"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I know." What HAROLD RAY WATSON, founder and director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center in central Mindanao wants people to know is how to conserve, rebuild and make a living from depleted mountainous soils. He considers land degradation the worst enemy of any nation for it is a creeping, often unrecognized foe. He knows the world is losing arable land at a shocking rate as forests are cut down and rain and drought take their toll. It has been particularly noticeable in the southern Philippines where he serves as an agricultural missionary. Logging has destroyed large tracts of virgin forest. Subsistence farmers have moved in and with their slash-and-burn technique depleted the nutrients in the thin soils that were exposed. Much of the soil was then washed away by the torrential rains of the monsoons. WATSON's goal is to save the thin top soil, replenish the nutrients and helpthe poor farmer raise enough to feed his family and earn a modest profit to buy necessities.

HAROLD WATSON was born April 17, 1934 on a farm 14 miles from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, then a city of about 25,000. He was the second child and only son of Joseph C. Watson and Dorothy Mae Cagle. His father farmed cotton, corn and watermelon on 150 acres of sloping hillside land which were reduced to 80 acres as the depression of the 1930s continued. His parents separated and his father worked at a government arsenal in Texas and later remarried, but his mother and the two children remained in Mississippi on the family farm. WATSON kept in touch with his father, and both parents had a strong influence on him; both had deep religious beliefs and both were concerned that he receive the college education neither of them had enjoyed. His maternal grandparents, who lived nearby, also played a role in shaping his character.

From 1940 to 1949 WATSON studied at McLaurin Elementary School and then entered Forest County Agricultural High. The latter was unusual in that it accepted boarders from South America as well as from other parts of the United States, but young WATSON lived at home and made the round trip daily in a counq school bus.

WATSON credits two of his vocational agriculture teachers Bishop and Cowart—with directing him towards agriculture as a career. They would listen to you and spend time with you; they were good people, a good influence, good for young children to be around," he recounts with respect. They emphasized "hands on education," taking entire classes to harvest crops, usually those of poor farmers who could not afford to hire extra hands. In this way they taught two meaningful lessons: the practical application of classroom theory, and man's responsibility toward his neighbor.

After graduation WATSON enlisted in the Air Force. The United States was fighting the Korean War and he preferred to volunteer rather than be drafted. After basic training he was assigned to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, as a clerk. To this day he cannot understand why he was given an office job. He was very unhappy at first but did not openly rebel, performing the undemanding routine mechanically. Coming from a devout Baptist family he gravitated to the chapel where he met the Protestant chaplain, Major Bill Lyons, and volunteered to organize church activities for children. Lyons, aware of WATSON's unhappiness with his clerical assignment, recommended him as the full-time director of the Teen Center which provided after-school activities for all base children. The job was challenging and WATSON enjoyed helping and guiding the young.

The satisfaction he found in youth work, and his growing personal Christian commitment, suggested to him a career in the ministry, but at first the idea was terrifying because he could not picture himself preaching to a congregation. Nevertheless the idea grew, and his previously considered career options—farming and teaching agriculture seemed less attractive. Eventually he gave himself wholly to the "call" and determined to study for the ministry upon discharge.

In July 1953 a truce was signed ending hostilities in Korea and the Air Force offered early release to anyone intending to enter the ministry. Two of his friends applied immediately end were soon on their civilian way. WATSON, who had been accepted by a Baptist college, also applied, but not as quickly. His request was turned down—"one of the biggest disappointments in my life," he says. There was no explanation for the rejection, but he assumes that too many persons, not necessarily in good faith, took advantage of the offer before his request was processed. Nevertheless "it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me," he says in retrospect.

Although he was deeply disappointed, he was basically an optimist and quickly rebounded, only to find himself suddenly incapacitated by a painful attack of what turned out to be rheumatoid arthritis which confined him to bed for three weeks. After he recovered he was transferred to Okinawa where he was again made a clerk. As before, the chapel and the Christian community drew him. Once on a jaunt around the island with a church friend, he passed a building identified as the Methodist Mission House. Intrigued, they stopped. It was an agricultural mission. They stayed only a few minutes chatting with the missionary, but an idea was planted which continued to grow during the remainder of his Okinawa tour. Agriculture was his love and the ministry a compelling desire; he now saw a way of combining the two. He began to read about mission work and the more he read the more the idea appealed to him.

