The Wizard Of Rice
By Frank A Hilario

SANTIAGO RIGONAN OBIEN (SRO) will go down in history as The Wizard of Rice. Being the first and past Executive Director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), he has made a great difference in rice – he built PhilRice into a world-class institution, and now the Philippines is almost self-sufficient in rice.

He is also a self-made man, an Ilocano. That’s what I read in his first book, titled SRO / Dare to Build, recently published by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). Most people know him with his initials, SRO, and he likes it like that. Even the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) recognizes him as a great man of science and of management rolled into one. Today, in the science of crops and administration, say ‘SRO’ and it rings a bell. The ring tone is one of passion, compassion, pride, humility, excellence. Yes, he is all that. I like the book, I like the man behind the book.

In his fertile mind, he dreamed of a world-class science campus. PhilRice is what it became. In his bare hands, he molded the men, like a potter his clay, to the image and likeness of what he thought they should be. He succeeded. Mightily. Today, the staff of PhilRice continue to win awards and recognition. Based in the far-flung Science City of Muñoz in Central Luzon, PhilRice today is respected all over the world.

With Jean D, the woman behind the book, he has written his autobiography, the story of an idealistic farm boy who was nourished on the milk of honesty, the bread of hard work, the salt of persistence, the sugar of love, the dessert of visioning, the wine of an iron will. Man and woman make a perfect pair. It was a difficult book to write (it took Jean six months, she says), as SRO is difficult to accept, to understand. ‘You got to hate him to like him,’ says Leo Sebastian, the current Executive Director of PhilRice, and one of SRO’s protégés. Borrowing from Frank L. Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz, Leo is a horse of a different color.

A Horse Of A Different Color

SRO has always been a horse of a different color. If some boys think of becoming President some day, this boy dreamed of becoming a great scientist. He failed. He became a great manager instead.

Management is 4 of 4, not just 1, and SRO knew that the whole of management is greater than the sum of its parts, even if he didn’t know the name of those 4 parts. Management is planning – he had the vision, and he held onto it with heart despite the hurt. Management is leading – his were the creativity and the initiative, and he pushed more than he pulled. Management is organizing – he pursued team work like crazy. Management is controlling – he trained and visited and inspected everyone, everything.

He was an intellectual terrorist, as he himself admits in Chapter Four. I know; I worked for him too. Did you like what he was doing? I did not, no, but he insisted on doing the right thing in the right way, even if it was not in the way you liked.

He was not perfect. PhilRice’s Roger Barroga knows, he who is a wizard himself, of computer networks. I should know. I was a Research Fellow of PhilRice Maligaya (in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija) for a year (1997? I forget) and I lived with him and slept in the same house (Director’s Cottage) and ate the same food and rode the same car coming from and going back to Los Baños every week. (Thanks for the ride, Sir.) I was there as a writer. By that time, I was already in love with the computer. For many months, I tried to convince him to buy a computer, desktop or laptop, to be assigned to me. For as many months, he demurred. I didn’t know it then, but one of his major hesitations (his word, in the Prologue) was on the use of computers as a production tool, beyond spreadsheets, beyond occasional desktop-publishing of reports. Inside the Director’s Office, I was using someone else’s desktop computer while he was using the desktop typewriter. I didn’t mind his typewriter, but I minded that I did not have a computer assigned to me. I don’t write – I type. If you want to make me unhappy, banish me to a wonderful land where there are no computers. Out of frustration, and yet to avoid any confrontation, I left without saying goodbye to him, to anyone. I never returned. I never called. I was mad inside. I wasn’t perfect either.

Many years later, I met him again, at PhilRice Los Baños. I was walking toward him and when he saw me; suddenly he turned to his companion and said, ‘You know, it’s only now that I realize we need the computer.’ It was his way of saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ I smiled. I had forgiven him long before that. Nonetheless, I admired him for that because he was already retired and his remark could not have made me go back to work. Saying sorry is never too late.

As a man, he loves you, he loves you not. As a book, SRO / Dare To Build is an ambivalent read too, like that. In his heart SRO knows he loves you, but you don’t – the man with the will of iron comes on more strongly than the man with the heart of gold. Pure gold, I can say now. Golden dreams. Dreams of empire – empires of the mind. I will now quote one of his favorites, Winston Churchill: ‘The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.’ With rice, we are in the future now. Thanks to him (SRO, not Churchill), we are almost 100% self-sufficient in rice!

In his book, he says he was building men. In fact, he was building minds. It’s the attitude that counts. He was building your attitude of excellence. It didn’t always work – it didn’t work with Roger, it didn’t work with me – but it worked a million times, despite people like us. So what do we have today? Among other things, a PhilRice that is world-class. Like a coin, the Filipino is ambivalent, but the other side is that the Filipino is world-class, and don’t you forget it!

