Where is CGIAR today? World-class science for people

MANILA: The consortium called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is in the semi-arid tropics where there is persistent poverty in the soils and among the villagers (original photo from CGIAR images, flickr.com). Is that good news or bad news?

(1) First, I bring you glad tidings!
Look at the trees in the drylands.

According to a press release, the global funding for the CGIAR doubled from US$ 500 M in 2008 to $1 B in 2013 (icrisat.org). My favorite ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, as are 14 other research centers: Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, Center for International Forestry Research, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, International Food Policy Research Institute, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, International Livestock Research Institute, International Rice Research Institute, International Water Management Institute, World Agroforestry Center, and WorldFish. These centers are located in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

$1 B is a lot of money; if you divided the amount among the 15 CGIAR bodies equally, each will get $66+ M, a treasure chest by any measure.

So, the CGIAR will be investing more millions of dollars to
(a) "lift150 million people in Asia out of poverty" by raising rice yields
(b) provide 12 million African households sustainable irrigation
(c) save 1.7 million hectares of forest from destruction
(d) give 50 million poor people access to highly nutritious food crops.

"The challenge of producing more nutritious food to feed 9 billion people in 2050 while climate change threatens to roll back years of development progress making some agricultural lands unproductive cannot be underestimated," said Rachel Kyte, Chair of the CGIAR Fund Council and World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development. "Climate change disproportionately hurts the poor and most vulnerable." Under unmitigated climate change, from those who have less in life will be taken more.

"Investment in CGIAR pays big dividends, making it one of the 'best bets' for sustainably eradicating poverty, hunger and malnutrition," said Carlos Pérez del Castillo, Chair of the CGIAR Consortium Board. "With a proven track record for large-scale development impacts, few investments, if any, make more economic and humanitarian sense than do investments in CGIAR." Some 2 years ago, already ICRISAT Director General William Dar said the return on investment is that for every $1 dollar spent, $9 worth of economic value is generated in developing countries (see my "ICRISAT's AI. Aggie innovation & partnerships in Africa & Asia," 11 December 2011, iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com). Isn't that incredible?

"The $1 billion in funding will help finance CGIAR's 16 global research programs and accelerate the development of scientific, policy and technological advances needed to overcome complex challenges – such as climate change, water scarcity, land degradation, and chronic malnutrition, greatly improving the well-being of millions of poor families across the developing world, " said Frank Rijsberman, CEO of the CGIAR Consortium.

"With this new funding, CGIAR is better positioned than ever before to produce world-class science to meet the needs of small-scale farmers, fishers and foresters, " said Jonathan Wadsworth, Executive Secretary of the CGIAR Fund Council, a decision-making body of donors and other stakeholders. "CGIAR is committed to ensuring that every dollar received will efficiently deliver more and better benefits for the poor." World-class science with a human face.

(2) Next, I bring you both bad and glad tidings!
Look at the red soil and green trees in the drylands.

The CGIAR is talking about drought-tolerant corn, waterlogging-tolerant rice, blight-resistant potato, money-making corn & trees systems, virus-resistant wheat, and a vaccine against East Coast fever of cattle. The CGIAR has also been promising such things as that by 2018, 50 million people will have food crops rich in vitamins and minerals; by 2020, 12 million households in Africa will have sustainable irrigation; and by 2022, fish production will increase by 30% in Egypt.

And that is all to the good. But the totality of that is insufficient still. The paradigm of the wonder crop as exemplified by the highly successful Miracle Rice that brought about the Green Revolution in Asia in the 70s and 80s has moved on, but the CGIAR has not. It is still talking up to increasing crop yields and therefore increasing farmers' incomes, which is good, but not good enough.

Above, I quoted the CGIAR as saying it aims to "lift150 million people in Asia out of poverty" by raising rice yields. That is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound (2020?). But:

The CGIAR is not yet talking about farrmers' families rising from poverty and sustaining themselves. It is one thing to increase net income, another thing to rise from poverty, and still another thing to keep on moving up above that poverty line.

That would need world-class science to meet the needs of poor farmers, fishers and foresters, and for them to keep meeting those needs and thriving.

I mean, I don't see the CGIAR planning to invest millions of dollars in propagating the science-based, society-smart, productive and competitive ICRISAT crop called IMOD. If you haven't heard of it, this is the inclusive market-oriented development strategy adopted by ICRISAT & Partners since 2010, of which I have written 76 times in 76 separate essays since then. The very first one was "An African Revolution. IMOD Power to the Women!" 22 September 2010, iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com); the very last is "ICRISAT's Ambassadors of Goodwill. The 3 Wise Magi of Science," 05 December 2013, iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com). IMOD is world-class science with a human face.

Briefly, the IMOD eliminates the opportunistic and sometimes sadistic trader by making the farmer himself, or his association, the friendly, neighborhood middleman. With the IMOD, the value chain begins and ends with the farmer. In the Philippines, we have been proposing that the IMOD farmers' assocation be the multi-purpose cooperative, turning it into a Super Coop (see my "The Super Coops of 2014," 30 October 2013, Nagkaisa, blogspot.com). The Super Coop assists the poor farmer from planting to marketing, and does him social and economic justice.

Last Saturday, over at ABS-CBN teleradyo DZMM, I was able to catch the last 30 minutes of radio broadcaster Louie Tabing's "Sa Kabukiran" (In The Farm) and I saw & heard William Dar saying, live on air, among other things, that food security is not enough; we need nutrition security, that is, we need more than rice, such as vegetables.

Even CGIAR's Rachel Kyte did say, "The new funding will take CGIAR's work to the next level and be crucial in global efforts to enhance food and nutrition security in a world of climate change." Even so, that is enough. I come from a rice-growing family in Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, Philippines; I know we need even more than nutrition security – we need farm family security, where the poor farmer first of all treats his farming as his business and, in so doing, is not robbed of his produce by the selfish usurer, the heartless supplier of farm inputs, and the abusive trader. With the IMOD in practice, a multi-purpose cooperative in the drylands of the Philippines can help raise poor families from poverty and sustain them there. As the GM of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative in my hometown, I hope Nagkaisa will be the first in the Philippines to show this:

The IMOD is the farmer's best friend forever.