WATSON was discharged from the Air Force in 1956 and within a week married Joyce— Elizabeth Joyce Daniel—whom he had met in Texas. While he was overseas they had continued their friendship through correspondence. As letters increased in frequency, their mutual understanding and affection grew, and before returning home WATSON knew he had found his wife and mission partner.

Late submission of application documents frustrated his hope of immediately entering Mississippi State University at Starkville. He enrolled, therefore, at Hinds Junior College, in Hinds, Mississippi. A year later he transferred to the university to pursue an undergraduate course in agriculture.

Christian fellowship and volunteer church work were central to the young couple's life at Starkville, so it was not surprising that the nearby Union Church—which hosted Methodist and Baptist worship services on alternate Sundays—asked him to be the Baptist pastor. (In the Baptist Church an invitation to lead a congregation is tantamount to ordination, which occurs formally after examination by an ordination council. No other educational qualifications are required.) The job of preparing sermons, leading the services and making pastoral calls was time consuming for a full-time university student, yet the young man welcomed this first step on the path toward his goal of agricultural missionary. Soon another church—in Ashland, Mississippi—invited him to preach on the alternate Sundays. This meant a round trip drive of 150 miles, but again he accepted and continued his ministry at these two small churches until 1960 when he received his Master of Science in Agriculture.

WATSON had already made inquiries of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. Their standards were exacting. A candidate needed a master's degree, one year of seminary training, and at least two consecutive years of field experience in a specialty before qualifying to become a missionary. With the first requirement behind him, he fulfilled the second by spending the following year at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas. To meet the third, he taught vocational agriculture at North Forest High School in Eatonville, Mississippi, from 1961 to 1964. He then applied to the Foreign Mission Board for appointment and was accepted.

Several overseas positions were open but WATSON chose one on Mindanao in the Philippines. He had briefly visited the Philippines from Okinawa, but that had nothing to do with his decision, he declares. "I liked the prospect. It entailed helping set up a college agricultural program and allowed me time to do community work."

In the early summer of 1964 WATSON, Joyce and their three small sons—James aged 7, Daniel aged 5 and Mark aged 2—left Eatonville for Manila to begin a year of intensive Ilongo language training. The following year, with a good grounding in the language, the family took up their duties at Southern Baptist College in M'lang, Cotabato—a small town in almost the geographic center of Mindanao, which is the second largest island, and the southern anchor, of the Philippine archipelago. The Mission Board supplies the college with some professional staff and grants for construction, but the college is owned and administered by a Filipino board of trustees. Although asked, WATSON refused to teach because he did not want to take a position away from qualified Filipinos, and besides, his interest in agriculture was on the land rather than in the classroom.

In 1965 he was assigned the task of building a camp on 17.5 hectares in Kinuskusan, Davao del Sur (90 minutes from M'lang by car), which had recently been purchased as a center for youth conferences and church convocations. After constructing the dormitories and meeting halls he was appointed the camp's first director.

WATSON was also asked to buy land and develop it into a farm to help support the college. Choosing 50 hectares of uncultivated acreage near M'lang, he planted it to rice and pasturage for cattle. At the same time he became active in the small churches in the area. (Baptists are the major Protestant denomination on the island, which has large Catholic and Muslim populations.) He also engaged in community work, building wells and instituting Christian Farmers Clubs where farmers could share agricultural information.

His first four years in the Philippines passed quickly. He had learned the local dialect, established the camp and farm, served as advisor to the college on many agricultural matters and enjoyed his work. His children had adjusted to rural life in Mindanao and his wife, who kept the boys abreast of their studies by teaching them herself, shared his vocation fully and enthusiastically.

Nevertheless he was strangely unsatisfied. He asked himself, "Is this what I really want to do with the rest of my life?" As he and his family were happy, the question seemed odd, until he reminded himself that he had become an agricultural missionary to help the farmers directly—to show them how to raise more and better crops, produce bigger and healthier livestock, revitalize soil and increase income. Therefore to be effective, he argued, he should not duplicate the work of others. His contribution should be original and direct.

He gradually evolved a plan in his mind of a demonstration farm for small or subsistence farmers. He would draw on scientific information, but rely on local materials, expertise and farm experience, for he was convinced that no agricultural technology is completely transferable. Every method must fit the environment and local customs.

