listening in at the GRiSP Science Forum 2011

A lot of scientists in the different agricultural think-tanks within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) work on developing new and improved crop varieties to help reduce hunger and poverty all over the world. One of the research programs within the CGIAR is the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP). It makes efforts on rice improvement more structured across the different CGIAR centers that work on this particular crop. Ultimately, GRiSP aims to help rice farmers adapt to climate change and to make rice production more profitable for farmers and healthier to the environment.

Last week, participants in GRiSP gathered at the International Rice Research Institute headquarters for the Global Science Forum and the annual program review of the Asian part of the program. The major theme of the lectures and the discussions can be summed up, in my opinion, through Steve Jobs' message at the launch of the iPad 2:

“... Technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
-- Steve Jobs (March 2011)

Agricultural science is not enough to achieve the aims of GRiSP. Other disciplines are needed too.

While listening in on the discussions, I realized that making an impact on the rice farmers' lives is not just about improving the rice plant through breeding, nor is it just about increasing fertilizer and water inputs... it's more complicated than that. Aside from the environmental conditions that directly affect how rice (whether improved or traditional varieties) grows in the field, consumer preferences, application of post-harvest technologies, and multi-crop cultivation systems affect farmers' decisions and incomes. The ways farmers organize themselves and formulate protocols to handle the financial aspects of farming and post-processing also affect the way farmers do business.

Thus, the different disciplines of rice science should no longer be seen as disconnected. In GRiSP, solutions to farmers' production challenges are formulated via multidisciplinary approaches. For instance, breeders work with social scientists to take into account consumer acceptability while agricultural engineers work with economists to understand how post-harvest technologies are sustained as entrepreneurial enterprises. Innovations and scientific improvements, on the other hand, are communicated from scientist to farmer (and vice versa) via extension workers and through online and mobile phone platforms.

People from seemingly unrelated disciplines work together for a common purpose. That is the essence of GRiSP.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

How MALDI-TOF-MS makes mycobacterium diagnosis faster and more accurate

The laboratory I work in has plenty of instruments that help us characterise and identify microorganisms causing diseases in patients. One of my current projects is to validate an instrument called "matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometer" (MALDI-TOF-MS) in identifying members of the Mycobacterium  species. Many of these organisms are opportunistic, meaning they only cause illnesses in people whose immune systems are not strong enough to fight infections. Mycobacterium leprae  is known for causing leprosy, but we cannot grow this bacterium in culture media, so we cannot isolate it. Mycobacterium tuberculosis  complex, on the other hand, is a group of several species of Mycobacterium  that causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a disease that killed 1.6 million people in 2021 alone. It is a leading cause of death globally, second only to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Identifying the Mycobacterium species that has infected a patient is
Read more

a crash course on traditional Filipino houses

Image
On Dr Jose Rizal's birthday this year, I was back in historic Manila with Ate Bing, Ate Mary , and Manuel . But instead of visiting him, we opted to soak up on Philippine culture. Our first stop: the Cultural Center of the Philippines ' (CCP) Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino .  Aside from the musical instruments, I noticed the dioramas about Filipino homes. Filipinos living by the sea (the 'sea gypsies', Sama Dilaut or Badjao ) have boathouses; those who live in the mountains, like the Bagobos , have developed interconnected houses in the trees; Filipinos who live along the path of the strongest typhoon winds, such as the Ivatans , have developed houses of thick limestone walls; and people who live in calmer conditions used bamboo and nipa to construct their houses, like the lowlanders and the Agtas . Sama Dilaut 'lepa' and houses on stilts (in the background) Ivatan limestone house nipa hut Ifugao 'fale' Maranao '
Read more