A three-part approach to agricultural success.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Ernesto M. Ordonez

THERE are two couples who have significantly helped small farmers. One is Drs. Rose and Edwin Hondrade. They are key leaders of Pagkain Para sa Masa, one of the most successful agricultural programs for poor farmers. With an investment of only P3.5 million, they produced a return equivalent to P87.5 million. This was in terms of two added meals a day for each member of 5,000 families who had previously eaten only one meal a day. A large part of this program involved the propagation of root crops. Rose said, "This part was very successful largely because of the pioneering research and extension work of the Visayan State College of Agriculture (ViSCA) under the leadership of Dr. Fernando Bernardo."

Bernardo was the ViSCA president and former deputy head of the International Rice Research Institute. The other member of this illustrious couple is Dr. Emiliana Bernardo, former UPLB vice chancellor who recently served on the Scientific Technical Research Panel that reviewed the BT corn issue. She impressed many by her willingness to review the negative information that had not been previously been shown to the panel, even though the panel had already given a positive evaluation of BT corn.

The link between the two couples is the sweet potato component of the Pagkain Para sa Masa program. I myself was a beneficiary of this sweet potato breakthrough. Instead of the average five tons per hectare average yield of sweet potato, I used ViSCA's seedlings and got 25 tons. For an additional P3,300 investment for these seedlings, I received an additional income of P40,000.

This could not have been possible without the innovative three-part approach used by Bernardo and ViSCA: needs-based planning, a comprehensive view of curriculum development, and coordinated research and extension.

Planning