Posted on July 26, 2012
Business World Online
SIX INDIVIDUALS have been named recipients of
this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards for their contributions to
agricultural productivity, environmental protection and community
development.
Chen Shu-Chu
Romulo G. Davide
Kulandei Francis
Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Yang Saing Koma
Ambrosious Ruwindrijarto
Romulo G. Davide from the Philippines, Kulandei Francis from
India, Syeda Rizwana Hasan from Bangladesh, Yang Saing Koma from
Cambodia, Ambrosious Ruwindrijarto from Indonesia and Chen Shu-Chu from
Taiwan are being honored with what is called Asia’s version of the
Nobel, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) yesterday said.
Mr. Davide, elder brother of former Chief Justice Hilario G.
Davide, Jr., was cited for inroads in agricultural science that included
the development of a biological pest control product considered a safer
substitute to traditional chemicals.
The Magsaysay Award was vested on Mr. Davide for “his steadfast
passion in placing the power and discipline of science in the hands of
Filipino farmers, who have consequently multiplied their yields, created
productive farming communities, and rediscovered the dignity of their
labor,” the RMAF said.
Related contributions to improving the farm sector were
attributed to Cambodian Yang Saing Koma, who was cited for establishing,
in 1997, the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture
that has been credited with introducing a sustainable rice production
system for smallholder farms.
An agronomist, Mr. Koma also set up a body that allowed farmers
to directly deal with the market to address predatory pricing. The CEDAC
Enterprise for Development now has a chain of 13 shops that sell
produce from over 5,000 farmers in eight provinces, and has even started
to export organic rice.
Two awardees, meanwhile, were cited for contributions to protecting the environment.
Described as a legal activist, Ms. Hasan is executive director of
the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, which has supported
the cause of environmental justice.
Ms. Hasan was given the award, the RMAF said, for her “judicial
activism in Bangladesh that affirms the people’s right to a good
environment as nothing less than their right to dignity and life.”
Indonesia’s Mr. Ruwindrijarto, meanwhile, was said to be
instrumental in exposing “environmental crimes” with Telapak, initially
formed as an advocacy group for small projects on wildlife protection
among communities.
He was cited for his “sustained advocacy for community-based
natural resource management... leading bold campaigns to stop illegal
forest exploitation, as well as fresh social enterprise initiatives that
engage the forest communities as their partners.”
Mr. Francis and Ms. Chen, meanwhile, were recognized by the RMAF
for their efforts in community development and philanthropy,
respectively.
India’s Mr. Francis has long been involved in social work by
mobilizing communities to uplift living conditions. A project he founded
in 1979 set up a night school and first aid center in an Indian town,
while another tie-up with development organizations established small
dams. Women self-help groups involved in savings and credit were also
established by the Integrated Village Development Project in 1989 which
he led.
Mr. Francis’s “sustained programs in pursuing the holistic
economic empowerment of thousands of women and their families in rural
India” were cited by the RMAF reasons for conferring the award.
For Taiwan’s Ms. Chen, the award recognized “the pure altruism of
her giving, which reflects a deep, consistent, quiet compassion, and
has transformed the lives of the numerous Taiwanese she has unselfishly
helped.”
Ms. Chen grew up helping her father run the family’s vegetable
business to lift the family out of poverty. As a vegetable vendor for
two decades, she was said to have personally given over $320,000 “to
various charities, particularly for the care and education of children.”
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