming to that. Another novel idea was put into practice by Dar early in his first term as Director General; he launched Team ICRISAT as a movement within the Institute in early 2002. With Dar as Team Captain, this resulted in ‘staff morale greatly boosted’ (icrisat.org). That was the first thing that the Team spirit made happen; I’m sure it did much more than that. What subsequently happened at ICRISAT proves to me that if you have a great Team Captain, you will have a great Team.

One time, in a lull during a seminar in the

Philippines

, I asked Dar what gave him the idea of Team ICRISAT, and he said he had borrowed the concept from sports, from Team Philippines (basketball). Today, when I think of Team ICRISAT, I think basketball and I think consortium, that is, public institutions and private companies working towards producing new and improved crops collaborating as a team with a common goal (if you will pardon the pun). Team Chickpea, Team Groundnut, Team Pearl Millet, Team Pigeon Pea, Team Sorghum – each should make a great Team to produce scores of new and improved crops.

You can’t have new crops without hybrid parents, and you can’t have hybrid parents without HPR, hybrid parents research. In 2000, for pearl millet, the consortium for HPR emerged as ‘the most appropriate among partnership models’ (RP Mula et al, December 2007, SAT eJournal, icrisat.org). Team ICRISAT discovered the power in public-private collaboration in science.

The HPR consortium was to follow 2 guidelines: (1) It shall address the core research agenda of ICRISAT. (2) All products of HPR shall remain in the public domain as IPGs, international public goods.

As of 2001, the ICRISAT hybrid pigeon pea, the world’s first hybrid of any food legume crops, had been developed through partnership in HPR (icrisat.org). Out of this, a hybrid cultivar called Pushkal was launched in July 2008, that is, made available commercially (icrisat.org). (I myself have written about this; click if you want to read: ‘Serving ICRISAT Science’ and ‘The Beans Revolution, 1’ icrisatwatch.blogspot.com).

The consortium model broadened the concept of public-private sector partnership, and gave birth to the Agri-Science Park of ICRISAT, which is the hub of the wheel of public-private partnerships for the development and commercialization of technologies such as hybrid seeds of pearl millet and sweet sorghum. The consortium tactic has emerged as a successful method of generating funds as well as promoting development and marketing of technologies for the poor in the semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia. This is the dream of those interested in technology transferred to the people.

Not resting on its laurels, ICRISAT’s search for partnerships is ‘proactive’ (Belum VS Reddy et al 2005, icrisat.org/journal). Seek and you shall find. The partnership involves joint identification of priorities and joint investments for research in key areas. As of the latest data made available by ICRISAT, there are now 50 private seed company partners with financial contributions under 5-year renewable agreements. Here is the list of those consortia members:

(1) Adriana Seed Company (Brazil)
(2) Advanta India
(3) Ajeet Seeds
(4) Ankur Seeds
(5) Avesthagen Technologies
(6) Basant Agro Tech
(7) Bayer BioSciences
(8) Bharati Seeds
(9) Biogene Agritech
(10) Bioseed Research India
(11) Biostadt MHSeeds
(12) DevGen Seeds and Crop Tech
(13) Energy Seed Intl
(14) Ganga Kaveri Seeds
(15) Green Life Seed & Bioculture
(16) Gujarat Hybrid Seeds
(17) JK Agri Genetics
(18) Kanchan Ganga Seed Co
(19) Kaveri Seed Co
(20) Krishidhan Seeds
(21) Krishna Seeds
(22) Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation
(23) Mahodaya Hybrid Seeds
(24) MAHYCO
(25) Metahelix Life Sciences
(26) NAFED
(27) Nandi Seeds
(28) Nath Biogene
(29) Navbharat Seeds
(30) Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute
(31) Nimbkar Seeds
(32) Nitya Seed Sciences
(33) Nodai Seeds
(34) Nuziveedu Seeds
(35) Pacific Seeds (Australia)
(36) Pioneer Overseas Corporation
(37) Pradham Biotech
(38) Pravardhan Seeds
(39) Rasi Seeds
(40) Shakti Vardhak Hybrid Seeds
(41) SM Sehgal Foundation
(42) Southern Petrochemical Industries
(43) Spriha BioSciences
(44) Swarna Seeds
(45) Syngenta India
(46) Tulasi Seeds
(47) Vibha Agrotech
(48) Vikky’s Agrisciences
(49) VNR Seeds
(50) Zuari Seeds

As a result, ICRISAT is now a center of excellence for research and development for hybrid parents in 3 crops – sorghum, pearl millet, pigeon pea; it is now a supplier of high-quality parents necessary for hybrid development, testing and release in Asia (icrisat.org). These are what I like to call parents-in-waiting.

So now you have a good idea why ICRISAT has been into HPR, hybrid parents research. It’s within the wide area of crop improvement. To have an idea how Team ICRISAT does it, let us look at its efforts in breeding & selection for sorghum seed parents for the last 31 years, in 3 phases:

1st phase 1978-1988 – emphasis on crop grain yield and food quality matching local crop seasons and sites
2nd phase 1989-1998 – emphasis on crop resistance to pests, diseases and drought
3rd phase 1999-today – emphasis on farmer-preferred grain characteristics such as white, large and lustrous grains from cultivars that are adapted to post-rainy season growing conditions.

The phasing indicates that in solo or partnership research, you start with the problems of local farmers and end up with the choices of local farmers. Which gives me an idea; to generate an entirely different marketing theory, we can look at it as a demand-supply chain, not simply a supply chain. In ICRISAT’s actual sorghum work, the first 2 phases are supply push; the 3rd and final phase is demand pull. In marketing as in science, the pull is greater than the push. (As in: Gravitation is greater than 1 billion physicists praising Isaac Newton.) That is to say, in the production and marketing of crop-related knowledge, or technology, the farmers are always right because they are always the customers.

As a direct product of the ICRISAT consortia, many partner local private seed companies in India have now grown into global businesses. In turn, the partnership has enabled ICRISAT to develop breeding lines and hybrid parents, as well as enabled country NARS, national agricultural research systems, in Africa and Asia to diversify the genetic base of their local hybrid programs. That means better genetic materials for better crops. The more diverse the parents-in-waiting, the greater the hybrid vigor of the offspring.

Meanwhile, the challenges remain and there are 2 of them: inside the consortium, that is, value-adding relationships with partners, and outside the consortium, challenges arising from changing farming systems, changing farmer preferences, as well as changing consumer preferences (icrisat.org).

Now, let me remind you, you can’t have hybrids without inbreds. Hybrids and inbreds co-exist. Thus, when a hurricane destroyed the maize seeds stored by farmers and the national seed bank in Honduras, CIMMYT, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo, sent to Honduras half a ton of maize seeds of both hybrids and inbreds that had high yields, were highly adapted to the country, tolerant to stress such as that brought about by drought or pest (icrisat.org). CIMMYT and ICRISAT both belong to the CGIAR system.

Currently, with respect to Africa and ICRISAT-derived inbred-line cultivars, ICRISAT cultivar Macia is being grown in 30% of the area planted to sorghum in Eritrea, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and

Zimbabwe

(icrisat.org). Cultivar Gadam el Hamam is being adopted by farmers in Kenya, and Pato is being adopted by farmers in Tanzania. Phofu, which adapts to late-season drought due to early maturity and stays green, has been adopted by 21% of farmers in Botswana. Cultivar S35, also called ICVS 111, enjoys 10 to 15% adoption in Nigeria and Ghana, and ICVS 400 is popular in Nigeria. The extra-early cultivar CSM 63 is accepted by farmers in West and Central Africa. 7 new lines in the Guinea race of sorghum have been released by ICRISAT in Mali. This race is grown by many, including farmers in other countries in West Africa. Today, half of India’s 8.5 M ha planted to sorghum is growing hybrids. Of the 50 commercial hybrids in the market, about 30 are from ICRISAT parents or lines. Nearly 50% of

India

’s 10 M ha planted to pearl millet is growing at least 84 hybrids, at least 60 of these based on ICRISAT parents or lines.

All those are products of the consortium model.

ICRISAT has been promoting the consortium model in places other than in India. In Asia, for one, ICRISAT has signed agreements with 5 private companies in the Philippines to form a sweet sorghum consortium for ethanol production. In Africa, ICRISAT has been exploring the formation of consortia in Uganda, Nigeria, Mozambique and South Africa.

The Institute recently launched a consortium for self-pollinated chickpea and groundnut to share new breeding lines and varieties with partners, eventually so that farmers can have access to the seeds of improved cultivars for higher yields and incomes. Yields they can appreciate, incomes they can enjoy.

‘Power is the capacity to bring about change,’ they say; ‘as measured by results,’ I say. Now then, if I may summarize the power in consortia, it’s simply this: It’s not ‘I alone can’ but rather, ‘Together, we can.’ (That's FVR, Fidel Valdez Ramos, remember? 'Kaya natin 'to!') Theory must translate into practice. Easy to say, hard to do, which makes the ICRISAT consortium breakthrough story all the more remarkable.

And so the story of the power in the ICRISAT consortia continues. I want to point out that while it did not invent the concept, ICRISAT has marvelously tapped the power in consortia to create science with human faces.

Science Council acclaims ICRISAT transformation

2009-04-05T20:53:00.000+08:00

The CGIAR’s Science Council has highly commended ICRISAT’s transformation based on the report of the EPMR, External Program and Management Review. The EPMR panel was tasked to assess ICRISAT’s mission, strategy and priorities in reference to the quality and relevance of research, effective management, accomplishments and impacts. Delivering such assessment as part of the 11th meeting of the Science Council held on 28 March at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru, Science Council Chair Rudy Rabbinge described the panel’s report as very positive. He acknowledged the outstanding quality of ICRISAT’s science and its wide ranging impacts, and lauded the strong governance and leadership of the Institute. Overall, the Science Council was highly impressed with the significant transformation and growth of ICRISAT during the review period.

Photo shows the members of the Science Council who met in Lima, Peru.

Manuel Lantin, representing the CGIAR Secretariat, likewise acknowledged and recognized the accomplishments and breakthroughs of ICRISAT and its strong leadership. The session began with EPMR panel Chair Ken Cassman lauding ICRISAT for being ‘a thriving research institute with a unique capacity to address poverty alleviation, food security and natural resource protection in the SAT,’ semi-arid tropics. He underscored 3 strategic issues most crucial for ICRISAT’s success in the future, namely, the allocation of resources between Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; the balance of efforts on the research-development continuum, and the establishment and maintenance of a critical mass of scientific expertise focused on agriculture in the SAT. He opined that together these would propel ICRISAT into a new orbit.

The panel, in its report, praised ICRISAT’s high quality of research compared to other CGIAR Centers, highlighting the top-level crop improvement activity, advances in biotechnology, generation of crop simulation models used to address climate change, the Institute’s strong impact and significant research spillovers. The Institute was credited with improving its governance and management, its prudent and sustainable financial framework that led to a 70% growth in budget, high staff morale and innovative efforts to engage the private sector in research partnerships.

The good can be better, the better the best. The panel made 17 recommendations pertaining to areas of investment in personnel and infrastructure, strategic planning and research prioritization, social science research, biometrics capacity, marker development, training and capacity-building, and Board evaluation, among others. In response, Director General William Dar thanked the panel commissioned by the Science Council with inputs from the CGIAR Secretariat for its positive and forward-looking recommendations.

‘The Institute accepts these recommendations,’ Dar said, and stressed that ‘ICRISAT will not rest on its laurels because there remain formidable challenges ahead. Greater attention to strategic planning and research prioritization is the key to our continued success.’ He pledged to chart out a new ICRISAT strategic plan to 2020. Appreciating the professional manner in which the evaluation was carried out by the panel and taking serious note of the recommendations, ICRISAT Board Chair Stein Bie assured the Science Council that ICRISAT will implement the EPMR recommendations.

Climate change adaptation

2009-03-30T08:12:00.000+08:00

Innovations bring hope to dryland farmers

Computer modeling studies undertaken by ICRISAT, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics on the potential impact of climate change on dryland crops indicate that the drop in yields can be minimized through the use of adapted and improved crop varieties plus soil and water management innovations. The interventions can be further strengthened through developing improved varieties and hybrids that are better targeted for climate change adaptation on one hand, and through enhancing capacities of the farming communities on the other.

ICRISAT studies indicate that climate change will modify the length of the growing period across the semi-arid tropics of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but this can be dealt with by re-targeting and re-deploying the existing crop varieties.

The impact of climate change on dryland crops is expected to be two-fold – there would be an increase in temperature, and there would be increased frequency of droughts and floods. ICRISAT studies indicate that predicted temperature increases have greater negative impacts on crop production than relatively small (plus or minus 10%) changes in rainfall.

According to William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, better formulated and targeted policies that facilitate and support the conduct and adoption of agricultural innovation today assume even greater urgency. Not only will they improve the welfare of rural population today but will do a great deal to cope with the impacts of future climate change.

Allocation of improved financial resources and policy support to agricultural research to enable dryland crops to overcome the adverse impacts of climate change will help the poor farmers of the semi-arid tropics to sustain their productivity and their incomes in the medium- and long-term, Dar said.

ICRISAT studies have generated a 'Hypothesis of Hope,' which states:

(1) The impact of climate change on the yields under low input agriculture is likely to be minimal as other factors will continue to provide the overriding constraints to crop growth and yield.

(2) The adoption of currently recommended improved crop, soil and water management practices, even under climate change, will result in substantially higher yields than farmers are currently obtaining in their low-input systems.

(3) The adaptation of better ‘temperature-adapted’ varieties could result in the almost complete mitigation of climate change effects that result from temperature increases.

ICRISAT’s Operational Research Plan (ORP) to deal with climate change adaptation in the semi-arid tropics is based on a two-fold objective:

(1) To empower risk-averse and vulnerable farming communities in the semi-arid tropics to cope better with current season-to-season rainfall variability through improved climate risk management, so that adapting to future climate change will not be a daunting challenge for most and not impossible for many.

(2) Since a lead time of many years is required to produce ‘finished products’ of adapted germplasm, that is, crop varieties, ICRISAT’s research is combining ex ante (before the event) assessments of the impacts from climate change scenarios on the performance of the Institute’s mandate crops. These assessments will project what are the required crop characteristics that will reduce the negative and exploit the positive impacts of climate change.

The main crops on which ICRISAT works – pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, groundnut and pigeonpea – are by themselves already hardy and drought-tolerant. By strengthening these crops to be resilient to withstand the added negative impacts of climate change, ICRISAT is ensuring that the poor dryland farmer copes with it and sustains his agricultural productivity and income.

For further information, contact Peter Cooper at p.cooper@cgiar.org.

India & ICRISAT.

2009-03-16T20:27:00.000+08:00

Thinking outside the box of science

If they get Rated O, Outstanding overall, for 2008, I wouldn’t be surprised. They were Rated O by the World Bank for the years 2006 and 2007, #1 among 15 international agricultural research centers supported by CGIAR, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research based in Washington DC. Doing their best doing their science.

I’m referring to ICRISAT, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics based in India. Team ICRISAT is what they have formed of themselves; partners are what they have sought for with other offices and institutions in India to serve the poor farmers in the SAT, semi-arid tropics. If they can do it in India, they can do it anywhere. While I’m confining it to India, this is a story of those collaborations.

