Drylands Dar. The Man with a Thousand Shifts
Frank A. Hilario
September 20, 2009
Dar will be in Buenos Aires from 21 September to 2 October attending the First Global Scientific Conference Supporting UN Efforts to Curb Desertification, with top scientists and policy advocates to discuss what the world can do about the drylands and climate change (for more news details, see my report here). 'Buenos Aires' means 'good airs,' but this time, my essay is not so much about a bone-dry global desertification conference as it is a fresh breath of creative writing in science. (Compare this one with the one I wrote exactly 2 years ago, 'Globally Yours, William Dar,' americanchronicle.com.) This time, I write for the writers; I unfold a tale as I report the news for the news reporters as well as the news readers. There are no boring news, only boring journalists; there are no boring stories, only boring storytellers.
In that Buenos Aires conference, they will need to make countless paradigm shifts. 'Desertification is the Cancer of the Earth,' says Argentine geographer Elena Abraham (Marcela Valente, ipsnews.net). A deadly metaphor. It means there is no cure for this disease. If it's cancer, they should not be talking about a 10-year strategy and plan to monitor land degradation, fight desertification – and demand more funding to do both. 'We have to install a culture of monitoring,' says Abraham. Madam, I think what we need is a culture of caring, because as your science colleague Octavio Perez Pardo says, 'it is the global environmental problem that draws the least funds.'
Desertification is solvable. Don't talk about Cancer to William Dar, or you will learn from him. What we all need is a climate change from critical thinking to creative thinking. And we'll get it. There in Buenos Aires right now goes The Man with a Thousand Paradigm Shifts. Without him and those many shifts, there would not have been a gigantic climate change within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR. Because, among the CGIAR centers, without him, ICRISAT might still be on a dry rut, if not deep into its own degradation process towards desertification of its soul and spirit.
Looking back now, the man was destined for ICRISAT. 'The high destiny of the individual is,' says Albert Einstein, 'to serve rather than to rule.' So ICRISAT now has a servant-leader, William Dar, Servant-Leader for the poor and heat-oppressed.
Before Dar, the institute itself had been poor. In 2000, the finances of ICRISAT had been going down for years; the morale of the staff had been declining since they do not know when; the international standing of the institute was down to a dangerous level – comes in a man from the backyards of Santa Maria in Ilocos Sur in northeastern Philippines, a town in a valley between the big hill and the deep blue sea. What will happen now? A big question.
Who was he anyway? For high school, he had been a graduate of a school with a name that wasn't very encouraging: Ilocos Sur Agricultural College. For college, he studied in a school with an equally rural-sounding name: Mountain State Agricultural College, MSAC, and graduated in 1973. The degree was a boring one: Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education, a BS in teaching in high school in the rural areas; I know because that's the same one I had. So I know he became a member of the Future Farmers of the Philippines, where they taught you among other things, parliamentary procedures. You never unlearn those lessons. He taught at the Baguio City High School. With or without Robert's Rules of Order, there is one problem teaching growing boys and girls: If you don't watch your manners, high school is between the devil (boys) and the deep blue sea (girls). I know; been there, done that.
Dar's story is worth telling and retelling. He is a genuine Ilocano, GI; we GIs are known as the Wandering Jews of Asia, which means we can make a geographical shift as fast as you can say 'Santa Maria!' That explains the modern Filipino Diaspora known as the Overseas Filipino Workers, OFWs. He is the first GI I know who has made as many intellectual shifts as there are islands in his native country, the Philippines. He is my Man of a 1000 Paradigm Shifts.
Watch my list grow:
Paradigm shift #1
Still on the mountains of Benguet on the MSAC campus where he was teaching, he decided he was more interested with growing plants than with growing boys and girls. So he took his Master of Science in Agronomy in the same school and graduated in 1976. He was going to watch the fields from hereon, no longer to watch the classrooms. He wanted to manage the nature of plant crops, not the nature of the crops of teenagers.
On climate change, the nature of plant crops is that they are great contributors / harvesters of greenhouse gases. Shift your thinking to the soil also. You cannot ignore the role of agricultural land use in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Paradigm Shift #2
He decided to go down to the lowlands and aim higher, reach for a doctoral degree at the College of Agriculture of the University of the Philippines Los Baños. I know the folks at UP Los Baños, many of whom are high hats. He probably knew what I knew, and took the risk; he graduated from UP Los Baños with a PhD in Horticulture in 1980. If you finish from UP Los Baños, you must be worth your grades in black ink. (I had my many red inks, which degraded my overall college performance: I hated some of my subjects.)
A key topic during the conference is 'Understanding Desertification and Land Degradation Trends.' Deterioration is caused by a combination of human activities (I didn't like my lectures) and climate conditions (my professors didn't like me either).
Paradigm Shift #3
All the while, he was with the MSAC, which grew up with him into the Benguet State University, BSU. He led a Ford Foundation-funded project to upgrade the University's research facilities and abilities, and the farmers' production skills. No matter what the scholarly, proud academics say, the State University exists for the farmers, who pay taxes for it.
'We need to view drylands as the front lines in our global effort to help the rural poor cope with climate change,' says William Dar. Science should not be only pro-poor; it should be of, by and for the poor.
