• by Neena Bhandari (sydney)
• Wednesday, February 28, 2024
• Inter Press Service

Ethiopia in the late 1970s and 1980s was ruined by an awful starvation, dry spell, civil battle, and global problem. It came to be clear to Pinto from the start that such quandaries can swiftly wear away daily life and the lack of food can annihilate a populace. These occasions instilled in her a deep admiration for the function farming and food systems play in human survival.

“I have not forgotten where I originated from,” says Pinto, the incoming Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). A second-generation Kenyan by birth, she feels privileged to have been brought up in Ethiopia, a country that was never colonized and where she felt fortunate to grow up as an equal, a rare experience then.

The small farming station in Holetta, about an hour’s drive from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, is now the National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Centre. She says, “My father was its first director. From the mid-1960s, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and the creation of the Ethiopian Seed Corporation in 1978. I’m undoubtedly a product of those institutions and influences. My father has been my champion.”

She has continued to work with people from those institutions, and while it’s important for her to add value and make a contribution where she can, Pinto affirms, “It is also very important to enhance the contribution of others because having bright and capable people contribute to ideas, approaches, and solutions is often the difference between success and failure.”

On April 22, 2024, she will take over as the Director General of IRRI, where she started her working life as a visiting research scholar in 1985, when eminent agricultural scientist and geneticist Dr M S Swaminathan, was the institute’s director general.

“My time at IRRI, which is referred to as the jewel in the crown of the CGIAR system, and encouragement from my supervisors clearly influenced my decision later in life to do a PhD in rice,” adds Pinto, who will be the first woman to lead the institute which is dedicated to abolishing poverty and hunger among people and populations that depend on rice-based agri-food systems.

She says, “There are opportunities now for girls and women that weren’t present in the past. There’s an interesting societal transition happening in the world, gaining momentum through the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement to the growing focus on equity, inclusion, and diversity. I’m actually a product of that change and thinking.”

Out of the hundreds of congratulatory messages she received on her appointment, “One-third of them were girls and women. All I can say to them is that if I can do it, you can do it,” says Pinto, who also drew inspiration from her mother, a medical surgeon.

In Africa, where rice cultivation is the principal source of income for more than 35 million smallholder rice farmers, women provide the bulk of the labour, from sowing to weeding, harvesting, processing, and marketing, according to the Africa Rice Centre.

Acknowledging the challenges faced by small and middle-income rice farmers, she emphasizes the need to ensure that farmers receive fair returns on their investment.

“Smallholder farmers are reliant upon the private sector or non-governmental organizations to receive the material, such as seeds and other agriculture inputs. In rice and rice seed systems, for example, there are a number of private sector players who are involved. We have to have very intelligent Intellectual Property (IP) arrangements with the private sector to ensure that our farmers have affordable access to these materials and they are not disadvantaged in the process,”  says Pinto, that will certainly likewise act as the CGIAR Regional Director for South-East Asia and the Pacific and Country Representative for the Philippines.

Unlike in many Asian nations, where financial development and enhancing urbanization have actually caused a decrease in rice usage, in African nations, usage has actually substantially boosted. Demand for rice is expanding at greater than 6 percent each year, which is much faster than for any kind of various other food staple in below-Saharan Africa, according to the Africa Rice Centre.

Looking in advance, Pinto pictures IRRI playing a critical function in advertising round farming techniques in rice manufacturing and underpinning the value of rice in human health and wellness and nourishment.

She says, “We have remarkable chances to develop even more healthy and resistant rice ranges efficient in holding up against environment modification, profiting both farmers and customers alike. There is a chance to make it possible for IRRI’s germplasm, not just to affect and affect the Asia-Pacific area yet to sustain various other rice creating and eating nations, significantly in Africa”.

Rice is currently the second-most vital resource of calories after corn in lots of below-Saharan Africa nations. The area’s complete rice usage is predicted to expand to around 36 million lots by the end of 2026, and the area is anticipated to import over 32 percent of around the world traded rice by 2026, mostly from India, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam, according to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) record.

Reflecting on her considerable experience chairing boards and boards worldwide, she says efficient management rests on “fostering connections, building trust, and nurturing partnerships and collaboration, as leadership is a collective responsibility within an interconnected ecosystem.”

Pinto is positioned to drive impactful modification in farming study, progressing food safety and security and sustainability.

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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal resource: Inter Press Service