Title revised 1715 hr 28 June 2013
NEW DELHI: How do the Indians look at William Dar, Filipino, as a 13-year leader of science in their own country? The number of years and the image are your clues: high, which is taas in Filipino (Tagalog). TAAS in India happens to be the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences; the filename of the pdf sent to me that contains the acceptance speech as a means of announcing the good news has these first 2 words, "TAAS Award," and that is a welcome coincidence. It is the height of recognition to receive the TAAS Award. William Dar is the TAAS Science Leader of the Year for 2013.
Still, the actual name of the award is "Dr MS Swaminathan Award for Leadership in Agriculture," in short SALA; it so happens that sala is Filipino for wrong. Now, that isn't right! I know, having watched ICRISAT apply its science with a human face over the last 6 years that, definitely, for William Dar, SALA is right; SALA is the award that TAAS bestows in recognition of the "lifetime contributions of eminent persons who have made great impact in the field of agriculture globally, and for overall food security and sustainability of agriculture in India" (taas.in). No one today other than William Dar deserves that award.
All that makes the TAAS/SALA Award doubly unique. One, as far as I know, the TAAS Award is the first prize that thinks globally, acts locally. Think world, act India. Two, the TAAS Award is the first prize that honors a man for his lifetime achievements while he is still alive. I am reminded of the little poem that goes like this: "Bring me all the flowers today / Whether pink, or white, or red / I would rather have one blossom now / Than a truckload when I am dead." They don't make awards like they used to anymore. Nor poems.
Since January 2000, William Dollente Dar has been Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). William Dar's SAT science leadership brings to the TAAS the full realization of a headship that has great impact globally and a telltale impact locally.
Headquartered in Andhra Pradesh, India, ICRISAT has 2 regional hubs and 5 country offices in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on my own research starting in February 2007, some 77 months later, I know that in fact ICRISAT has directly influenced agriculture not only in Africa but also in many parts of Asia. Global conception, local application.
The TAAS Award was instituted in 2004 in honor of MS Swaminathan, who is the Father of the Green Revolution in Indiaand now cultivating the seeds of the Evergreen Revolution for sustainable agriculture in Africa and Asia. I know Swaminathan used to be Director General of IRRI. He is also the first winner of the World Food Prize, and TIME Magazine said he was 1 of 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th Century, along with Gandhi and Tagore.
William Dar is in fact the 7th winner; here is the distinguished list of those who have received the TAAS Award so far:
2005, Nobel Laureate Norman E Borlaug
2006, World Food Prize Laureate Gurdev Singh Khush
2008, World Food Prize Laureate SK Vasal
2009, Rattan Lal, Director of the Carbon Center, Ohio State U
2010, Sanjay Rajaram, wheat breeder
2012, MC Saxena, pulse agronomist
2013, William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT
2006, World Food Prize Laureate Gurdev Singh Khush
2008, World Food Prize Laureate SK Vasal
2009, Rattan Lal, Director of the Carbon Center, Ohio State U
2010, Sanjay Rajaram, wheat breeder
2012, MC Saxena, pulse agronomist
2013, William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT
For some reason, there were no TAAS Award winners in the years 2007 and 2011. The Award does not include cash, except travel expenses, food and accommodation for attending the Award function. The honor is actually not victual but verily virtual and very visceral. An honor you can't refuse!
Researching on the TAAS list, I can see that William Dar is the unique one:
Borlaug pushed wheat until the species became better.
Khush pushed rice until it became smaller, yielding bigger.
Vasal pushed maize until it yielded more & higher-quality protein.
Lal pushed for soil carbon sequestration adapting to climate change.
Rajaram has been pushing for more disease-resistant breeds of wheat.
Saxena has been pushing for higher water-use efficiency in food legumes.
William Dar has been pushing for wider & deeper partnerships in bringing science to the poor.
Khush pushed rice until it became smaller, yielding bigger.
Vasal pushed maize until it yielded more & higher-quality protein.
Lal pushed for soil carbon sequestration adapting to climate change.
Rajaram has been pushing for more disease-resistant breeds of wheat.
Saxena has been pushing for higher water-use efficiency in food legumes.
William Dar has been pushing for wider & deeper partnerships in bringing science to the poor.
Partnerships. As I see it, based on the ICRISAT work experience in the last decade, this is a 5 Ps partnership, calling for the active participation of the following sectors of society: public (government), private (business), people (NGOs, civic organizations), philanthropists (donors), and peasants (farmers).
The poor. Why the peasants as actors and not simply beneficiaries?The poor have to help themselves rise from poverty. Nobody can do it for them.
In my new book, I describe the mechanism of the ICRISAT-led partnership as "political will applied with science" (Frank A Hilario, 2013, ICRISAT & Partners: Political Will Applied with Science, 146 pages, published by ICRISAT at Patancheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India). In reviewing my new book, I call such partnership "political wills applied with science," wills, plural (for more details, see my "Celebrating ICRISAT & Partners: Political Wills Applied With Science," 05 May 2013, iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com). You cannot overemphasize political will.
The seeds of the modern ICRISAT partnerships were sown in India by William Dar in 2000, the year he ascended into a throne in trouble; he called it Science with a human face. SWAHF the seeds grew and yielded much over the years, the species being a perennial. In 2010, with high technology, low entrepreneurship and the medium of women thrown in, SWAHF was transformed by ICRISAT & Partners into IMOD.
The 5 Ps partnership is all-encompassing and is a necessary dimension in the Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD) Strategy that ICRISAT & Partners have adopted at the start of this decade. IMOD is the major substance of the lecture William Dar delivered in accepting the TAAS Award on 24 June 2013 at New Delhi (for the full lecture, see "Enhancing Smallholder Farmer Participation in Markets: The IMOD Way," icrisat.org).
In accepting the TAAS Award in New Delhi, William Dar says he is "deeply honored" and that he considers it as "a major milestone in (his) professional life." In fact, it is a major milestone in the professional life of the institution he has been a Servant Leader of since 2000, as he has made ICRISAT and ICRISAT has made him. He in his own words now joins "the list of outstanding awardees that have contributed so much to improving the human condition." He and ICRISAT. As he himself says:
This Award is about leadership. I believe that the most important task of a successful leader is to rally his team around a compelling vision of the future, and to have an effective strategy to bring that vision into reality. Today I want to highlight the vision and strategy that our ICRISAT global team developed in 2010 and has been implementing ever since. We call it Inclusive Market-Oriented Development, or IMOD for short. We are very excited about it, and would like to state at the outset that all our research for development efforts are accomplished with strategic partners who also share our enthusiasm for IMOD.
Like bow & arrow, there is no leadership without followership, useless each without the other. Now then, on the occasion of the TAAS Award 2013:
3 cheers for William Dar!
3 cheers for Team ICRISAT!
3 cheers for Team ICRISAT & Partners!
3 cheers for Team ICRISAT!
3 cheers for Team ICRISAT & Partners!
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