For anyone to have an idea how steeped into the fabric of Indian science ICRISAT is, I have decided to compile a list of the Institute’s allies, Indians only, a total of 180 (no, not by any means complete), including farmer groups, regional governments and mass media:

(1) AAAI (Aakruthi Agricultural Associates of India)
(2) AAU (Assam Agricultural University)
(3) Advanta India
(4) AMIC-India (Asian Media Information and Communication Centre of India)
(5) Andhra Pradesh Government
(6) ANGRAU (Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University)
(7) APPF (Andhra Pradesh Poultry Federation)
(8) Avestha Gengraine Technologies
(9) Azim Premji Foundation
(10) BAIF Development Research Foundation
(11) BAU (Birsa Agricultural University)
(12) BCKV (Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya)
(13) Bioseed Research India
(14) Business Standard
(15) CARI (Central Agricultural Research Institute)
(16) CARI (Central Avian Research Institute)
(17) CAZRI (Central Arid Zone Research Institute), Jodhpur
(18) CDSA (Centre for Development Studies and Activities)
(19) CIAE (Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering)
(20) CIBA (Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture)
(21) CICFRI (Central Inland Capture Fisheries Research Institute)
(22) CIFA (Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture)
(23) CIFE (Central Institute of Fisheries Education)
(24) CIFT (Central Institute of Fisheries Technology)
(25) CII (Confederation of Indian Industry)
(26) CIPHET (Central Institute of Postharvest Engineering & Technology)
(27) CIRB (Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes)
(28) CIRCOT (Central Institute of Research on Cotton Technology)
(29) CIRG (Central Institute for Research on Goats)
(30) CISTH (Central Institute for Sub-Tropical Horticulture)
(31) CITH (Central Institute of Temperature Horticulture)
(32) CMFRI (Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute)
(33) CPCRI (Central Plantation Crops Research Institute)
(34) CPRI (Central Potato Research Institute)
(35) CRIDA (Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture)
(36) CRIJAF (Central Research Institute for Jute & Allied Fibres)
(37) CRRI (Central Rice Research Institute)
(38) CSAUA&T (CS Azad University of Agriculture & Technology)
(39) CSSRI (Central Soil Salinity Research Institute)
(40) CSWCRT (Central Soil & Water Conservation Research & Training Institute)
(41) CSWRI (Central Sheep & Wool Research Institute)
(42) CTCRI (Central Tuber Crops Research Institute)
(43) CTRI (Central Tobacco Research Institute)
(44) DA-IICT (Department of ICT for Agriculture)
(45) DBT (Department of Biotechnology)
(46) DCSR (Directorate of Cropping System Research)
(47) DOR (Directorate of Oilseed Research)
(48) DRR (Directorate of Rice Research)
(49) DST (Department of Science and Technology)
(50) DWMR (Directorate of Water Management Research)
(51) DWR (Directorate of Wheat Research)
(52) FEJI (Forum of Environmental Journalists of India)
(53) FFA (Federation of Farmers Associations)
(54) Financial Express
(55) Ganga Kaveri Seeds
(56) GAU (Gujarat Agricultural University)
(57) GBPUA&T (Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology)
(58) Genome Valley-Hyderabad, Government of Andhra Pradesh
(59) Haryana Agricultural University
(60) HAU (Haryana Agricultural University)
(61) Hindustan Lever
(62) HPKV (Himachal Pradesh Krishi Viswavidyalaya)
(63) IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute)
(64) IASRI (Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute)
(65) ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
(66) ICAR Research Complex for Goa
(67) ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hilly Region
(68) ICICI Bank
(69) IGFRI (Indian Grassland & Fodder Research Institute)
(70) IGKVV (Indira Gandhi Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya)
(71) IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University)
(72) IIHR (Indian Institute of Horticulture Research)
(73) IIPR (Indian Institute of Pulses Research)
(74) IISc (Indian Institute of Science)
(75) IISR (Indian Institute of Spices Research)
(76) IISR (Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research)
(77) IISS (Indian Institute of Soil Sciences)
(78) IITB (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)
(79) IITK (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur)
(80) IIITM-K (Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management-Kerala)
(81) NAARM (National Academy of Agricultural Research Management)
(82) UAS (University of Agricultural Sciences)
(83) ILRI (Indian Lac Research Institute)
(84) IMD (India Meteorological Department)
(85) ISI (Indian Statistical Institute)
(86) IVRI (Indian Veterinary Research Institute)
(87) Janaki Feeds
(88) JK Agri-Genetics
(89) JNKVV (Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya)
(90) Kanchan Ganga Seed
(91) KAU (Kerala Agricultural University)
(92) KKV (Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth)
(93) Madhya Pradesh Government
(94) Mahendra Hybrid Seeds Company
(95) MAHYCO (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company)
(96) MANAGE (National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management)
(97) MAU (Marathwada Agricultural University)
(98) Microsoft Corp India
(99) MKC (Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation)
(100) MPKV (Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth)
(101) MPUAT (Maharana Pratap University for Agriculture and Technology)
(102) MSSRF (MS Swaminathan Research Foundation)
(103) MV Foundation
(104) NAARM (National Academy of Agricultural Research Management)
(105) Nandan Biomatrix
(106) Navbharat Seeds
(107) NBAGR (National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources)
(108) NBFGR (National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources)
(109) NBSSLUP (National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning)
(110) NCAEPR (National Centre for Agri-Economics & Policy Research)
(111) NCIPM (National Centre for Integrated Pest Management)
(112) NCMRT (National Centre for Mushroom Research & Training)
(113) NCPGR (National Centre for Plant Genome Research)
(114) NDRI (National Dairy Research Institute)
(115) NDUA&T (Narendra Dev University of Agriculture & Technology)
(116) New Nandi Seeds Corp
(117) NIANP (National Institute of Animal Nutrition & Physiology)
(118) NIC (National Informatics Centre)
(119) NIRJAFT (National Institute of Research on Jute & Allied Fibres Technology)
(120) NRCA (National Research Centre for Agroforestry)
(121) NRCAH (National Research Centre for Arid Horticulture)
(122) NRCB (National Research Centre for Banana)
(123) NRCC (National Research Centre for Citrus)
(124) NRCC (National Research Centre on Camel)
(125) NRCCF (National Research Centre on Coldwater Fisheries)
(126) NRCCK (National Research Centre for Cashew Kamminje)
(127) NRCE (National Research Centre on Equines)
(128) NRCG (National Research Centre for Grapes)
(129) NRCG (National Research Centre for Groundnut)
(130) NRCM (National Research Centre on Meat)
(131) NRCM (National Research Centre on Mithun)
(132) NRCMAP (National Research Centre for Medicinal & Aromatic Plants)
(133) NRCO (National Research Centre on Oil Palms)
(134) NRCO (National Research Centre on Orchids)
(135) NRCOG (National Research Centre for Onion & Garlic)
(136) NRCPB (National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology)
(137) NRCRM (National Research Centre on Rapeseed Mustard)
(138) NRCS (National Research Centre for Sorghum)
(139) NRCS (National Research Centre for Soybean)
(140) NRCWA (National Research Centre on Women in Agriculture)
(141) NRCWS (National Research Centre for Weed Science)
(142) NRCWTCER (National Research Centre on Water Technology, Center for Eastern Region)
(143) NRCY (National Research Centre on Yak)
(144) NRSA (National Remote Sensing Agency)
(145) Nuziveedu Seeds
(146) OUA&T (Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology)
(147) PAU (Punjab Agricultural University)
(148) PDBC (Project Directorate of Biological Control)
(149) PDC (Project Directorate on Cattle)
(150) PDM (Project Directorate on Maize)
(151) PDP (Project Directorate on Poultry)
(152) PFA (Progressive Farmers Association)
(153) PKV (Panjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth)
(154) Prabhat Agri-Biotech
(155) Praj Industries
(156) Pravardhan Seeds
(157) Proagro Seeds
(158) Rajasthan Government
(159) Rasi Seeds
(160) RAU (Rajasthan Agricultural University)
(161) RAU (Rajendra Agricultural University)
(162) READ (Rural Education and Agricultural Development)
(163) Rusni Distilleries
(164) Samaj Pragati Sahayog
(165) SBI (Sugarcane Breeding Institute)
(166) Seed Works India
(167) Shriram Bioseed
(168) Sir Dorabji Tata Trust
(169) SKUAS&T Shere-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology)
(170) Tata Chemicals
(171) TelNet Group (Telecommunications and Computer Networking Group)
(172) The Hindu
(173) TNAU (Tamil Nadu Agricultural University)
(174) TNV&ASU (Tamil Nadu Veterinary & Agricultural Sciences University)
(175) TVS Agri Sciences Research Institute
(176) UAS (University of Agricultural Sciences)
(177) VIKSAT (Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction)
(178) VPKAS (Vivekanand Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Shala)
(179) WBUA&FE (West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Education)
(180) YSPUH&F (YS Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry).

Indians only. 180 partners? You better believe it!

And it just so happens that 180 is exactly the number of essays I have published so far (except this one) in American Chronicle as of today, 16 March, in the last 160 weeks, more than 1 essay a week. I know because I keep a running list. Those essays are an average of 1,500 words each. About 1 out of 3 of those essays is related to ICRISAT. And why is that?

Note that I included mass media as ICRISAT’s fellow workers in science. Media can ignore you and you can ignore me, part of media, but you can’t ignore media. Both the theory and practice of science need the endorsement of media.

‘The medium is the message,’ media thinker Marshall McLuhan says. That is to say, some media are meant for some audiences and not for others. I prefer to publish my essays on the virtual paper called the Internet because my target readers are the computer literate who (should) know what they want, or want to know what they need to know more about at the click of a mouse. And early on I came across and chose ICRISAT as my model science agency to write about because I was intrigued that ICRISAT could squeeze water from stone, could achieve so much from so little, could transform its own decreasing performance to one increasing in quantity and quality. Team ICRISAT was doing something right!

When I started my online science writing in February 2006 at American Chronicle, I didn’t know either William from Adam or Dar from Doe, but after I interviewed him in Manila and read some publications, I saw how William Dar had refreshed a fading Institute on one hand and how on the other hand Team ICRISAT combined their minds and hearts to begin to deliver on the promises of their science as they worked on 5 mandate crops, each of which needs improvement in its genes: chickpea, peanut (groundnut), pearl millet, pigeon pea, and sorghum. It takes a leader.

In 2002, on the 3rd year of Dar’s captainship, ICRISAT had already began to think outside the box: one, outside the field to consider ‘the full chain of events that begins with planting and concludes with eating – from tillage to table;’ two, outside traditional research ‘to embrace and assimilate the concerns of stakeholders outside our traditional research parameters’ (page 4, Annual Report 2002); and three, in 2003, outside the usual Leader-Followers to hug the concept of Team (page 3, Annual Report 2003). Thinking outside the box is not rejecting the box; it is relating the box to the world around it.

So, while resource-challenged, the underachievers became achievers. Because the crops were themselves resource-challenged, needing to grow on poor soils with little or no moisture, Team ICRISAT and partners went to work so that by 2004, they had already produced, for instance, sorghum hybrids with yields higher than those of the best local varieties by an average of 38%, grown on those same poor soils (ICRISAT Annual Report 2005). Ambaari, rendement, rendimiento, ani – yield is a word that farmers understand very well in any language and with any crop.

As I read more on ICRISAT, I was struck with the thought that if William Dar could succeed with underachieving staff working on impoverished soils in India, he could succeed anywhere. After all, he is a Filipino, he who is more than a survivor. I reflected on the science applied to crops and soils of the Philippines, and came to the conclusion that ICRISAT’s success had been based not only on intelligent genetic and natural resource management but more so with astute management of these other necessary resources: human, financial, and institutional. Your science must work not only with crops and soils but more so with society, structures and systems.

Years earlier, in the ICRISAT annual report for 2001, on his 1st year as Director General, William Dar said:

ICRISAT works over a vast geographical area, a broad research agenda, and with a dizzying array of partners. Sometimes the complexity can seem overwhelming. To help tie it all together for you, we try to present it (the ICRISAT story) from a different perspective each year.

By shifting paradigms, ICRISAT has made itself creative, productive. Internalizing, I myself try to present the ICRISAT story from a different point of view in each succeeding essay. Variety is the spice of life, of science, of writing.

This time, my story is that of the intellectual, information-based, knowledge-driven relationship between India and ICRISAT. 180 partners! When I began the list, I was thinking of a long list of 50; I was pleasantly surprised to reach beyond 100 – the list tells me there is so much faith of the Indians in their science as well as in ICRISAT as a partner in research and development. My compliments to the Chief!

I can only give compliments; the news this March is that the Governing Board of ICRISAT through its Chair Stein Bie has just given its formal offer of a 3rd term starting 2010 to William Dar, the Institute’s Director General appointed in 2000 and reappointed in 2005 (Happenings 1353, 13 March 2009). Dar must be doing very, very, very well. My triple compliments to the Chief!

The modern history of India and its relationship with ICRISAT has shown how state and science can work toward making value-adding matches. The Indians’ emphasis on the science of agriculture is at least 60 years old. About science, their beloved Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said in 1937, ‘Science is the spirit of the age and the dominating factor of the modern world. Even more than the present, the future belongs to science and to those who make friends with science and seek its help for the advancement of humanity’ (quoted by Pratibha Devisingh Patil, President of India, presidentofindia.nic.in). Nehru had graduated from Cambridge University, and had drunk from its wellspring of advanced knowledge and research. Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India in 1947 and served in that position until 1964. About agriculture, Nehru said in 1963, ‘Agriculture is far more important than any industry’ (quoted by Ravindra Kumar, americanchronicle.com). I take it that Nehru was trying to say that science applied to agriculture must be for the advancement not simply of agriculture but of the people. Today I see that in India with ICRISAT.

Modern India was born in 1947, with Nehru nurturing her growth under the climate change of Independence from British Imperialism. ICRISAT was born in India in 1972 under the climate change of nurturing international Agricultural Science. ICRISAT was the very first international research institute created under the aegis of the CGIAR and supported by the World Bank. India was chosen as the location of the main campus of ICRISAT for 2 major reasons: it had the widest areas of drylands in its Deccan plateau, and it had a strong national research capability. Problems awaited solutions from ICRISAT working with local allies.

Today, India is known for the hybrid vigor of her science, and my list of 180 collaborators tells me ICRISAT has contributed a good part of that in the broad field of agriculture. After setting up headquarters near Hyderabad in southern India in 1972, ICRISAT had quickly initiated partnerships with the NARS, National Agricultural Research System, and the universities of India. Naturally, the host country had understandably been the most immediate and largest recipient of the impact of ICRISAT’s application of science for the poor.

2000 was to become a watershed in the history of ICRISAT when Dar became its Director General. Before that, ICRISAT had been moribund. Dar injected fresh blood into the system with the team spirit and his can-do kind of management.

2 years later, in December 2001, winner of the World Food Prize 1987 and Father of the Indian Green Revolution MS Swaminathan told the audience at the Annual Day function at ICRISAT in its headquarters in Patancheru, India (icrisat.org):

We are entering an exciting phase of science, but it must be Science with a Human Face. India needs science that will increase not only the country’s Gross National Product, but also its Gross National Happiness!

In that quote, we have 2 original thinkers: ‘Science with a Human Face’ is Dar’s while ‘Gross National Happiness’ is Swaminathan’s. Neither is facetious.

Swaminathan was one of the founding fathers of ICRISAT in 1972, when as Director General of the Indian Council on Agricultural Research, he joined with the other two legs of the 'ICRISAT Tripod,' C Fred Bentley of Canada, who served as the Institute’s first Chair of the Governing Board; Ralph W Cummings, immediate past Director General of IRRI, International Rice Research Institute based at Los Baños in Laguna in the Philippines, who served as founding Director. ICRISAT was the 5th member to join the global research network currently composed of 15 international agricultural research centers under the CGIAR (as of February 2007, cgiar.org): Africa Rice Center (in Cotonou, Benin), Bioversity International (Rome, Italy), Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (Cali, Colombia), Centro Internacional de la Papa (Lima, Peru), Center for International Forestry Research (Bogor, Indonesia), Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (Mexico City), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (Aleppo, Syria), ICRISAT (Patancheru, India), International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, DC), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (Ibadan, Nigeria), International Livestock Research Institute (Nairobi, Kenya), International Rice Research Institute (Los Baños, Philippines), International Water Management Institute (Colombo, Sri Lanka), World Agroforestry Center (Nairobi, Kenya), and WorldFish Center (Penang, Malaysia).

