Domoguen: "We Need Productivity and Sustainability"

BILL Gates, computer wizard and owner of Microsoft, made that clarion call in a letter to his partners in the global movement to help the poor, who are most affected by the effects of climate change.

To be more specific, Bill Gates is a supporter of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and other relevant initiatives to improve the lives of the poor in third world countries.

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Bill Gates' letter was earlier shared with me in confidence by Dr. William D. Dar, Director General of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a top CGIAR institution.

ICRISAT and 14 other CGIAR institutions around the world "generate cutting-edge science to foster sustainable agricultural growth that benefit the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources."

Dr. Dar's response to my request tells me two things. ICRISAT is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in the former's mission to alleviate the difficult farming conditions in dryland areas of the globe. Dr. Dar endorses Mr. Gate's views as articulated in his letter. "Yes, you can always cite it [Mr. Gates letter]," Dr. Dar said.

In the ongoing battle against poverty and hunger, two ideologies are poised against the other on how this should be done. It is feared that a sustained debate will not empower but squander instead a real opportunity to get the mission running well on the ground.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $1.4 billion to initiatives that support small farmers become key players in global food production. The amount makes the foundation one of the top private benefactors of the global movement against poverty and hunger.

Taking a personal involvement in the struggle, Bill Gates encounters these two agricultural philosophies promoted and presented to him as something to choose and take sides on. "On one side is a technological approach focused on improving productivity. On the other is an environmental approach that promotes sustainability," he said.

In making his position clear, Bill Gates takes a good hard look at what is at stake in the winning of battles. The real battle being waged is against poverty and hunger in a regime of climate change.

Allied together in this movement the two camps still engages in a second running battle within.

In his letter, Bill Gates objectively considers the benefits that both camps (organic farming and technological farming) brought to humanity's dining tables throughout time. He weighs in the benefits and issues addressed by the original Green Revolution and also its neegative excesses zeroing in o "over-irrigation and over-fertilization."

Minus the negative excesses, Mr. Gates agrees that the next Green Revolution has to be greener. The words he uses almost jumped out on the computer screen and made me shout, yes, that's it! - words that we can all accept and unite under - focusing energies and resources against the real battle that man faces in this generation.

"At a time of rising population and climate change, we need both organic solutions that promote sustainability and the technological approaches that increase productivity - and there is no reason we can't have them both," Mr. Gates said.

All over the world, one camp employs extreme measures to advance its cause as "if there is no emergency." If there is, only their methods and strategies work best and is the right way. They protest and prevent the use of biotechnology in farming.

Just nobody is to be compelled and agree. To resolve this emergency, one camp, one philosophy and its strategies cannot provide all the necessaries.

Even indigenous communities have their own biotechnologies. Already, "there are 1 billion hungry people in the world" and climate change is making conditions harsher now and the future.

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that developing countries will have to double current agricultural yields "to meet the challenge of global hunger."

Bill Gates asserts, "we simply won't be able to meet that goal without using all the scientific tools at our disposal."

"Of course, new technologies must be proven safe for farmers, consumers, and the environment before they're adopted. That's why countries should have a strong regulatory infrastructure guided by experts with access to the latest science-based information," he added.

"Helping poor farmers improve productivity is a critical step in reducing global hunger. But there is an ideological divide over how best to help them. The truth is that both sides have something important to offer."

On that score, this column can no more than agree with you, Mr. Bill Gates. I join the course you take.

And here's a final take. Mr. Gate's support to the promotion of pigeonpea, sweet sorghum, chickpea and other drought resistant crops in the Philippines can go a long way in alleviating hunger and poverty in the marginalized drylands of this nation. Thank you Mr. Gates for showing your peers the right way to take by investing your money in agriculture so that others may live!