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MANILA:  As I begin to write this, Friday, 28 March 2014, we are in the village of Lasip in Malasiqui, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, Philippines; we are on our 3rd day and 3rd ARBO business plan finalization visits, after Rissing Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Bangar, La Union on Wednesday afternoon, and after San Jose MPC in Caba, La Union on Thursday. We are working as consultants under the ARCCESS Project of the Department of Agrarian Reform. ARCCESS is the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services project for the farmers whom the DAR prefers to call the  agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs);  DAR wants the ARBs to be economically better off, to learn market-oriented farming, along the way to decide for themselves. Farmers or ARBs, following the DAR's initiative, we should want all farmers to be market-oriented. Unless you want them to be poor forever. Farmers market-oriented? Look, so far in our 6 months of teaching (and learning) from the ARBs...

ARAMAL, SAN FABIAN:  Here is Saturnino Distor, General Manager of the Aramal-Tocok Multi-Purpose Cooperative of San Fabian, Pangasinan yesterday, Saturday, 15 March 2014, speaking at the conclusion of the 11-module training program we have been conducting since August 2013 for Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organizations (ARBOs) in La Union and Pangasinan. GM Distor is talking about our consultancy services for common service facilities (CSF) for production & processing, agri-technology and agri-extension services within the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services (ARCCESS) Project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). For all that language, UMIC's part of Project ARCCESS is  market-oriented, meaning the farmers must produce and process for the market and profit from all that. Specifically, GM Distor is talking about the 3-day  Workshop on Cooperative Business Planning  held at the ATI Training Center in Santa Barbara on 26-2...

MANILA: In planning for Africa or Asia, you map out what you want to do. The questions are: What are you mapping out for? How do you get there? Most of all, where are you coming from? We can have the answers for ourselves if we learn from the bad and good lessons of ICRISAT in the last 40 years. ICRISAT wasn't always that smart. ICRISAT was in Africa for this year's regional planning meetings for West and Central Africa (WCA) on 22-24 January in Barmako in Mali and on 27-29 January in Nairobi in Kenya. In Barmako, scientists came from the regional and country offices in WCA and from ICRISAT headquarters in India to map out the WCA's research agenda. In Nairobi, the planning meeting was attended by scientists and staff who came from ICRISAT Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe as well as from the WCA and ICRISAT India (31 January 2014,  ICRISAT Happenings 1608,  icrisat.org ). Actually, all those ICRISAT scientists and staff came from the same place:  Isla de Caridad ...

MANILA: In planning for Africa or Asia, you map out what you want to do. The questions are: What are you mapping out for? How do you get there? Most of all, where are you coming from? We can have the answers for ourselves if we learn from the bad and good lessons of ICRISAT in the last 40 years. ICRISAT wasn't always that smart. ICRISAT was in Africa for this year's regional planning meetings for West and Central Africa (WCA) on 22-24 January in Barmako in Mali and on 27-29 January in Nairobi in Kenya. In Barmako, scientists came from the regional and country offices in WCA and from ICRISAT headquarters in India to map out the WCA's research agenda. In Nairobi, the planning meeting was attended by scientists and staff who came from ICRISAT Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe as well as from the WCA and ICRISAT India (31 January 2014,  ICRISAT Happenings 1608,  icrisat.org ). Actually, all those ICRISAT scientists and staff came from the same place:  Isla de Caridad ...

MANILA: Amidst the mega million-peso scandals in my country the Philippines, early this New Year I'm avidly reading the press release that says, "CGIAR doubles funding to $1 billion in five years," that is, from $500 million in 2008 to $1 billion in 2013 (17 December 2013,  cgiar.org ). How huge is that amount? Mammoth. If I earned $10 million a year, it will take me 100 years to earn that total! I've for the last 7 years been interested in CGIAR because my favorite ICRISAT is part of it.  CGIAR , as it prefers to call itself now, is the old  Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research  that was   based in Washington DC. Having reinvented itself from a consultative group to a proactive body, I understand CGIAR is now based at its new headquarters in Montpellier, France at the campus of Agropolis International. From liberal Washington to Roman Catholic France, I Catholic think that's a good sign; it's like  Science getting closer to the Church ...

MANILA: Amidst the mega million-peso scandals in my country the Philippines, early this New Year I'm avidly reading the press release that says, "CGIAR doubles funding to $1 billion in five years," that is, from $500 million in 2008 to $1 billion in 2013 (17 December 2013,  cgiar.org ). How huge is that amount? Mammoth. If I earned $10 million a year, it will take me 100 years to earn that total! I've for the last 7 years been interested in CGIAR because my favorite ICRISAT is part of it.  CGIAR , as it prefers to call itself now, is the old  Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research  that was   based in Washington DC. Having reinvented itself from a consultative group to a proactive body, I understand CGIAR is now based at its new headquarters in Montpellier, France at the campus of Agropolis International. From liberal Washington to Roman Catholic France, I Catholic think that's a good sign; it's like  Science getting closer to the Ch...

MANILA: Smile – and then goodbye to all that? I'm not applying but I'm a wide reader, so I've been immersed in a pdf from icrisat.org, filename  DG-Advertisement-Nov-2013,  ICRISAT's ad for its next Director General, its title being "OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD AN IMPORTANT GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION AS  Director General ." This story starts 14 years ago actually. The pdf says, "The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is currently seeking a new Director General to succeed the retiring incumbent." The Institute is looking for "a PhD in a field related to agricultural research for development." A new science leader in the pursuit of science for people. Science with a human face. The incumbent is  William Dollente Dar , PhD, a Filipino, who became ICRISAT's DG on 01 January 2000 and is retiring 15 years later, on 01 January 2015, exactly 365 days from today, so why announce it now?...