In that same occasion in 2001, Bentley said he was glad about the continuing excellence of research at ICRISAT, and urged the staff to continue to work on behalf of the poor farmers of the semi-arid tropics. Reflecting on the Green Revolution, Swaminathan stressed that adequate support was necessary for agricultural research, especially on the so-called 'orphan crops' of the dry tropics. ‘Otherwise orphans will remain orphans. We need to increase crop productivity sustainably. To import food is to import unemployment.’ Orphan crops are important locally, not globally – they add value to farmers’ lives; the exporters can take care of themselves.

ICRISAT’s overall partnership in science with the whole of India has been growing even stronger in recent years, and the funding support from formal and non-formal sources in that country has been increasing for the Institute. Here are some specifics on improvements on the status quo arising from such a partnership:

Zero Pesticide Use. With partners, ICRISAT has developed a strategy to minimize crop loss to peanut stem necrosis disease. Thus, employing principles of integrated pest management, Indian farmers of pigeon pea and peanut have reduced pesticide use by up to 100%!

World’s First Sorghum Ethanol. With the private company Rusni Distilleries and with funding support from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, in June 2007 ICRISAT was able to announce the world's first commercially successful project for producing ethanol from sweet sorghum, with small farmers of India supplying the feedstock.

Rebirth of a Crop. ICRISAT’s Maruti pigeon pea has revived the crop in central India, especially in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. That is because ICRISAT-bred Maruti is resistant to the deadly wilt disease, which has devastated previous plantings. Thus, the farmers of Karnataka have begun referring to the ICRISAT cultivar as ‘a blessing and a miracle’ (lnweb90.worldbank.org).

Upheaval with a Crop. From ICRISAT has come short-duration Fusarium-wilt resistant kabuli chickpea varieties such as Swetha and KAK 2, and desi varieties Kranthi and JG 11 – taken together, these have triggered some sort of a chickpea revolution in Andhra Pradesh. The record: a 6-fold increase in area (to 360,000 ha) and a 20-fold increase in production (to 580,000 tons) from 1990 to 2006.

Improved Pigeon Pea. In the drylands of India, ICRISAT's recent research breakthroughs achieved in partnership with the public and private sectors have the potential for both higher yields and better linkages of farmers with industries and markets. For instance, the hybrid pigeon pea ICPH 2671, because of its greater tolerance to drought and higher root mass, is expected to increase crop productivity by more than 30%.

Increased Incomes. ICRISAT projects have been strengthened by collaboration with the Indian Government, state governments and the network of agricultural universities. Over the years, 142 improved varieties of sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeon pea and groundnut developed by ICRISAT have been released in India, raising production and incomes of small farmers substantially.

Increased Support. Dar notes that ‘it is a measure of the increase of confidence and trust that the funding supports from formal and non-formal sources in India for ICRISAT have been increasing in the recent years.’ Specifically, the latest available data shows that the support from the Government of India increased from US$ 400,000 in 2005 to US$ 1.4 million in 2006, and was expected to rise to US$ 2.3 million in 2007. There had also been similar increases in contributions from state governments, foundations and trusts, and private sector companies, increasing the total funding package from India from US$ 1.3 million in 2005 to US$ 2.8 million in 2006, and an estimated US$ 4 million in 2007.

Improved Harvests in Drylands. Applying lessons learned from the Institute’s Adarsha Project, of which I have reported (see ‘Water Lessons of Adarsha,’ icrisatwatch.blogspot.com), the work of ICRISAT scientists and partners in 10 nucleus and 40 satellite watershed projects has resulted in from 30 to 120% increases in harvests of various crops.

Increased Pearl Millet. With ICAR collaboration, ICRISAT has released over 70 pearl millet hybrids cultivated in about 4.5 million hectares (about 50% of the area under pearl millet in the country), contributing to cultivar diversity and increasing the crop's national productivity.

Increased Chickpea. Today, ICRISAT chickpeas form about 37% of India’s chickpea breeder seeds. Between 1993 and 2002, the area planted to chickpea increased 5 times and the yields 13 times. In Andhra Pradesh alone, ICRISAT chickpea farmers were earning $60 more per hectare than those who planted the local variety. In Maharashtra, farmers enjoyed added net incomes of 89%.

Increased Milk from Groundnut. In the Ananthapur District of Andhra Pradesh, the ICRISAT dual-purpose groundnut ICGV 91114 has proven to be more resistant to disease and drought than the local varieties. Also, this variety has higher yields (pods and fodder) and dairy animals fed with the haulms have been observed to yield 10% more milk.

Improved Crop Improvement. In 2000, 10 Indian companies and ICRISAT developed the Hybrid Parents Research Consortia. The members grew to 30 in 2004. In 2008, a biotechnology center was approved for funding at $6.25 M for 5 years (2008-2013), a joint project with the Department of Biotechnology of the Indian Ministry of Science & Technology. This will provide a platform for transgenic research in crop improvement and build synergies among institutions. Transferring genes from one organism to another, more popularly known as genetic engineering, is resorted to when problems cannot be solved through conventional breeding.

Empowered Partners. Part of ICRISAT’s goal is to empower its science partners by enhancing their skills, including how to prioritize and implement interventions and predict trends. Once partners learn to empower themselves, they can be relied upon to teach the farmers how to empower themselves too, a necessary step toward local development.

Improved Science Q&A. VASAT, Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics, was set up in late 2003 in India. This is a virtual coalition facilitated by ICRISAT for information, communication and capacity-building. Volunteers help operate the setup, which for instance has reduced the time for answers to reach askers of questions 6 times shorter, to 20 hours. Collaborators in VASAT in India include the Indira Gandhi National Open University, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, and the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management of India.

Improved Communication of Science. ICRISAT signed a memorandum of agreement with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre of India to conduct a series of media workshops on reporting biotechnology. To improve knowing sharing in its practice of science, ICRISAT has also been encouraging and working closely with people in the print, electronic and Web-based media.

Open Access to Research Results. In collaboration with FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ICRISAT launched through a workshop ‘an initiative to promote open-access information sources in agricultural sciences and technology in India’ (icrisat.org). The workshop was participated in by representatives of ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), MANAGE (National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management), IISc (Indian Institute of Science), MSSRF (MS Swaminathan Research Foundation), ISI (Indian Statistical Institute) and NIC (National Informatics Centre). 2 pilot repositories were to be set up, one in Delhi with support from ICAR, and another in Hyderabad with support from ICRISAT and MANAGE.

Improved Agricultural Extension. ICRISAT is collaborating with TelNet, Telecommunications and Computer Networking Group of the Indian Institute of Technology, to set up a system for gathering and sharing information on weather to provide advisory to dryland farmers (icrisat.org). More than that, the information kiosk will provide ICT services in 3 areas: for rural development, open and distance learning, and further agricultural research.

Improved Business Incubation. ICRISAT’s ABI, Agri-Business Incubator aims at helping develop technologies to become commercial success through public-private partnerships. Recently, ABI won the Asian Association of Business Incubation Award for 2008. ABI is part of ICRISAT’s Agri-Biotech Park. Since 2003, ICRISAT has been promoting the Park at the Patancheru campus jointly with the Genome Valley-Hyderabad of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The Park is designed to attract world-class biotech companies, corporations and foundations to establish units and commercialize their technologies from there.

Now then, for all those achievements mentioned above and many others not included, can Team ICRISAT afford to relax? In fact, their work has barely begun. For millions more in the drylands of India, not to mention the drylands of the rest of Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas, poverty remains.

In the photo, 2nd from right, in December 2000, Shri N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, speaking for his own state government, challenged Director General William Dar, right, in behalf of ICRISAT to jointly develop a model for transferring technology to boost productivity of dryland farms, a model that can be easily replicated in India and around the world (icrisat.org). With that, with minimum inputs, poor soils can yield rich harvests for a maximum number.

Progress begins once the challenge is recognized. The story of ICRISAT so far tells me that the power of technology to transform the world needs the power of men to transform their own selves from working separately to working together. For public-private, science-societal progressive partnerships in India and the rest of the world, the huge challenge of development remains.

My Fellow Filipinos!

2009-03-11T09:26:00.018+08:00

FrancisM as a National Artist

As I see it, in one word, Francism is FrancisM’s everlasting legacy to his fellow Filipinos. A Francism is a word, a thought, description, an exhortation, a song, rap music, video movie, clothing design, phone call, move to reconcile, that speak not simply of love of country – already, there are many patriots, such as we have – but more so, love of fellowmen – sadly, the patriots we have hate each other.

FrancisM and Francisms burst into the Philippine musical scene with a landmark rap musical piece, ‘Mga Kababayan Ko,’ in his smash debut 1990 album Yo! (gmanews.tv) that also spawned the ballad hit ‘Cold Summer Nights’ (Gerry Plaza, 06 March, newsinfo.inquirer.net). Under OctoArts, Yo! ‘marked the birth of nationalistic rap’ in the Philippines (filipinomusica.com). ‘Mga Kababayan Ko’ is Francism in all senses that FrancisM wanted to convey to his countrymen. To appreciate it in full, I have reproduced the Tagalog original along with my own English translation that is appearing for the first time (below).

Francisms are in fact simple truths, or simple instructions, nothing fancy:

* Be proud of your color, you are a Filipino!
* Think that you have the power / To reach what you desire.

* We should get up and go / so we don’t stay poor and low.
* Do your work well.
* You can if you want.
* If you can, he can.
* All together, we can!

* What we have is fine / Think of that all the time.
* A good life will come if you stand firm / In pain and fatigue amid problems.
* Don’t drown.
* Go up, don’t go down.
* Envy you should avoid.
* Don’t covet what others have. / Instead, be glad about / What your brother has achieved.
* We should all work hand-in-hand.

* Let us respect our mother / She is the light of the home.
* Let us honor our father / And follow his wisdom.
* To the siblings: Love one another.
* It’s only right to talk together / About a misunderstanding.

* Don’t run away from a weakness.
* Marriage is a must.
* Don’t pretend to be clean.
* Reconcile enemies. / Stand between, don’t patronize.

* We are all brothers and sisters.
* Let us rectify every error we make.
* Let us pray to God, our Creator.
* Let us be saints and not satans.

Note on my translation: Since Pinoy rap can’t be transformed without much loss in the translation, I have translated freely, even as I tried to rhyme. As the original has no measure, my translation doesn’t have either. ‘My Countrymen’ is a literal translation of ‘Mga Kababayan Ko’ while my own ‘My Fellow Filipinos’ emphasizes both the fellowship and being Filipinos.

Mga Kababayan Ko FrancisM, 1990	*My Fellow Filipinos* 2009, Frank A Hilario
Chorus Mga kababayan ko Dapat lang malaman n’yo Bilib ako sa kulay ko Ako ay Pilipino! Kung may itim or may puti Mayron naman kayumanggi. Isipin mo na kaya mong Abutin ang ‘yung minimithi.	Chorus My fellow Filipinos You all should know I’m proud of my color I am a Filipino! If there is Black or White There is the Brown race. Think that you have the power To reach what you desire.
Dapat magsumikap Para tayo’y di maghirap. Ang trabaho mo pagbutihin mo. Dahil pag gusto mo ay kaya mo Kung kaya mo ay kaya n’ya At kaya nating dalawa!	We should get up and go So we don’t stay poor and low. Do your work well. You can if you want If you can, he can All together we can!
Magaling ang atin Yan ang laging iisipin. Pag-asenso mararating Kung handa kang tiisin Ang hirap at pagod sa problema. ‘Wag kang malunod Umaahon ka, wag lumubog Pagka’t ginhawa naman ang susunod. Iwasan mo ang inggit Ang sa iba’y ibig mong makamit Dapat nga ikaw matuwa Sa napala ng iyong kapatid. Ibig kung ipabatid Na lahat tayo’y kabig-bisig.	What we have is fine Think of that all the time. A good life will come If you stand firm In pain & fatigue amid problems. Don’t drown Go up, don’t go down A life of comfort will come. Envy you should avoid Don’t covet what others have Instead, be glad about What your brother has achieved. I want you to understand We should all work hand-in-hand.
Repeat Chorus	Repeat Chorus
Respetuhin natin ang ating ina Ilaw siya ng tahanan Bigyang galang ang ama At ang payo ang susundan. At sa magkakapatid Kailangan ay magmahalan Dapat lang ay pag-usapan Ang hindi nauunawaan.	Let us respect our mother She is the light of the home Let us honor our father And follow his wisdom. And to the siblings Love one another It’s only right to talk together About a misunderstanding.
Wag takasan ang pagkukulang Kasalan ay panagutan. Magmalinis ay iwasan Nakakainis, marumi naman. Ang magkaaway ipagbati Gumitna ka at ‘wag kumampi	Don’t run away from weakness Marriage is a must. Don’t pretend to be clean You irritate, you’re unclean. Reconcile any enemies Stand between, don’t patronize.
Lahat tayo’y magkakapatid Anong mang mali ay ituwid. Magdasal sa Diyos Maykapal Maging banal at ‘wag hangal. Itong tula ay alay ko Sa inyo at sa buong mundo.	All brothers & sisters we are Let us rectify our error. Let us pray to God our Creator Let us be saints and not satans. I dedicate this verse To you and the whole universe.
Repeat Chorus	Repeat Chorus

So you see, Francisms are simple truths spoken in verses and rhymes delivered in style, in a singsong manner, with a lively beat backed by regular, rhythmic sounds from a disc jockey. Francisms are hip-hop, aka rap music, which since 1990 have been coming from the mouth and mind of FrancisM. Until last Friday, as he is no more. Kiko, The Man from Manila, Master Rapper, the Mouth, King of Pinoy Rap, Urban Patriot, a Free Mind, names he liked to call himself, is gone.

07 March. ‘The Eraserheads salute Francis M at reunion concert’ (Bong Godinez, pep.ph). It was at the SM Mall of Asia Concert Grounds. The holding of that concert itself was a tribute, as the Eraserheads had broken up 7 years ago and FrancisM had persisted that they get back together again. The group dedicated the whole concert in his memory. FrancisM was supposed to be their guest and do ‘SuperProxy,’ one of their songs. The concert was produced by MTV Philippines. FrancisM was MTV Asia’s first Filipino VJ, video jockey, along with Regine Tolentino and Donita Rose (Wikipedia).

10 March. It’s not easy not to cry reading more and more about the young, popular Filipino artist felled by acute myelogenous leukemia Friday, 06 March at The Medical City, a private hospital along Ortigas Avenue in Pasig City near Manila. He was 44, born 04 October 1964. I’ve been trying to, since I heard the news a few minutes after Vic Sotto announced it on noontime TV show Eat Bulaga! at GMA 7, where FrancisM had been co-host for 10 years, freelance. No, I was neither friend nor acquaintance, but the more I read the more I see that the death of Francis Michael Durango Magalona at 44 was not only unexpected but was also a loss with a national impact many times over.

He started as a break dancer, going on to become an actor (early 80s, Viva Films’ ‘Bagets 2’), radio disc jockey (late 80s), VJ for MTV Asia, video producer, video music director, rapper, singer, composer, photographer, designer, TV co-host (Plaza as cited). He was ‘the first Filipino rapper to successfully cross over to the mainstream music scene’ (Tess Bedico & Jester Manalastas, journal.com.ph), meaning that he not only succeeded with his rap music but also with his pop music – he inspired them with his patriotism, he entertained them with his songs. He was also a painter (Boy Villasanta, quoting Joey De Leon, ‘Friends remember Francis M,’ abs-cbnnews.com). He could play the harmonica; he could also produce melodies with the megaphone or microphone (filipinomusica.com). He was also a blogger; visit his ‘a Free Mind’ (francismagalona.multiply.com).

