ABOUT |
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Mauricio R. Bellon is a human ecologist and is currently the senior scientist with CIMMYT, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, which maintains an extensive maize seed bank and supplies seeds on demand to research institutions and extension services around the developing world. Dr. Bellon also serves as leader of CIMMYT's Social Sciences Group.
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His main research focus is on the relationship between the seed management practices of small-scale farmers in developing countries, particularly in centers of diversity, and the evolution and maintenance of crop biological and genetic diversity.
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Dr. Bellon received his BSc in Agronomy from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico and both his MSc and Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California-Davis. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.
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| INTERVIEW |
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I am a human ecologist. I study the relationship between humans and the environment. I work in the economics program which is the social science part or arm of CIMMYT. What I do basically is work on participatory approaches, participatory research in technology development and evaluation and also on the conservation of genetic diversity in farmers fields.
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I think farmers are interested in finding new options. We get this incorrect idea that traditional farmers are not interested in innovation. They are very interested in innovations that fit with what they need. Once you recognize that then farmers really respond very, very well to working together with scientists. I have worked both in Mexico and in Zimbabwe and I've found that people are really very enthusiastic.
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"There was an overwhelming concern whether there would be enough food to feed the world."
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CIMMYT has been operating for more than thirty-five years. It is one of the important centers of the green revolution. At a time when there was an overwhelming concern whether there would be enough food to feed the world, CIMMYT made important contributions and continues its work to provide food for people today.
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CIMMYT's thinking has changed a lot. We used to have a very narrow view of efficiency. Now we look at efficiency not just in terms of tons or bushels per hectare, but also in the terms of environmental goods that might be affected or destroyed while we are producing the food. We are trying to get the most out per unit of environment. For example, a lot of the work we do here is to provide the resistance in the varieties we produce, therefore requiring less pesticides and less inputs.
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Another interesting part of the work we're doing, particularly in Africa, is to develop varieties that are drought tolerant and that work well in low fertilizer, low nitrogen conditions. This type of work not only is better in terms of having less impact on the environment, but is actually responding to the needs of poor farmers in Africa and in many other parts of the world.
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In a system where farmers still eat what they produce, at least part of what they produce, we might think, well, why don't we give them varieties that yield more? This is a fair way of looking at it, but when we were talking with farmers, we found out that one of the problems they really care about is storage.
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We thought maybe there is not so much need to do breeding for storage per se. Maybe we should look at what farmers are doing in terms of their storage practices and from that, identify if we can do better. And we did in fact identify that there are many practices that they are not using correctly.
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For example, there has been a shift to use more and more pesticides in the storage, but people don't know how to use the pesticides properly. So one of the things we did was to start trainings in storage, as well as proper pesticide use, if they are using pesticides.
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"Sometimes a breeding intervention is not the most cost effective or efficient for a given problem."
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When we were working in Oaxaca, we saw that the farmers there were using metal silos. We said why don't we make them available? So we put silos in many of the communities where we work. We put the grain inside and outside the silo so that they could actually compare what happened inside and outside. The farmers and their families found out that the silos worked very well. So we started a program to purchase the silos and to train people to use them properly.
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It has been a very successful program, and it shifted our thinking. Usually we emphasize the hardware, the machine, the seed, the tractor, but we forget about the software. Sometimes a breeding intervention is not the most cost effective or efficient for a given problem. We need to actually identify the problem and find the best solution based on the farmers' needs and knowledge.
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Part of what participatory research is bringing into the research agenda is making the research responsive to the conditions in which this technology has to operate. And to recognize that it is not absolute, that things are relative. It depends on the context in which we operate.
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"What are the pros and cons?"
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CIMMYT recognizes that biotechnology is an important technology and that we need to look at the benefits and the costs. What are the pros and cons? How can they be delivered? It is CIMMYT's goal to be an honest broker of this technology. We value a more open and transparent approach different from the private approach, which is a very valuable approach, but obviously it also has limitations. We are trying to explore ways of how to combine efficiently this private technology with the public good. Obviously, this is a very difficult thing.
