Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar Would Spread The Virus Of Excellence!

I say: Be careful what you say – you might be talking about yourself.

Almost 4 years ago, on 28 July 2015, William Dar wrote an open letter to founder & former Executive Director of Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice, Santiago R Obien, SRO – and today, 17 July 2019, I see that, inadvertently, he was describing himself. 2 Ilocanos talking between themselves, now another Ilocano kibitzing in history.

I am reading (1) a copy of the 2015 love tribute of Alegria "Baby" Abellon-Javier Obien to her 2nd husband SRO titled SRO@80 subtitled A Celebration Of Life, which is full of open letters (Mr Dar's letter appears on pages 60-62); and (2) a copy of the autobiographical book SRO: Dare To Build written with Virginia A Duldulao (2004, 324 pages). Excellent reading!

It was 1998, the time of Erap. Mr Dar was Secretary of Agriculture that year – yes, he was – and he became ex-officio the Chair of the Board of PhilRice whose Executive Director was SRO, whom he described as "a thought leader, a Rice Guru." The Secretary of Agriculture was right about the Executive Director, who had transformed a 3rd-class Philippine Rice Research Institute in the presence of the world-class International Rice Research Institute, IRRI, into a world-class PhilRice. How could PhilRice out-IRRI IRRI right where IRRI was? It was impossible, but this Ilocano leader did it – competing only against itself. The Rice Guru showed the world what determination with dignity could do. 

The previous year, 1997, saw the growth of PH agriculture in the negative: -7%, that is, minus 7%. With Mr Dar as Secretary, PH agriculture grew the exact opposite: +7%, that is, plus 7%! My arithmetic now tells me that that means:

In PH agriculture, there was actually a growth of 14%! And it was Mr Dar who did that as Secretary of Agriculture.

Isn't that the Virus of Excellence?!

In that open letter to SRO, Mr Dar said:

We have lived by this tenet from the onset and throughout our respective careers – our shared Vision to promote the growth and development of Philippine agriculture using technological innovations that will reach and improve the lives of its stakeholders.

Mr Dar then told of himself being the Secretary of Agriculture assigning the Rice Guru as Acting Director of the Bureau of Plant Industry, BPI, which was in trouble, and in less than 2 months, SRO was "able to bring a higher level of performance and strengthen a critical unit of the agency."

2 gurus making 1 right.

Here now is SRO continuing the story where Mr Dar leaves off. In his autobiography, on page 125, SRO says:

When asked by incoming Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara why he appointed me to that position, Dr Dar's only reply was: "To spread the virus of excellence."

So! Here was SRO as OIC spreading the virus of excellence within the Bureau of Plant Industry, and here was William Dar as Secretary of Agriculture spreading the virus all over the country.

A viral spread couldn't get any better than that!@517

Now Last, PH Agriculture: Secretary William Dar Will Make It 1st, Again!

PH Agriculture is history. Can this man save it?

The Filipino with the Indian turban is William Dar, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India. The tarp on the lectern says:

ICRISAT
is
Outstanding Again
Team ICRISAT
is
Great!

William Dar, Team Captain of ICRISAT, is Outstanding Again. The Team is Great Again!

When Mr Dar became Director General of ICRISAT in January 2000, we Ilocanos would have called ICRISAT jokingly  summa cum maude, "maude" meaning "last" ha, ha. Smartly, he looked at himself as Team Captain and all ICRISAT management as a team working together as champions of science. So it happened that ICRISAT succeeded in outshining the others in the CGIAR network of centers including the famous International Rice Research Institute, IRRI that brought the world the Green Revolution that, it has been said, saved the world from hunger.

The above image is what introduces Chapter 26, pages 148-154, of my ICRISAT book titled The Smart Revolution and subtitled ICRISAT Partners In Research For Development  published by ICRISAT in 2009. Based in Manila, I was then on my 3rd year as international consulting writer of this center.

On page 150, it states that in 2000, Mr Dar captained his team to dedicate itself to:

(1) Transforming watersheds into wealth generators for the poor

(2) Optimizing the use of scarce soil nutrients

(3) Reducing costs and minimizing hazards of pesticide use

(4) Opening the doors of biotechnology

(5) Networking, and

(6) Focusing on women.

That's too much science; let us leave them to the scientists to explain later.

Back to Team ICRISAT. When Mr Dar came in, he sold ICRISAT this slogan:

Science with a human face.

Let me now quote myself in that Chapter 26, page 150:

Science with a human face. Five short words and William Dar revolutionizes modern science by saying them – and doing them. And so I see Science as people, not process; science as man, not method; science as product, not potential; science as servant, not master. (I know William Dar refers to himself as Servant Leader, not separating faith from facts, religion from science. You cannot separate your heart from your head.)