Yo! was his 1st album, released in 1990. Rap is FrancisM was his 2nd, released in 1992 – this is considered ‘one of the greatest Pinoy Rap albums’ around; with ‘Mga Praning’ (Paranoids), ‘Halalan’ (Elections), and ‘Tayo’y Mga Pinoy’ (We Are Pinoys), the album became the standard by which other raps were compared (filipinomusica.com). 1993, his 3rd album, Meron Akong Ano! (Something I Have!) 1995, his 4th, Freeman. 1996, Happy Battle. 1998, The Oddventures Of Mr Cool. 1999, Interscholastic. 2001, Freeman 2. 2002, The Best Of FrancisM. 2007, F Word. He collaborated with other music makers like Joey Ayala, Heber Bartolome, Ryan Cayabyab, Mike Hanopol, Andrew E, Michael V, Denmark and Eraserheads. He played with Pikaso, Gloc 9, Stick Figgas and Parokya ni Edgar.

Songs by FrancisM (filipinomusica.com): ‘A Pen And Ink,’ ‘Bahala Na’ (Let God), ‘Funky Monkey,’ ‘Girl Be Mine,’ Kabataan Para Sa Kinabukasan’ (Youth For Tomorrow), ‘Kaleidoscope World,’ ‘Pektus,’ (Effects), ‘Pikon’ (Onion-Skinned), ‘Puso Ng Siga’ (Heart Of A Toughie), ‘3 Stars And A Sun.’

His contributions were recognized abroad and featured in international publications such as All Music Guide To Hip-Hop: The Definitive Guide To Rap And Hip-Hop by Backbeat Books in 2003 and the magazine The Source in 2004. He was chosen by Fremantle Media, owner of American Idol, to be one of the judges of Philippine Idol, along with Ryan Cayabyab and Pilita Corales (filipinomusica.com).

FrancisM, as he liked to call himself (not Francis M as almost everyone refers to him, missing his subtlety), had his own video production company, Filipino Pictures Inc, and record company, Red Egg Records, and the clothing line FMCC, FrancisM Clothing Co, which carries the ‘3 Stars and a Sun’ line of stores (Patricia, ‘Francis Magalona: Filipino Rap Star,’ celebrity.rightpundits.com). He was the designer for FMCC. He made music videos for several bands and solo artists. His Sponge Cola’s ‘KLSP’ won Best Rock Video at the 2006 MYX Video Awards (Wikipedia).

He received many awards, among them: ‘Pioneer Hall of Fame Award’ at the 1st Annual Philippine Hip-Hop Music Awards (2005), ‘Generations Award’ at the MTV Pilipinas Video Music Awards ‘in recognition of his career that has spanned decades and broken boundaries, and for his music which continues to inspire generations of artists and music fans both here and abroad’ (quoted by Ma Rosanna Mina, abs-cbnnews.com). He was the honoree of the 1st Fil-Am Visionary Awards (Legend in Music) by the NuVision Worldwide Media.

He was one of 9 children of movie stars Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran (Durango), both idolized by the moviegoers; I did too, along with Rogelio dela Rosa and Carmen Rosales. They were popular, but not legends, or not in the stature of FrancisM, who made himself a legend in his own time.

PEP describes ‘Mga Kababayan Ko’ as ‘anthemic’ and states that it ‘clearly illustrated Kiko’s unique style of incorporating various music genres to make it sound Filipino’ (Philippine Entertainment Portal, cited in ‘Eat Bulaga! to pay tribute to Francis M Saturday,’ gmanews.tv):

The band explosion of the '90s failed to deter Kiko's growth as an artist. Recognizing fully well the need to reinvent himself and his art, Francis embraced rock music and incorporated it into his own style, producing songs such as ‘Bahay Yugyugan’ (House of Rock), ‘Meron Akong Ano,’ ‘Girl Be Mine,’ and the psychedelic ear candy, ‘Kaleidoscope World.’

He became a band man and directed bands and artists, including Sponge Cola, Join Da Club, Gloc 9, Shamrock, Picaso and Death Threat (PEP as cited).

Senator Bong Revilla Jr hailed FrancisM as ‘Pinoy Pride’ (quoted by Mark D Merueñas, 06 March, gmanews.tv). ‘The country has lost a modern-day artist, a nationalist in his own creative way. FrancisM used music and fashion to promote love of country among Filipino youth,’ the Senator said.

Bayan Secretary-General Renato M Reyes Jr said of FrancisM (‘Bayan leader pays tribute to Francis M,’ abs-cbnnews.com):

Kiko was a pioneer, a trailblazer for all the Pinoy rappers today. He started out when folks in the Philippines had not even heard of hip-hop. He was a giant in his field, yet never forgot to look after the ‘little people,’ the aspiring artists he took under his wing, or the young rappers he inspired. The Master Rapper lived up to the words of the late Lino Brocka, that the artist is also a citizen.

‘The young rappers he inspired’ – I did see and hear Michael V say on TV the day FrancisM died, ‘A big part of Michael V is FrancisM.’ And FrancisM said of him, ‘Michael V, he’s my best friend’ (quoted by Alula Love M Dela Cruz, 2007, igma.tv).

FrancisM left behind his wife Pia Maria Arroyo and his 8 children: Unna, Nicolo (adopted by FrancisM, from Pia's previous marriage), Maxene, Francis Jr, Saab, Elmo, Arkin and Clara.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said 09 March, that FrancisM was set to receive a posthumous Presidential Medal of Merit, saying ‘the medal recognizes the nationalism and love of country that is there in all his performances’ (quoted by abs-cbnnews.com). Some of the hit songs mentioned were ‘Mga Kababayan Ko,’ ‘Man from Manila,’ ‘Ito Ang Gusto Ko’ (This Is What I Want), ‘Three Stars and a Sun,’ and ‘Kaleidoscope World.’

When I’m writing, I don’t want to read the blogs of others, because I don’t want to be influenced by their opinions, but I’ll make an exception with Prime and his post ‘Thank you for the music’ (dleftclick.wordpress.com). His is a rich source of material, not to mention inspirational (never mind the grammar), and I quote (with my editing):

FrancisM once wrote on his blog that, ‘I guess if we just loved our country so much we would be willing to die for it. I would. But a dead me is a useless me. I am more useful alive …’ I beg to disagree though. I believe that any dead person who lived a life relevant to society serves as an inspiration for everyone to be just like him. And the Master Rapper is one of those.

And he is one of those who never succumbed to the artificial war of hiphop and metal. I know a lot of the teenagers of that time know what I’m talking about. (From within), the Man from Manila dared to unite the music of the two factions. He set up the Psychedelic Posse for the hip-hop kids and the Kannabiz Band ... for the children of metal. His wife Pia’s Evil Step-Sisters, then, added the soul flavor to his music.

It was with his daring and no non-sense attitude that FrancisM gained the respect of Filipino musicians from Masta Plann to The Dawn, from APO ... to Joey de Leon. No wonder that, time and again, he was being invited by a lot of artists to be a guest on their albums and shows. The Eraserheads’ song Super Proxy was one of the most famous of these.

Prime tells us that when the Eraserheads broke up in 2002, FrancisM refused to take sides and continued to collaborate with each of the members individually. After Ely Buendia had a heart attack in 2007, Francis M called for the Eraserheads to come together once more. He believed that the Eraserheads was ‘the most significant OPM band of Pinoy Rock.’

19 years ago, he rapped: ‘All brothers & sisters we are / Let us rectify our error.’ FrancisM. I say he was the most significant one-man band of Pinoy Rap.

He cared. With Ely Buendia, he started the Heartist Foundation, to help Filipino artists with health issues and commercial concerns (Ma Rosanna Mina, abs-cbnnews.com). For the purpose, he had been recording with Buendia and other artists for ‘The Sickos Project.’

FrancisM was ‘the artist that everyone loved,’ says Scared of Revolving Doors (atejada.wordpress.com). If for nothing else, you can’t help but love someone who had struggled with substance abuse; after attending Narcotics Anonymous, he had quit smoking and drinking. He had been sober since 2001 (ANN, manilatimes.net).

He was ‘a passionate father’ (‘Father knows best,’ Alula Love M Dela Cruz, 2008, igma.tv). ‘I maintain a friendship and mutual respect for my children,’ he said, including his adopted Unna and Nicolo. They had maintained close ties with each other, always in touch either through the cell phone or the computer (chat). ‘The closest thing God would be to man would be a parent to his children. Because that is what God has for us – unconditional love.’

Unconditional love? Our usual and immediate response to that is, ‘On one condition ...’ Variations of a theme:

‘I can forgive, but I cannot forget.’
‘I will forgive, but I also will demand justice.’
‘There are 3 dimensions of reconciliation: truth, justice, forgiveness.’
‘How can you love the unlovable?!’

Unconditional love is impossible for many of us, especially those who cry for truth and justice. We equate the life and lyrics of Francis Michael Durango Magalona with a cry for change in high places, but not unconditional love. FrancisM would have been extremely disappointed.

I believe FrancisM deserves a Philippine National Artist Award more than anyone today. Unlike many a nationalist noisy in mouth or in media, FrancisM lived his lines; he acted his art; he worked out what he wrote about. He loved his country; he loved his countrymen; he loved his family – none more than any other. He paid his dues. While the righteous would advocate a running battle, he would counsel reconciliation. While many Filipino politicians are worth their worth in fool’s gold, FrancisM was worth his weight in solid gold.

FrancisM’s body was cremated at dawn today, Wednesday, 11 March in Manila. ‘Papa, I love you,’ said Maxene, his celebrity daughter. ‘I thank you for everything. I thank you for taking care of me and my brothers and sisters, taking care of my mom’ (abs-cbnnews.com).

Senator Loren Legarda says ‘Francis M will live on thru his music’ (07 March, senate.gov.ph). I say FrancisM will live on through his example.

Photo from FrancisM's blog, francismagalona.multiply.com

Hypothesis of hope for the semi-arid tropics

2009-03-03T17:50:00.000+08:00

Climate change predictions point to a warmer world within the next 50 years, a trend that is increasingly being supported by ‘on-the-ground’ measurements. However, the impact of rising temperatures on rainfall distribution patterns in the SAT of Africa and Asia remains far less certain. Africa is dry enough such as it is.

At ICRISAT, we have always been aware of the need to situate our research in the context of seasonally variable rainfall and the impact it has on rural welfare as well as on the performance of the innovations that we were researching and promoting. Within the last 5 years, however, this work has received a new focus as a result of the increased global concern over the impacts of both the rainfall variability associated with current climates as well as future climate changes.

A Board-Approved Operational Research Plan for 2008-2015

In March 2008, ICRISAT’s Board of Trustees approved our Operational Research Plan (ORP) entitled Adaptations to Climate Change in the Semi-Arid Tropics. The plan provides a focused description of the climate change development challenge in the SAT; the rational for ICRISAT’s involvement; what we aim to achieve through our research and the outcomes we will achieve between now and 2015. The ORP is structured around two key strategic considerations:

1. Firstly, we are convinced that unless risk-averse and vulnerable farming communities of the SAT are empowered to cope better with current season-to-season rainfall variability through improved climate risk management, adapting to future climate change will be a daunting challenge for most and perhaps impossible for many.

2. Secondly, given the lead time required to produce ‘finished products’ of adapted germplasm, we are combining ex ante assessments of the impacts of climate change scenarios on the performance of our mandate crops with investigations into the required plant characteristics that will both mitigate the negative and exploit the positive impacts of climate change. The outputs of this work will help shape our future crop adaptation strategy.

A summary Flyer of this ORP has been produced and is available electronically in PDF format. Click here to download.

Developing a climate change ‘Hypothesis of Hope’ for the SAT.

During May 2008, ICRISAT’s crop modelers, GIS experts, crop physiologists and plant breeders met in Hyderabad for a working week. Using a range of weather data driven tools, they initiated research to test the hypothesis that “in the medium term (2010-2050), ICRISAT is well placed to help farmers mitigate the challenges and exploit the opportunities that are posed by climate change through (i) through the application of existing knowledge on crop, soil and water management innovations and (ii)the re-deployment and re-targeting of the existing germplasm of its mandate crops. Whilst the work initiated during this week remains on-going, early outputs support the hypothesis. Specifically, this ex ante analysis showed that:

· Climate change will modify the length of the growing period across the regions of interest, but that this can in large part be mitigated by the re-targeting and re-deployment of existing germplasm.

· Predicted temperature increases, through their effect of increasing the rate of crop development, have greater negative impacts on crop production than relatively small (plus / minus 10%) changes in rainfall.

· Yield gap analyses show that the negative impacts of climate change can be largely mitigated through a dual strategy of (a) greater application by farmers of improved crop, soil and water management innovations and (b) better targeted crop improvement approaches, more explicitly focused on climate change adaptation.

A schematic framework for testing our hypothesis.

We present the schematic framework in Figure 1. The framework identifies 3 Yield Gaps that ICRISAT needs to address in seeking solutions to both current and future climate-induced production risk.

The Current Yield Gap. Column 1 in the schematic represents yields that farmers are getting under their current and relatively low-input management. Column 5 represents the yields that farmers could get through the adoption of current simple and affordable recommendations for improvements in variety choice and crop, soil and water management practices. This is the yield gap that ICRISAT is currently addressing.

Yield Gap 1 under Climate Change. Column 2 represents the marginally decreased yields that farmers would get under climate change if they were to continue using the same low-input system. We have shown earlier that under such low-input systems, other factors continue to provide the overriding constraint. Column 3 represents the yields that farmers could get, even under climate change, if they adopted current improved practice recommendations.

Yield Gap 2 under Climate Change. Column 4 represents the yields that farmers could get under climate change if they were to adopt current improved practice recommendations together with germplasm better adapted to a warmer world. Within the scope of the ex ante analyses that we have done so far, we consider better adaptation to solely constitute varieties whose maturity length is better suited towards growing in a warmer world. We recognize that other factors such possible changes in rainfall patterns and in the distribution of pests and diseases will also have to be considered.

The schematic highlights 3 important points namely:

1. The impact of climate change on the yields of low-input agriculture is likely to be minimal as other factors will continue to provide the overriding constraints to crop growth and yield.

2. The adoption of currently recommended improved practices, even under climate change, will result in substantially higher yields than farmers are currently getting.

3. The adaptation of better ‘temperature-adapted’ varieties could result in the almost complete mitigation of climate change effects that result from temperature increases.

Such a hypothesis, if proven true, would suggest a fundamental message for policy makers, namely:

Better formulated and targeted policies that facilitate and support the adoption of agricultural innovation today assume even greater urgency. Not only will they immediately improve the welfare of rural population today but will do a great deal to mitigate the impacts of future climate change.

New coffee in Kenya.

2009-02-26T13:41:00.000+08:00

In Emali, women show who’s the better half

I, male, have come to realize that the female is the better half of the human race, whether in America or Asia. At home in Manila, at 69, I can’t win any argument with my wife, and I’m the genius around here.

Elsewhere, it’s time the men are told to their face about giving credit to whom credit is due. In Africa, while women produce 80% of the food, FAO says, it’s the men who get the loans because they have the title deeds for collateral (Zoe Alsop, 23 November 2008, womensenews.org). You need collateral to get a loan; that’s the credit policy imposed by the domineering male of the species, right?

Credit access is power, or control of power. While the males hold on to power, in the meantime, 3 man-made phenomena are spreading in Africa as elsewhere: HIV/AIDS, hunger, poverty.

What can we do? Employ medicine, supply food aid, apply microfinance. Especially microfinance. Talk to the women, form solidarity groups – talk to the wives. Because, ‘Husbands have the attitude,’ says Hannah Wamaitha of Butere, Kenya, ‘that women are like slaves’ (Zoe Alsop as cited). The men are the modern slave owners. Masters of the realm.

The men have to be emancipated from their master mentality. And in that, they can learn from the women who have grabbed power from the men, the women who have emancipated themselves – the Grameen women of Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh. (You may want to see what I have written about women and Grameen: ‘Waging Wars With Women,’ icrisatwatch.blogspot.com.)

Let us now visit other brave women in a tiny village in southern Kenya. In 2005, tiny Emali was devastated by HIV, AIDS and drought (ChildFund, childfund.org.nz). ChildFund New Zealand Programmes Coordinator Sarah Walker visited Emali in 2007 and reported:

Life is a constant struggle for people in Emali living with HIV and AIDS. Medicine helps keep parents well enough to care for their children and earn a living, but getting the medicine requires a monthly 160-km round trip to the nearest hospital. Then there is the dreadful stigma of being ‘cursed’ with HIV and AIDS. It was inspiring, then, to meet a group of women who had banded together to support each other.