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At CIMMYT we are still working on traditional breeding. We need to create varieties and germplasm that is appropriate and is useful for the poor farmers, both poor urban and rural consumers of the world.
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We also have another very important mandate that goes beyond serving the poor: To preserve the genetic resources for human kind. This is very important. We have a gene bank where all the seeds from maize and wheat are conserved. Our focus is not just about producing, but it is also conserving these resources for the future.
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"There are a lot of public goods that simply cannot be privatized."
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Unfortunately, we are seeing a trend towards excessive privatization. Clearly there are some goods and services that should be privatized, but not everything can be privatized. There are a lot of public goods that simply cannot be privatized.
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What do we mean by public goods? Things that benefit people but where nobody in particular can capture those benefits. Therefore, there is no incentive for any person in particular to provide them, but by not providing them we are also missing a lot of things. That is why society has to organize to provide those goods, those services. Many of these goods and services simply cannot be privatized because they would not generate enough profits to interest private entities.
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Certainly private companies such as the Monsantos, the Pioneers of the world do a very good job, they provide very goods seeds of hybrids and they make money out of it. They are also targeting a very specific niche of farmers, mostly in the U.S. and Europe. These are farmers that are commercialized, located in areas with irrigation or good rainfall and have good infrastructures. They are the ones who can afford and are willing to pay for the price of the seed.
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"We are actually doing it for the good of society."
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However, there are many, many other farmers who cannot afford to pay for the seeds. They have relatively low yields and low inputs. They could definitely benefit from varieties sold by private companies. However, because Monsanto or Pioneer would not make any profit, they obviously would not pay any attention to these farmers. By not paying attention to them, we are missing an opportunity to improve the livelihoods of these people, and that is exactly the role of CIMMYT. We go and address the needs of these people who are not served by the private sector. This is our target population.
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CIMMYT is basically a public institution. We are financed by governments and donors around the world. We are not making any profits. We are actually doing it for the good of society and we are benefiting these people. If we didn't do it, no one else would do it because there are no profits to be made by serving these farmers and consumers.
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"The budget for CIMMYT for one year is about the cost of one jet fighter."
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The funding available for public research has been decreasing and unfortunately we have less and less funds available. What is amazing is that the budget for CIMMYT for one year is about the cost of one jet fighter. What do you get for that? You get a lot of different varieties of maize and wheat which not only work in Mexico, but in many places, Ethiopia, South America, Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, where there is a lot of poverty, hunger, AIDS, where people are really having a really rough life.
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A world full of poor people is not good for anybody. Certainly not for the poor people and also not for the non-poor people because this means there will be resentment and less security. These are the people who could have very radical ideas that might lead to very disastrous consequences, in some cases. Obviously, not all poor people and not all hungry people are terrorists. Clearly most people are not like that. However, by having better fed people who have better opportunities, you have a better, more secure world. We need to contribute to improving food security.
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"If you don't produce here and now, you and your children might die."
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The relationship between hungry people and the environment can be complex. When you are hungry you cannot afford to respect or see the beauty of things. You have to get your food; therefore your planning horizon is very limited. You have to get it here and now. You will not be thinking, 'If I cut these trees, or open this area, I might lose all the soil in twenty years,' because if you don't produce here and now, you and your children might die and you might not make it in a few years. Basically the hungrier and the less opportunity, the less care they are going to take of their environment. That is human, your priority is to survive, you cannot afford to conserve the environment for your children because they might die next year because they are malnourished. Maybe I am painting a little bit exaggerated picture, but this is the type of situation these people face. They cannot just wait.
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"How are they going to stop being poor?"
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The solutions to poverty are a little bit more long-term. You also have to have better education, better opportunities and economic growth. You cannot solve poverty if people are hungry. If children cannot eat and cannot go to school, how are they going to stop being poor? They need to be fed and to have enough food so they can go to school, they can learn, they can move and have better chances. How can you improve if you don't have the energy to plow your land better?
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Clearly, there is a question of scales. You need to invest to get people out of poverty.
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Mauricio R. Bellon can be reached at m.bellon@cgiar.org.
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