‘Let knowledge come from everywhere’
There is a new AI emerging in the horizon in Asia. It’s called Agricultural Innovation.
It’s coming from India.
It’s coming from the United States of America.
And, if you’re sleeping, it’s coming to heads near you.
At first it had a long name: ‘The India-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture Education, Research, Services and Commercial Linkages.’ The mouthful is now referred to as ‘The US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative.’ The first name says it all, defining the areas; the second name says it less, implying that knowledge can come from anywhere and go anywhere.
There has been a subtle shift in emphasis, from ‘The India-US Knowledge Initiative’ to ‘The US-India Knowledge Initiative.’ The first implies that the US is learning from India; the second implies what is the project’s goal – India learning from the United States of America.
There is much to learn from this.
Understandably, quite a number of Indian nationals in India and the US have raised concerns that this is another Yankee capitalist scheme. For instance, Atul Kumar Anjaan (2006 June 2, politicalaffairs.net) declares that the Knowledge Initiative has three main features: agricultural biotechnology, access to biological resources, and intellectual property rights, ‘three areas of crucial interest to the US because though technologically rich it does not have the genetic resources, which is essential for biotechnology products.’ He says that because Wal-Mart, Archer Daniels and Monsanto, three of the world’s biggest multinationals are on the Initiative Board; the three are out ‘to gain access to and retain ownership of the vast bio-resources of the developing countries,’ implying that instead of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), it would be Intellectual Property Wrongs.
Like some people I know, AKA is afraid of new knowledge. In the first place, he is wrong about the main features of the Knowledge Initiative. In the second place, the Initiative does not prevent Indian nationals from working for their own IPRs.
There are some Indian nationals who object to the Knowledge Initiative, because it allows the US multinationals to work on the living natural resources of their country. How different are they from those who rejected the man from Nazareth, called Jesus, who brought new knowledge to the world? I thought the Indians were more intelligent than that. It is not knowledge (or in another form, technology) that is the problem – it is how you put it to use, or how you don’t.
Indian MS Swaminathan approves, he who was once Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), one of Time’s ‘20 most influential Asians of the 20th century,’ Father of India’s Green Revolution (irri.org). In an interview with Shobha Warrier (in.rediff.com), he says: ‘Let knowledge come from everywhere.’
The Knowledge Initiative has four focus areas (dare.gov.in):
(1) Education, Learning Resources, Curriculum Development and Training
(2) Food Processing, Use of Byproducts and Biofuels
(3) Biotechnology
(4) Water Management
Why would India be interested in the knowledge that the Yankees have in those areas? ‘They have all the Nobel Prize winners there,’ Swaminathan said. ‘They have invested a lot of money in developing ideas, and they have human resources.’
In other words, Indians could learn much from Yankees about education, be much more knowledgeable in food processing, branch out to biofuels, be very skilled in biotechnology, be highly productive in water management. We Filipinos could too, if only the Government of the Philippines through the University of the Philippines Los Baños got into an agreement like the US-India Knowledge Initiative.
Would not the Knowledge Initiative result in a second Green Revolution that would fail the Indian farmers and spoil the soil again? Swaminathan said: ‘I coined the term Evergreen Revolution, which means improvement of productivity without associated ecological or environmental harm.’ Swaminathan is Indian Adviser to the Initiative, so he has his job cut out for him. The Knowledge Initiative would increase the yields of crops and not decrease the fertility of the soil and not increase water pollution from farm chemicals. That’s for the Knowledge Initiative to say and for you to find out.
I learned and got interested in the Knowledge Initiative when I was trying to research biotechnology – a subject I wanted to appreciate but couldn’t as long as I didn’t understand it – and I saw ‘Making biotechnology work for the poor,’ the welcome address of William Dar, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), at the ‘International Workshop on Application of Genomics to Chickpea, Pigeonpea and Peanut Improvement’ 2006 March 6-9 at ICRISAT headquarters, Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India (2007, Nurturing Life In The Drylands Of Hope, ICRISAT, pages 29-32). Dar said, ‘Dr Mangala Rai had intimated earlier that ICRISAT will be brought into the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture between India and the USA, which I welcome very much.’ What good would that do?
I am sure that the new Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture that will link universities, technical institutions and businesses in the USA and India to support joint agricultural research and education projects will ultimately benefit the poor in developing countries. We stand ready to be a strategic partner in this initiative.
Put that way, for whatever it’s worth, I myself would like a similar US-Philippine Knowledge Initiative only because my alma mater UP Los Baños is a giant sleeping, our technical institutions could be better, our local businesses couldn’t be bothered about going after new products and enjoying IPRs themselves, and education in my beloved country used to be a sure winner but now is a sore loser. (And yes, you should check out the innovations coming from ICRISAT, in India: building a team, winning awards, marketing technologies, visioning.)
Still, the Knowledge Initiative cannot come from UP Los Baños if all she does is think of academic freedom, which is to serve the University, and not freedom from poverty, which is to serve the People.
Sad to say, the Knowledge Initiative cannot come from anywhere near the University of the Philippines because UP is convinced that Tagalog-based Filipino is the best national language and to use English for education is colonial mentality. Duh!
