Painting a sobering picture of the sad state of Philippine agriculture today, Dr. Emil Quinto Javier went on to hold UPLB responsible for the sorry state of this sector that has been host to most of the Filipino poor. My immediate mental reaction was to dispute liability on the part of UPLB, believing that UPLB had in fact not been listened to enough by the politicians and some less-than-honest officials who have managed our farm and fisheries sector over decades of lackluster performance. I had come to my own conclusion long ago that the problem with our agriculture lies not in lack of capability to make it thrive through using the right knowledge and practice, but rather, in various persons and institutions who have pushed the sector in wrong directions. How else could we have ended up trailing far behind our neighbors whose pioneer agricultural scientists trained and studied with us at UPLB?