Not just winning but upscaling

Why Not Just Winning, But Up Scaling?

The recent news that the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) won second place in the World's Best Rice 2025 competition, with their Mabango 3 variety, is certainly a cause for celebration. However, it's essential to recognize that winning is not just about taking home the trophy – it's about upscaling the results to make a real difference in people's lives.

The Significance of Scaling Up

The Philippines' achievement in the World's Best Rice 2025 competition highlights the potential for our agricultural sector to compete globally. But, we must go beyond mere winning and focus on scaling up our efforts to make a tangible impact. By doing so, we can create meaningful change that improves the lives of farmers, consumers, and communities.

The Challenges Facing Our Agricultural Sector

Despite having some of the region's best agricultural researchers, our country still lags behind in terms of agricultural productivity and competitiveness. Three key challenges contribute to this problem

1. Undervalued Talent Our talented agricultural scientists and researchers are not fully recognized for their expertise, leading to a lack of opportunities for them to upscale their research.
2. Limited Impact The solutions our researchers find often remain confined to pilot projects or experimental farms, failing to make a meaningful difference on the agricultural sector as a whole.
3. Lack of Visionary Leadership Our country lacks visionary leaders and responsive institutions that can harness the research outputs of our agricultural scientists and researchers to drive positive change.

A Call to Action

To overcome these challenges, we must recognize the value of our agricultural researchers, upscale their research outcomes, and provide visionary leadership that can drive meaningful change. By doing so, we can unlock the full potential of our agricultural sector and create a lasting impact on people's lives.

In Conclusion

Winning is not just about taking home the trophy – it's about upscaling the results to make a real difference in people's lives. As we celebrate our country's achievement in the World's Best Rice 2025 competition, let us also recognize the importance of scaling up and providing visionary leadership to drive positive change in our agricultural sector.

Keywords Agricultural Research, UpScaling, PhilRice, Mabango 3, World's Best Rice 2025

Edward Lance Arellano Lorilla

CEO / Co-Founder

Enjoy the little things in life. For one day, you may look back and realize they were the big things. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.