In 1968, therefore, WATSON approached the church board for money to buy farm land and learned that funds were available. Maxie Jarman, a U.S. shoe manufacturer, had earlier donated US$1,000 to the Southern Baptists for "agricultural work. " A plot of 10 hectares adjacent to the camp was for sale; WATSON inspected it and found it an impoverished and denuded hillside abandoned by slash-and-burn farmers, land which hardly seemed ideal for demonstrating agricultural techniques. However, upon reflection he reasoned that if such abused soil could be made fertile again, it would be the best demonstration of all. Therefore he accepted the challenge and purchased the plot with Jarman's gift.

His first task was to build a house for his co-worker Rodrigo Golez and basic farm buildings including two small barns and a farm shop. He also had a house built for his family, who moved out from M'lang. The houses, simple wooden structures built by a local contractor, lacked city amenities, but well water, bottled gas and a small generator made living comfortable for the small band.

WATSON named the site the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC). Here he proposed to introduce only techniques that were readily adaptable to local conditions, and to avoid schemes requiring heavy investment, sophisticated equipment, or expensive fertilizers which frustrate rather than help marginal farmers. The now famous FAITH Garden is the earliest example of this concept.

FAITH stands for "Food Always in the Home." It is a blueprint for ensuring that, with a 100 square meter plot and a minimum of expense and labor, fruits and vegetables providing proteins, vitamins and minerals for a family of six will be available every day of the year. The plan calls for one third of the garden to be devoted to Lima beans, swamp cabbage, camote (variety of sweet potato) or similar vegetables which are planted only once a year. Another third should be in eggplants, winged beans, Malabar or Ceylon spinach and squash which require replanting every six months. The remaining third is for seasonal vegetables such as okra, tomatoes and beans which must be replanted more frequently. The boundaries should be planted with small trees such as the "horseradish tree," the papaya or the small green citrus called calamansi.

Chemical fertilizers are discouraged. The soil is to be enriched through a series of compost baskets sunk one meter apart throughout the garden. Any basket or perforated container one foot in diameter, one foot tall, and strong enough to reinforce the walls of the dirt cavity is suitable. The baskets can be filled with any organic material—home garbage, farm and garden waste, weeds or manure. Seeds or seedlings should be planted two or three inches apart around the basket. Watering is simplified because, rather than sprinkling the whole garden, water is poured only into the baskets. The organic matter absorbs the water and then releases it slowly; thus the plant roots can find moisture around the basket even if the rest of the earth is parched. The basket serves another function: it contains the decomposing material, preventing chickens, animals and the wind from scattering the contents. After the crops are harvested the basket should be emptied and its contents worked into the surrounding soil—which will become looser, richer and more productive. The basket should then be refilled with new composting material to restart the cycle.

The demonstration garden at the center has been in operation since 1972 and is used for training about 1,000 persons yearly in these simple techniques. Thousands more have learned this method through other MBRLC extension projects.

In order to supply animal protein for diets and provide a marketable product, WATSON sought to introduce an easy to raise and inexpensive meat source to the marginal farmers. He offered varieties of New Zealand and California rabbits which are both easy and inexpensive to raise and whose white meat tastes like chicken. Rabbits are known as prolific breeders, a reputation well earned. A female, when fed with

balanced diet which includes concentrates, will produce eight bunnies every two months. WATSON sold these breeding rabbits for the nominal price of 10 pesos, and did not charge for an accompanying training session or instruction sheet.

Word of this bargain spread and soon everyone was raising rabbits, "which made the MBRLC very popular at that time," he recalls. He warned of overproduction and the necessity of developing outside markets, but no one listened to the former nor had the entrepreneurial talent or inclination to do the latter. Consequently rabbits soon became a surplus on the market and enthusiasm waned. Some farmers still raise rabbits but on a more realistic scale. "One problem with a rabbit, it is a beautiful little animal and nobody wants to kill it," WATSON says with a chuckle.

The MBRLC next tried promoting White Leghorns and other highbred chickens but discovered them uneconomical for small farmers. The expense and unreliability of supply of quality feed made the poultry a risky venture. Without consistent good feed, highbreds stop laying; on the other hand, their overproduction causes prices to drop; Large commercial breeders can absorb such fluctuations; the little man cannot.

WATSON's experience with hogs was equally unsuccessful. Some of the world's largest hog producers are in Davao City, a few hours' drive from MBRLC. Commercial piggeries, naturally, discourage competition and they charge a prohibitive price for a quality piglet. Ignoring the cost WATSON bought from them a few Duroc Jerseys because they are hearty and withstand heat better than others, and experimented in breeding them with Landrace, Yorkshire and Hampshire hogs. Again, the drawback for individuals was the profit margin. Hogs are highly susceptible to diseases such as rinderpest, cholera and swine influenza. Commercial piggeries can absorb temporary deficits, but should his hogs become infected, the small farmer might lose everything. MBRLC still distributes about 100 piglets per year, but WATSON realized that hog raising was also not the answer to the small farmers' financial predicament.

