wfn.org | PC(USA) Supports Asian Farm-Leadership Program

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5-April-1999 
99136 
 
    PC(USA) Supports Asian 
    Farm-Leadership Program 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
NISHINASUNO, Japan - Kosanam P. Reddy remembers why he attended the Asian 
Rural Institute (ARI), a center where rural community leaders from 
developing countries in Asia and Africa learn the finer points of organic 
farming. 
 
    "ARI taught me perseverance, hard work and patience," said Reddy, a 
native of India and a 1985 graduate of the Christian interdenominational 
institute. "It enabled me to lift up the priorities, the means and the time 
schedule (for growing and harvesting crops). I am inculcating the principle 
which I learned at ARI, `That we may live together,' into the minds of the 
people, so they may know the blessing of sharing whatever we have with 
others." 
 
    Thanks to ARI, Reddy and other graduates are making a difference in 
rural communities from India to Kenya to Nepal to Thailand, with practical 
hands-on training in community farming. 
 
    The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is among a number of ecumenical groups 
that have contributed scholarship funding since ARI's formation 26 years 
ago. Mission workers have helped build facilities at the training center, 
such as the women's dormitory, and ARI's graduates include numerous 
representatives of Presbyterian churches in Asia and Africa. 
 
    "I'm most impressed with the servant-style leadership of the 
institute," said David Maxwell, coordinator of the Global Education office 
of Worldwide Ministries, PC(USA), which provides scholarship funding to 
ARI.  "The participants (Christian leaders in rural communities) come and 
learn alongside of experts who share in all the daily chores right 
alongside them. They not only learn practical life-saving farming 
techniques, but also learn good Christian leadership skills in order to 
effectively witness to their neighbors back home." 
 
    Today, ARI, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ in 
Japan, has trained more than 900 men and women from 48 nations since it was 
established in 1973. The campus is tucked away on about 15 acres of 
farmland 100 miles north of Tokyo. Some students also spend time at ARI's 
smaller Philippine campus near Santa Rita, Negros. 
 
    Every year about 35 men and women from various Christian denominations 
gather at the institute to learn through classroom lectures and by putting 
theory into practice by performing daily chores necessary to maintain a 
self-sufficient farm. 
 
    Living a simple life, participants grow vegetables and rice, raise 
poultry for eggs and meat and care for pigs and cows. They even study fish 
farming, among other techniques, and learn how to reduce the need for 
outside resources and chemicals that pollute the land. They learn about 
such things as compost farming and collecting native microorganisms to 
improve the soil. 
 
    Participants also learn the dignity of manual labor, the key ingredient 
of life on the farm. They are taught the importance of being a servant 
leader to empower others to achieve farming self-sufficiency, all in the 
context of ARI's community credo: "That we may live together." 
 
    "Pastors, priests, school principals and others often find it very 
difficult to engage in physical labor, soiling or dirtying their hands and 
knees," said ARI founder Toshihiro Takami. "They think it is below their 
dignity to take a shovel or a broom to scrape up chicken or pig dung. In 
this painful process of having our own conventional images shattered, we 
find ourselves emerging with new images of ourselves, of leadership, life 
and culture. All this happens as we work together to produce and share food 
and other resources." 
 
    Takami started ARI "to serve God's creation by producing rural leaders" 
after 11 years with the Southeast Asia Course (SEAC), a program similar to 
ARI at Tsurukawa Rural Seminary near Tokyo. 
 
    Last year PC(USA) contributed $6,000 to help send a participant from 
Northeastern India to the training center. The cost of a student's course 
of training is about $15,750. The church has contributed between $5,000 to 
$8,000 a year for the past 10 years, according to Nancy Molin, the 
institute's ecumenical-relations officer, who works with church-related 
organizations to secure funding. 
 
    "It's an expression of support from the Presbyterians that they know 
what we're doing and they're behind us," she said. "As far away from here 
as (the home office in) Louisville, Ky. is, there are people who care and 
who are in partnership with us, and that's important above and beyond the 
value of the actual dollar. The sense of being in partnership with people 
around the world has real meaning for us." 
 
    Molin said additional financial support comes from individual 
Presbyterian congregations in the United States and restricted endowments 
from the PC(USA) Foundation. 
 
    ARI's annual Rural Leader's Training Program begins on April 1 and ends 
in mid-December. Five to 10 Japanese participants usually attend ARI, which 
uses the word "participant" rather than "student," because those who attend 
are teachers as well as learners. 
 
    Many subjects are dealt with through short courses, seminars and 
observation trips. One-third of the program takes place off campus, 
according to J.B. Hoover, ARI's coordinator of graduate outreach. 
Throughout the session, participants are encouraged to grow in their 
ability to observe situations, analyze problems, find solutions and 
evaluate the process. 
 
    Participants visit farms, schools and community organizations. There is 
one major off-campus study trip, as well as tours of  northern and western 
Japan. 
 
    ARI instructors include men and women from several countries, Hoover 
said. Their combined experience includes proficiency in organic farming of 
crops and vegetables, animal husbandry, nutrition, farm technology, fish 
culture, food processing, cooperatives and credit unions, integrated 
farming, rural leadership skills, community organization and spiritual 
growth. 
 
    Participants also eat what they grow. More than 80 percent of the food 
consumed at ARI is grown on campus. Participants hone their leadership 
skills by heading seminars and presenting project reports related to their 
areas of study, so that what they  learn can be shared with the entire 
group. They also take turns sharing duties in the kitchen. 
 
    Each day the community meets in the chapel for morning gathering. The 
leader of the day uses music, scripture, prayers and meditations 
appropriate to his or her own tradition. These fellowship experiences, 
along with time shared over meals or in working and playing together, are 
aimed at providing opportunities to develop multicultural communication 
skills. 
 
    Those applying to ARI must have a "sending body," an organization that 
is carrying out programs for rural development. The institute has limited 
funds for assisting sending bodies for prospective applicants. 
 
    The center requires applicants to first seek funding from their sending 
bodies and other sources for international travel costs. If adequate 
funding is unavailable, a sending body may apply to ARI for a travel grant 
so that an applicant can attend. 
 
    From there ARI is responsible for the cost of all non-Japanese 
participant's study and living expenses. The institute also provides a 
small monthly allowance for personal needs. 
 
    "It's the context in which we help participants improve their 
communication skills ... to be more effective rural leaders when they 
return to their countries," Hoover said, summing up the program. "They 
learn that to know is to lead." 

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