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32 Rice Today October-December 2006

If you turn on the TV or flipopen a magazine, it’s notuncommon to see a Hollywoodstar, a famous athlete, ora high-profile socialite in

some far-flung region, mingling with the poor, assisting at medicalclinics, or handing out care packages.Perhaps these celebrities genuinely  want to help. Or perhaps theiragents convinced them that somepositive publicity would help boosttheir profile. Far from these stage-managed, filmed, and photographedexcursions, however, you will findfar less famous people doing work that often goes unrecognized butprobably achieves far more.

 Vethaiya Balasubramanian,

recently retired senior agronomistat the International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI), is one such person.Serving as IRRI Africa coordinatorsince 2005, Dr. Bala, as he’s known tohis colleagues, was involved in settingup rice research and developmentprograms in eastern, central, andsouthern Africa. He also worked inthe training and delivery of IRRItechnologies in both Asia and Africa.

Dr. Bala first stepped aboard

IRRI in 1991 as chief of the IRRI-Madagascar project, advising andtraining staff on soil and resourcemanagement, and rice-basedcropping systems. As IRRI’s CropResources Management Network coordinator from 1994 to 2001,he helped the Institute’s partnercountries source, evaluate, andadapt promising crop resourcesand management technologies.

The foundations for Dr. Bala’simpressive career were laid in hisnative India. After earning his bachelor’s degree in agriculture andmaster’s degree in soil science andagricultural chemistry at India’sTamil Nadu Agricultural University,he took his Ph.D. in agronomy and

soil science at the University of Hawaii, USA. His next step wasa big one—saying goodbye to theU.S., he ventured into one of theglobe’s poorest regions, spendinghis next 16 years in the Africancountries of Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana,Cameroon, and Madagascar.

“I lived in small villages with no water or electricity,” recalls Dr. Bala. We collected rainwater to quenchour thirst and cook our food. We

used kerosene refrigerators witha lamp at the bottom. I lived likethat in Rwanda for five years.”

 And although development in Africa still has a long way to go,Dr. Bala believes that advancesin other regions have helped.

“The governments and scientistsin Africa are more fortunate now  because they can use the latesttechnologies. They don’t have to gothrough long periods of research because the technologies areavailable elsewhere, like in Asia,and can be used and modified.”

IRRI’s stimulating scientificatmosphere has been a source

Quiet  Achiever 

The

Recently retired rice scientist Vethaiya Balasubramanian has spent his

life helping people—and he’s not going to let retirement stop him

by Trina Leah Mendoza

DR. BALA TEACHES IRRI rice production courseparticipants about nitrogen management in riceusing a chlorophyll meter.

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33Rice Today October-December 2006

P

roducing young and robust rice

seedlings is a challenge for rice

farmers everywhere. To help meet

this challenge, scientists from IRRI and theTamil Nadu Agricultural University in India

have developed an improved method of 

crop establishment: growing seedlings in a

modified mat nursery.

The technology establishes seedlings in a

layer of soil mix arranged on a firm surface.

It also uses less land and requires fewer

seeds and inputs, such as fertilizer and water,

reducing nursery costs by up to 50%.

The key is the modified mat nursery’s soil 

mixture, which is composed of seven parts

soil, two parts well-decomposed chicken

manure, and one part charred rice hulls. The

mix is poured into a wooden frame laid on top

of banana leaves or plastic sheeting, which

prevents the roots from penetrating into the

soil, making it easier to pull seedlings out

and thus minimizing root damage.

Pregerminated seeds are sown uniformly,

sprinkled with soil, and patted gently to

embed them at about 2–3 cm into the soil 

bed. They are then watered and covered

with banana leaves or plastic. The nursery

is watered twice a day for 5 days, and kept

covered for the first 4 days to protect the

Making mats matter  

seedlings from either drying up or getting

washed away by heavy rains. On the fifth

day, the cover is removed, and the nursery

is flooded to a 1-cm water level around

the beds. After 15–20 days, the seedlings

reach the four-leaf stage—which favors

quick establishment in the field and rapid

growth—and are ready for transplanting. This

is much quicker than the 25–35 days required

for traditional wet-bed nurseries.

The technology has already been adopted in

southern India, and was recently introduced

in Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, East Timor,

and the Philippines. One major advantage

of the method is that it can be applied in

all countries and on all soil types, as long

as the soil is kept moist. In areas where

modified mat nurseries have been successfully

implemented, they have produced robust,

fast-growing seedlings, an additional 20–40%

yield, and about US$100–250 additional 

income per season for farmers.

of great satisfaction for Dr. Bala,and has given him the chance toshare his 4 decades of accumulatedknowledge. In the 5 years beforehis retirement, he was heavily involved with the Institute’s TrainingCenter, co-presenting the riceproduction course and a workshop

on scientific writing and presentationskills for young scientists.

“I really want to share what Iknow, and all the technologies, allthe information, all the skills that Ihave,” he says. “I want to transfer my knowledge to developing countries’scientists so they can, in turn, trainfarmers and help them produce morefood and better their livelihoods. If  we can’t produce more food to feedthe poor, there’s going to be a lot moreconflict and problems in the world.”

In Dr. Bala’s 15 years at IRRI, hecites the leaf color chart—a simplepiece of technology developed incollaboration with the PhilippineRice Research Institute and used forfertilizer management (see Chart hit  for N sync on page 33 of  Rice Today Vol. 3, No. 4)—as one of the mostsuccessful developments for rice.

“We have more than one millioncharts distributed all over Asiaand in a few countries in Africaand Latin America,” he says.

Dr. Bala considers integrated cropmanagement another IRRI successstory. This approach brings togethertechnologies to provide farmers witha basket of options that offer solutionsto a wide array of problems. Thestrategy, he says, is doing very well,particularly in Vietnam, Indonesia,and southern India. He mentionsdirect seeding and drum seeding as booming technologies that IRRI hashelped develop and disseminate (see

 Drumming up success on pages 22-27of  Rice Today Vol. 4, No. 2, and Thedirect approach on pages 12-18 of  Rice Today Vol. 5, No. 2, respectively).

Dr. Bala also helped pioneer themodified mat nursery, which is now  being adopted in several countries(see Making mats matter, right ).

 When Dr. Bala returns to hishometown in Voimedu, India—thedate is set for October 2006—it isn’tto slow down. He plans to teach at

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and, starting with his own village,has taken on IRRI’s goal to reducepoverty and hunger. Dr. Bala’s Revive Your Village project willestablish—with his own money—a

“village knowledge center” in hishometown, which will serve as aplay area for preschool children, areading room and lending library, acomputer room, a preventive healthadvisory clinic, and a training hall.

“I want to improve the educationand training facilities in rural areasand remove the gap between the skillsand capabilities of rural and urbanchildren,” Dr. Bala explains. “Frommy village, I want to develop a modelthat can be duplicated all over Indiaand in other countries as well.”

Dr. Bala knows he has a long way to go, but it is his way of giv ing back to his country—his thanks for theopportunities he has had. He feels blessed to have had the chance tospend his life helping people in need.

“When I look back, I’m really proud that I had the strengthand courage to work in extremeconditions with different groups of people,” he says. “For each country,each university, and each instituteI've worked with, I feel that I’ve really

done something for them. They’rehappy to see me when I go back and visit. That is really satisfying.”

Trina Mendoza is a communication specialist 

with the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium.

A 29-YEAR-OLD Dr. Bala, then an East-West Center Fellow studying for his Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, forgoes rice for bananas during a culturalexchange and exploration tour in 1970.

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