Next he turned his attention to goats. Goats, he concluded, could best complete the Mindanao farmer's diet by adding to it both milk and red meat.

He contacted Richard Fagan of the Philippine Rural Life Center near Manila, and Fagan arranged through the Heifer Project of Little Rock, Arkansas, to bring three Nubians and three Saanans—two does and a buck of each—from the U.S. for MBRLC. "But you must breed them and give two away for each one kept," Fagan warned; "that's the Heifer Project's policy." This philosophy matched MBRLC's perfectly.

After some experimentation WATSON concluded that the Nubians adapted better than the Saanans to local conditions. He bought ten of them and these now form the nucleus of the center's herd of 400.

The goats are raised on small covered platforms to prevent foot rot and parasites and to protect crops and orchards from their indiscriminate appetites. "Goats will eat anything," WATSON remarks. The quarters are cramped, but 20 square feet is sufficient for each animal. The leaves of the ipil ipil (Leucaena leucocephala, a fast growing nitrogen-fixing tree), rice bran and copra (dried coconut) meal comprise their diet.

Nubian goats are economical; they are heavier than the native breed and their milk is richer and thicker than that of cows. An average doe gives 2.3 liters of milk per day, with a lactation period of 225 days per year. MBRLC distributes about 100 goats annually, but farmers must first take a course to prove they know how—and are willing—to care for them properly before they are allowed to buy them.

Although chickens were an early disappointment, ducks have proven to be both popular and economical. Through Fagan and the Heifer Project WATSON brought over 25 purebred Khaki Campbell ducks from the United States. His staff constructed an ingenious cost-free brooder from a five-gallon can. Using rice hulls for fuel, it burns for 12 hours without replenishment. The ducks' diet is azolla (minute water fern) and the Golden Snails with which WATSON stocked his stream. He estimates the ducks get half their protein from the latter.

MBRLC now maintains a flock of 200 and distributes some 3,000 ducklings yearly. It recommends these or local ducks to the tribal mountain peoples. The return on an investment in a duck is handsome and almost immediate, since a duck can sit on from 8 to 25 eggs and the ducklings are ready for the table in only 10 weeks. MBRLC also encourages raising fish in ponds and has adopted the integrated animal-fish method of feeding. Hogs or ducks are housed in small covered pens above fish ponds. Their waste and scattered feed drop into the pond, fertilizing algae and plankton which in turn are eaten by the fish.

As MBRLC's reputation grew, more hillside farmers sought advice from WATSON and his staff—which had increased to 6 professionals and 15 laborers by the late 1970s; his wife, Joyce, was the project's bookkeeper. Warlito Laquihon, former Dean of Agriculture at Southern Christian College, Cotabato, joined the project as Assistant Director in 1976. "His coming was the key. After that we really expanded, " WATSON says of his talented assistant who was named one of the "Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines" in 1981 by the Philippine Junior Chamber of Commerce. Farm Manager Rodrigo Calixtro completes the senior management staff. "We work as a team. When it comes to projects, we talk. There's dialogue; there's balance. I don't make all the decisions," WATSON emphasizes.

The team was long aware that the major problems of the area were leached soil and erosion which caused low crop productivity. The rural poor, the typical slash-and-burn farmers, were forced to cultivate upland areas to survive and their excessive numbers now made it impossible to allow the land to stand idle the usual 15 to 20 years between periods of cultivation. It was being planted again after only 3 or 4 years. As a result the forest cover did not grow back and leaching and erosion accelerated. Moreover, their traditional methods of plowing—up and down the hill instead of across the face of the slope greatly aggravated the problem.

"It takes thousands of years to build one inch of topsoil but only one strong rain to remove it from unprotected slopes. It's a fragile thing," WATSON sadly observes. Soil erosion and depletion of the watershed is not just a problem for the uplands; it is a lowlands problem as well. The tons of soil washed down with each rain silt up dams, clog irrigation systems and cause flooding during the rainy season.

