Where students are real farmers

Visitors to the Central Luzon State University campus in Munoz, Nueva Ecija, leave for home with gifts of a sack of rice, quail and chicken eggs, mangoes, tomatoes and onions grown in the fields. We were given our share of the goods on our trip there last week. Dr. Rodolfo C. Undan, CLSU president, said the institution offers its students theoretical and practical instruction ˆ making its curricular offerings different from those of other state universities. The students actually work in the rice fields, planting and harvesting rice with their hands and driving motorized machines, too; wading in mud, taking care of ruminants (goats and sheep, if you didn‚t know it). The girls alongside their male classmates, milk carabaos and cows, and apply artificial insemination on carabaos. The students work hard, said Dr. Undan, which is why CLSU students easily find agriculture-related jobs after graduation.

State universities are suffering from severe drastic government cuts on their budgets, so it is fortunate that CLSU derives supplemental income from products produced by the colleges, such as dairy products, meat, rice, eggs, fish, vegetables, and from the hundreds of mango trees that were planted on the campus since CLSU was founded in 1907.

CLSU has a rural high school and a science high school (one of the best in the country, said Dr. Undan) whose students like those in college courses, are taught to work as farmers should. High school students who want to earn money while in school are given areas which they plant to vegetables, or raise piglets. After harvest, they get a share of 60 per cent of the net income and the rest goes to the school. Later, if they wish, they can engage in additional projects like poultry, hog raising, tilapia culture, and goat raising. Girls can learn to do dressmaking and food processing.

CLSU’s teaching method so impressed former Agriculture Secretary William Dar that he sent his daughter for schooling there and saw her graduate last year. Mr. Dar is now head of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a non-profit, non-political, international organization for science-based agricultural development. ICRISAT conducts research on sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeon pea and groundnut – crops that support the livelihood of the poorest of the poor in the semi-arid tropics encompassing 48 countries. Mr. Dar was last week‚s speaker at CLSU‚s graduation ceremonies.

Dr. Dar, Dr. C.L. Laxmipathi Gowda, ICRISAT global theme leader, Saeed A. Daof, director general of the Center for the Promotion of Peace and Development of Mindanao, and this columnist were treated to a merienda by Dr. Undan and administration officers.

The university faculty (I was impressed by the good number of female Ph.D’s heading departments as deans) and researchers churn out a substantial number of publications on nearly all aspects of agriculture. Some of them are published by the Center for Educational Resource Development and Services, whose director, Dr. Anselmo D. Lupdag, edited the book on mushroom production technology in Central Luzon. Dr. Lupdag was responsible for inviting me to be CLSU’s baccalaureate service speaker last week.

Asked to speak, Mr. Daof expressed optimism about CLSU entering programs of cooperation with CPPDM on agricultural projects in Mindanao. He emphasized the importance of attaining an early peace agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF, and explained its significance in opening the floodgates of meaningful inward foreign investments into the country. He however reiterated his view that both sides must exercise transparency so that the public, particularly those who will be affected by such agreement, will accept the well-awaited accord.

Dr. Undan was born in Bibiclat, Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, took his high school and the agricultural engineering course in CLSU, his master of engineering in Thailand, Ph.D. in the US, and post-doctoral work in IRRI, Los Baños, Laguna. He taught elementary, high school, college and graduate school at CLSU, served as dean in the college of engineering, He served as administrator of the National Irrigation Administration and as Assistant Secretary at the Department of Agriculture. He describes himself as "a farmer, an educator, a researcher-scientist, an extension worker, an administrator, a consultant, a writer, a civic leader, a sportsman, and a decent family man." All that rolled into one. CLSU deserves him. Vice-versa.

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