Skip to main content

“One DA” Champions The Poor!

Today Saturday, 10 April 2021, Manila PH: “Happy Birthday, Sir William Dar, Secretary of Agriculture! We wish you more happy birthdays to come!”

Mr Dar was Director General (DG) 2000 to 2014 of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is based in India. 15 years – the Indians had so much faith in him as science leader, so why not us Filipinos?

Know that when Mr Dar became DG of ICRISAT, the institute belonged to the bottom of the list (kulelat) among 15 international agricultural research centers under CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research), including IRRI. When Mr Dar retired in December 2014, ICRISAT was already #1, having won many awards and increased its budget over the years. The Secret? Team ICRISAT. The Spirit behind? Mr Dar as Servant Leader.

I know all that because I was international consulting writer (WFH) from 2007 to 2014, maintaining the blog iCRiSAT Watch (Blogspot.com), publishing a total of 365 long essays, 1,000 words plus each; out of those articles, ICRISAT published 7 books with me as Author.

My very first ICRISAT book was titled Team ICRISAT Champions The Poor (162 pages, 8.5”x11”), my title. On page 3, I wrote:

I came to know William Dar, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), through a common friend, Santiago Obien, former Director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) who made PhilRice world-renown, who asked me if I could write about Dar just as I had written about him (“Management: Relating Is Everything. Or, The Wizard Of Rice Who Cultivated Minds,” 2006 July 31, americanchronicle.com). I said I couldn’t possibly write about him until we met and I could ask pertinent questions, meaning size him up. And so we did, and so I did. And so I wrote, a little tentatively, about sweet sorghum and IICRISAT (“The Yankee Dawdle. On Discovery Sorghum, The Great Climate Crop,” 2007 February 4, americanchronicle.com), then mostly about William Dar himself (“An Inconvenient Truth: William Dar, The Filipino As Global Manager,” 2007 February 26, americanchronicle.com). The rest is his story.

The title of my first ICRISAT book today we can convert into “One DA Champions The Poor” –  we have “Team DA.” The man behind the international success of ICRISAT is the same man who champions the poor farmers and fishers in the Philippines today. Personally, he knows how it is to be poor – in Ilocos Sur, his parents could not afford to send him to high school! (His uncle did.) He studied at Benguet State University (BSA major in Education; MS Agronomy), and UP Los Baños (PhD in Horticulture).

He was the founding Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR). When he became Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture & Resources Research & Development (PCARRD), he introduced the concept of Farmer-Scientist working in tandem, the practice of which brought Romulo Davide a Magsaysay Award.

Today, with Mr Dar as thinking head of DA, many a Filipino farmer and fisher can hope for much better lives. Asa Ka Pa!@517

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Historical PH 1st Holy Mass: Mazaua Or Limasawa? Fr Amalla Vs Maria Serena Diokno Vs Ambeth Ocampo – And The Priest Is Right!

We Filipinos celebrate 500 years of Christianity today Wednesday, 31 March 2021, Christianity brought to pagans by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing the seas for Spain. The historical question is: Where was the first Holy Mass celebrated: “Limasawa” (in Leyte) or “Mazaua” (in Butuan)? Catholic priest Fr Joesilo C Amalla has just published the book (above), An Island They Called Mazaua, that argues the island of “Mazaua” in Butuan is the “true site of first Holy Mass in the Philippines [1] ”  and not “Limasawa” in Leyte (ANN, 07 January 2021, Manila Times ). The declaration and discussion are made by Butuan-based Fr Amalla in his 644-page book. Among other things, he writes: The truth is that the prevailing state- and church-affirmation and multiple reaffirmations of the island of Limasawa as the site of that first Holy Mass have no factual, historical and geographic (bases) whatsoever nor any shred of evidentiary support from cartographic studies, navigational info...
Post a Comment
Read more

The PhilRice Drum Seeder Looked Good In April 2018 – Where Is It Now?

Above, top image, the Antique ricefield looks very promising in yield. Here is the story as shared on Facebook by PhilRice (my translation in English): TINGNAN! Unang palayan sa Sta. Ana, Tibiao, Antique na natamnan ng 60kg binhi kada ektarya sa pamamagitan ng sabog-tanim. Look! First ricefield in Santa Ana, Tibiao, Antique that was planted with 60 kg seeds per hectare by way of broadcasting. Sa kauna-unahang pagkakataon, natunghayan ng mga magsasaka sa nasabing lugar na kayang-kaya ang 60kg kada ektarya gamit ang seed spreader machine (granular applicator) at certified seeds mula sa RCEF. For the first time ever, farmers in that area witnessed that 60 kg/ha is quite enough using a seed spreader machine (granular applicator) and certified seeds from RCEF. Makikita sa larawan na magaganda ang naging tubo at mabubulas ang mga itinanim na palay. What can be seen in the picture is beautiful growth of and robust rice plants. Ayon sa ulat, namangha ang mga magsasaka rito na kay...
Post a Comment
Read more

Davao De Oro Rubber Has Elasticity And Should Be Able To Bounce Back!

  The caption above says, “DA-PRDP turned over the Village Level Rubber Processing and Marketing Enterprise to SARPHIL CARP Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative (SACARBECOM) in Monkayo, Davao De Oro last 11 March 2021.” Rubber being produced in the Philippines, a non-traditional commercial product. We are competing with Indonesia and Malaysia? From the story by Joy M Montecalvo , the caption needs explanation. Not the enterprise itself, the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) turned over a village-type rubber sheet facility that can process 192,000 liters of latex yearly. Miss Joy says, “The 124 members of SACARBEMCO will now be able to produce 55 to 60 MT of rubber sheet per annum and increase their income to at least 5 percent per year or a total of 30 percent in six years.” Hopefully, I say. (The SACARBEMCO is the SARPHIL CARP Beneficiaries Multi-purpose Cooperative based in Monkayo, Davao De Oro.) Miss Joy says in the headlin...
Post a Comment
Read more