Part 1. Values Produce Skills that Can Help Solve Global Problems

Part 1

There was once an ordinary couple who came from the barrios/provinces. They DREAMED of having a nice academic education...quite understandable for this was not a priority of their parents who had lived all their lives in the remote areas of a small developing  nation.

The couple finally succeeded and graduated with their long-awaited diplomas validating their acquired skills in agronomy/agriculture . ..they both worked in an agricultural university and subsequently got connected with an international research institution for rice. They had kids.

Together with their kids they wanted to help solve the global problem of hunger in their own small way...and so together they DREAMED.

Synchronicities and small coincidences happened through the years . When the father, being a skillful junior rice scientist, wanted to check if rice crops can be grown without seeds ... (crazy idea) .. referring to  rice dry stems left after harvesting the top ... or those dying rice stubbles nearly crushed to the ground with intact roots.... question was , can those still be made to regrow from its base near the old roots ...(a very weird concept or insight of rice growing that he got from keen UNBIASED OBSERVATIONS of nature) ... Although really weird, this unusual insight becomes more acceptable if you think that grasses and some trees can actually begin re-growing from the base near its roots ...even with the plant's near death type of experience... it still fights for its life and begin to grow back as soon as the rain comes...Life really does find a way... Nature always springs back to life... 

One of the scenes of unbiased observations was when an ordinary farmer from a remote location and her ordinary child was playing with a native mat called "banig", laid it on the newly harvested area of rice while awaiting for the return of his farmer father. Cut rice stubbles under the mat were crushed to the ground and weeks later ... fresh shoots were growing from the intact base even if the remaining stubbles have all dried up. This was noticed by the junior scientist dad on his way to monitor an unrelated pilot project near the area. That was his route.

This finally lead to a research proposal which did not immediately got approved for launch due to its weird concept not really found in scientific books.

But eventually the proposal got approved and it proved to be very feasible. After harvest or cut stubbles are then being lodged intentionally to allow the rice to re-grow immediately. The technology slowly matured to perfection. The manual lodging (known as "lock lodging technology" ...google it) became mechanized (Rolodge Advance Rice Ratooning) and all that needs to be done is put up a management staff and training facility, partner with large institutions for immediate dissemination to the countryside areas where the conditions would allow it.

Early projects with an FAO offshore branch was short-lived ...and projects with the government were relative failures..... failure begins soon after a nice media coverage was out. As if magically the funding would disappear and suddenly redirected to more pressing concerns... Whatever those concerns were, I hope food can also ...one day ...be squeezed into their priority list. And I hope someone better than the best ones we already approached is listening. It remains to be seen. .. I am actively working so that the WILL of the hungry and the rest of the COMPLACENT people must somewhere spark... I hope it will not be too late for us to realize this in our lifetime.

What do you think should the next step be if you are an ordinary person in that developing country? What can you do ...aside from pray or wish your heart out? I need your answers. This is not a trick question. No answer is wrong. Answers in "Tagalog" or "Taglish" are welcome.