3. BIOGRAPHY
• He was born in Nabua Camarines Sur on August 02 1923.
• He graduated as Magna Cum Laude in Bachelor of Science in Agriculture major in
Argonomy at University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna in 1959.
• He completed his Master’s Degree (Masters of Science in Plant breeding) from
Cornell University in 1964
• Finished his Doctorate Degree (Ph.D. Genetic and Plant Breeding) from University
of Minnesota in US (1969).
4. He is known for his contribution to the
genes of plants and their growth ( Plant
Breeding) such as rice.
5. His researches launched the existence of beautiful types of rice such as the classic
C4-36 which is abundant in harvest, resistant to diseases and insect pests, delicious
to eat and served as an example and measure of a high type of rice ,not only in the
Philippines but also in many countries in Asia.
6.
7. He was a farmer’s child and has been exposed to agriculture. His father owned four
hectares of farmland that they use for financial sustenance. He helps his father plant
crops, including rice, and would help him tend to the livestock. However, all that
hard work still yielded a particularly low amount of rice harvest, and so Pedro and
his family were never completely financially stable.
8. The low yield was due to the fact they only planted traditional varieties. These
varieties weren’t the best compared to other rice variants and would therefore be
unable to produce better ones.
9. Pedro dreamed of becoming an engineer during his early years of high school in
Naga. However, he changed his mind after witnessing the horrors that were
unleashed when World War II broke out and ravaged our lands and people. Since
then, Pedro began to have further respect for what his own father did all these
years and even regarded agriculture as a profession on the same level of prestige
and importance that the rest of the world regarded engineering with.
10. Pedro decided to enroll under the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, major in
Agronomy program in the University of the Philippines, College of Agriculture in
1948. (National Institute of Science and Technology, 1967) In the beginning he had
nothing but a few of his own sacks of rice to use for his studies, but through hard
work and discipline, he began to make a name of himself.
11. With sheer determination, Escuro became an instructor in the Department of
Agronomy in UPCA after graduating college. His work began to earn him a
reputation, and the chairman of the Agronomy Department thought he deserved to
further hone his craft and so ha was granted a recommendation for a scholarship to
study in the U.S. Pedro accepted this opportunity and went on to finish his master’s
degree in plant breeding at Cornell University in 1954.
12. Persevering in his studies and aiming to make a
contribution to agriculture, he developed the idea of
a certain type of rice that should be grown in the
Philippines during his master’s thesis. He
characterized this ideal rice plant as being resistant
to pests and ailments, stress tolerant, and capable of
producing high amounts of stable, high-quality yield,
all at minimum production cost.
13. After being recognized for greatly improving the quality of rice in the Philippines,
Dr. Pedro Escuro went on to perform further agricultural research abroad and in
1986 he joined the International Rice Research Institute where he became a
consultant for his research In rice.
14. Eventually, he retired at the age of 68, but it is undeniable that he had created a
large impact in the scientific and agricultural community, especially here in the
Philippines. His work on the different varieties of rice helped us maintain our status
as a rice-providing country.
15. Philippine society views this as one of the Filipino people’s greatest achievements. It
has inspired many people to work hard and try to be at par with such a great
scientist. His achievements in this field proved to the world that even a lowly third-
world country-dwelling person could create something so useful and important,
thus deserving the title “National Scientist”.
