The 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding

It is with deep humility and sincere appreciation that I accept the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding for my efforts in encouraging international utilization of Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT). SALT is a program which was originally developed by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center to help small hillside farmers in the Philippines.

Without the cooperation and teamwork of the entire Rural Life Center, programs like SALT, FAITH gardening and others would not exist. Two key members of the Rural Life Center team who have shared equally in developing and promoting SALT are Warlito A. Laquihon, our Assistant Director and Supervisor of Training and Extension, and Rodrigo S. Calixtro, our Farm Manager. To them I express my deepest appreciation for their unselfish and dedicated efforts as we have worked together in developing this and other programs to help small farmers in Mindanao.

The development of SALT and the program of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my wife, Joyce, who at all times has been an involved member of the Rural Life Center team.

I also want to acknowledge the roles of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Philippine Baptist Mission in the program of the Rural Life Center. Their support, cooperation and encouragement have undergirded the project since its inception.

This Award, I believe, calls attention to the problems that nations in the tropical belt of the world are facing—inadequate food production, flooding, shortage of forest products and ecological imbalances. Land degradation is a problem that is affecting the standard of living of many nations, but especially of the millions who live on and farm the hillsides.

Topsoil is one of the earth's most valuable resources. Each year the world's farmers must attempt to feed 81 million more people. Next year Filipino farmers alone will have to feed approximately 1,500,000 more people than this year.

Soil loss is an Asia-wide problem. It is estimated that the Yellow River of China deposits about 1.6 billion tons of silt per year in the ocean; the Ganges of India deposits about 1.5 billion tons in the Bay of Bengal annually; the Irrawaddy of Burma deposits about 300 million tons of sediment per year in the Andaman Sea. It has been estimated that the hilly agricultural lands under cultivation in the Philippines have lost about two-thirds of their valuable topsoil.

Not only is our topsoil being depleted, but our forests are vanishing at an alarming rate. In 1946 it was estimated that in the Philippines 16.8 million of the nation's 30 million hectares were forested. Today it is estimated that only 3 million hectares are still in virgin forest, and each year about 10 percent of that forest is being depleted.

Hillside farmers move into newly logged-over areas because crop production is high in the virgin soil of the forests. For lack of options and knowledge they resort to the slash-and-burn method of soil preparation, following this by plowing the hill sides vertically; both of these techniques lead to soil erosion. After five or ten years newly opened lands are depleted of topsoil and the farmers move on to repeat the cycle in another location.

Many of us who live and work among the hilly land farmers and upland tribal groups in Asia are sounding the alarm to the problems of deforestation and soil erosion. I call on people everywhere to help stem the tide of destruction while there is still time. When a nation loses the capability to feed, clothe and shelter itself, it loses the capability to chart its own destiny.

I believe there is hope for the poor, uneducated and malnourished hilly land farmers of Asia. There seems to be an awakening among tropical nations concerning land degradation. Sloping Agricultural Land Technology is one system they can use to restore productivity to eroded lands and prevent erosion in newly opened areas.

In conclusion, I accept this Award not only for myself, but on behalf of all my fellow missionaries and my co-workers at the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center. It is an honor that we accept together. And with the honor and recognition we also accept the responsibility of dedicating our continuing efforts to the task of developing and implementing programs which will improve the life of the small farmer in the Philippines and in other tropical countries throughout Asia. To aid in accomplishing this purpose, I am donating the US$20,000 award monies to the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center to provide additional financial resources for its programs for hilly land farmers.

I thank you tonight for this Award, but above all, I give praise to God. Any accomplishment or achievement is through His power. My prayer is that we will all work together to be good stewards of the earth that God has entrusted to us as individuals and as nations.