Sarah said, ‘The personal story that touched me the most was from a woman named Josephine who told me she absolutely hated herself for contracting HIV and felt she had failed her children.’

In all of Kenya, the World Bank reports that the total prevalence of HIV / AIDS of total population among ages 15-49 is 6%. In all of Africa, more than 27 M Africans have died, 12 M orphaned by AIDS, while 25 M live with HIV (web.worldbank.org).

‘Contracting HIV.’ Sarah’s ‘Josephine’ is not a real name, but the process is real: you contract HIV by sexual contact with an infected person. It takes two to tango. No contact, no contract. So I say: The only way to ultimately stop the spread of HIV/AIDS is: Don’t do it! That’s my advice for the males, young or old, those interested in casual sex, those who should stop thinking outside the box of marriage. Mostly the buyer is the male, who is therefore the weaker of the species. His spirit is willing, but his flesh is weak.

I remember the World Wide Fund slogan for stopping the illegal trade of endangered wildlife species like elephants and tigers; that was years ago: ‘When the buying stops, the killing will too.’ Buyer, beware! Borrowing from that, in the case of promiscuity, ‘When the buying stops, the selling will too.’ The key is held by the male of the species; so far, in the sad story of HIV/AIDS, the evidence is clear: The male is the weaker sex.

And in Emali, Kenya, amidst poverty, drought and that sad HIV / AIDS scene, a science agency has proven that the female is the stronger sex. Let me tell you the Emali story (so far) of ICRISAT, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, which is based in India, of the crop called pigeon pea, and of the women who made the difference. Vive le difference! The story is told in the 2007 annual report of ICRISAT entitled New Horizons Of Scientific Excellence For The Semi-Arid Tropics (pages 12-13).

PAN Germany OISAT says the pigeon pea is ‘difficult to cultivate’ (oisat.org). That is because in the past the available varieties were susceptible to pests and diseases (ICRISAT report). That is why Team ICRISAT, led by Director General William Dar, introduced new varieties in the village of Emali in the Makeuni District of Kenya in 2003 through field days held at the KARI, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, in Kiboko. Where in the world is Kiboko? If you are interested in an African safari, Kiboko is where you find the lions and the elephants. The hotels are there; that means modern facilities are there, including information communication technologies. You need modern communication if you want to do modern research. Not to mention product marketing.

Whom the gods wish to employ, first they make female. What happened was that the women of Emali, near Kiboko, turned out to be more enterprising farmers than the men; they took the lead in growing the new ICRISAT pigeon pea varieties. Enterprising means you are willing to take some risks; why is it that more of the women took the risk and less of the men? It must have been that more of the women thought more of the food while more of the men thought more of the risk. The weaker stomach takes the lesser risk.

And so it was that farmer Jane Mulinge, a mother of eight children, sold over 1 ton of vegetable pigeonpea during 2007 at a price of 20-30 Ksh/kg. She now plans to expand production from 4 acres to 6 acres in the next season (ICRISAT report). The winners never quit.

And farmer Priscilla Mutie, another innovator and single mother in the community, planted 5 acres during 2007 and sold over 1.5 tons of fresh pigeonpea from March 2007 at 25-30 Ksh/kg (ICRISAT report). Her increased income helps support a family of 8, including orphan children. Priscilla also maintains a village shop where she sells supplies to ‘fellow farmers who have not mastered the art of growing high-value crops’. She plans to double her farm area to 10 acres. When interviewed on her mobile phone, she said, ‘I assure you that I won’t plant maize again.’ Maize is not drought-resistant. ‘I have proudly learned that 1 bag of pigeonpea can buy 2 bags of maize.’ Maize is not a high-value crop where it performs poorly. The lady knows whereof she speaks.

The women farmers of Emali, Kenya were so successful that they began referring to pigeon pea as ‘our dryland coffee!’ Perhaps that was in reference to the observation that pigeon pea is as valuable as coffee in commerce – equivalent to saying, ‘This is our new coffee!’ – knowing that the pigeon pea thrives in drylands whereas coffee does not. The Emali women also began to call pigeon pea ‘our beef,’ in reference to the high protein content (20-23%). Also, pigeon pea is rich in phosphorus and richer in potassium (springerlink.com). Animal, vegetable, mineral – pigeon pea is all of the above. What a crop!

Pigeon pea is food for the gods if ever they get hungry – the crop is ready for harvest precisely in the times when food reserves are low. For the people, this makes it a saving crop in times of need. For the producers, it’s like off-season growing of a food crop.

Even better, the women of Emali found that the immature pigeon pea makes good fresh vegetable that is popular in the domestic market. Because of the high demand, green peas are now sold at prices almost twice that of dry peas.

With pigeon pea, the poor farmers in drought-prone areas are gaining where they had been losing with maize as their main crop for a long time, with their maize failing in 3 years out of 5, in which case the families had to rely on drought-resistant pigeon pea, now considered a ‘lifesaver’ and ‘guarantor of livelihoods.’

The export potential for pigeon pea is big. India alone imports 254,000 tons of pigeon pea every year and Africa currently supplies only about 5% of this demand. This is not to mention Europe and the Americas as markets.

Aside from developing new, outstanding pigeon pea varieties, ICRISAT and partners have been at work on generating institutional innovations to help African farmers. Thus, collaboration has been sought with private and public sector groups to help with processing and marketing of the farm produce. This has resulted in reduced costs of marketing, spurring further commercialization of pigeon pea.

I have already called it The Beans Revolution (see my ‘The Beans Revolution, 1’ and ‘The Beans Revolution, 2’ in my blog, ‘ICRISAT: The Story So Far,’ icrisatwatch.blogspot.com). In Kenya, this Revolution was ‘ignited through an ICRISAT-led consortium that brought together parties like TechnoServe, CRS, KARI and private sector processors and exporters’ (ICRISAT annual report). This stimulated seed production for commercialization and the creation of agro-dealer networks for distribution and marketing. The PMGs, producer marketing groups, encouraged seed production, distribution and marketing, as well as managed to increase local producer prices by 20-25% in Nairobi and Mombassa after linking with wholesalers. This has been happening in places where corn has traditionally been the main crop, which had failed because of prolonged drought. No wonder the drought-resistant pigeon pea is now considered a ‘lifesaver’ and ‘guarantor of livelihoods’ in these parts.

Before those new seeds, the potential of the pigeon pea as a cash crop for African farmers could not be fully exploited because of the low yield since the crop was susceptible to pests and diseases, and the beans were too small for the taste of the market; since the produce did not meet market requirements, the commercial possibilities remained just that, possibilities.

Since 1999, ICRISAT had been trying to develop new pigeon peas from those locally adapted cultivars by crossing with internationally available high-yielding varieties. The best performers were then distributed to local farmers and scientists in Kenya and Tanzania. After further selection, the top varieties were planted in demonstration plots. From these plots, high-quality seeds were obtained and scientists helped farmers produce more and better seeds. So, the ones from ICRISAT planted by Sarah Mawewu, Priscilla Mutie and Jane Mulinge of Emali, Kenya had large seeds, were cream-colored and resistant to Fusarium wilt.

The initial results surprised everyone, with yields up to 4 tons per hectare (afrol.com). There is more where it came from; 57 cultivars have been developed and released by ICRISAT to Asia (38), Africa (13), Australia (3) and the USA (3).

Elsewhere in East Africa, in Tanzania, new varieties are also becoming popular. In the Babati District, already famous for quality pigeon pea – some 60% of farmers are now planting the new pigeon peas, and this crop alone now contributes to more than 50% of the cash income of small farmers. This has in turn spurred a huge demand for improved seeds; to take advantage of that, local agro-dealers have contracted farmers to grow high-quality seeds with the support of the extension system in training and organizing the pea growers.

With new varieties available and with the produce now attractive to the market have come ICRISAT’s idea referred to as PMGs, producer marketing groups, further encouraging commercial production of pigeon pea. The PMGs allow small farmers to benefit from collective action.

The PMGs are a concept being pioneered across Africa and Asia by ICRISAT (icrisat.org). ‘PMGs are owned and run by the farmers or jointly with private sector partners,’ says ICRISAT Director General William Dar, ‘often with assistance from NGOs, research partners, government agencies and others.’ ICRISAT has been working with partners in Kenya since 2003 supporting 10 PMGs. Data shows that PMGs have increased farmer incomes by 23% in Kenya.

Via the PMGs, the successful commercialization of pigeon pea in Kenya has encouraged farmers to own valuable assets such as land and livestock for more production, and mobile phones for communication. Several farmers have bought milking cows and bullocks. The improved local economy has also increased school enrolment as families can now afford to send more children to school. Higher incomes also allow families to buy better-quality food and adequately meet other basic needs to improve the quality of their lives.

Encouraging as it is, the economic story of ICRISAT-linked pigeon pea in Kenya is just beginning. For the PMGs ‘to fully reach their potential,’ says Dar, ‘supportive steps are urgently needed in areas such as legal status, crop insurance, credit access, infrastructure, management skills, and market intelligence-gathering capabilities.’

Another interpretation to the reference by Emali women of pigeon pea as their ‘dryland coffee’ is that they see one crop as already about as valuable as the other, or can be made to be. ‘Coffee from Kenya is well known for its intense flavor, full body, and pleasant aroma’ (Wikipedia). That is all in the growing and handling of it. The scientists and farmers of pigeon pea in Kenya can learn from the growers and handlers of coffee in Kenya, who have mastered their operations.

Consider that there is superlative praise for Kenyan coffee (sweetmarias.com):

Kenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both in the cup, and the way they run their trade, everything is topnotch. The best Kenyan coffees are not sold simply as generic AA or AB. They are specific auction lots sold to the highest bidder, and heated competition drives the prices up. Their research and development is unparalleled. Their quality control is meticulous, and many thousands of small farmers are highly educated in their agricultural practice – and rewarded – for top-level coffee.

The product itself, the way the coffee people run their trade, conduct their R&D, practice their quality control, employ good agricultural practices: Behind people, this is science at its best. I can imagine ICRISAT scientists and partners as well as the Kenyan female farmers and their advocates longing for the day when the industry of Kenyan pigeon pea has finally reached the local level of that of Kenyan coffee, and they can all say:

‘Today, Kenya. Tomorrow, the world!’

The Beans Revolution, 2

2009-02-08T20:24:00.000+08:00

Waging Wars With Women

US President Barack Obama’s is a revolution of change we can believe in. I am more interested in a revolution of change we can participate in. Then I can more or less believe.

So, we must wage a revolution with understanding for the Beans Revolution to succeed. So we must learn from the past.

How did the Green Revolution happen? They made it happen. In the Philippines, I know from personal observation in Laguna (Southern Philippines) where I stayed and worked, and in Pangasinan (Central Luzon) where I was born and grew up, and from the papers. It was a revolution of rice expectations. They called it Masagana 99 (Bountiful 99), in reference to the target harvest of 99 sacks of palay or unmilled rice from each hectare.

From where I sat in those Masagana 70s, the contributors to the Green Revolution were:
other countries (loans to Philippine government)
government (policy)
research agencies (high-yielding varieties of rice)
credit facilities (supervised credit to farmers)
chemical companies (fertilizers and pesticides)
non-government organizations (advocacy)
businessmen (marketing)
farmers and their families (production)
mass media (success stories).

Now that I have listed them all down, it occurs to me that the borrowings (‘loans’ and ‘supervised credit’) provided the key stimulus for the Green Revolution to occur with the concurrence of everyone. You cannot wage a revolution without funds, without another country to support you, even if you have the vanguard leader and warriors, policy support from government and vocal support from the rich.

We are in the Philippines, a country of contrasts and contradictions. Inquirer Columnist Solita Collas-Monsod says no, the credit part of Masagana 99 was unnecessary; ‘apparently did not contribute that much’ (citing Manny Esguerra’s thesis, 1981, UP Los Baños); and no, it was profit and not credit that impelled the farmers to plant the new rice varieties (citing Orly Sacay & Co’s study, 1985) (‘Masagana 99 redux,’ 03 June 2008, opinion.inquirer.net). The rices came mostly from IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute. Well, as far as I can tell, Solita, Manny and Orly are both right and wrong. They are correct if you consider only the not-so-small farmers who have access to resources anyway, Masagana 99 or not, and there were many of them, and that included my own father. They are wrong if you consider the really small farmers, including the landless, who number legion – if you don’t give them a friendly loan, they turn to any of 3 borrower-friendly, underground sources of credit: the friendly usurers who demand 5-6 (for every 5, you pay back 6 every single day), the friendly suppliers of fertilizers and pesticides who demand exorbitant prices for items on credit, and the friendly traders who demand buying the harvest after threshing and paying at their dictated price. Let us give credit to whom credit is due! Friends in need, friends indeed?

Anyway, credit proved to be dangerous to Masagana 99, even if I failed to see it. I was 30 something, young and arduous and already a public nonconformist (if not a public nuisance), but I didn’t see anything wrong with Masagana 99; I didn’t see that loans would wreak havoc on the Philippine economy. In fact, it wasn’t the loaning that was the problem; it was the borrowers not paying back what they owed the government, too many and too much. The Masagana farmers numbered 500,000 (country-studies.com); if each Masagana farmer borrowed $100, the total loans would have been $50 million, by my computation roughly the equivalent of $1.5 billion today.

That is to say, the Filipino farmers greatly failed the Green Revolution themselves. They failed to contribute what was asked of them: Pay their debts. ‘Loan repayments ... had gone down to 35%,’ Robert Flint Chandler reported in 1979 (Rice In The Tropics, Los Baños: International Rice Research Institute, p128); that was the IRRI Director General speaking. In other words, 65 out of 100 farmers did default. ‘The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings’ – Julius Caesar, Act 1 Scene II.

And now we have the Beans Revolution before us. I cannot imagine except that it too will need loans to farmers – but this time, we have to be careful to identify the borrowers who are most likely to return what they have borrowed. And I have just found what Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh accidentally found out 30 years ago, while the Green Revolution was raging in the Philippines:

The women make the best borrowers.

How did I find out what Yunus had already discovered? Not able to sleep, I was reading avidly an old copy of The New Yorker dated 30 October 2006 that I bought for a song at a garage sale last year, 2008, and had reached ‘Millions for millions,’ the long essay on micro-credit or micro-finance by Connie Bruck, pages 62-73; at about midnight, 05 February in Manila, I had an epiphany:

In the revolution that Muhammad Yunus had accidentally waged in Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank, the people’s bank, and for which he had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, 100% credit goes to the women.

Okay, 96% of the credit that year. They call it micro-credit – because of its gargantuan success, it doesn’t look micro to me; it’s macro. It’s a huge thing. Grameen Bank is the biggest thing since the Titanic. Grameen is banking for the poor; the poor number in the billions.

It’s a major thing. In its website, Grameen Bank says (grameen-info.org):

Yunus' long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision can not be realized by means of micro-credit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that, in the continuing efforts to achieve it, micro-credit must play a major part.

As of December 2008, Grameen Bank had 7.67 million borrowers with 2,539 branches covering more than 99% of the total villages in Bangladesh, 97% of the borrowers being women (GB website).

In 2006 96% of the Grameen borrowers were women, in 2008 97%. I didn’t have eyes on them before, but women definitely are an irresistible force for good. This is not Women’s Liberation – this is Women’s Revolution; this is not Women’s Lib – this is Family Life. The Grameen women are not fighting for Equal Rights; they are fighting for Equal Lives.

Grameen Bank’s positive impact on its poor and formerly poor borrowers has been documented in many independent studies carried out by external agencies including the World Bank, the International Food Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

I believe without having to see those reports of the World Bank, IFPRI and BIDS. Blessed are those that have not seen and yet have believed. You have to have faith.

