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MANILA - How do you explain the success of ICRISAT in becoming the #1 institute within the CGIAR universe of 15 international centers for agricultural research? From where I sit, it's the positive & productive interaction of partners, people, science and funds - none more important than the other. It was Team ICRISAT at first, led by Director General   William Dollente Dar , working with science, people and funds. Leadership made the local difference. Then it became Team ICRISAT & Partners. Partnership made the global difference. In a chain, the strongest link is the weakest; in science, that's usually funds. In the 65th Governing Board meeting of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics held at ICRISAT's campus in Patancheru, India held 21-24 September 2011, the GB approved the Institute's Fundraising Plan meant to set into full motion the Business Plan for 2011-2015, considering the revised funding processes and mechanisms of...

ASINGAN, PANGASINAN - Sunday, 25 September 2011, at 1400 hours, I am with the 7 Vet Med students from the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMSU) in La Union Province who have just finished their practicum at the individual buffalo farms of members of the Bantog Coop led by  Modesto "Modi" Gabriel . The 7 are:  Jonathan Cariaga, Edmar Cardaño, Cherry Mae Castillo, Jenny Ruth Catabay, Cristy Caoile, Catherine Lobrete,  and  Marie Claire Cablac . The natural leader turned out to be Jonathan; the first 3 are Seniors, the rest Juniors. They were sent to the Bantog Coop by their professor, Dr  Elizabeth P Galaraga  whom they fondly call  Doc Aga . She has heard about the success of this coop in raising imported buffalos for milk production. They were very thankful of their hands-on experience. It is their 3rd and last day; I just happen to be visiting my hometown and I learned about it only today through  Neneng Manuel . Modi asks them to ...

MANILA - ICRISAT is quietly reinventing market-oriented agriculture, so you may not have heard of it. They call their approach  inclusive market-oriented development . For that, they use the acronym IMOD; I prefer the acronym iMODe, to call attention to the concepts of  inclusive  and  development , that which are ICRISAT's twin intellectual contributions to market-oriented agriculture, MOA.  The central idea is to link farmers to markets in an inclusive way order to escape poverty . Certainly a radical notion. To appreciate the importance of that, let us consider  Michael Porter’s  notion of the value chain, but in a modified manner. All things being equal, to a farm produce, there is value added along the way as it goes to the market.  In MOA, the value chain actors are : (1) input providers, (2) producers, (3) traders, (4) processors, and (5) marketers (fiji-taro-and-kava.com). I interpret that quite simply as that the chain is like this: Input...

MANILA - ICRISAT is quietly reinventing market-oriented agriculture, so you may not have heard of it. They call their approach  inclusive market-oriented development . For that, they use the acronym IMOD; I prefer the acronym iMODe, to call attention to the concepts of  inclusive  and  development , that which are ICRISAT's twin intellectual contributions to market-oriented agriculture, MOA.  The central idea is to link farmers to markets in an inclusive way order to escape poverty . Certainly a radical notion. To appreciate the importance of that, let us consider  Michael Porter’s  notion of the value chain, but in a modified manner. All things being equal, to a farm produce, there is value added along the way as it goes to the market.  In MOA, the value chain actors are : (1) input providers, (2) producers, (3) traders, (4) processors, and (5) marketers (fiji-taro-and-kava.com). I interpret that quite simply as that the chain is like this: ...

NEW DELHI - It reads:   Agriculture Leadership Awards . With the eye of a teacher and a journalist, I see that India’s   Agriculture Today   Magazine online, a monthly, is in a class by itself in Asia. I would call it   The National Encourager.   I’m talking of editorial intent, not content. I’m based in Manila and when I think of our own aggie magazines in the Philippines published online or in print, that doesn’t encourage me. I see that the Agriculture Today Group is now in its 3rd year of sponsorship of the Agriculture Leadership Awards that it itself initiated and created in 2008. The Awards coincide with the annual Indian   Agriculture Leadership Summit , now one of India’s most prestigious events; EcoAgriculture says (ecoagriculture.org) the Summit is “ who’s who of India’s agriculture , agribusiness, polity, industry, government, media, development and intellectual classes coming together on a common platform to share their (views) on global ...

MANILA - In Zimbabwe, I learn that  the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics , ICRISAT is telling a family that 9 kg/ha of nitrogen applied to corn is most profitable (icrisat.org). In the Philippines, I learn that  the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture , OPAPA, is recommending for corn as much as 425 kg/ha (about 9 bags) (openacademy.ph). Both are impossible! Isn’t 9 kg a little too little, and 9 kg times 47 a little too much? Juxtaposed like that, with those numbers we are forced to make a paradigm shift along with country-hopping, not to mention climate change. ICRISAT is talking to poor farmers and OPAPA is talking to rich farmers, or those who can afford to raise at least PhP 10,000 (about $220) for fertilizer alone for 1 corn cropping. ICRISAT must be talking of micro-dosing, using a bottle cap to measure out the fertilizer; OPAPA must be talking of macro-dosing, using unending fistfuls of fertilizer. The ICRISAT technology is tried...

ADDIS ABABA - This one is about small farmers thinking big, big donors thinking sex, Africa thinking of a really big revolution. Africa needs a different kind of Green Revolution , USAID Mission Director  Thomas Staal  said (ethiopia.usembassy.gov). In fact, the African farmers were left behind by the Green Revolution that Borlaug wrought. Staal was speaking to the delegates to the by-invitation-only Borlaug Symposium 2010 in July. He was calling for a “Grassroots Green Revolution.” By the term “grassroots,” he referred to the small farmers, and he said they needed to become businessmen. Tillers thinking trade? That would require a continental paradigm shift. On second thought, perhaps it would require rather a tectonic shift. He was dreaming for the poor African farmers. Staal said the farmers must connect directly to the market, and when they do, this will spur growth in the small towns as well as “create economic opportunities for the landless and for the youth...