Business research vs. agricultural research
Since the announcement of the University’s plan to develop a new research center in our country, many people have showed their concern for the project and expressed their views of type of center it should be. It is now clear that the diversified views have converged to two: a business research center or an agriculture research center. Now that we have to make a decision, I think we should choose the latter without hesitation.
As everybody knows, our country is an agricultural country whose fanning produce is not enough to feed its own people. We have no way out but to develop our agriculture because agriculture is the foundation of our national economy and because it would be a disaster to the whole world if we rely on foreign food to feed the biggest population in the world.
To develop our agriculture, we cannot just call on the peasants to work harder because they have being working the hardest from generation to generation. What we should do is to raise their educational level and provide them with better seeds, more fertilizers, advanced machinery and equipment, and up-to-date technical advice. In short, we have to rely on science and technology to develop our agriculture.
Some people would say that this couldn’t be a convincing reason because science and technology are needed not only in agriculture but also in all other fields. My view is that our situation in agriculture is the most serious and the challenges are the greatest. Ours is a big country with widely different climates and soil conditions. If we are to assist the peasants, we have to study all types of crops and all the fanning conditions in this land. With a research center, these problems can be studied and solved systematically. But so far, no agriculture research center worthy of the name has been set up while there is already a business center in the southern part of the country.
Because of the above reasons, I strongly recommend that we develop a research center for agriculture purpose and I also strongly recommend this center be well funded. If we take this step and succeed in this endeavor, our agricultural produce will be greatly increased and our whole national economy will have a solid foundation.
