Article May 21, 2001 Issue

How a former Peace Corps volunteer prays about world hunger

By Ben Rogers

Ben Rogers Signed Up for the Peace Corps when he was 21. He was placed in an agricultural program and sent to Nepal's Tarai region—a river plain along the border with India. Ben's assignment was to talk with farmers and offer solutions to problems with insects, irrigation, and other crop threats. His main focus was to show the benefits of an improved variety of rice that would, with the use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and good water-control, enable farmers to have much higher yields. He spoke to the Sentinel about his Peace Corps work and shared some spiritual insights on the issue of world hunger.

When I went to Nepal in 1968, the "Green Revolution" in the Asian subcontinent was still news. Traditional agricultural methods were giving way to industrialized agriculture, and some regions were seeing dramatic increases in crop yields. My job was to help introduce these new methods to the farmers in and around one village.

I found, though, that the conditions weren't ripe for that kind of development. There was no all-weather road for the delivery of seed, fertilizer, and fuel. There were no rigs for drilling deep wells, and no electric power grid to run water pumps.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
Prayer took me somewhere I'd never been before
May 21, 2001
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit