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Combine all that and you have IGNRM, I mean, what I have just told you is what I understand is Integrated Genetic
and Natural Resource Management. If you can’t define it, describe it. If you can’t see the whole, look at the parts
and tell me what you see.
So, IGNRM is that complicated! Well, I don’t know of any science that is not complicated as long as it deals with
people – as long as it is the scientists themselves explaining themselves. Which is a good thing. Because when
scientists have problems explaining research intentions, implementations, interpretations, implications, they call
on us popularizers of science, and I love that! That proves that we writers are their significant other and, you know,
we like to feel needed too.
From a website, I read this: ‘With improved rainwater management as an entry point along with Integrated Genetic
and Natural Resource Management …’ (worldbank.org). Which means that with the simple act of teaching the
handling of rainwater in the context of a good farming practice, scientists can enter into the lives of people in the
villages and soon immerse them in IGNRM.
You understand that I have two
problems here. One, I have to be
able to explain it to myself before I
can write about it; so, I have to go
and see if I can imbibe the
essence of IGNRM. Two, I have to
understand how the genetic
resource is integrated with the
natural resource; so, I have to go
and clarify to myself
the IGNRM process.
The report is that with ICRISAT, in Kothapally, Andhra Pradesh,
India, IGNRM has consisted of introducing broad-bed and
furrow cultivation, planting Gliricidia on bunds for green
manure, introducing new crops and cropping systems,
integrated pest management, developing micro-enterprises
(icrisat.org). In the Tad Fa and Wang Chai watersheds in
Thailand, and Thanh Ha and Huong Dao watersheds in
Vietnam, IGNRM has comprised of legumes being included in
the cropping systems, contour cultivation, vegetative bunds,
integrated pest management, diversified cropping. Like I told
you, IGNRM is a tangle of items, a complication of terms. Are
they trying to help the farmers, or are they trying to confuse
them?
Let me put it more simply: In practical terms, IGNRM is the use
of knowledge in different fields of science for farmers to produce
more for less, and to be able to enjoy a life of dignity without
exploiting people or natural resources – or without other people
exploiting them for their personal interests.
That’s still complicated, but that will do for now. And I still don’t like IGNRM, the name, but I have to accept the stark
reality of it. Acceptance is the beginning of wisdom.
Yet, why not? ‘O, be some other name! / What’s in a name?’ Juliet asks of Romeo, his sweetheart in William
Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo & Juliet, in that very famous balcony scene (Act II, Scene 2). ‘That which we call
a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet; / So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d …’
What’s In A Name?