Pro-poor researches urged

As they are near farms and fishing grounds, managers of research and development, and extension (RDE) units and facilities should exert efforts to uplift the plight of poor farmers and fishers by focusing on programs and activities that increase food production and farmers’ incomes, and subsequently create more livelihood and employment opportunities in the countryside.

Thus said former acting agriculture secretary William Dar at the recent 16th national convention of the Philippine Association of Research Managers, Inc. (PhilARM) at the Mariano Marcos State University, in Batac, Ilocos Norte. PhilARM is composed of 1,000 RDE managers and researchers in agriculture and fisheries from government and private agencies, state colleges and universities, local government units, NGOs, and scientists from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Nepal.

"RDE managers should craft and conduct effective pro-poor researches and extension programs to help reduce poverty and hunger in the country, where 15 percent of the population does eat at least once a day," said Dar, now on his second five-year term as director-general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in India. ICRISAT is one of the 15 members of the "Alliance of Future Harvest Centers" under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Laguna is also a member of CGIAR.

But solving hunger and poverty entails collective responsibility and commitment, in cooperation with concerned sectors, Dar added. Thus, RDE managers and researches should be resourceful in seeking support and forging partnerships with LGUs, private sector, farmers’ and fishers’ groups, SCUs, NGOs, and concerned government agencies, specifically to help finance RDE initiatives and commercialize applied researches.

In fact, he said ICRISAT has been employing such strategy in what it calls "Agri-Business Incubator" or ABI to attract public and private investments in further developing and commercializing agricultural technologies into viable agribusiness ventures.

With financial support from India’s Ministry of Science and Technology and several Indian private companies, ICRISAT through its ABI program promotes farm-based to advanced biotechnologies, which include sweet sorghum for ethanol production, biofermenter for biopesticide production, drought-resistant groundnut variety, better-yielding chickpea varieties, biopesticide formulations for controlling crop pests, and pesticide-free crops and products through organic farming.

Thus, following the "ABI" strategy, Filipino RDE managers could seek needed financial and logistics support to undertake priority researches and extension activities, Dar suggested.

As in all endeavors, making a big difference in improving the lives of poor farmers and fisherfolk becomes easier with unison, which also allows a stronger voice to advocate for policy changes, and provides a venue to learning new trends from each other. Dar thus enjoined fellow PhilARM members to work and move as one to achieve economic prosperity, particularly in the countryside, through sustained agricultural and fishery development.

"We have the capacity to make a difference in the Philippine countryside by conducting effective researches and extension activities," noted Dar, a pioneer member of PhilARM since 1989, when he served as the founding director of the DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Research, from 1987 to 1994.

Urging his colleagues he said "let’s remain as effective instruments to increasing access of the poor to productive and credit resources, and empowering them so they can significantly benefit from farming, fishing and other livelihood enterprises."

Given the government’s limited agriculture budget, he suggested that assistance reserved for commercial farmers should be redirected to technologically-and financially-challenged farmers and fisherfolk. And that public and private sector investments be channeled towards small and medium irrigation systems, postharvest facilities, and other rural infrastructures to spur agricultural and fishery development.

"Making a difference as RDE managers is taking personal responsibility. Do your job with commitment, and be focused. Your objectives should be clear from the start. Know the things you want change or improve on, and why the need for such change, and then realize it. And that material rewards should be our least concern," Dar stressed.

"With our talents, resources, and capabilities, there is no reason why we could not contribute our just share to free our poor countrymen from poverty and hunger," he concluded.