And what happened to Team ICRISAT? It won awards in the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 – year after year!

Apart from knowing he was the international award-winning Team Captain of ICRISAT, now retired, why support William Dar as the new PH Secretary of Agriculture? 3 things:

(1) Empathy with the poor.
He came from a poor family who could not afford to send him to high school.

(2) Educational background in agriculture.
He obtained his BS and MS from Benguet State University and his PhD in Horticulture from UP Los Baños.

(3) Previous experience as Secretary of Agriculture.
This may be a surprise, but under President Erap, Mr Dar as Secretary of Agriculture captained the Philippines to its highest growth rate in agriculture ever!

You cannot quarrel with successES, can you?!@517

William Dar Thinks Globally, Acts Locally – That's My Secretary Of Agriculture!

I have not followed someone else's accomplishments in agricultural science and management like I have followed William Dollente Dar's since 12 years ago, in 2007, when he was in his 8th year as Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India. 

How and when did I get to know Mr Dar? On 26 July 2006, I published in the American Chroniclethe article "The Wizard Of Rice," which was about former Executive Director of PhilRice Santiago R Obien, SRO. He had built, with his head & hands & heart a world-class research institute out of PhilRice in the presence of the prestigious international agricultural center called IRRI.

After that, SRO said, "Isuratmo man met ni William Dar." (Kindly write about William Dar), and I told SRO I had to interview him because I didn't know him.

So we visited Mr Dar at his residence in Quezon City – and ICRISAT publications surprised me. Even if I had not set foot on the campus of ICRISAT that was thousands of kilometers away, I knew quality output when I saw it. After all, I had been Editor in Chief of so many technical and semi-technical publications since 1975, starting with the Forest Research Institute based at UP Los Baños.

So, I came up with my first long essay on ICRISAT and on Mr Dar on 26 February 2007, I blogged "An Inconvenient Truth. William Dar, The Filipino As Global Manager," which first appeared in the American Chronicle (but since that online magazine is now extinct, you can read it in my dedicated blog icrisatwatch.blogger.com, which I created later when Mr Dar was impressed with my writing. Impressions – that dedicated blog lasted up to the end of December 2014 when Mr Dar retired as DG of ICRISAT, after 15 years of international service – there is no testimony of excellent servant leadership better than that!

So I know Mr Dar is one who thinks globally and acts locally.

Like IRRI, ICRISAT is one of the international centers of the CGIAR network, which is headquartered in France. When Mr Dar was DG, the ICRISAT logo was as it appears in the image above, with the slogan, "Science with a human face." That is another way of saying, "Science serves society."

In 2010, ICRISAT came out with the strategy called inclusive market-oriented development (IMOD). I wrote, "ICRISAT Strat. Drylands & The Economics Of The Little" (03 December 2010, iCRiSAT Watch, icrisatwatch.blogspot.com):

The new ICRISAT strat is based on the concept of inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD… (With IMOD, the) changes sought are not merely with the individual farmer, such as higher productivity for his farm… including hand-holding so that the farmer will soon stand on his own feet and, more importantly, improve his life and that of his family.

Now you know where the name of my blog comes from: Journalism for Inclusive Development, which propagates the economics of the little.

Mr Dar will be one Secretary of Agriculture who knows the economics of the poor!@517

When Vendors Violate People's Rights & Farmers Violate The Earth

Sidewalk selling and rice farming – both look innocent, don't they? 

As SAKA moves to "Defend The Urban Poor’s Right To The City" (11 July 2019, Hiyaw, hiyaw.net), I see a parallel: "Defend the poor farmer's right to the farm he has been abusing all these years!"

SAKA does not want the poor vendors brushed aside like what Mayor Isko Moreno has been doing? As if the Mayor likes what he is doing to the poor usurpers of everyone's space!

Understand. SAKA is "Sama-Samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo" that which translates itself as the "Artist Alliance for Genuine Land Reform and Rural Development." Here, I discuss land reform along with rural development, if only to point out that poor city vendors happily taking over streets in Manila is neither land reform nor rural development!

SAKA says:

Dispossessed in the countryside, peasants come to the city looking for better opportunities. But here they find the same dispossession, the same violence. We would like to think this is not what the new mayor wants.

Those peasants go to the city looking for quick cash, just like the farmers growing a cash crop, except that the vendor waits only for 4 hours a day while the farmer waits for 4 months for the cash to come.

The cash mentality of the common vendor and the common farmer is good neither for them nor society.

Comparisons:

Going for Cash
For the vendor, that 4-hour cash does not assure a good life. For the farmer, that 4-month cash does not assure a good life either. In the meantime, the vendors prevent other citizens from enjoying their rights; and the farmers cause climate change by their conventional farming causing so much greenhouse gas emissions (US EPA, epa.gov)!