WATSON had always believed in contour farming and in 1971 he had laid out terraced, contoured rice fields at the demonstration farm. The problem, he found, was to determine the slope and drainage flow from one terrace to another, and to prevent terraces from washing out. Recourse to academic solutions was fruitless. No technology applicable to the slope lands of Mindanao was available. The mid-1970s, WATSON recalls, were a low point in his life. Farmers would come to him for advice and it depressed him that he did not have any concrete, reasonable ideas to offer.

He also realized that, besides the problem of the soil, unequal income distribution during the year and lack of capital for fertilizers, insecticides and seeds were further hindrances.

WATSON, Laquihon and Calixtro analyzed the problems they faced, first enumerating criteria for any eventual solution. They decided that a scheme was needed which: 1) controlled soil erosion, 2) restored fertility, 3) relied on local resources, 4) required no loan money, 5) emphasized food over cash crops, 6) required a minimum of labor and 7) was easily understood and culturally acceptable.

After much discussion and experimentation they evolved a blueprint for a technology which met all the criteria. They called their new system Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT). A distinctive feature of SALT, an expansion of terraced farming, is the use of the ipil ipil to control erosion and retain the soil. Ipil Ipil grows quickly and widely in the Philippines and WATSON had earlier imported the improved Giant Ipil Ipil from Hawaii.

The team first devised a method of determining contour lines by means of a simple "A"-shaped frame with a string and rock suspended from the top of the "A" (or the use of a carpenter's level on the crossbar of the A-frame). They then planted ipil ipil close together in double rows along the lines which were set about six meters apart, leaving space in between for planting crops. The ipil ipil must be kept as a low shrub and trimmed when it reaches a meter in height, roughly once a month. The cut leaves are then used as fertilizer for the crops planted between the ipil ipil rows, or for animal feed. The farmer is urged to alternate permanent with seasonal plantings, rotating the latter between legumes and non-legumes. A good planting mix would be ginger, beans, rice, pineapple and corn—with bamboo or trees such as rambutan, durian, banana and citrus planted at the top and the bottom of the plot.

The MBRLC team set aside a demonstration plot in 1980, choosing one hectare of impoverished, hilly land with a 15 degree slope. To assure themselves that their technique was simple enough for any farmer to replicate, they hired a tribesman with a sixth grade education to work it. Using only hand tools, working five and a half days a week with time off for numerous religious and traditional holidays, and without help, the farmer contoured the hill, planted ipil ipil, readied the soil and planted peanuts, mungo beans, pineapple, corn, bananas and coffee.

The demonstration plot met all the criteria WATSON and his colleagues had established. It proved that hillside land can be farmed successfully and that a hectare thus farmed can provide a family of seven with a steady source of food and income, distributed throughout the year. A further advantage, WATSON explains, is that became harvests are small and spread throughout the year, the farmer does not need to hire extra help or sell through a middleman; he can harvest and market his produce himself.

A recent study estimates that a farmer wing SALT can realize a return of 50 percent on his investment the first year, 104 percent the second, 131 the third, 207 the fourth and 415 percent by the fifth year. Cotabato SALT farmers report a P1,125 average monthly income from the sale of surplus crops as opposed to the non-SALT average of P250.

Early in 1983 SALT's success came to the attention of the Agricultural Educational Outreach Project (AEOP) of the Philippine Ministry of Education. AEOP adopted SALT as a major technology for upland development and introduced it at agricultural colleges strategically located throughout the islands—Pampanga, Cavite, Camarines Sur, Aklan, Palawan—and Central Mindanao University. The institutions established demonstration farms on their campuses and in nearby villages; ten more academic institutions have accepted the program. The Philippines has about 500,000 hectares of hillside wasteland that the AEOP estimates can be revitalized by SALT and made to support some 2,000,000 people.

Church groups and other organizations have brought technicians from overseas to study the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology and introduce it in their own countries. USAID has sponsored Indonesian groups and the Baptist Church has brought tribal farmers from Thailand to learn the method. Individual observers from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, Taiwan and the United States have also visited MBRLC to study SALT and in 1984 alone, 44 classes of three-to-five days duration were given to a total of 872 students.

The Baptist Rural Life Center has been recognized for its development of SALT by the Crop Science Society, the Ministry of Human Settlements in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Makati (Metro Manila), and the Farm System Development Corporation of the Philippines. WATSON himself has been honored by the Southern Philippine Development Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Central Bank of the Philippines, the Bureau of Forest Development, the Philippine Society of Animal Science, the Mayor of Kidapawan (North Cotabato) and the Agriculture Division of Ateneo de Davao University.

