Lowell S. Hardin

Meetings that changed the world: Bellagio 1969: The green revolution

Agriculture in developing countries was transformed when scientists met aid officials and convinced them to invest in research. Lowell S. Hardin was there, and believes todays food crisis demands a similar vision.

Stress-adapted extremophiles provide energy without interference with food production

How to wean humanity off the use of fossil fuels continues to receive much attention but how to replace these fuels with renewable sources of energy has become a contentious field of debate as well as research, which often reflects economic and political factors rather than scientific good sense. It is clear that not every advertized energy source can lead to a sustainable, humane and environment-friendly path out of a future energy crisis. Our proposal is based on two assertions: that the use of food crops for biofuels is immoral, and that for this purpose using land suitable for growing crops productively is to be avoided. We advocate a focus on new “extremophile” crops. These would either be wild species adapted to extreme environments which express genes, developmental processes and metabolic pathways that distinguish them from traditional crops or existing crops genetically modified to withstand extreme environments. Such extremophile energy crops (EECs), will be less susceptible to stresses in a changing global environment and provide higher yields than existing crops. Moreover, they will grow on land that has never been valuable for agriculture or is no longer so, owing to centuries or millennia of imprudent exploitation. Such a policy will contribute to striking a balance between ecosystem protection and human resource management. Beyond that, rather than bulk liquid fuel generation, combustion of various biomass sources including extremophiles for generating electrical energy, and photovoltaics-based capture of solar energy, are superbly suitable candidates for powering the world in the future. Generating electricity and efficient storage capacity is quite possibly the only way for a sustainable post-fossil and, indeed, post-biofuel fuel economy.

International Agricultural Research: Organising themes and issues

Abstract This paper examines the premises and judgements which underlay the creation of a network of six international agricultural research and training organisations such as the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. The functioning of these new research centres is described and related to the roles of national research efforts in the less developed and industrialised countries. The donor-organised Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research—an institutional arrangement created to help support the system—is also discussed. Finally, the authors identify some unresolved issues having to do with the nature, structure and decision-making of international agricultural research operations.

Whence international agricultural research

Abstract International agricultural research, which flourished in the 1970s and early 1980s, faces an uncertain future. This paper identifies some of the apparent reasons why support for such research increased rapidly, then declined. It argues that if the downward trend in investment in international agricultural research is not reversed, global prices of basic foods may again rise as they did in 1973-74; and that by then the momentum of essential research programs will have been seriously disrupted.

The Functional Approach to Effective Farm Labor Utilization

EFFECTIVE use of labor is generally taken to mean high productivity per worker. To obtain maximum output per unit of labor input, careful consideration of all resources entering into farm production-not just labor alone-is necessary. Therefore, how well labor is used depends upon: (1) the quality and amount of physical, economic, and human resources available and (2) decisions on farm organization and operation ranging from those pertaining to enterprise combination and size of business to equipment choices and work methods. This discussion, however, is limited to farm operations. It is assumed that for a given farm the land resource pattern is set and that decisions regarding general farm organization are made. We are thus limiting ourselves to the problem of how to perform the necessary work. Based upon our experience in work simplification research,1 it seems to us that the problem may profitably be approached in this manner: 1. Classify the work into the necessary functions which must be performed. For example, to produce livestock it is necessary to perform the functions of roughage and bedding handling, feed handling, provision of water, moving of animals, and manure removal. In the cases of roughage, grain, and bedding the performance of the function extends from harvest through storage and feeding. The functional classification is thus on the basis of complete processes rather than on an enterprise, job, or seasonal basis. 2. Develop detailed standards or input-output ratios (for labor, machines, equipment, and buildings) for different ways of performing each step in the process involved. These standards or ratios should be in physical quantities (as accomplishment per unit of man or machine time or minutes per ton or per acre), should carefully define the method and the working conditions, and should