Monty Jones: The African hero
Advertisement
But other people spend long years in research laboratories and fields to ensure that hunger is banished from Africa through food sufficiency, thereby replenishing the national kitty by way of savings on food imports, and yet, they are unsung names in African homes.
For more than three decades, Professor Monty Patrick Jones has spent his lifetime undertaking agricultural research across Africa, but apart from the research and academic circles where he is a towering figure, his name does not ring a bell in the ears of millions of people his lifetime sacrifices have rescued from hunger and, possibly, death.
When I had the privilege to interview Prof. Jones recently, my background check on him on the Internet revealed an academic and professional credential that was explicitly awesome.
But the demeanour of the man, fondly called the ‘Wonder Rice’ back home in his native Sierra Leone for his discovery of a new high-yielding rice variety for Africa, was too humble and modest for his high international stature.
Academic background
Born on February 5, 1951 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Prof. Jones holds a BSc in Agriculture (1974) from the Njala University College, University of Sierra Leone; MSc in Plant Genetic Resources (1979) and PhD in Plant Biology (1983) from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Research career
Having obtained those distinguished academic badges, Professor Jones dedicated himself to a lifetime career of fighting hunger, spending the last 32 years in Africa to work for international agricultural research for development institutions.
It all started at the Rice Research Station in Sierra Leone, where he worked as a breeder for 13 years.
Thereafter, he plunged into an international career, working with the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) as Co-ordinator of the IITA/USAID Cameroon rice programme from 1987 to 1990.
A year later in 1991, Professor Jones joined the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), now known as Africa Rice Centre, as the Principal Breeder.
That was where he shot himself into international fame and legendary status by developing the New Rice for Africa (NERICA), in close collaboration with other scientists from Africa, Asia, Europe and US.
NERICA
For many years, Prof. Jones and his team of researchers worked to discover the genetic process to create NERICA, a set of high-productivity rice adapted to West Africa's growing conditions.
They had crossed varieties of Asian and African rice to find stable and fertile breeds that combined the high yields of Asia's rice and the toughness of Africa's rice.
In consequence, NERICA gives higher yields, shorter growth cycles and more protein content than its Asian and African parents.
And when the new rice variety was disseminated through participatory approaches by working with scientists, extension workers, farmers’ organisations, governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), it was a huge and instant success.
At the moment, NERICA has gained roots in many farms across West Africa, boosting food security and incomes of farmers in the sub-region.
Indeed, the project has helped to increase rice production by 25 per cent in some countries and 50 per cent in other countries.
It has also helped to reduce the huge import bill on rice for many African governments and increased the incomes of farmers substantially.
Other office held
Prof. Jones also worked in some other capacities with international organisations. He was appointed as the Chairperson of the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) in 2010, a position he held until April 2013 when he stepped down at the end of his tenure.
Prior to that assignment, he had taken up a job as pioneer Executive Secretary (later designated Executive Director) of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in 2002 when FARA was established.
Advertisement
After 11 years of dedicated service at FARA, and having kept the flag of the research institution flying high, Prof. Jones is bidding farewell to his comrades at FARA, as he proceeds on retirement.
From a modest beginning, FARA, through the untiring efforts of Professor Jones and his team, has become a globally-acclaimed agricultural research institution.
“I am happy to leave because I believe I have contributed to agricultural development in Africa,” he says.
“I’m, however, sad for leaving Ghana and friends. It’s always a terrible feeling when you have to leave people behind.”
Advertisement
There is no doubt that the departure of Prof. Jones would cause a vacuum at FARA, but he believes there are capable and dynamic successors to continue from where he ends his work.
Research investment
Sharing some thoughts on the way forward for agricultural development in Africa, Prof. Jones says he believes investment in research for new agricultural technologies and innovations to increase production is the only way Africa can break the back of food insecurity, hunger and poverty.
Currently, Africa’s population hover around one billion but the continent is not able to feed its people.
And in the estimation of Prof. Jones, if Africa cannot feed its people now, it will be difficult to do so in 30 to 40 years ahead when the population hits the two billion mark.
Advertisement
“Today, we are not able to feed our people because production/productivity is low. So we need to get things right in the area of research to be able to feed two billion people in 2050,” he remarks.
Awards and honours
The NERICA project was a ground-breaking research initiative. No wonder it’s been high yielding in respect of awards and honours for Prof. Jones.
Through the NERICA project, WARDA was awarded the prestigious CGIAR’s King Badouin Award in 2000.
In September 2001, the Ivorian President conferred on him the National Order of Merit of Côte d’Ivoire.
Three years later in 2004, he gained international prominence when NERICA once again propelled his name as co-winner of the prestigious World Food Prize.
Recognising the dignity Prof. Jones had brought to himself and his associates, his alma mater, Birmingham University, in July 2005, awarded him an honorary degree Doctor of Science (DSc).
By that time, Professor Jones’ international fame was beginning to shoot through the roofs, and rightly so, the Time Magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential persons of the world in 2007.
More awards and honours kept coming, and in 2010, Prof. Jones was appointed Professor Extraordinary by the Executive Committee of the University of the Free State, South Africa.
In October of the same year, he was awarded the main prize of the Niigata International Food Award in Japan.
His motherland, Sierra Leone, did not allow others to run the show, as the government and people sought to claim their own, with the President awarding him the Insignia of the Grand Officer of the Order of the Rokel in 2011 for his work on NERICA.
In April this year, President Ernest Koroma appointed Prof. Jones as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Adviser to the President, as the man, fondly called ‘Rice Wonder’ by Sierra Leoneans returns to his land of birth on retirement after serving humanity for many decades in international circles.
By Kofi Yeboah/Ghana