Half a century of the Revista de Ciencias Agricolas

Congratulations and best wishes to the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Universidad de Nariño, to the Editorial and Scientific Committee, to the Editorial Technicians, layout, revision and cover design, and the Publications Center of the Universidad de Nariño. It is admirable and praiseworthy that the Revista de Ciencias Agricolas is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is due to the efforts of all of you. And my sincere thanks; it is exciting that you still remember my time at the Universidad de Nariño, where I enjoyed the friendship of the people of Nariño.

Let's go first to the characteristics of a journal and then to the birth of the Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas 50 years ago. The needs of a journal are simple: availability of suitable material, people willing to write, and budget. I believe that in Colombia, in the technical agricultural area, the first two conditions are given from the 50s of the last century, and the literary world is the one that propitiates the change. It may sound strange, but let's look at a bit of history.

Already at that time, the literary level of Colombia was very high, considered worldwide, while the so-called science and technology was in its infancy and that feeling of inferiority awakened emulation. A small disquisition: I was impacted by Rivera's "La vorágine", and the result was that I did my thesis of agronomist engineer in the Amazonian Trapeze. Well, now, if you are Gabo's supporters will forgive me, mine is Arciniegas, despite the fact that in his novel "Ancha es Castilla", he says that in Colombia Spanish is spoken better than in the Peninsula. With full knowledge of the facts, I know for a fact.

In order to achieve the appropriate level, the training of professionals, including university professors, began. A scholarship plan was established with the support of the Ford, Kellogg, and Rockefeller Foundations and the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences –IICA. A little later, agreements were signed with American Universities in North Carolina, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, etc. Apart from the scholarships, there were grants for laboratories, greenhouses, libraries, and other teaching and research facilities. A small study I carried out on the subject of postgraduate studies indicated that in 1980, the number of postgraduates trained in foreign centers and universities, at the M.Sc. and Ph.D. levels, was close to 500. One of the government's successes was the creation of ICETEX, dedicated to managing scholarships.

All M. Sc. and Ph. D. students, including many professors of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Universidad de Nariño, have published at least one article detailing the outstanding part of their graduation thesis in scientific journals. That is, they are trained to continue publishing when they return to Colombia. It is necessary to provide them with a space where they can express their research. That space is the journal, among them the Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas.

It was born 50 years ago to fulfill two purposes, one of them is the diffusion of the degree thesis and the research carried out by the faculty, and likewise, to make room for the contributions of potential collaborators. The other purpose is to support the enrichment of the library's documentary collection, favoring the exchange with similar ones in any other knowledge center. It is obvious that dissemination is an intrinsic quality of any publication. No further comment is required.

As is well-known, there is an imbalance between budgetary and operational programs in universities and research centers. In other words, the needs are many, and the money to cover them is scarce. Administrators (boards of directors, councils, etc.) are faced with the task of establishing priorities in which, in general, libraries, periodicals and publications are not well served. However, they are the heart and voice of the institution. If the library does not function and the publications are destroyed, the institution is unknown; it does not exist, and its influence does not go beyond the parish boundaries. It is a death foretold, as the Nobel Prize winner would say.

The relationship of the Universidad de Nariño with agricultural issues has a long history. By means of Agreement No. 11 of 1935, it founded the Faculty of Agronomy and Industrial Chemistry. It was a failed attempt, and as it is not about telling the history of the university but of the Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas, allow me to make a leap in time to the Instituto Tecnológico Agrícola, ITA, being Rector Dr. Luis Santander Benavides. By Agreement No. 25, signed on July 22, 1958, the Instituto Tecnológico Agrícola, ITA, was created, which was decisive for the journal. On September 1, 1969, the ITA ended its journey to give way to the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. I consider that day to be the most important day of my professional life. With nostalgia and sadness, I had to close the door of the ITA in the Plaza de Santiago so that minutes later, with the hope of a bright future, I would open the door of the Dean's Office in the new building of the Faculty in Torobajo.

The Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas was founded at ITA in 1969. I sketched the idea of its creation in the Department of Phytotechnics since, as a professor, I was attached to it. Two reasons—dissemination and exchange—for its creation have already been stated above. But there were more reasons. The years 1968 and 1969 meant intense work at the university. There was a unanimous feeling among professors and students about the convenience of changing from the institute to the faculty level. It was easy to channel this sentiment but not so easy to negotiate bureaucratically with national authorities. In addition, the project to build the University City in Torobajo, whose execution was in the charge of Dr. Eduardo Cifuentes Rosero, had to be definitively resolved. The first building became a reality in 1969. In different meetings held at the ITA, we came to the conclusion that the new faculty, another reality in 1969, was a priority to provide with a journal, which would allow us to be known inside and outside Colombia.

I have referred to the Department of Plant Science, as the poet says that life is a dream, and dreams are dreams. Perhaps without the enthusiastic support of this department, which spread to the rest of ITA, the foundation of the Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas would have remained a dream, but this time it became a reality. Gonzalo Palomino Ortiz, Bernardo Martínez Santacruz, Joaquín Gamboa Jaimes, Ovidio Zúñiga Rúales, Efrén Coral Quintero, Víctor Montenegro Gálvez, and, as Secretary, Rita Arellano Rojas. Dr. Ricardo Guerrero Riascos belonged to the group, although he was absent because he was pursuing his M.Sc. at the IICA Graduate School in Costa Rica. You will say that, with that team, anyone can make it. You may wonder where the Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas was presented and who was in charge of the speech and the celebration; nothing at all. It is common for transcendent things to happen in silence, and the results will endorse them. Simply, one day, we found in our hands the first issue of the Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas. 

It is not good to abuse the patience of readers with long and rambling pages. In my library, in front of the study table, I have a phrase from the conceptualist writer Baltasar Gracián, who some 400 years ago wrote, "The good, if it is brief, is twice as good, and the bad, if it is brief, is less bad" A big hug on the Centenary of the Revista de Ciencias Agrícolas, we will continue this story.

Visit photo gallery of the event: Gallery

December 3, 2019

Mario Blasco Lamenca Ph. D.

Founder of the Revista de Ciencias Agricolas of the Universidad de Nariño