And that is why I changed the second half of the title of this essay, from my announced ‘How To Wage A War Of Understanding’ to ‘Waging Wars With Women.’ From looking, if belatedly, I realize that the women are more important than the men when it comes to development, when it comes to family indeed.

Against the advice of banks and government, Yunus carried on giving out ‘micro-loans,’ and in 1983 formed the Grameen Bank, meaning ‘village bank,’ founded on principles of trust and solidarity.

I would revise that to say, ‘founded on principles of womanly trust and solidarity.’ Borrowers form groups of 5 of their own kind; the groups are federated into centers, and the centers link with Grameen Bank. With visible Yunus, who went ahead and formed the Grameen Bank against the advice of experts, the women are the unseen secret of the success of Grameen as a credit option. I see therefore:

The Beans Revolution will have to be waged by women!

This one is different. I know a revolution is not a picnic, but The Revolution emanating from a campus in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh in India has begun with a thick pea soup of hope. And my understanding is this: That the roots are as good as the peas in reducing the erosion of faith that poverty can be overcome, and that we can change climate change.

That is to say, the amazing pigeon pea that ICRISAT, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, has bred in her campus has brought so much higher income to the poor farmers in the drylands of India, and the massive roots of this plant have been found to be good as soil builders and preventers of soil erosion in China. If we covered the millions of barren soils in the world with pigeon pea as they do in China, that should contribute much to the cooling of the planet, not to mention hot heads here, there and everywhere.

Those 2 paragraphs above are a summary of what I wrote in ‘The Beans Revolution, 1: Jack & The New Hen That Lays Golden Eggs,’ icrisatwatch.blogspot.com).

Now, the problem we have is how to wage this war with understanding so that success is assured. We want to achieve more than what the Green Revolution did, which were higher yields and higher incomes for farmers, as well as higher net profits for millers and middlemen. The total progress of a country must be not only economic but also environmental stability. You cannot use the soil and abuse it. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. We are stewards and stewardesses of Earth; handle with care.

To be sure, the Beans Revolution cannot be waged by its initiators alone, partners and ICRISAT, headed by now-world-recognized Team Captain & Director General of ICRISAT William Dar.

So: Is a revolution a change we can believe in? That depends on its objectives. Is the Beans Revolution a change the poor farmers can believe in? Only if the farmers take part in it in a meaningful way – and only if the rest of society become active participants in the drama of development.

Let us learn from the Green Revolution of the 20^th century to be able to wage successfully the Beans Revolution of the 21st century.

The targets of the Green Revolution were the rice farmers. That meant the male farmers, as most farmers were male. That proved to be the oversight. The male of species was deadlier than the female when they had to pay back – 65 out of 100 farmers would not.

Now, who are the targets of the Beans Revolution? You’re mistaken if your answer is ‘Farmers.’ Everyone is a target of this revolution, or any revolution for that matter. You’re also mistaken if you say the targets are the ‘Stakeholders’ – I don’t want to use the idea of stakeholder because that term emphasizes a personal stake, a self-interest; it does not give proper emphasis on teamwork, on cooperation. Remember: Your stake is as good as mine.

Change targets to wagers; change stakeholders to contributors. The Green Revolution was waged; the Beans Revolution must be waged. And remember: You can’t wage a war based on personal interests – the interest of one must coincide with the interests of the others.

So, in my mind, all of them, these are the wager-contributors to the Beans Revolution:

(1) Revolutionary Investors –
Do you differentiate capitalists from investors? I don’t. Neither does Bill Gates and his radical idea of creative capitalism. The focus of Grameen is the have-nots – are they willing and able to become entrepreneurs? The focus of creative capitalism is the haves – are they willing to invest in those who have nothing so that they may be able to help themselves? The creative capitalists don’t say there is no market – they create the market. And they may or may not get back profit, but most likely only recognition from government and the gratitude of the poor. Truly, that is sharing. Creative capitalism is sharing.

(2) Rebel Village Bankers –
Borrowing, if you will pardon the expression, from the example of Muhammad Yunus’ Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank, we need to build Grameen people out of bankers out there in the villages. We must not forget the Grameen basics: groups of 5, small loans, no collateral, close supervision of credit, peer pressure, transparency, planning & management.

(3) Women Borrowers & Managers –
Should I say, ‘Be careful with farmers because they are mendicants?’ I’m referring mostly to the male farmers. Truth to tell, if you offer me something that’s mine for a song, I’ll sing for it. So far, in my 33 years of experience with many an R&D project, 99 times out of 100, it’s a dole out, a gift, a carrot stick for the farmer to be part of the project. In the Philippines, we have cultivated the mendicant attitude not only of farmers but most of all the urban poor. The poor deserve our compassion; they don’t deserve our disrespect by treating them as children to appease by giving out lollipops.

The farmers must be made aware that, for instance, a loan is a loan, not a giveaway; that Government is not President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo but us, the people – we pay taxes, and we elect the President. If we don’t pay taxes, we have no reason to complain about Bad Government.

And let the borrowers be only women; let them hold the purse strings so that they can manage their farm enterprises, not to mention deal with their husbands with some clout. No, I’m not talking of equal rights – only equal opportunities.

(4) Scientists & Seed Producers –
These are the new vanguards of modern agriculture. They are necessary for producing certified seeds, hybrid seeds; these seeds are necessary if we want to harvest the most from the modern varieties. Therefore, also necessary are investors in modern methods, not the least of which is the search for such techniques. We need further R&D.

Otherwise, have you heard of farmer varieties? The farmers are good seed producers themselves, good developers of new varieties, selecting out the best performers from their own planned or accidental hybrids. I have seen it myself. When I stopped after high school in 1957, I helped my father a little in the growing of rice. I remember Lakay Disiong going ahead of the reapers and harvesting out the standouts, the best-looking panicles in the field; these would yield the seeds for the next crop. I don’t remember if I asked him why; he is gone, but now I know. Do that every year and you have your own farmer’s variety.

(5) Local Government Units –
To provide the policy support near or within the villages. LGUs cannot simply sit and watch the wagers of war go by and cheer them on – they themselves must contribute to the overall effort. New local laws may need to be passed or the old ones need to be amended to encourage the warriors in the Beans Revolution. The local educational system may need improvement so that families, mothers especially, do not have to worry about their children attending good schools. The local health services may also need strong LGU support.

(6) Non-Government Organizations –
NGOs must play some of the major roles in the Beans Revolution. They can initiate village projects with women in the forefront such as village banks, cooperatives, including handling and storage of raw or processed farm products, and eventually marketing. They can arbitrate in disputes. They can help create markets here and abroad.

(7) Civil Society –
Not simply to denounce corruption here and there, not simply to agitate for government reforms now, but to advocate and practice stewardship and not profligacy with resources now. It is easy to criticize and do nothing – except vociferate and point your forefinger. I admire and applaud the loud pushers of entrepreneurship, Go Negosyo inspired by Joey Concepcion (gonegosyo.net). These pushers are priceless; the naysayers are a dime a dozen.

(8) Church Officials –
To provide the social anchor on the highest ideal of morality. Accusation is not one of their options; assistance is. Let them be as doctors to the sick. Let them emulate Jesus, the Preacher’s Preacher, the Doer’s Doer. Let them recall what happened in Levi’s house with Jesus and the Pharisees (Mark 2: 17 NRSV):

‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have come to call not the righteous but the sinners.’

(9) Academicians –
They must teach students to take the revolutionary way, to become leaders of the people who must wage the revolution themselves on themselves – in peace, not in war. As an alumnus of the University of the Philippines, 1965, I’m thinking of the academicians, especially those who practice academic freedom by mouthing it, and not only at the University of the Philippines – when will you stop saying you love your country and start doing it? Our national hero, Jose Rizal, sacrificed his whole life for his country – can you not sacrifice a few years of yours?

(10) Media People –
They must wage a war of words and ideas, images and illustrations of the revolution from the very beginning. As it goes, let them communicate a revolution of rising expectations, but let them not forget that it must be a revolution of rising participation first. Let them always remember that the media people themselves are not a people apart – a part they are, ‘a piece of the continent, a part of the main’ (John Donne).

Now, do you ask who of the wagers of the revolution are the most important group? They are all equal, but the women are more equal than the others. I can imagine a phalanx of 300 modern Spartan women, not 1 woman compromising the phalanx, improving on Author Frank Miller’s graphic novel and Director Zack Snyder’s graphic film, the Hollywood box-office hit 300 (Wikipedia).

And remember, a revolution is not a single season; it is a generation. We have had it all wrong in the Philippines: People Power 1986 was only the beginning, not the end. People Power we did it again in 2001, but we never improved on the beginning.

Remember too: Science will not solve all the problems of the world – the world will have to help itself. ‘It’s political will,’ says Vicente ‘Sonny’ Domingo, a farmer-leader, from the same town and province as Team Captain William Dar of ICRISAT; like William, Sonny is one who theorizes and practices, he talks big and does big. And no, he is not afraid to make mistakes.

Political will applies to all of us, applies to me. Since I’m in Manila, and I prefer freelance and blogging, I can imagine being involved in a media vehicle I like to call the iVASAT, that is, the Information-Rich Virtual Advocate for Science in the Semi-Arid Tropics. The germ of the idea already exists within ICRISAT and it’s called VASAT, the Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics. VASAT is a fusion of experience and expertise; iVASAT will be an information translator of experience and expertise.

Waging the Beans Revolution, we will just have to transport and transform the VASAT idea from India not to create demands but suit the needs of the peoples of the drylands of Asia, Africa, Australia, America – virtually. When it comes to data, I myself don’t relish the idea of riding airplanes, buses, jeepneys, tricycles; rather, I relish the idea of the Internet, where information can travel as data travels, fast, where a remote location is not a problem but an opportunity.

Personally, I will not forget the Green Revolution, so I will insist that the Beans Revolution be a Women’s Revolution, not Women’s Liberation; that it be Women’s Rev and not Women’s Lib; that it be less about gender equality and more about gender sanity; that it be less about human rights and more about family rights.

The Beans Revolution would be a revolution with understanding. This one would be a revolution of change I can participate in. If you are a woman, why don’t you? If you are a man, are you insanely jealous that the woman is the more significant half of it all?

Designer Crops. My Intel Core i7 Sanger sequencing in Manila

2009-02-01T21:23:00.000+08:00

Designer Jeans, Designer Water.

President Barack Obama is a designer’s dream; he is business cool. One of these days, he will mind the business of global warming, and the related business of Sanger sequencing, and I expect him afterwards to say, ‘I want my Designer Crop, and I want it now!’

It takes brains. This is a true story of brains, sequencings, genomes, made-to-order crops. One brain is logical (it’s sequential); another brain is computational (it’s also logical); still another brain is neither (it’s creative, that’s all). To promote science to promote society, we have need of all 3 of them. The first brain I associate with plant geneticists – they feel filled; the second brain I associate with computer experts – they feel content; the third brain I associate with people like me – I feel great!

The good news is that sorghum’s genome has been completely, successfully sequenced; this science coup has been achieved by an international team led by Andrew Paterson, Director of the Plant Genome Mapping Lab, a joint unit of the University of Georgia and Franklin College of Arts & Sciences. It is now reported in the 29 January 2009 issue of Nature, a science journal with an international reputation for quality of content. Quality is in the details. The bad news is that neither quality nor science is exciting news to many.

Should I, a science writer, be excited? Those scientists who reported their success don’t appear to be excited themselves; look at the uninspiring title of their Nature paper: ‘The Sorghum bicolor genome and the diversification of grasses.’ My genome is my total DNA sequence, if I understand things right; and no, my own genome doesn’t excite me at all. Paterson is not communicating; it’s all Greek, it’s all grass to me.

But I’m excited about another genome sequencing – mine, leading to my own Designer Crop of course. To address everybody’s business: global warming.

Now, look at the DNA building blocks below for a species I shall not identify at the moment. If you can come up with the genome sequence of this ‘!%1236AAA’ DNA set – all the letters of the alphabet are there – then you can design a supercrop that is perfect for the 21^st century – amidst problem crops, problem soils, problem local weather, including problem political climates. Since the 1880s, they have had crop circles in

England

; this is the modern crop circle I have in mind:

! % 1 2 3 6 A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A B C C C C C C C D D D D D D D D D D D D E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E F F F F F F F F F F F F G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G H H H H H H H H H H I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I J K L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L M M M N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O P P P P Q R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T U U U U U U U W W W W W W W W W W X Y Y Y Y Y Z Z

Can you read my mind? Of course not. That’s the point.

‘!%1236AAA’ is a designer brainteaser. You can’t read between the lines – the lines themselves don’t tell you anything, except that they are strings of letters all derived from the English alphabet. Do you realize Paterson & Co couldn’t have sequenced the sorghum genome with superfast computers without the slow English alphabet?

Now you’re getting a good idea how (almost) impossible it is to sequence anybody’s genome: human being, mungo bean, grain or sweet sorghum. It takes human brains and computer brains to sort things out superfast, to read the instructions for life (DNA) and, even with all that, it takes years. It took Paterson & Co 3 years to assemble and annotate the genome of sorghum (phytozome.com). And that was fast.

‘!%1236AAA’ is a designer complexity. You can’t decipher it. What you have seen is only 1 set of codes, and it is made up of 317 letters & other characters of the English language – anyway, I challenge you to make sense of it, to read the message of a crop.

That alphabet soup is my creative reaction to the critical news that the genome of sorghum has been completely sequenced (see ‘Scientists publish complete genetic blueprint of key biofuels crop’ (David Gilbert, 29 January 2009, innovations-report.de). Not only have Paterson and his scientists published the sequence but they have analyzed the complete genome of sorghum; the scientists belong to the JGI, the Joint Genome Institute of the US Department of Energy and several partner institutions (chinaview.cn).

There are 2 varieties of sorghum; grain sorghum is grown for the grain, sweet sorghum for the sugar. Sweet sorghum is my favorite crop. ‘Sorghum’s importance is enormous,’ says Paterson, leader of the genome team (Stephanie Schupska, 29 January 2009, eurekalert.org). That’s sweet.

But I’m not sure I’m clear what genome sequencing is all about. The Human Genome Project website tells me that genome or DNA sequencing is the process of determining the exact order of the chemical building blocks (called nucleotides or bases) (ornl.gov), in the order of the many As, Cs, Gs and Ts that make up an organism’s DNA; the human genome has 3,000,000,000 of these genetic letters (GNN, genomenewsnetwork.org). A genome is a set of all the genes a species has in its chromosomes. The human genome has 50,000 to 100,000 genes (cccoe.net); the sorghum genome has 30,000 genes, typical of grasses (Dan Rokhsar, Xinhua as cited). As Gilbert puts it (source cited), genome sequencing is ‘a highly challenging computational problem.’ The numbers awe me, not excite.

In other words, now they can read the DNA of sorghum as if it were a book, as in fact, scientists call DNA the ‘book of life’ (news.bbc.co.uk). DNA reading must be boring!

That’s why I thought of a virtual designer challenge. And so, as I will show you in just a moment, you can read my ‘!%1236AAA’ sorghum conundrum as if it were marquee, scrolling screen messages in plain English, no words high-faluting.

Wait, whom do we owe the successful DNA sequencing of sorghum? These people, all 45 of them listed as co-authors of the Nature paper (cited earlier); the long list shows how exhaustingly detailed and terribly difficult the job was that it needed all their brains:

Andrew H Paterson, John E Bowers, Remy Bruggmann, Inna Dubchak, Jane Grimwood, Heidrun Gundlach, Georg Haberer, Uffe Hellsten, Therese Mitros, Alexander Poliakov, Jeremy Schmutz, Manuel Spannagl, Haibao Tang, Xiyin Wang, Thomas Wicker, Arvind K Bharti, Jarrod Chapman, F Alex Feltus, Udo Gowik, Igor V Grigoriev, Eric Lyons, Christopher A Maher, Mihaela Martis, Apurva Narechania, Robert P Otillar, Bryan W Penning, Asaf A Salamov, Yu Wang, Lifang Zhang, Nicholas C Carpita, Michael Freeling, Alan R Gingle, C Thomas Hash, Beat Keller, Patricia Klein, Stephen Kresovich, Maureen C McCann, Ray Ming, Daniel G Peterson, Mehboob-ur-Rahman, Doreen Ware, Peter Westhoff, Klaus FX Mayer, Joachim Messing, Daniel S Rokhsar.

