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Unknown to most Filipinos, the Philippines has played
a vital role in the setting up of Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed
Vault, dubbed as the modern-day “Noah’s Ark.”
Located in the Norwegian island
of Spitsbergen in Svalbard peninsula in the Arctic Region, the seed
bank is easily the 21st century’s most ambitious project designed
to assure mankind of food supply in case of catastrophic events.
Our own International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, Laguna is the biggest
contributor to the seed bank.
According to Ola Westengen,
operations manager of the global seed vault, the IRRI has so far
shipped 70,000 different varieties of rice that it has gathered from
120 different countries.
The global seed vault, which was
built at a cost of US$10 million, has the capacity to house 4.5
billion seed samples. From its initial deposit of 268,000 distinct
samples of seeds—each one originating from a different farm, or
field in the world—there are now 100 million seeds from over 100
countries.
‘Doomsday vault’
The seed bank, which is also
called “doomsday vault,” is designed to store duplicates of
seeds from around the globe. It consists of three highly secured
rooms sitting at the end of a 125-meter tunnel blasted out of a
mountain in Spitsbergen.
The seeds are being stored at
minus 18 degrees Celsius in specially designed four-ply foil
packages sealed inside boxes and stored in shelves inside the vault.
During the vault’s official
opening last February 26, 2008, Norway Prime Minister Jens
Stoltenberg said that even in the worst-case scenarios of global
warming, the vault rooms would remain naturally frozen for up to 200
years. He said the facility is capable of protecting not just seeds
but “the fundamental building blocks of human civilization.”
Filipino farmer honored
In recognition of the
Philippines’ contribution to the global efforts to preserve staple
crops, a Filipino farmer from Roxas, North Cotabato, was among those
invited to speak at the opening of the seed vault.
The farmer, Eulogio ‘Tay Gipo’
Sasi Jr., 64, spoke before an audience of about 200 scientists,
diplomats and world leaders including 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Awardee
Wangari Maathal of Kenya and UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Secretary General Jacques Diouf.
Norway’s Ministry of
Agriculture and Food invited Tay Gipo to the vault’s opening for
his work on seed conservation, rice breeding and maintenance of
biodiversity in his farm. He has developed the rice variety Bordagol,
which has been widely used by farmers because of its high yield and
resistance to pests and disease.
Tay Gipo said he was at first
hesitant when invited to talk at the conference. Speaking in
Pilipino, he said he was not even sure if he could attend the
opening because he had no birth certificate. But the Norwegian
government arranged everything for him so that he could share with
the world his experiences as a rice farmer.
Tay Gipo was born on June 8,
1944, in La Castellana, Negros Occidental. His parents were not able
to register his birth because it was in the middle of the Second
World War.
He was still young when his
family migrated to Mindanao. He said his schooling stopped at 4th
grade and he did not bother getting documents, such as a birth
certificate.
When other farmers in Roxas
started noticing his rice variety in 1987, many exchanged seeds with
him. He thought of naming it Bordagol, a character in a children’s
comic book that saves the world.
Tay Gipo learned about rice
breeding and other farm techniques from the Southeast Asia Research
Institute on Community Empowerment. In 1997, he tried breeding
Bordagol with Basmati, a rice variety from India. It took him five
years to develop a mixed variety that proved to be more
pest-resilient and high yielding.
In his speech, Tay Gipo said that
he hoped the seeds now being stored in the vault “will not just be
forgotten there.”
Tay Gipo challenged the audience
to provide more attention and support for farmers around the world.
“I hope governments will provide support to farmers including fair
and better prices for our products. I hope that the knowledge that
goes with the seeds will not just be stored in ice, but further
enriched by giving support to the work of farmers,” he said.
Tay Gipo was given a lithograph
of Svalbard with a polar bear in the Arctic night for being the
“best speaker” during the opening rites.
Unfortunately, the honor and
recognition bestowed on Tay Gipo in Norway passed almost unnoticed
in the Philippines. It was drowned by the usual antics of our
politicians who cannot seem to wait for 2010 in their attempts to
wrest the country’s leadership.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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