IRRI Pioneer Interviews--Challenges for IRRI: Ed Price

Ed Price, IRRI economist, 1975-85; currently associate vice chancellor, Texas A&M University

Hmmmtough question. I continue to be associated with aspects of the CGIAR and I suspect this applies to IRRI as well as to other international institutes that I have visited. The CGIAR has become terribly bureaucratized. I think the superstructure above the scientists level has only grown, not at the stations so much, although that probably might have happened to some extent, but really off-station in the superstructure that governs the CGIAR.

I believe it has become extraordinarily cumbersome. It is not induced by scientists who serve on the ground, as in our time, but by others who come in to administer the system from the standpoint of accountability, good rules of operation, business practices, and governance. It has only resulted in more and more meetings and more and more people. Very often the people, as good as they are, didnt come through the system at the scientist level. I believe thats one of the biggest challenges. [Note: the CGIAR is currently undergoing change management.]

At the same time, I dont think the CGIAR has been able to develop a true constituency that goes to bat for it where funds come from. In 1994, I joined Texas A&M University. I went to a meeting that was comprised of U.S. universities and CGIAR representatives. I gave an impassioned talk about how, we, as scientists, need to understand where the money comes from and how we need to create a consciousness among the broader constituency of taxpayers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia who are paying for the system. I can remember one particular director general saying to me, Ed, we dont worry about the taxpayers. We dont worry about where the money comes from; we worry only about how best to spend that money for good research. The money comes, if you do good research. But I think, in recent years, weve learned that this philosophy does not persist. We do now need to worry about constituencies.

Im not sure if the CGIAR can meet all the challenges. Im not sure if universities can meet all the challenges. I still feel very passionate about what I feel has to be accomplished in the future. I believe that the world has become more fractured and Im not talking simply politically. I believe that, organizationally, we have become fractured. It is much harder to accomplish a goal as a community that we used to be able to accomplish.

Today, Im trying to work with the powers-that-be on the role that agricultural technology plays in conflict. Most everywhere that I work today in international agriculture for a university has either just emerged from a period of conflict where we are trying to reconstruct (including El Salvador, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Iraq) or sorry to say conflict is imminent.

I dont believe we understand very well the role of agricultural technology in conflict. When theres conflict, it is often relegated to the political scientists, the diplomats, and the anthropologists (who look at religion and other facets of ethnicity) to look for the sources of conflict and ways to resolve conflict. I believe that agricultural technology is one of the most powerful tools that we have for preventing conflict, for supporting families and communities, to survive conflict, and to rebuild communities and economic systems following conflict. But, unfortunately, I dont think we understand well enough the different ways that agricultural technology can play those roles—and sometimes, in fact, bring about the conflict in the first place or exacerbate conflict. So, thats one of the areas where I would like to see more and more emphasis and investment for the future

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