Vergara - 1976 - Physiological and morphological adaptability of ri

The IRRI phytotron: science in the
service of human welfare
O. H. Frankel
ool-cing at our world in this age, the most elementary’ desires that we have for
L ourselves and our children are for peace and for food. All too often they go
hand in hand. All too many people lack both. and all of us live in apprehension
of the pressures on both peace and food during the coming decades of rapidly
increasing world population. Obviously’. there are other factors which powerfully
affect the levels at which the ‘world's peoples ‘will exist for the next hundred
years; but food is undoubtedly a basic onc. and, happily‘, o11e in which the efforts
of many people can make direct and powerful contributions—unlike peace,
which can he shattered by’ the few.
Indeed, peoples participation is essential if the worlds food problem is to be
solved. It is already strikingly in evidence in many’ developing countries where
large populations of farmers move from the age-old, traditional land-use patterns
to high-producing. high-input fonns of agriculture. The change from
traditional methods to modern technologies, as we all realize, makes tremendous
demands of various kinds on the farmer himself. But. to an even greater and
more diversified extent. it makes demands on society“ as a whole which supplies
the technical. economic. and social infrastructure. and in many instances the
very’ materials and methods on which the agricultural revolution is based.
Agricultural development is thus a multi-dimensional OpCfflllClfl. and agriculture
itself has acquired a highly complex technology xvith interdependent components,
the failure of any one of which may spell disastrous economic loss. In
the traditional farming of yesterday: the economic consequences of crop failure
were cushioned by the low level of investment. by the diversification of the
fann. and by the internal diversity of the crop itself. Today investments in equipment,
fertilizer, seed. pest and disease control. cultivation, irrigation, interest
charges, and other overheads are high. and the purebred varieties which have
replaced the ancient mixed varieties have lost their genetic diversity’ and thus
have acquired “genetic vulnerabilityi“ Today's farmer cannot rely on natural
selection and on traditional common sense. To make the best of natural opportunities
and to fend off the many risks and dangers ll1\-'0l\~'€d in high-cost.
high-production agriculture. he has become dependent on various branches of
0. H. Frankel. Division of Plant Industry‘. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
(lrganizatitm (CSIRO). Canberra. Piustralia.