Professor Agnes Rola

Professor Emeritus, University of the Philippines Los Banos

Professor Agnes Rola has had a distinguished career and is now a Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB). There, Professor Rola serves as dissertation adviser to PhD Development Studies students and is currently also consulting regarding science, technology and innovations in international development organisations.

Professor Rola specialises in policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, production and resource economics, and guiding communities to build adaptive collaborative water governance skills, with the latter being a firm favourite.   

For the past 30 years, Professor Rola has led projects on research in sustainable agriculture and natural resources management, starting with her seminal work on the economics of pesticides and farmers’ health at the IRRI in the early 1990s.

From 1994 to 2006, she served as one of the Principal Investigators in a long- term USAID project, studying upland communities in transition and investigating the role of institutional innovations for sustainable development in rural Philippines. Then she led the local team in another long -term USAID project (2008- 2017), now working with the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) of Columbia University-USA, which focused on water governance and development and developing early warning extension information for farmers during extreme climate events. 

Applied research work provided a career highlight when Professor Rola was able to guide a group of river council members from six towns in her own home province, regarding adaptive collaborative river governance. 

Prof Rola obtained her PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin Madison, USA, under a USAID scholarship; her Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics and Bachelor’s degree in Statistics from the University of the Philippines, both with scholarship grants. She also attended the 2001 Summer Certificate on Environmental Leadership Program at the University of California-Berkeley, USA.

In recognition of her contribution to science, Professor Rola was elected member of the National Academy of Science and Technology-Philippines (NAST PHIL) in 2011. She has authored more than 130 scientific publications on the economics, policy and institutional aspects of agricultural sustainability; and has written/edited award- winning books including “Winning the water wars: watersheds, water policies and water institutions” (2004). In 2018, Professor Rola edited an internationally published book “Water Policy in The Philippines: Issues, Initiatives and Prospects” (Springer Nature).

Professor Rola served as a member (and vice chair at ILRI) of the board of trustees of international agricultural research organizations (ILRI -2000-2006, CIAT-2015-2020); member of the Oversight Committee of McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program based in the US, and member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability based in UK. She was one of 18 Asian scholars that participated in the Asian Regional Consultation of the International Development Research Centre to develop IDRC’s Asian Research and Development Agenda for 2010-2015.

She was also one of the Global Authors for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), (May 2006- Nov. 2007); and one of the scientists involved in the preparation of the report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) for which she co-received the 2005 Zayed International Prize for the Environment.

In her home country, Professor Rola is member of the Board of Trustees, Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development-Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD-MRI) Development Institute (CMDI) July 2008-present, Member, Editorial Board, Philippine Journal of Crop Science, and Member, Pesticide Policy and Technical Advisory Committee, Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, Department of Agriculture, Philippines, 1997- present. This last recognition is very important as she influences the quality of agro-chemicals entering the Philippines.

Contented and retired, Professor Rola now enjoys serving the church by being member of the Mother Butler Guild in a Catholic Church near her residence. Mother Butlers make and take care of priestly vestments and altar linens and ensure cleanliness of the church’ premises. Mother Butlers are the first to arrive and the last to leave the church during mass. She feels she is living in heaven on Earth.