Except in scale and nature, sidewalk vendors and farmers both cause climate change!

Going for Development
Why expect Manila or any other city overcrowded by sidewalk vendors to take care of those vendors who are where they should not be? SAKA, instead of City Hall, talk/shout at the Department of Interior & Local Government, DILG!

I am not a Manileño, but my attitude there is that Isko Moreno is pushing the DILG, even President Rodrigo Duterte, to do something concrete – and now – about abuse of citizen rights to physical space.

My idol John F Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country." So why not SAKA shouting at the offices of the DILG to move the mountain called Sidewalk Vendors?

SAKA says:

And so we ask: Why is the good Mayor taking against street vendors their own poverty, why does he aggravate their lack of access to opportunities, why does he discriminate them through clearing operations that disregard their livelihood and living conditions?

I say, "Access to opportunities belongs to everyone."

Also, SAKA refers to "the backwardness of our agricultural industry" – I equate it with the lack of entrepreneurship among farmers.

Vendors are wrong usurping rights, just as farmers are wrong causing climate change!517 

People & Social Media To Jumpstart PH Agriculture

BusinessMirror Editors say (26 December 2018 , businessmirror.com.ph):

Philippine agriculture is dying because national leaders for the longest time have done nothing to help this sector and make it grow. As a result, millions of farmers who depend on the land for livelihood can’t get out of poverty.

Frank A Hilario says: Think locally, act globally. Especially in the realm of leading and learning more about agriculture for business, food and pleasure. Now, here are 2 things to revive & kickstart PH agriculture:

(1) Appoint Global Manager to Jumpstart PH Agriculture

I say for President Rodrigo Duterte to push-start PH agriculture, he will have to have William Dar as the head of the Department of Agriculture, DA. Why? Mr Dar has his aggie Roadmap; knows his Science; knows how to Inspire Teamwork within an organization; and knows Social Media. He is himself an original thinker in agriculture. He is a world-class science manager, having been Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, for 15 years, from January 2000 to December 2014.

Not to forget: Mr Dar has been PH Secretary of Agriculture and he caused the highest aggie growth in PH history.

(2) Construct Global Manager of Knowledge to Jumpstart PH Agriculture

Inspired by Mr Dar's own social media suggestion in 2003 he submitted to Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice, and called the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, I teacher, science writer and an original aboriginal (Ilocano, like Mr Dar), am proposing that the DA pursue the building of a digital library called Geography of Knowledge (Go Knowledge), spreading knowledge fast & easy.

Go Knowledge, global manager of science & folk wisdom I am recommending to bump-start my country's agriculture, has this user interface that works much like your touchscreen laptop or cellphone does, as plainly suggested by the image above  (from Can Stock Photo, canstockphoto.com). With Go Knowledge icons, you tap an icon and more icons and/or text underneath that one appears. And so on, until you get what you want, or like. Think of it as a bigger cellphone for knowledge.

Actually, I already proposed Go Knowledge (except the name) while I worked briefly for PhilRice in 2003 and when I learned of Mr Dar's OpAPA project for PH agriculture. I even wrote a digital book detailing how to construct this global knowledge manager – Geography Of Knowledge (198 pages) – a digital copy of which I still have. Go Knowledge is to be programmed in a language a high school student can understand (English first, later translated to Ilocano, Bisaya and Tagalog languages).

And now I go back to Mr Dar, as his beloved ICRISAT has the ExploreItwebsite (exploreit.icrisat.org). It says right there on the homepage: "In today's world, the value of information usually increases with the number of people who share it." Share it fast and easy.

To summarize. Today, PH agriculture needs 2 global managers:

Global Manager of the Department of Agriculture: William Dollente Dar.

Global Manager of Knowledge for PH Agriculture. FAH's Go Knowledge!517

PH Looking For A New Secretary Of Agriculture? I Found Him In ICRISAT 12 Years Ago!

Think globally, act locally. 

The government's Philippine Institute for Development Studies, PIDS, is complaining about PH's lack of innovation via Gwen B de la Cruz' article "Lack Of STEM, PhD Grads (Hinders) PH Innovation" (April-June 2019, Development Research News, pages 13-14 (pidswebs.pids.gov.ph). STEM is acronym for the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics. Unfortunately, the PIDS neither defines nor explains what it means by the word innovation, and neither does the source of the news, the Global Innovation Index (globalinnovationindex.org).

In these islands, more than in any other field, we need a Secretary of Agriculture who has graduated from the School of Global Innovation.

Speaking of global innovation today, I remember I wrote about it 12 years ago! I came up on 26 February 2007 with my long essay, "An Inconvenient Truth. William Dar,  The Filipino As Global Manager," in my dedicated blog iCRiSAT Watch (icrisatwatch.blogspot.com). "Think globally, act locally" is excellent advice, and Mr Dar knew that at heart.

