IRRI, At 64 Years Of Age, With Regenerative Agriculture, It’s Time To Regenerate Yourself!

Yesterday, I blogged my article titled “Looks Like Germany Via Bayer AG Is Helping The USA Propagate Regenerative Agriculture Despite IRRI’s Eerie Silence!” (05 June, Communication For Development Of Vibrant Villages blogspot.com). “Helping The USA” comes from the fact that it was in the USA that the concept of “Regenerative Agriculture” was first packaged (read “The Original Principles Of Regenerative Agriculture” by Robert Rodale, Rodale Institute, rodaleinstitute.org).

Today, Wednesday, 05 June is “World Environment Day” – what has IRRI done towards Regenerative Agriculture as inspired by Bayer AG last year?

None that I know of!

The website World Environment Day has these entries (worldenvironmentday.global):

“#GenerationRestoration
We cannot turn back time, but we can grow forests, revive water sources, and bring back soils. We are the generation that can make peace with land.” That webpage includes this headline: “Seven Ways To Restore Land, Halt Desertification And Combat Drought.”

And what are the 7 ways? Here they are (UNEP, unep.org):

“1. Make agriculture sustainable. …Governments and the finance sector can promote regenerative agriculture to increase food production while preserving ecosystems.”
 
“2. Save the soil. To keep soil healthy and productive, governments and the finance sector can support organic and soil-friendly farming.”

“3. Protect the pollinators.
“4. Restore freshwater ecosystems.
“5. Renew coastal and marine areas.
“6. Bring nature back to cities.
“7. Generate financing for restoration.

IRRI and I came to the agricultural scene in the same year, 1960 – I was 1^st Year in my BS Agriculture major in Ag Edu at UP Los Baños when IRRI opened its headquarters within the UPLB campus. Now, I want to find out IRRI’s institutional intellectual growth over the years.

I google “IRRI 1960” exactly like that, and I am brought to 60.irri.org where the title of the page is “GOING BEYOND RICE” (with “GO” artfully reading also as “60.”

The words that greet me as website reader are these:

“We are working with global partners to improve lives, protect the planet, and create a sustainable future.

“Join us on the next 60 years of igniting innovation, catalysis, and transformation in agri-food systems all over the world.”

That was 2020 yet.

On the webpage, “60 Years of Rice Varieties” IRRI’s headline says.

“Inbred Varieties”
“Hybrid Varieties”
“Climate-Resilient Varieties”
“Flood-Tolerant Varieties”
“Salinity-Tolerant Varieties”
“Drought-Tolerant Varieties”
“Multiple Stress-Tolerant Varieties”
“Healthier Rice Varieties.”

No mention of Bayer AG’s “Revolution In Rice Production,” which is advocating Regenerative Agriculture.

In the meantime, on Facebook, PhilStar leads me to Julien Mivielle & Linda Givetash’s “Global Warming Accelerating At 'Unprecedented' Pace: Study” (05 June 2024, SG, sg.news.yahoo.com):

Global warming has accelerated at an “unprecedented” pace as the window to limit rising temperatures within internationally-set targets closes, over 50 leading scientists warned in a study published on Wednesday, June 5.

My Question: “Don’t IRRI research managers and resident scientists know that all of Chemical Agriculture contributes so much to global warming because of greenhouse gases generated by chemical fertilizers and pesticides?

IRRI, don’t you feel the heat? My personal agriculturist challenge: “IRRI, it’s time to Regenerate Yourself!”@517