Remembering Tom Hargrove

Tom Hargrove, IRRI editor and later head, Communication and Publications Services, 1973-91; and later coordinator of information and communications, International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IDFC); passed away on 22 January 2011 in Texas. See http://irri.org/news-events/irri-news/remembering-tom-hargrove

This video is a segment of his pioneer interview conducted in June 2008 at Michigan State University:

The greatest challenge for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; http://irri.org ) is to continue to do the work it is doing and keep the money coming in so that it is able to carry out the plan. The world is changing so much right now that we dont have any idea of what really is going to happen. Theres obviously not just a food crisis, which has been building up for a long time. Then, these different factors hit all at once: a decrease in funding for research and the demand for food and fuel with 30% of the U.S. corn crop going into ethanol.

At the same time, Indians and Chinese are achieving higher incomes and they want to drive cars too and, as incomes rise, they eat less rice and want more meat. It takes 8 kg of grain to make 1 kg of beef, 5 kilos to make 1 kilo of pork, and about 2 kilos to make a kilo of poultry. So, this is also causing the grain crunch and it affects everything.

Of course, fertilizer (nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus) is essential to the nutrient production needed to make the ethanol and to feed the livestock to accommodate the changing food habits of China and India. All of these things are coming together. A farmer in Togo or Mali in West Africa who grows rice or any other crop, a couple of years ago, had to pay twice what a farmer in Iowa has to pay for a kilogram of urea. The farmer in Togo needs the fertilizer a lot more than the farmer in Iowa. Now, with the price of fertilizer doubling, tripling in the United States, I think its going to be almost impossible in Africa.

This could be one of IRRIs greatest challenges in Africa if indeed theres to be an African Green Revolution. At IFDC, Ive been part of the planning [as IFDCs coordinator, Information and Communications Unit]. The [Asian] Green Revolution ran on fertilizer. There is just no way around that. It ran on plant nutrients by getting them into a consolidated form that could be applied through fertilizers. There is not enough organic matter for organic fertilizers—that sounds like a really neat idea, but it isnt going to work. Its not going to feed the world. I think the biggest challenge that IRRI is going to have in Africa is how will it get the plant nutrients in there to fuel the African Green Revolution. I truly hope that IFDC will be working with IRRI on this in the future.

Category:

Education

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• Hargrove
• IRRI
• Pioneer
• Interviews
• International
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• Green
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• Africa
• Togo
• Fertilizer

[irrivideo]

We will all miss Tom Hargrove who passed away on 23 January 2011.

[emycer]

We received news today that Tom Hargrove passed away on January 23, 2011. I will remember him fondly, as he was the editor and head of the IRRI Communication and Publications Department, where I worked from 1978 to 1990.