A Study In Fairness

SRO’s book is unique, as it is a study in fairness, as SRO’s life is: It presents an almost equal dose of the praise and dispraise. Included in the book are many brief testimonies of many of the PhilRice staff, past and present, speaking of him in fondness and fairness, frankly and honestly. With his first book, SRO makes history again.

SRO the book is ambivalent too in that it has two faces. One is that of SRO the manager telling you what ought to be done; the other is that of SRO the man telling you a compelling little story of what ought to happen. Read the book! With about 120 in all, those little stories are invariably those of rough diamonds being hewn to brilliance – if you were the diamond, you wouldn’t like it until it’s all over and you see your brilliance in the mirror of your mind.

You must read the whole book, not just some parts. To understand, if not to accept, you must know the whole story. The whole story of SRO is one of dreams being pushed to transform themselves into reality as fast as possible – so, push, push, push. That was SRO. That is SRO still.

A Man Who Believed The Filipino Is World-Class

SRO will go down in history as the man who believed that the Filipino scientist was world-class, and lived to prove it. He is alive and well, thank you.

I know he dreams still. He dreams of transforming no less than the Department of Agriculture from dullness to luminescence, from unproductivity to productivity, from inertia to motion, from drive to a purpose-driven life.

He belongs in the top. I am the Editor in Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, and SRO knew that. Still, notwithstanding my standing, he did not ask me to edit his book; I merely did the last-2-minute editing of his book, not bossed it over him, as I would have liked. Why not? My answer is a joke, mine: ‘Why is SRO not a musician? Because he won’t play second fiddle.’ SRO will always be SRO. You love him, you love him not. I love him, I love him not.

I said he is the Wizard of Rice, didn’t I?

Two Wizards

After all the adventures and misadventures in fairyland, the one major lesson in The Wizard of Oz, the venerable story written by Baum (published in 1900), is this: In each one of us is the mustard seed of a miracle. Even if we happen to be a Cowardly Lion, in fact we have courage within us; even if we are a Scarecrow, in fact we have a brain in our head; even if we are a Tin Man, in fact we have a heart in our body – all we need to do is recognize it within ourselves and nourish it. And that’s exactly what the Wizard of Rice did – he made men (embracing women) feel with their heart, think with their brain, take risk with their courage. He made them write their individual books of life within the institutions he managed: PhilRice, Philippine Tobacco Research & Training Center, Mariano Marcos State University. He succeeded, marvelously. He is the Wizard.

The Wizard has written a book, 350 pages more or less. There are mistakes. There are lines written in love, lines written in angst. In the writing of books, there is no end. In the making of mistakes there is no end. In the dreaming, in the keeping of faith, in the fulfilling of dreams. In the building of men, in the building of minds, in the building of institutions. That is the world-class story of SRO. So far.

We need someone like him around. Philippine agriculture needs the Wizard of Rice. Desperately. In SRO the book you will see, as I can see him now, that SRO the man has the indefatigable mind and body. He is 69; he feels much younger. His body is at work at the Department of Agriculture; his mind is at work there and elsewhere. I am glad he will never rest in peace! –Written 29 May 2005

iRice Philippines
I just like the sound of that: 'iRice Philippines' - that which is inspired by the thought of the industry of the Philippines as being fathered by the Rice Industry Development Foundation of the Philippines (RiceDev). 'iRice Philippines' has quite a few meanings:

One, industry for rice for the Philippines. That's something new.
Two, information to help develop the industry of rice in the Philippines.
Three, 'I rise.' A metaphor, a call for the Filipino to rise from the poverty of his ideas about rice.
Four, Internet for the industry of rice in the Philippines.
Five, intelligence rising from the ground up, as in the rice terraces of the Ifugaos. The rice terraces are an endangered species in themselves, and so are the lowland farms of the rest of us unless we develop the rice industry. Frank A Hilario

The Grains Revolution:
The time is ripe
to add value to rice
By Frank A Hilario
There is something quite interesting in the focus of the Rice Industry Development Foundation not on a particular component or element but on the whole of the rice industry in the Philippines. Finally! Government offices, non-government organizations, the private sector and others have always been focusing on rice production, which is good – but clearly not enough. The Green Revolution has met with success, with emphasis on the green, which is the plant, the bearer of the golden grains. But the farmer cannot live on the high yields of golden grains alone. This Revolution must now be carried over to the next stage; it must be transformed to what I shall call here the Grains Revolution, with emphasis on the grains as the source
not only of income but added value.
The Grains Revolution is designed to complement the Green Revolution. The golden grains produced by the Green Revolution must move from the field to the market, from the farmer to the consumer, from the value adder to the value buyer. I’m not talking of the farmer only but all interested parties in a community. The golden grains must go from the:
Field to market. This considers the golden grains going not only to the warehouse of the owner of the rice mill but to the market where the price is not dictated by
only a few interested parties.
Farmer to consumer. This considers not only those who prefer white rice but also those who prefer brown rice and glutinous rice, as well as other rices. This includes growing seeds for other farmers. What about rice supply on demand?
Value adder to value buyer. This considers the consumers who demand or need more than the golden grains themselves – they prefer the grains processed.
And what are the ways to add value to the golden grains? Those are the opportunities. For instance, we already are producing rice cakes and sumans and arroz valenciana and many others – all we have to do is systematize the cooking and the selling.
Why not the idea of a franchise?
The entrepreneur in you has to look for the opportunities. The Grains Revolution is actually a paradigm shift from rice production to rice entrepreneurship. I have the boldness to predict that the next heroes of the Philippines are the value adders: the rice entrepreneurs.
And RiceDev is in the forefront of that Revolution.

