Research for Development (R4D) Requires Communication For Development (C4D)

My open appeal to the Philippine Council For Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development (PCAARRD) and Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR)  – “Please fund thousands more researches for development!”

This new essay in this new blog, Communication For Development PH (C4D), was inspired by my yesterday’s essay, “PH Revolutionizing World Science – ‘R4D Instead Of R&D,’ Says William Dar, Agriculture Secretary[1]” (20 July 2021, Communication For Development PH, blogspot.com) – which has been inspired by Mr Dar. We must emphasize what we do is fordevelopment.

We have a Goliath of a problem here, as 49-year old PCAARRD itself by name has welcomed “research and development” (R&D) and ignored“research for development” (R4D). R4D needs C4D before, during & after.And I am the pretender to the one who defeated Goliath – David.

My nerve to do a David comes from, among other things, being an original aboriginal (Ilocano) with my own theory of communication for development (ComDev) that was born in 1980.

Thank you, Mr Dar! The philosophy of my C4D/ComDev is now enriched by your R4D.

Some 5 years ago, I was a training consultant under Project Leader & UP Los Baños Professor Rene Rafael Espino for the Department of Agrarian Reform (the DAR) initiative called “Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity & Economic Support Services (ARCCESS); we covered Pangasinan and La Union. The top photograph I took somewhere in San Fernando, La Union, 26 August 2016. We see a single loose goat – if you multiply the number with your ARCCESS, you have a herd, and you have a thankful community!

Today, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is very active in sponsoring and spending for animal-raising projects all over the country. Yes, I know that in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan, our Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative has received more than 500 free range chickens from DA Region 1 with the active endorsement of Jovita Datuin, Regional Technical Director of the DA Regional Field Office in the Ilocos Region.
(bottom image[2] from Asingan.gov.ph)

That’s R4D. You don’t need a magic spell to help people make at least their food dreams come true.

My short message is: Stop R&D, Start R4D!

The total 2021 budget of PCAARRD for 2021 is P1.44 Billion[3]. The total 2018 budget of the BAR was P1.17 Billion[4]. So much money not spent for R4D!

For PCAARRD, where is much of the P1.44 Billion budget being spent for 2021? For R&D projects of course. Some of whose results later end up as published papers, the rest submitted as manuscripts of completed researches and will be sleeping in drawers or cabinets for the rest of their lives!

Where was the rest of the P1.17 Billion 2018 budget for the BAR spent? Probably similar to the P1.44 Billion 2021 budget of PCAARRD. Hundreds of research projects R&D, not R4D.

Why couldn’t P1 Billion each of the BAR and PCAARRD budgets be assigned for R4D? Because their heads are thinking only R&D, not R4D, carrying on science tradition. I say: “Time to revolutionize research thinking!”@517


[1]https://communicationfordevelopmentphcomdev.blogspot.com/2021/07/agriculture-bill-gates-wants-meatless.html
[2]http://www.asingan.gov.ph/bagong-pasilidad-para-sa-free-range-chicken-sa-bayan-ng-asingan/
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Council_for_Agriculture,_Aquatic,_and_Natural_Resources_Research_and_Development
[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Agricultural_Research

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