(Aside: I’ve been Editor in Chief of quite a few technical publications for the last 33 years I know that 45 people working together can’t write a single sensible science paper! Would you believe 3? The long list is a not-so-subtle acknowledgment of contributions of people to the whole project. The problem is how to cite the authors in Literature Cited in your paper when the number of authors is longer than the paper itself.)

So they have sequenced the DNA of sorghum; why is that important? Red Orbit says (28 January 2009, redorbit.com):

The researchers are hopeful that the results might lead to ways of creating even more drought-tolerant types while providing a blueprint for developing, through breeding or genetic engineering, improved forms of other crops such as corn.

They owe their huge accomplishment to the genius of Frederic Sanger who first thought of sequencing the genome about 25 years ago; to give due honor, today, the art and science of sequencing DNA is known as Sanger sequencing (Edmund Pillsbury, bioinfo.mbb.yale.edu).

ICRISAT, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, based in

India

, is 1 of 21 institutions that participated in the Sanger sequencing of the sorghum genome. Not surprisingly, it has positively and strongly reacted to the news. Director General and Team Captain of ICRISAT William Dar tells me that, from the point of view of ICRISAT, the Sanger sequencing is ‘a monumental development which will impact on and enhance our breeding of sorghum varieties adapted to changing climate, abiotic and biotic stresses.’ That is to say, ICRISAT is going to come out with sorghums that grow well considering global warming and, among other things, considering pests, diseases, soil nutrient deficiencies, waterlogging, drought. Especially drought. Knowledge on the DNA sequences ‘will speed up development of resilient sorghum varieties.’

With 34,496 gene models of sorghum having been inventoried, Dar says, this opens to great possibilities in breeding. For instance, once some sorghum genes have been predicted or identified for drought tolerance, these genes can be used in genetic engineering to develop drought tolerance even in maize, a species related to sorghum, as well as in other cereals, such as rice. If you can’t fight them, tame them. Design crops that can best stand drought. Designer Maize. Designer Rice.

How about improving sorghum itself? Designer Sorghum. ‘Identification and understanding of genes involved in C4 pathways should be useful in manipulating fuel production of sorghum,’ Dar says. ‘Fuel’ here refers to ‘biofuel’ or ethanol from either or both sorghum grains and stalks. Also, ICRISAT is looking into the possibility of breeding other sorghum varieties with high content of cellulose as an alternative source of renewable fuel for cars, buses, trucks, tractors, including airplanes. (I’ll talk about ‘C4 pathways’ in a little while.)

Already, sorghum has many vitamins (ACP, fao.org). Don’t forget, Dar says, that the sorghum grain has high levels of iron (>70 ppm) and zinc (>50 ppm). Once they have identified candidate genes, they can be genetically manipulated to increase iron and zinc contents in sorghum and other cereals to help reduce malnutrition worldwide. From A to Zinc.

There’s more where it comes from. Paterson himself says that the wild relatives of sorghum can survive with even less water and resist even more pests and diseases, and the genes for these can be transferred to the cultivated sorghum (Schupska, source cited). Designer Sorghum. With genetic engineering, hopefully now you can pester all those pests.

Now I go back to my ‘!%1236AAA’ puzzler. Since this genius hardly understands the concept of Sanger sequencing himself, I thought of trying to explain it to myself by coming up with a metaphor. Yes, ‘!%1236AAA’ is a metaphor. I’m coming up with a virtual sequencing.

Since ‘!%1236AAA’ is composed of single letters and other characters that by themselves are unreadable except if they are linguistically related one way or the other so that they become understandable, and since combinations of characters and letters are processed best by the modern PC (personal computer), I decided to turn to the mechanical brain, the central processor of the PC. And just in time, too. The news of the Sanger sequencing of sorghum appeared on 29 January, and I just happened to have brought home my new PC on that same date on the other side of the globe, which I had ordered last December yet from Prologue Computer Center in Los Baños, Laguna. It had taken 1 month; this Intel PC was slow in coming to the shores of the

Philippines

, I wonder why. When sequencing genome, processing speed is of the essence; when I’m writing and researching at the same time, 2 processing speeds are of the essence: those of the PC and my brain. I don’t think – I scramble my thoughts. I don’t write – I type, and I type fast. (How fast? I’ll give you an idea: About 2 years ago, someone visited at home and saw me typing on the computer keyboard, and asked, matter-of-factly, ‘Are you typing, or are you playing?’ I said, ‘Both.’ It’s true.)

Now I have ‘the fastest processor on Earth’ – no, I’m not referring to my brain – as I write these lines 30 January, I’m referring to our barely 24-hour old PC, an Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz 2.66 GHz with 3 GB RAM Transcend DDR3-133 running on a licensed Windows Vista. I’m a superfast writer, editor, book reviewer, publisher, blogger. Now you know why I bought this superfast PC I’m using right now – I deserve it or, which is the same thing, I want my PC to match my speed. I don’t drive a car; I drive a PC. I’m 69; I used to ride the bike, leisurely. I am a speed demon when it comes to writing, editing, book reviewing, publishing, blogging; I know my speed does not endanger life or limb. Right now I have 5,000 photographs of my own in the hard disk – I want my PC to search through all those folders as fast as the eye can see. The Intel Core i7 is a Designer PC – it was designed for speed maniacs like me. It doesn’t have the supernumerary memory to run an assembler program for Sanger sequencing, but it has my unlimited memory.

I am told the Intel Core i7 has the Nehalem processor, ‘the most sophisticated ever built, with new technologies that boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput’ (Intel, source cited). I’m sure the Sanger sequencers understand that. Expect performance to the max. Here’s the PC when you need it most. With the sorghum genome known in proper DNA sequence, we can expect breeding performance to the max. Here’s the DNA when you need it fast.

The J Craig Venture Institute calls the genome ‘a jigsaw puzzle’ (GNN, genomenewsnetwork.org). It is, because you have to fit the exact pieces together, and there is only 1 solution. But since the sorghum genome contains 30,000 genes, how on earth can you find the proper Sanger sequence when you can’t really see anything? To help myself understand, I programmed our Core i7 to read this alphabet soup as I have already told you:

You cannot imagine the number of possible combinations among those 317 characters, each one representing a gene. To get an idea, if I used all numbers instead of mostly letters, I can get this possible total sequences (combinations) out of

numbers 1 to 29:
8,841,761,993,739,700,000,000,000,000,000
numbers 1 to 39:
20,397,882,081,197,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
numbers 1 to 49:
608,281,864,034,270,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (48 zeros after 270).

I’m using Calculate in Word 2003 to compute for the total number of combinations; at 1 to 50, Word 2003 tells me, ‘!Number Too Large To Format.’

All this I’m sure is a miniscule effort compared to the Sanger sequencing of sorghum, but you and I get the idea.

Out of that ‘!%1236AAA’ alphabet soup, I’ll tell you in a little while what our brand-new PC came out with using my brains. First, Intel’s brains.

The Core i7 PC processor is the smarts of Intel that boasts what it calls a combination of ‘Turbo Boost Technology’ and ‘Hyper-Threading Technology’ – which maximizes performance when you need it. As if to test its computing power, the very first assignment I give to our Core i7 is to read the undisclosed messages from the sequence of codes that begins with ‘!%1236AAA.’ Does it compute?

Look at what it has come out with in deciphering the genetic blocks of my favorite crop – read it as marquee, endlessly moving messages repeating themselves:

SWEETER THAN SUGAR 16-23% BRIX NEEDS MUCH LESS WATER GROWS IN THE DRYLANDS OF THE WORLD TOLERATES WATERLOGGING TOLERATES HEAT TOLERATES ACID SOILS TOLERATES SALINE SOILS GOOD FOR JAGGERY NO FERTILIZER NECESSARY FOOD FEED FODDER FERTILIZER FUEL FENCE PULP FOR PAPER CLEAN FUEL WITH HIGHER OCTANE RATING NO NEED TO MODIFY ENGINE GROWS QUICK GROWS ANYWHERE SWEET SORGHUM IS GREAT!

Now then, with all that knowledge, you can design the perfect climate crop of the 21^st century with these desirable characters:

Sweeter than sugar – 16-23% Brix
Needs much less water – grows in the drylands of the world
Tolerates waterlogging
Tolerates heat
Tolerates acid soils
Tolerates saline soils
Good for jaggery
No fertilizer necessary
Food, feed, fodder, fertilizer, fuel, fence, pulp for paper
Clean fuel with higher octane rating
No need to modify engine
Grows quick
Grows anywhere!

And of course, in the end you will learn that in fact, we already have that Ultimate Designer Crop: Sweet Sorghum. Nature has designed it to be excellent to address public concerns about climatic change as well as private concerns about poor farmers and poor soils.

In other words, I didn’t do any Sanger sequencing at all. I couldn’t recognize a DNA code to save my life. What I really did was come up first of all with the list of the winning ways of sweet sorghum, and then with Word 2003 I separated all the characters individually and sorted them to make what I call the ‘!%1236AAA’ genomic building blocks. The true story of my Core i7 just happens to be a perfect decoy to tell this true story of a genome.

So now I can tell you about C4 pathways. Rice is a C3, sorghum is a C4; where sorghum goes is the C4 pathway. A C3 plant is so-called because the first stable product it makes in photosynthesis is a 3-carbon compound; a C4 plant makes a 4-carbon compound first, then goes on its way to manufacture food for itself and man, much more than a C3 plant does. That’s Nature. C3 plants require cooler and wetter climates; C4 plants thrive in hotter, drier environments (answers.com). Like some people you know, rice goes on demanding more resources, while sweet sorghum goes on demanding less and producing more. Rice gets my 3 stars; sweet sorghum gets my 4 stars – no crop is perfect, 5 stars. (A related and helpful metaphor: To thrive, tribes differ as plants do. In the

Philippines

, you would recognize that the Tagalogs are C3; the Ilocanos are C4.)

C4 crops are hardy and stress-resistant; with knowledge in genome sequence applied in plant breeding/biotechnology, our scientists ‘could spur 21^st century crops’ (29 January, Brandon Keim, greenbio.checkbiotech.org). Red Orbit quotes Joachim Messing, a Rutgers University plant geneticist, one of the authors of the Nature paper, sharing his mind-bending experience with C4 crop sorghum in southeastern Africa (source cited):

You should have seen the maize growing there, how poorly it did, and then see sorghum just across from it standing tall and green and resistant to disease and drought.

‘Drought is the major environmental factor constraining crop production globally,’ says Andrew Borrell & Co, cropscience.org.au). Other than sorghum, the crops know the plaint of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner: ‘Water, water every where / Nor any drop to drink!’ But you have a survivor crop, sweet sorghum. You know why? One reason is that sorghum roots go down beyond 2 meters (Ian Broad & Graeme Hammer, cropscience.org.au), tapping the underground water rising up by capillary action. Not only that – sorghum roots are massive (National Research Council, 1996, books.nap.edu). Here is Mother Nature’s intelligence at work: Water seeks its own level – it goes up, up; and the sorghum root knows which side of the soil is wetter – it goes down, down.

Keim says more (source cited):

Developed world farms are already running at maximum capacity, with arable land already planted and the Green Revolution’s fertilizer- and pesticide-based limits reached. Remaining land is often dry and salty, and farms around the world are threatened by weather extremes predicted as consequences of global warming.

In this world, there is a limit to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Perfect for sorghum, that resilient, tolerant, superior species scientists prefer to call Sorghum bicolor. Almost 2 years ago, I wrote ‘On Discovery Sorghum, The Great Climate Crop’ (see ‘The Yankee Dawdle,’ 04 February 2007, americanchronicle.com); I believed then, as I express it now, that sweet sorghum is the Compleat Climate Change Crop, the C4 of C4 species. With this Designer Crop, we can design a Green Future for Mother Earth.

Even the independent-thinking Chinese know much about sorghum. They tell us the grains produce as much ethanol per bushel as corn and yet it needs one-third less water. The stalks grow fast, from 8 to 15 feet in 1 season. ICRISAT knows: Sorghum grows well on marginal soils where other crops will stunt or worse, shrivel and shrink (news.xinhuanet.com). It’s a ‘failsafe’ crop too (springerlink.com). And it’s a perennial, so it can be ratooned; thus, there is no need for replanting and disturbing the soil after every harvest, thus preventing soil erosion and conserving soil water.

Today, American corn needs twice more water to grow than American sorghum (Schupska, source cited). So, to approximate the projected excellent performance of American sorghum in the primary role of producing more ethanol more efficiently than American corn, which US President George W Bush had insisted as the main source of ethanol for American cars (see also my ‘American Corn,’ icrisatwatch.blogspot.com), some American plant breeders are going to transfer the genes of drought-tolerance from sorghum to corn, so that maize will ‘over-express the genes’ (Keim’s term) and become drought-tolerant, and eventually become the ultimate corn that it can be. Designer Corn. And they will transfer the genes to other sources of biofuel to produce out of those grasses their Designer Crops: American sugarcane (Designer Sugar), European Miscanthus (Designer Grass), American switchgrass (Designer Switch). This is physical transfer of traits from one crop to another; it is an exception to Mendel’s law of heredity that traits can only be inherited, not acquired. Laws are made to be broken.

It takes brains, yes; it also takes years. In the meantime, I’ll take the road more travelled – I’ll take the Designer Crop of Designer Crops that is here and now: Sweet Sorghum. In the midst of news of droughts in Africa, Asia,

Australia

and the

Americas

, now you know why I have sweet dreams.

The Beans Revolution, 1

2009-01-26T12:13:00.000+08:00

Jack & The New Hen That Lays Golden Eggs

Yes, this is the story of another hen that lays golden eggs. Call me Old Jack and this is full of new beans talk – from the unknown to the revolutionary Pushkal – Sanskrit word for full, abundant, many or much. I’ve never been a bean counter myself, but there’s always a first time.

It’s the legume called the pigeon pea, and this story is from problem to promise, from peas to pesos. Under the hands of science wizards, this pea has been transformed into a modern-day horn of plenty, if I may mix my metaphor. This is good news first for the farmers of India who grow pigeon pea in 3.5 million hectares (cgiar.org), which is almost the total size of 4 million hectares planted to rice in the Philippines (irri.org). Size matters; size is relative.

The pigeon pea (or pigeonpea) is a crop of a rainbow of colors. It is hardy and widely adaptable, growing well in cold or hot climates, acidic or alkaline sites, dry or irrigated fields, fertile or infertile soils (Frances Michaels, greenharvest.com.au); it is planted in many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America (encyclopedia.farlex.com). After reading this essay, don’t tell me you don’t know beans about legumes.

I don’t know, but in the Philippines, an unknown lady bought P20 worth (about 45 cents), half a bowl of beans, and brought the beans to the house (also unknown), and found out nobody had ‘the foggiest clue what to do with the beans,’ says author unknown (marketmanila.com).

Beans unknown! I’m surprised. I am a Filipino and proud to say so; this is the Philippines, a great country that even a great many educated Filipinos themselves talk much about in impeccable English or fluent Spanish or articulate Filipino but don’t understand, don’t love – a tropical Garden of Eden where many an Adam and Eve go after many species of useful plants, where you can find many villagers going beans and many citizens going bananas. I love it!

On second thought, I hardly know those beans myself. I don’t remember growing them, harvesting them, handling them, even eating them; not surprising, as I’m a farmer’s son who didn’t have a bean to spend on them. I grew up in the eastern part of Pangasinan in Central Luzon where those unknown beans were, well, unknown.