Rice & modern technology

IRRI for the world and PhilRice for the Philippines – they are doing their respective job. What needs to be done is to develop the rice industry using more and more modern technology.

Rice & the Philippines

There are 7000 islands in the Philippines. There should be at least 7000 golden opportunities for developing the rice industry in this country, especially for the small farm family.

Searching for JD Drilon
Searching for agribusiness

By Frank A Hilario

Surfing. I have been surfing the Internet for the last 2 hours and found almost nothing about JD Drilon and what he said or thought about agribusiness. I believe it was he who introduced the idea of agribusiness in this country. He deserves more than passing mention. Even the Online library of SEARCA, of which he was Director at one time, has little information to share.

But what is agribusiness? My favorite dictionary, American Heritage, says agribusiness is ‘farming engaged in as a large-scale business operation embracing the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and the manufacture of farm machinery, equipment, and supplies.’

I’m sorry to read that. Agribusiness is only for large-scale operations? You are telling me that the art and science of agribusiness was right at the beginning skewed against the small farms, small operations?

If American Heritage is correct, and I have no doubt that it is, then agribusiness is the only art and science in the world that I know of which is dedicated to the big and does not recognize the medium and the small. So then I say that it’s time to redefine agribusiness as simply the art and science of doing business in agriculture: production, processing, distribution. Big scale, medium scale, small scale – they should not enter into the equation of what agribusiness is. I’m glad RiceDev is for the small.

Rice people, nice people

By Frank A Hilario

Some people I know personally are involved with RiceDev and don’t want publicity for themselves, only for the foundation. They are:

Santiago R Obien, the Father of PhilRice, or the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Senator Edgardo Angara was the Godfather). He was my boss at PhilRice where I was a Fellow. He is who I call the Wizard of Rice – he is the single factor that made PhilRice world-class.

Elpidio L Rosario, Mr Madecor himself. If you don’t know Madecor, it is one of the most successful consultancy & service groups in Asia. He was my boss at FSSRI, the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute, College of Agriculture, UP Los Baños.

Cezar P Mamaril, the Father of Minimum Soil Testing (my coinage), having invented the MOET, the Minus One Element Test for nutritional deficiency in soils. The MOET has several advantages: (a) It identifies more than just the traditional N-P-K deficiencies. (b) It shows visual results to anyone interested. (c) It can be performed by any farmer who can read.

Fernando A Bernardo, the Grand Father of ViSCA, the Visayas State College of Agriculture. It was he who singlehandedly (with the help of his wife Emiliana of course) transformed ViSCA from a third-rate college of agriculture into a world-class institution of higher learning. Later, he became Director of SEARCA and Deputy Director of IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute.

They have all dedicated their lives to the betterment of the Filipino farmer family. I’m happy for RiceDev; I’m happy for the Filipino farmers.

Finding and funding
opportunities in rice

By Frank A Hilario

Rice is gold waiting to be dug from every farmer’s field. There are macro opportunities in micro enterprises in rice – you just have to look for them.

The equation is this: If there are 1,000,000 Filipino farmer families, there are at least 1,000,000 opportunities for livelihood projects with which each family can start a small business and make itself self-sustaining. This is especially true in the rice industry, a wide field that is virtually untapped. There are at least 1 million rice growers, but they have yet to learn to add value to what they have produced: golden grains.

I understand RiceDev, or the Rice Industry Development Foundation of the Philippines, is in the field raising consciousness (and raising funds) on the myriad options for engaging in a rice business (and assisting people who wish to be so engaged).

I’m a farmer’s son and one rice business I myself am interested in is growing rice and maximizing returns (income) while minimizing costs (expenses). How can I do that? With a little capital, I can do that, because I am not going to buy any fertilizer (so, zero cost on fertilizer) and am not going to spray any chemical (so, zero cost on pesticide). I have only two little problems: a little capital and a little land to do business with. I have neither. But I am heartened because I understand RiceDev is trying to raise funds for small ventures like mine.