MBRLC also offers the farmers of Cotabato and neighboring provinces inexpensive and practical training in techniques other than SALT. For a few pesos a day one can study crop growing, animal care, rural sanitation or any one of 37 other subjects. Accommodations are spartan but inexpensive. Those attending courses, most of which last only a few days, are asked to provide their own food.

Besides classes at MBRLC, WATSON has instituted a four-month, church-oriented training program for farm boys and girls called BOOST—Baptist Outside of School Training. There are four training centers on Mindanao. Agricultural technology, farm and home development, health, community organization, self-awareness and Bible study are taught along with practical farm work. Learning is by doing, teaching is by example, and teachers and students live in close proximity. Students for this program must be recommended by their churches Transportation and food are subsidized, but participants are expected to pay a P10 registration fee and P15 towards transportation. They are requested to bring enough rice for one month, but meat and vegetables come from the animals and gardens they learn to tend. Everyone does his own cooking. The program is considered work-study so BOOST pays each student P25 per week; in return graduates are expected to share their knowledge when they return home. Approximately 360 young people are trained annually.

When WATSON first began promoting raising rabbits, he prepared one-page instruction sheets on their care. The popularity of the sheets encouraged MBRLC to compile booklets for each major project. At first the Foreign Mission Board funded the printing and paper so the booklets were free, but because they were free, people often took multiple copies and wasted them. MBRLC now charges enough to cover costs. The booklets, averaging two pages, are printed on newsprint. "No need to use expensive material," WATSON comments, "a farmer will not keep instructions once he has mastered the technique."

WATSON and Laquihon write the instruction sheets in a direct, easy-to-follow style, in English, Cebuano and Ilongo. To provide the widest possible dissemination of the information, a notice is inserted advising that "anyone is free to translate, reprint, condense and reproduce" the material, provided acknowledgement of the source is given. The SALT instruction booklet, for example, has been translated into Indonesian. About 20,000 of these "how-to" manuals are sold yearly. The subjects covered are: ipil ipil, legumes, tomatoes, corn, soybeans, pineapple, cherries, coffee, cacao, sorghum, ducks, goats, pigs, cows, pigeons, tilapia (a fish) and rabbits. Booklets also instruct the farmer on how to plan a FAITH Garden, make a basket compost, tan rabbit hide, build a bio-gas generator and control common poultry diseases.

To amplify agricultural outreach, MBRLC produces a "Back to the Farm" 15-minute weekly radio program in three languages: English, Cebuano, Ilongo. Like other MBRLC efforts it offers the farmer simple, practical agricultural information. It is carried by five radio stations in Mindanao, which together are capable of reaching at least half of the more than 10 million people on the island. Each program includes a three-minute religious or inspirational message. "Back to the Farm" is the only non-Catholic program heard on the Catholic station in Kidapawan, the region's most popular station. "We have been on the air there for a long time," WATSON says, and indicative of the warm relationship engendered, "they have never raised the price for us."

Should one encounter HAROLD WATSON, one would have difficulty from his appearance in identifying him as a missionary. He wears comfortable farm clothes, Texas leather boots, a wide belt and a western hat. No matter how busy he is, he always has time to chat with visitors, especially about agriculture or his hobby, which is, naturally, farming.

Dioscoro L. Umali, Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (Magsaysay International Understanding Awardee in 1977 for "its quality of teaching and research, fostering a sharing of knowledge in modernizing Southeast Asian agriculture") recently put him in good perspective. "You will recall," Umali said, "Christ's main concern and preoccupation was how to help the poor. In that sense we could say Reverend HAROLD WATSON is one of the living disciples of Christ, because he has the heart and the commitment to help the poor farmers who work long hours just to survive."

September 1985
Manila

REFERENCES:

Watson, Harold Ray. "SALT and FAITH for the Poor Farmers." Presentation made to Group Discussion. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila. September 4, 1985. (Typewritten transcript.)

Watson, Harold R., and Warlito A. Laquihon. How to Farm Better. Davao, Philippines: Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center. 1984.

______. How to Farm Your Hilly Land Without Losing Yow Soil. Davao, Philippines: Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center. 1984.

______. How to Make FAITH (Food Always in the Home) Garden. Davao, Philippines: Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center. 1984.

______. Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) as Developed by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center. Paper presented at the Workshop on the Site Protection and Amelioration Roles of Agroforestry, Institute of Forest Conservation, University of the Philippines at Los Baños, September 4-11, 1985. (Mimeographed.)