If the crop be unknown, it means the beans don’t mean anything to the cultivating life of the farmer, to the life of his family, to his wallet or to his wife’s purse. In fact, this bean is relatively unknown in the Philippines, but I understand it is the second most important legume crop in India. And now, you ask, based in Manila, Philippines, why am I writing about India? It’s a great country, and it’s where the beans in my story come from, Sweet Pea.

Jump to Hawaii. From the CTAHR (College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (ctahr.hawaii.edu), I learn that the unknown bean is botanically and completely called Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. (van der Maesen), Cajanus cajan van der Maesen for short. If I remember my taxonomy right, Cajanus is the name of the genus, cajan is the name of the species; (L.) means Linnaeus, the first botanist to give the crop a botanical name and published his description of it – he called it Cytisus cajan; Millsp. is the abbreviation of the family name of the botanist Millspaugh who corrected Linnaeus’ original botanical name; and van der Maesen is the one who corrected both botanists after poring over the literature and examining inch by inch a sample of the plant itself to describe it, roots and all. From the database of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), the botanical name is Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. (fao.org), and there is no mention of van der Maesen at all. Oh, anytime give me the study of the taxonomy of words, not beans.

Predictably, some people have the patience to find out more, more than just counting beans. I know – I watched Juan V Pancho, the internationally respected Filipino plant taxonomist, at work at the University of the Philippines Los Baños in the late 60s and early 70s. Doing so, he discovered some unknown species. He has moved on to the other side of life, but I can imagine him still poring over old books, old journals, old labels and new specimens, looking for the unknown. Unpredictably, I myself go on looking for the unknown in known or predictable stories. Such as this modern Jack & the beans talk.

The name ‘pigeon pea’ probably originated in the United States, where it was found that the pigeons loved it (icrisat.org). Among its other common names I like are red gram, Angola pea, Congo pea, dahl (India). In Tagalog it’s kadios, in Ilocano kardis. Philippine folklore has it that the pigeon pea is useful in medical therapy: an infusion of leaves is good for cough, diarrhea and abdominal pains. Tender leaves are chewed for stomatitis and spongy gums; pulped leaves are used for sores (stuartxchange.com). In Peru, the leaves make good medicine as infusion for anemia, hepatitis, diabetes, urinary infections and yellow fever (Leslie Taylor, rain-tree.com).

The Indians of India love it more than anyone else. The crop is grown in that country in 3.58 M ha, while in Myanmar it is grown only in 0.56 M ha, in China 0.15 M ha, and in Malawi .123 M ha. Green seeds are consumed fresh as green vegetable; the crushed dry seeds make good feed for poultry & livestock; the green leaves make good fodder for cattle (icrisat.org). The Filipinos are still studying the matter. (I had earlier written about it; see my ‘Serving ICRISAT Science,’ icrisatwatch.blogspot.com).

Among other things, the pigeon pea is drought-tolerant, meaning it can grow well even on dry grounds (cgiar.org). I saw that myself when Department of Agriculture consultant Santiago Obien took me to his Bugnay farm in Ilocos Norte in Northern Luzon in March last year. The water well was empty and gray; the pigeon peas were full and green.

Thinking of the plants under water stress, how could I explain the bean’s survival? Of the fittest it must be. In fact, it more than survives: it thrives. This hasn’t been mentioned in press releases or I haven’t read it in the emails but, you know, I have the curiosity of a cat. (It’s okay. ‘Curiosity killed the cat,’ they warn people like me – they forget that cats have 9 lives!) So, summoning the knowledge I gained from reading literature on my own and from my bright professors and their boring lectures during my overstaying student presence at the College of Agriculture of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños in the 1960s – where it took me 5-1/2 years to finish a 4-year course – I had only one explanation in mind, a hypothesis as it were: The pigeon pea has deep roots. I was sure, but I wasn’t an expert in these things. I didn’t know a bean about drought tolerance.

Googling, it took me about an hour to find support to my little hypothesis, and I found it in the website of the CTAHR (site cited). There, I am told the pigeon pea has ‘an extremely deep-rooting taproot’ and the rest of the roots are thin and reach down to 2 m. There, I imagine those roots soak up the capillary water rising from the underground water. Water goes up naturally. If you ask me about capillary action, I will tell you it is the opposite of the law that says, ‘Water seeks its own level.’ Water goes down naturally. That’s what I know. (Incidentally, the CTAHR acknowledges that ICRISAT has conducted ‘extensive research and breeding with pigeon pea.’ They must know something I didn’t.) From another source, about the roots of Pushkal and the other wonder peas from ICRISAT: These hybrids produce 30% higher root mass than other pigeon pea varieties (icrisat.org). This is important in water-starved soils, which we have plenty of in Asia, Africa, America, Australia – more of the pea roots bring up more of the nutrients from more of the deeper soils.

Historically, cultivation of the pigeon pea dates back to 3,000 years and originated either in Asia (absoluteastronomy.com) or Africa (Jacki Passmore, cited in food.oregonstate.edu). In Indian cuisine, it’s a favorite dhal (dry, dehulled, split seed for cooking) (icrisat.org). It also makes excellent pea soup.

So now, for the first time in history, here’s a revolution you can devour, children.

Mother to this one, ICRISAT names it the Pigeonpea Green Revolution, with the new seeds capable of producing 3-4 tons of peas per hectare, at least 2 times the yield of old varieties in farmers’ fields. ‘Pigeonpea Green Revolution’ also alludes to the first Green Revolution brought about by high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice that changed the economies of the world. The new Green Revolution is based on legumes that are a major source of protein in the developing countries. Because of this extraordinary pigeon pea, former IRRI Director General MS Swaminathan, a widely acclaimed and world-awarded Indian scientist and leader who is currently Chair of the Indian National Commission on Farmers, has predicted that the technological breakthrough ‘will create a Second Green Revolution’ in India, and then the rest of the world. On his part, ICRISAT Director General William Dar is ‘confident that the revolution we started in India with hybrid pigeonpea will soon spread to different parts of the world.’ I agree with that prediction; I share that confidence.

ICRISAT had announced the breakthrough boldly, knowing that ‘Extensive research by reputed organizations across the world in the past 50 years could not succeed in increasing productivity of pigeon pea,’ Dar is quoted by the Times of India as saying (July 2008, epaper.timesofindia.com). Remember, it took ICRISAT a total of 35 long years to achieve that scientific advance. I imagine that, like the Red Queen and Alice in Wonderland, those ICRISAT scientists had been running faster than scientists in other lands just to stay in place – first.

Dar attributed the pigeon pea hybrid success to public-private partnership, prominently with the ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, and Pravardhan Seeds. ‘I welcome more of such partnerships.’ I myself will attribute it also to the discovery by van der Maesen of the wild relative of pigeon pea in the forests of Central India, which had the desirable qualities the scientists were looking for in a pea. Conservation-minded, I welcome such forests.

Resistance to diseases and a massive root system were among 2 qualities transferred from the wild variety to the cultivated pigeon pea. Those transfers were achieved via a technological breakthrough that had something to do with the breeding technique. After a total of 35 long years of trying, ICRISAT breeders finally succeeded in creating a pigeon pea hybrid using what is called a cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) method, an innovation in the breeding of legumes. It is a complex process, and all I can say is that the CMS technique prevents self-fertilization (inbreeding) and allows cross-fertilization (hybridization), in this case the cultivated pigeon pea crossed with a wild relative, Cajanus cajanifolius. In inbreeding, as happens in most crops, the years of cultivation bring a continuing deterioration of yield, among other things; in hybridization, the performance is always high because the seeds are always of new genetic materials and always superior, the hybrid vigor always max. The pea soup is always thick.

I am the one who calls it The Beans Revolution. Beans, because there are a number of these new varieties of the pigeon pea, 3 of them being Asha, Laxmi, and Pushkal, the last being the first commercial pigeon pea hybrid in the world. Revolution, because as the election of Barack Obama, the first African-American President, is a radical change in the history of the United States of America, so is the current and impending intrusion of the pigeon pea into the thinking and farming systems of Asia, Africa, America, and Australia. If Obama has shown outstanding performance as a presidential campaigner under challenging social circumstances, this new pigeon pea has shown outstanding performance as a productive crop under challenging site conditions. Obama is more than just a new US President – he represents change in many spheres of American life, including abroad, as we can imagine. This pigeon pea is more than just a new crop – it touches on many areas of agriculture, including conservation of natural resources, as we shall see.

In the dry tropics such as India, the pigeon pea was a desirable crop in poor soils. It had no problem with lack of water or lack of fertilizer; it was the scientists themselves who had problems with the pigeon pea. They could not advise the farmers to grow it because there were many problems with it. The crop was too weak for insect pests and diseases. It also was too leafy for the farmer’s good. It also grew too slowly for the farmer’s comfort. It also yielded too little for the farmer’s security.

The plant breeders said, ‘Needs improvement.’ That is why scientists of ICRISAT had been trying to develop a variety of pigeon pea that was quite different from the old. With extreme difficulty. Their kind of science they could handle, but the length of time they could hardly manage. In contrast to genetic engineering, conventional plant breeding is slow-motion photography – with Mother Nature handling all the camera work.

In 1974, 2 years after ICRISAT was set up in India, the Institute’s plant scientists started intense improvement work on pigeon pea with full support for R&D by ICAR, and it was only more than 3 decades later when they achieved the breakthrough (icrisat.org). The generation of the world’s first commercial pigeon pea hybrid through CMS was announced in 2005; such a feat was achieved with Pravardhan Seeds as private-sector partner.

In 1997, a new pigeon pea hybrid was tested in China; it didn’t take root. One of the new pigeon peas, ICPH 7035, is now taking roots in Southern China. Pigeon pea is currently grown in 150,000 ha in Gungxi and Yunnan provinces (icrisat.org). The Yuanmou Pigeonpea Farmers’ Association in Yunnan Province is now growing it for seeds for sale in the country and possibly nearby Myanmar. The Research Institute of Resource Insects, along with the directorates of forestry and science & technology, is leading the Chinese effort in introducing 2 hybrids, ICPH 2671 (Pushkal) and ICPH 3381, which I suppose are like peas in a pod. ICRISAT is promoting hybrid pigeon pea next in Brazil, Tanzania, Malawi and the Philippines.

In 2005, after 35 years of hard science, ICRISAT scientists, led by KB Saxena, ICRISAT’s Principal Breeder of Pigeon Pea, succeeded in developing the breeding process for the commercialization of the pea that is:

(1) a fast grower
(2) not bushy
(3) not susceptible to major pests & diseases
(4) not sensitive to length of days
(5) resistant to waterlogging and salinity
(6) a high yielder
(7) a natural mulcher of soils – it produces much biomass and drops off all its leaves at the time of harvest.

Pushkal is the name given to the first commercial pigeon pea variety by Pravardhan Seeds, who was the private sector partner in developing the hybrid (icrisat.org). Pushkal can be harvested in 170-180 days. It is highly resistant to Fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic, 2 major diseases of this pea. With sterility mosaic, a farmer’s loss can be devastating: 100%. With the hybrid, 10-12 kg of seeds to a hectare is all that is necessary for planting. It yields up to 4,000 kg, which is 5 times more than that of the best non-hybrids, considering an average of 800 kg – all in all, a quantum leap. With the ICRISAT breakthrough, pigeon pea becomes the world’s first crop that yields much, needs little. Jack climbs the beanstalk and finds the hen that eats so few grains and lays so many golden eggs.

The beans are highly nutritious, containing up to 28% protein, 10 times more fat, 5 times more Vitamin A, and 3 times more Vitamin C than ordinary peas (encyclopedia.farlex.com). Birgit Bradtke (tropicalpermaculture.com) has a personal list of the good things about pigeon pea:

(1) Beans ground into flour make good food.
(2) The peas make nutritious animal feed or fodder.
(3) Flowers attract bees that pollinate plants.
(4) Plants can be pruned often for mulch.
(5) Peas enrich the soil with nutrients.
(6) Pea hedges make good windbreaks.
(7) The plants make good green manure.
(8) The stems make good firewood.
(9) Peas make good living trellises for climbers.
(10) Pigeon peas grow just about anywhere.

Pigeon peas also make excellent nurse plants for corn (MCT, plantpath.cornell.edu). With their deep and massive roots, pigeon peas are now being mainly grown for soil buildup in 150,000 ha of hilly slopes of Southern China; with their relatively fast growth and strong root systems, the peas stop soil erosion and otherwise regenerate degraded sites with plant nutrients coming from deep below the soil surface (icrisat.org). Since it’s a perennial, it can be grown and remains there for several years from one planting, covering the soil and minimizing erosion, according to Zong Xuxiao of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing. The Chinese know something we don’t. Also in China, they are now producing foods and drinks from the seeds (cgiar.org).

Since hybrid seeds are expensive, in India, the MS Swaminathan Foundation is now empowering women to grow the hybrid pigeon peas and produce seeds in such a manner that small farmers can afford them. This is no small matter as India produces 85% of the world’s pigeon pea beans.

News from Australia is that a hybrid pigeon pea has the potential to produce 8 tons of beans to a hectare (aciar.gov.au), max. Even with the current 4 tons, already that’s a max of eggs. In the Philippines, that’s a max of pesos. So there you have it; Pushkal is the first modern hen that lays the golden eggs in this version of Old Jack & the new beans talk. 57 hybrid cultivars of pigeon pea have been released in Asia, Africa, Australia and the USA (icrisat.org). That means Jack’s hen today is commercial and now selling in a market near you.

(Next) The Beans Revolution. 2:
How To Wage A War Of Understanding

How to rewrite science creatively

2009-01-19T07:35:00.000+08:00

I will tell you what I will do before I will rewrite a difficult, technical article, abstract, paragraph or sentence, but I will not tell you which ones I will do first, or which ones I will not do:
√ Read on the topic from some other sources.
√ Ask someone who knows more about it.
√ Look up the meanings of terms you don’t know. I often look up the meanings of even familiar words, such as approach, because some people don’t look at this like I look at it. Compare with strategy, point of view, methodology if you like.
√ Ask somebody else to do it for you, and compensate him well.
√ Choose another selection or article.
√ Rewrite sentence by sentence or phrase by phrase.
√ Give up, but only after trying your best.
√ Read it 9 times.
√ Think of metaphors.
√ Relate it to something you are familiar with.
√ Rewrite half or part of it and see what happens to your understanding of the whole thing.
√ Go to the encyclopedia and search for related articles.
√ Go to the Internet and browse.
√ Gather more information and try to relate them, no matter how vaguely.
√ Do it anyway. You need practice.

A pragmatic approach

2009-01-18T18:49:00.000+08:00

The following is the abstract of a paper by Graham Badley published in the European Educational Research Journal 2(2): 296-308: ‘The Crisis in Educational Research: A pragmatic approach.’ Can you rewrite it?

This article first identifies and discusses four main causes of the crisis in educational research. These are summarized as false dualism, false primacy, false certainty and false expectations. False dualism is the apartheid that divides positivist and constructivist researchers, with positivists believing in an objective reality and constructivists arguing that reality is a social construction. False primacy is the view that the positivist paradigm has come to dominate research to the detriment of more open, pluralistic and critically reflective approaches. False certainty is the argument that in an increasingly complex and uncertain world, researchers have retreated to a reactionary position in order to shore up the dominant paradigm. False expectations is the case that governments, especially, are demanding more evidence-based research in order to provide urgent solutions to educational problems. The second part of the article shows how taking a pragmatic approach may help us resolve some of the difficulties identified. For example, pragmatists would not privilege any one paradigm or methodology over another but would argue that both science and constructivism offer different sets of tools for investigating different aspects of the world. This also means that pragmatists see inquiry not as discovering what is really out there but as offering more or less useful descriptions to meet our particular needs and purposes. The third part of the article argues that pragmatism is not an alternative model of research but is more a working point of view or a perspective which is admittedly modest and, so pragmatists think, appropriately fuzzy. What a pragmatic approach to research actually leads to, through reflection, is a kind of useful if temporary equilibrium amongst the community of inquirers. Part of this approach is the rejection of the idea that scientific research can be used with certainty to specify educational practice. All it can provide is possible lines of action.