In that old ICRISAT essay, I wrote:

Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT in faraway India, Filipino, is My Global Manager of the Year (2006).

Since there is no such award, it has been necessary to invent it. I have 7 reasons choosing Dr Dar as my global manager because he has chosen… (and I went on to enumerate his chosen ones, saying):

(1st)  Global Crop – "Sweet sorghum is the best climate crop of them all." And I gave 7 reasons for saying that: (1) much cheaper source of ethanol than sugarcane; (2) plantable in wastelands; (3) grows fast, so a reliable cash crop; (4) saves on fertilizers; (5) millions of farmers depend on it; (6) saves on fossil fuel, and (7) less polluting when the juice is converted into bioethanol.

(2nd) Global Vision – "ICRISAT's Global Vision is ' Science with a Human Face.' Says 1000ventures.com: "Corporate success depends on the vision articulated by the chief executive." Under Mr Dar, ICRISAT became the #1 research center of the CGIAR.

(3rd) Global Mission – To help bring about the Vision, ICRISAT advocated a "Grey-to-Green Revolution," meaning you don't leave out gray areas for agriculture.

(4th) Global Strategy – ICRISAT came up with sweet sorghum hybrids that could be planted anytime of the year, ensuring continuous supply of food or feed.

(5th) Global Outlook – ICRISAT worked as a Team of international membership, so teamwork was important.

(6th) Global Reach & Impact – ICRISAT reached out to Asian and American countries with its sweet sorghum initiative.

(7th) Global Mode Of Operation – "The global mode of operation that this international research institute adopted for its successful sweet sorghum initiative may be referred to as the Sci-Fi Mode. That's an acronym for science, citizen, financing, management, good offices, distribution of benefits, ecology."

William Dar was excellent for agriculture in the semi-arid tropics of the world – he has come home to Manila and founded the InangLupa Movement, to push PH agriculture to make a great leap forward. I hope Mr Duterte appoints him the new Secretary of Agriculture!517

Mr Duterte's 10-Point Socio-Economic Agenda: Now, I Choose All!

Our President started right, William Dar says, as "a food-secure Philippines (was) actually the Vision of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte from his very first day in office" (11 July 2019, "The Power Of Technology And Innovation In Agriculture," Manila Times, manilatimes.net). Mr Dar is referring to Mr Duterte's "10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda" (image from google.com).

That 10-point agenda (see list below) I saw years before, but I ignored it. Now it's educating me, especially #8, which is Mr Dar's topic this time, leading to inclusive development, which I wholeheartedly believe in. Now you know why I have just created this new blog of mine, Journalism for Inclusive Development, or j'include, where you're reading this.

So, j'include! Following the example of St Therese of Lisieux, I choose all.

In order to be faithful to my own inclusive journalism, I am obliged to truly accept all.

There are 10 action items in Mr Duterte's agenda; here's the list from NEDA (neda.gov.ph):

#1. Continue and maintain current macroeconomic policies, including fiscal, monetary, and trade policies.

#2. Institute progressive tax reform and more effective tax collection, indexing taxes to inflation.

#3. Increase competitiveness and the ease of doing business.

#4. Accelerate annual infrastructure spending to account for 5% of GDP, with Public-Private Partnerships playing a key role.

#5. Promote rural and value chain development toward increasing agricultural and rural enterprise productivity and rural tourism.

#6. Ensure security of land tenure to encourage investments, and address bottlenecks in land management and titling agencies.

#7. Invest in human capital development, including health and education systems, and match skills and training to meet the demand of businesses and the private sector.

#8. Promote science, technology, and the creative arts to enhance innovation and creative capacity towards self-sustaining, inclusive development.

#9. Improve social protection programs, including the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer program, to protect the poor against instability and economic shocks.

#10. Strengthen implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law to enable especially poor couples to make informed choices on financial and family planning.

Since I choose all to write about, do I have to be knowledgeable in all? No. I just have to do my knowledge research, do much surfing on the Web. I will consult experts. I will check and counter-check.

Nonetheless, I do have a preferred topic to write about, and it is contained in #8 in the list, like I said: inclusive development.

In fact, I have a love affair with that inclusive paradigm that began in 2010 when the same William Dar, then Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, gave the Inaugural Address for the International Conference on Plant Nutrition held 11-13 August 2010 at the Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh campus of ICRISA, and I published his speech in my blog iCRiSAT Watch; I was then international consulting writer of that international research center in agriculture.

There, Mr Dar talked about inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD. Among other things: With IMOD, you help the farmers market their produce in order to beat The (Marketing) System!517