Paradigm Shift #4
At BSU, he became Coordinator of the Highland Agricultural Research Center in 1979; he stayed until 1987. A major undertaking of his was the Cordillera Integrated Agricultural Development Program, a joint project of BSU and the Provincial Government of Benguet. He learned to shift attention to the local government units as partners in development.
'Farmers in these (dry) areas already face harsh and variable weather and limited resources,' says Mahmoud Solh, Director General of ICARDA, the major partner of ICRISAT in the conference. These partners should be partners with the farmers too.
Paradigm Shift #5
He did the packaging of research and development project proposals. He initiated the formation of the BSU Development Foundation, which implemented several projects. A foundation like that at the very least cuts through government red tape and saves researchers not only time but money. Red tape degrades government services.
Degraded drylands cease to perform key 'environmental services' such as carbon sequestration. With plant crops, these soils store organic carbon, and that is so much less carbon going up the atmosphere and threatening us with climate change.
Paradigm Shift #6
In 1987, he became Director of the Philippine Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR). He had to hone his skills in interagency coordination, policies and politics, and linkages with funding institutions and agencies in the Philippines and abroad. He had to oversee the whole Department's R&D programs and projects, to make the DA-BAR an efficient and effective coordinator of research in the various DA bureaus, units and attached agencies.
So far, the main barrier to progress in combating desertification is lack of standardized, science-based methods for monitoring and evaluating land degradation and, indirectly, soil development, if any. You cannot coordinate research if you cannot monitor properly, if you focus more on symptoms rather than on underlying causes.
Paradigm Shift #7
He laid the groundwork for resource generation to augment BAR's limited budget. He successfully sourced funds from international donors, creating a Project Packaging Section, in charge of generating proposals for funding. He started the DA's research allocation system and strengthened the BAR's research analysis.
To prove climate change, what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC did was to marshal massive scientific evidence on the causes and consequences of climate change. Figures don't lie; the experts do figures.
Paradigm Shift #7
In 1994, he became the Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, PCARRD. Immediately, he laid out for PCARRD a 7-point agenda and set out to implement it: (1) continuously rationalize the National Agriculture, Resources Research and Development Network of the Philippines, (2) strengthen partnerships with the private sector, non-governmental organizations, state universities and colleges, government units, Congress of the Philippines (which approves / disapproves budgets), (3) strengthen regional R&D consortia, (4) pursue balanced institution-building , (5) initiate more effective management of research and priority-setting for a focused R&D program, (6) increase R&D investments from government and other sources, (7) enhance linkages and expand networks with international research institutions.
At the Buenos Aires conference, they are bringing to attention of everyone state-of-the-art approaches such as advanced modeling, mapping, high-resolution remote sensing.
At PCARRD, Dar introduced an innovation, the Farmer-Scientist Bureau, in which outstanding farmers taught their local counterparts to become more productive and profitable.
The Buenos Aires conference cannot ignore community participation – development must be not only for the people but more so by the people.
Paradigm Shift #8
In July 1998, he became Philippine Secretary of Agriculture. He laid the groundwork for the implementation of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act, AFMA (Republic Act 8435), leading to the transformation of the agriculture and fisheries sectors from a resource-based to a science & technology-based sector, and fought for continued increase in budget allocation for R&D. He initiated and conceptualized the Agrikulturang Makamasa (Agriculture for the People), the national program for rural development that operationalized the AFMA, resulting in the El-Niño-ravaged agriculture sector registering an unprecedented growth of 12% in 1999!
'To be effective,' says Mark Winslow of ICRISAT, 'these approaches must be connected with government decision-making.' The head must be connected to the body.
Paradigm Shift #9
In January 2000, he became Director General of ICRISAT. He began by mapping out ICRISAT's vision and research strategy in 2001 as well as expanding partnerships with regional, sub-regional and national organizations in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Out came 'Science with a human face,' the mantra that implies that the leader is the servant of the people.
ICARDA scientists are working closely with rural communities in North Africa and Central and West Asia to integrate water management and conservation agriculture to improve productivity of farmers in the dry areas.
Paradigm Shift #10
In ICRISAT, he conceived and formalized the concept of Team ICRISAT with him as Team Captain, who serves the team. The leadership and teamwork had been so successful it gave the following results: (1) increased the budget from outside sources, (2) increased the morale of staff, (3) improved the quantity and quality of accomplishments of staff.
'Science and technology hold the key to coping with the desertification-climate change nexus,' says Dar. 'With the right combination of holistic policies and sustained global action, path-breaking science can help curb desertification and land degradation, improving the livelihoods of millions of poor people in drylands.'
Science, policy and action in combination are necessary not only to prevent the desertification and degradation of an international research institute but more so to make it perform extremely well. Indeed, in 2006 and 2007, ICRISAT was rated Outstanding in overall institutional performance by the World Bank, a sponsor of the CGIAR.
10 professional paradigm shifts in 36 years. This meant that the previous other 9 paradigm shifts had been but preparations for excellent work at ICRISAT in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India.
And preparations for excellent work at Buenos Aires, Argentina this week.
William Dar likes to be referred to as Servant-Leader. In the religious sense, a servant-leader is one who is in theory the leader of the group and in practice the servant of all – that is to say, he serves the people to the best of his abilities without expecting any reward except his joy in knowing he is serving the public good. His journey from being an unheralded teacher in high school in the boondocks to being a much-honored team leader of an international research agency in a country not his own are the hallmarks of the new Filipino, the international servant-leader. May his tribe increase!
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