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How Agricultural Research is Making a Difference: UN delegates benefit from a first hand account.
The benefits of agricultural research can often seem highly technical, lost in the tedium of hypotheses, varietal trials, data, benefit-cost ratios, and more. But sometimes, listening to people – in this case, a farmer – helped a rapt audience at the United Nations better understand how agricultural research is improving a family’s well-being and powering its way out of poverty.
Meet Pedro Ignacio Lopez, a farmer from San Pablo Huitzo village in Oaxaca, one of the poorest parts of Mexico. Married with three children, Pedro grows maize, black and white beans in a half-hectare plot. Pedro spoke eloquently at a discussion, Agriculture Matters: Role of international community in delivering research and technology applications that enhance small farmer incomes and food availability in developing countries, cosponsored by the Group of 77, Government of Japan, FAO and the CGIAR.
Not daunted by the august audience or the vista of New York’s towering skyscrapers, Mr. Lopez Ignacio explained how CIMMYT’s participatory research helped him to increase maize production.
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Sr. Pedro Lopez on his farm in San Pablo Huitzo, Oaxaca, Mexico |
“With the new method of maize selection, and the adoption of the maize type 152 introduced by CIMMYT and chosen by the community, I realized I was obtaining more benefits”, explained Mr. Lopez Ignacio. First, the new method of maize seed selection allowed him to have standardized crops, at the level of the plant and the seed. This was very helpful he said because it lets farmers select the maize from the plant itself in a much more organized way instead of selecting it from the barn. The advantage of this technique is the ability to select not only the best quality of maize, but also the size of the maize plant. Having uniform crops increases the yield, which in turn can be sold in higher quantities, and thus increasing farmer incomes and livelihoods. Thanks to the new variety of maize, and new storage and harvesting techniques, he was able to harvest 3 tons per ha of maize, and 0.7 tons per hectare of beans, almost doubling his harvest, and generating extra income for his children’s schooling.
Speakers at the event included the co-hosts represented by Ambassador Byron Blake ( Jamaica) for the Group of 77 countries, Mr. Shiro Sadoshima, Deputy Director-General, Economic Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, and Ian Johnson, CGIAR Chairman. Other high-level speakers included Pakistan’s Minister for Science and Technology, Mr. Atta ur Rehman; the Director of Kenya’s Agricultural Research Institute, Mr. Romano Kiome, and FAO’s Deputy Director General Mr. David Harcharik. A paper from IFAD President Mr. Lennart Bage was tabled, as he could not attend the event. Directors General Joachim von Braun (IFPRI), William Dar (ICRISAT), and Emile Frison (IPGRI) attended the event and briefed participants about their Centers’ work.
A new publication entitled “Agricultural Research Matters: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals” created especially for the event provided specific examples of the direct link between the results of Centers’ research and each of the eight MDGs. Participants enjoyed a “taste of the future,” a light meal of CGIAR research commodities such as cassava, maize, New Rices for Africa (NERICAs), and tilapia fish.
For more information on the MDGs, www.un.org/millenniumgoals
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