Scaling S&T in the National Rice Program

Abstract

That the Philippines' neighboring countries have far overtaken us in agricultural development remains to be a topic of public discussion. My experience working with our ASEAN neighbors, particularly Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, has shown me where we massively lag behind: we fail to scale or commercialize many of our S&T outputs and innovations. We take for granted our societal responsibility. Make no mistake: we have developed many ideas, tested numerous models and prototypes, conducted countless demonstrations and training programs, and published abundant materials. Yet many of these accomplishments come to naught. An average Filipino would readily describe a scientist as somebody with a white lab coat, busy in a laboratory. This character may have now evolved into a more sophisticated fellow. The props of the pop-culture scientist may not be test tubes and colorful chemicals anymore but journal publications, bibliometric scores, and accolades. This tired imagery influences the relevance of the knowledge and technology we produce.