GOOD NEWS PILIPINAS: Filipino Farmer Honored in Norway

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GOOD NEWS PILIPINAS: Filipino Farmer Honored in Norway

Tue Jun 1, 2010 5:26 am (PDT)

"I am embarrassed to talk in front of many people, especially in front
of important people, like all of you. Para sa isang pobre at simpleng
magsasaka tulad ko, parang imposible at mahirap na humarap sa inyo dahil
napakalayo ng lugar na ito mula sa Pilipinas. Akala ko hindi ako
makakapunta dito dahil wala akong birth certificate. (For a poor and
simple farmer like myself, it felt impossible to be here to address you
all: this place is very far from the Philippines. I thought I wouldn't
make it here because I don't have a birth certificate) ,"

This is how Eulogio 'Tay Gipo' Sasi Jr., a 64 year old Pinoy farmer from
North Cotabato, commenced his speech at the opening of the Svalvard
Global Seed Vault in Norway a year ago. The audience? 150 scientists,
diplomats and world leaders, which include 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
Awardee Wangari Maathal of Kenya and UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) Secretary General Jacques Diouf.

Tay Gipo in Norway -- Photo and Story Courtesy of Pinoy Press
<http://www.pinoypre ss.net/2008/ 03/10/filipino- farmer-honored- in-opening
-of-noahs-ark- in-north- pole/> and SEARICE

In 2008, Tay Gipo was invited by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of
Norway to share the story of how he successfully developed a rice
variety that he named Bordagol -- which is now highly distributed and
used by farmers the world over because of its outstanding tillering
trait and incredible resistance to pests and plant diseases.

"He was a farmer who, despite having only four years of formal
education, discovered a rice variety that proved to be high-yielding and
pest resistant, the sample of which is among the thousands of seeds kept
at the global seed vault," said Norway Minister of Agriculture and Food
Lard Peder Brekk.

"During a particularly tough year, he noticed one plant in his field
that did not succumb to the virus 'tungro'. He literally had to pull the
plant from the mouth of a farm animal who was planning to have it for a
snack - he saved the seeds, replanted them and the next season he
harvested 25 kilograms just from the seeds of that one plant."

Bardagol is now part of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault - a seed back-up
facility that protects important agricultural 'artifacts', inventions
and discoveries from natural or man-made catastrophes -- like Climate
Change or world wars. The vault is Norway's way of making sure that the
world's agricultural achievements will never be lost.

Just last Thursday, February 26, 2009, Tay Gipo was again honored by
Norway for this highly-important contribution to world-sustenance and
for his highly moving and powerful speech last year. It is a sad thing
though that he couldn't be there to witness it; Tay Gipo passed away
just last month at the age of 64.

Nonetheless, as so eloquently put by Minister Brekk,

"[Tay Gipo's] legacy remains in the fields of the Philippines - where
his "Bordagol" is grown by his neighbors - and their neighbors. And his
legacy remains here in Svalbard where seeds of his "Bordagol" are safely
stored for the future."

Mabuhay ka, Tay Gipo! Thank you for your contribution to world
sustenance and for making all Filipinos proud!

Story Credit: Good News Pilipinas <http://goodnewspili pinas.com/> and
Pinoy Press