Agriculture scientist cites need to review strategies for development

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – Almost a hundred million people are now added to the world’s population every year – or three people per second.

This means that the equivalent of a new Philippines with 70 million inhabitants is created in three-quarters of a year – nine months.

On the other hand, one hectare of productive land is being lost every 8.23 seconds.

"If that rate is applied to the Philippines, we stand to lose our 15 million hectares of arable land in just four years," pointed out Dr. Cristina D. Padolina, commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

She continued: "We face formidable challenges in the light of all these changes. And many times the question has been asked: Can we make this world going? Can we sustain the allocation and scale of utilization of resources that we currently apply? Are we moving towards infinite dreams without realizing we are in a planet of finite resources? Can we sustain the pace and scale of development we are now engaged in?"

Dr. Padolina, who is immediate past chancellor of the UP Open University (UPOU) based here, posed these soul-searching questions when she addressed the participants in the "First International Conference on Agriculture Education and Environment" held recently at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) here.

The five-day conference was attended by about 200 delegates from the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Samoa, Fiji, Ethiopia, West Africa, Denmark, and the United States.

Conference theme was "Searching for new models of agriculture education and environment."

The activity was organized by the Asia Pacific Association of Educators in Agriculture and Environment (APEAEN) and the Philippine Association of Agriculture Educators (PASSAGE).

Collaborators were IRRI, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO), Asia Productivity Organization (APO), Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), SEA CA Fellows Association of the Philippines (SFAP), Department of Agriculture (DA), UP Los Baños, UPLB College of Public Affairs (UPLB-CPAF), and UPLB School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM).

Among the opening day speakers were IRRI Director General Ronald Cantrell (represented by Deputy Director General William Padolina); Dr. Shigeo Tajima, APEAEN president; Dr. Ruben L. Villareal, SEARCA director; Dr. Samuel Mancebo, APEAEN secretariat executive director; and Dr. Marcelo Roguel, PASSAGE president.

Dr. Padolina emphasized that agriculture is an extractive activity and long periods of cultivation of land have resulted in the degradation of such. Degraded land will not be as productive and may no longer be able to produce enough food for the burgeoning population.

"Thus, agricultural education that promotes environmental and resource management will be an important undertaking if we are to assure future generations of their food supply," Padolina stressed.

Citing the great scientist Albert Einstein, she stressed that the dilemma is that problems could not be solved with the same kind of intelligence that create them.

This is the challenge of agricultural education. New approaches and new thinking are needed, she said.

She also quoted Sir Aaron Klug, director of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, who said: "Scientific breakthroughs don’t come from committees, they come from the brains and hands of individuals who need a place to work and who need an infrastructure to support them."

Summing up, Dr. Padolina asserted that the rapid population growth’s impact on the utilization of the finite resources of Planet Earth speaks eloquently of the need to review our strategies for development.

"We only need to witness the difficulties we encounter in the management of wastes we generate to be able to conclude that we need to exercise more restraint lest we cause irreparable damage to the environment. Our inability to provide health care to our expanding population is evidence by the fact that even now tens of thousands of children everyday die of malnutrition.