“Science with a human face” means “Science serving the people.” If you did not know, that rallying cry was coined about 20 years ago by ICRISAT, based in India, when now-PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar was Director General. What good is your science if it’s all paper, no people?
Clarivate “Web of Science” has all the right to proclaim to the world about its list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2020” – these are the authors of technical papers who have been cited most often in scientific journals anywhere in the world:
Papers published enrich science –
they do not enrich the farmers.
And why not?
Farmers don’t plant, cultivate, harvest, dry & sell papers!
As a creative writer in agriculture & agroforestry in the last 45 years, beginning when I became the Chief Information Officer (not the title) of the Forest Research Institute in April 1975, scientists have been growing the sciences of Agriculture and Forestry in their field labs, but scientists have been ignoring the lives of lowland farmers and hillside farmers!
Science has improved science – but the lives of the poor farmers have remained unimproved.
I know that the prolific scientist authors deserve their due as “Highly Cited Researchers 2020” and that they are “Applauded by the world” – I also know that the farmers do not deserve being ignored by highly cited researchers!
If you look at the above composite image again, you will note the littler image I snapped on: “1. Poor productivity growth in agriculture.” (image[1]” from SlideShare.net). “Poor productivity growth” here means not only relatively high costs that give high yields but also definitely low returns to millions of farmers.
At this point in time, it is not the lack of science that is the problem in agriculture – it is the lack of scientific knowledge & poor science management reaching or guiding the farmers that have prevented them from enriching their lives with the sweat of their own brows!
I am an alumnus of UP Los Baños, and I have been Editor In Chief for several publications in agriculture and forestry in the last 45 years, so I know that when it comes to technical papers published by researchers and cited.by other researchers – those papers are good for promoting researchers, not promoting farmers!
Subsequently, I look at the published scientists in agriculture as the Lazy Juans – they are industrious in bringing new or improved knowledge to publications, but not to the farmers who need it the most!
And you know what? It is the UP System itself that promotes scientists and ignores farmers. UP promotes in rank and salary those who publish more in any of those Web of Science’s list of publications, but UP does not promote those scientists who work directly with the farmers. Activists in UP will go to the streets but not the farms.
Wisen up, UP!@517
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