Helping others was the Wise choice

By Allen Snow

When Michael Wise was a child growing up on the Mississippi State campus, he dreamed of faraway places.

"We had a big world map and some little pins," he remembers. "Daddy traveled a lot, especially with the university's Seed Technology Program, getting it started in Central and South America and in Asia and Africa. I would stick pins in the map in the places with exotic sounding names where Daddy was. I think that was the start of it all--wondering, 'What does it look like there, in Paraguay or Thailand?'"

'Daddy' was Louis N. Wise, whose distinguished 36-year career at Mississippi State included serving as vice president for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine from 1966-86.

The younger Wise couldn't have known it at the time, but in many ways he would follow in his father's footsteps even while striking out on his own path.

As director of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Office for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Honduras, Mike Wise has had an opportunity to see many of those faraway places. He also is carrying on the family tradition of helping to improve living conditions for countless people around the world.

Wise graduated from Mississippi State in 1969 with a B.S. in agricultural economics. After four years in the Army, including a tour of Vietnam as a helicopter pilot, he enrolled in graduate school at Washington State University, where he earned a Ph.D. in agricultural economics in 1977.

He accepted a research post at the University of Hawaii, serving for about a year as an extension specialist in community development, and then he was on to Clemson University as an assistant professor and extension agricultural economist. In 1982, he moved to the University of Arizona as an associate professor and extension economist, and from 1983-88, worked as a personal services contractor for USAID. In 1988, he was commissioned as a foreign service officer, serving as the agricultural policy economist for USAID/El Salvador until June 1994.

"After peace broke out in El Salvador, everybody else wanted my job," Wise laughs, "so I went to Honduras as head of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Office."

A new Honduran government had just been installed, and its ideas were quite different from the previous administra-tion's, especially in economic areas. Also, ANRO had been without leadership for a while. Wise rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

The objectives of Wise's office parallel those of the Agency for International Development. In cooperation with the Honduran people, ANRO works to improve stewardship of the land and natural resources, encourage economic participation and increase incomes of the poor, improve family health, and increase democratic processes that favor citizen participation. As of mid-1995, ANRO was implementing one of AID's largest agricultural and natural resources initiatives with nine major projects funded at more than $287 million.

As director of the office, Wise's responsibilities include, among others, advising AID management on policy, strategy, and direction in the agricultural and natural resource areas; managing a 15-person staff in developing and implementing projects; and leading USAID policy dialog with Honduran government officials and private sector contacts.

"The most satisfying thing for me is to get out in the field with the small farmers," Wise says. "The average income in Honduras is $621 a year, and many of these farmers are living on even lower per capita incomes. When you get out there and see improvements in their lives and the lives of their children, it's very satisfying."

The hardest part of the job? "Having to say no to some good ideas--making hard budget choices."

Honduras is slightly smaller than Mississippi and has a population of approximately five million. About 35 percent of the land is farmable, mainly in valleys between the mountains. Major crops are bananas, coffee, and pond-raised saltwater shrimp.

"The largest shrimp pond in the world is in El Salvador, Honduras' next-door neighbor," Wise notes, "and Mississippi State has had input in developing that industry. A new interest in Honduras is raising tilapia (a freshwater fish), which Mississippi State is researching."

The university's connection with Honduras is extensive.

"You'll find Mississippi State's Seed Technology Program throughout Central America, with several facilities in Honduras. The university's strong relationship with the country is more through its graduates than any official relationship.

"Right now, AID is funding a joint collaborative research project with Mississippi State and Zamorano, the Pan-American agricultural school. Bud Pasley [associate director of MSU's Office of International Programs] is manager of that effort.

"My office, through the Forest Management Program, works with timber producers and the government agency in Honduras that manages timber. There's a lot of Mississippi influence. We have several Mississippians down there who are involved in sawmilling and the secondary wood industry. The country exports a lot of valuable tropical woods, such as mahogany, that go into furniture built here in Mississippi."

How does Wise envision the university's relationship with Honduras growing in the future?

"More and more, it's going to depend on ways the university can assist the Honduran private sector. We've been talking to people in agriculture at MSU about developing lists of Mississippi foresters and businessmen who might be interested in co-ventures that the university and AID might sponsor. Honduras needs capital, technology, and markets that Mississippians can provide, and Mississippians need access to their year-round products.

"One of our efforts is to diversify Honduras' production, especially in winter fruits and vegetables. For instance, a lot of the black-eyed peas and okra found in stores here in winter come from Honduras. Also melons--cantaloupes and honeydews--are probably Honduras' fourth-largest export."

According to Wise, the Honduran people are eager to improve their lives, but many are constrained by illiteracy, illness, and insecure land tenure.

"It gives you a great appreciation for a good legal system and secure private property rights, such as we enjoy in the U.S.," Wise says. "Sometimes, in Honduras, people are afraid to invest because they're afraid someone is going to come and take their land away."

Wise, 49, and his wife, Mercedes, have five children. Mercedes is Salvadoran and a U.S. citizen. An economist, she previously was vice minister of agriculture in El Salvador. One son, John Bob Wise, is a student in business administration at Mississippi State, two other children are in school at Texas A&M, and the couple has a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old at home.

"We'll be in Honduras for about three more years," he says. "Our normal stay is two, two-year tours in a particular place. I don't know where my next assignment will be. It could be anywhere. I kind of have an interest in going back to Vietnam, on the other side of the gun barrel, so to speak."

In 1997, Wise will have 20 years in government service. His long-range plan is to stay in (or return to) Central America. "We've bought a small farm, and we may just farm until all the money's used up," he laughs.

Wise is strongly committed to the work the Agency for International Development is doing.

"It's hard to understand how integrated the world economy is until you get out in development work or you get overseas," he says. "There's no way to be an economic isolationist anymore. For instance, in our project on diversifying production, especially in winter fruits and vegetables, we've calculated that for every dollar this project has spent, it has returned $8.52 to Central Americans. But more importantly for U.S. taxpayers, it has returned more than $13 to the U.S. economy.

"As we influence Hondurans to go into winter cantaloupes or okra or black-eyed peas, they're buying seeds, equipment, fertilizer, technical assitance, packaging, transportation, and marketing services--that's all coming from the United States. It's a good investment."

Honduras is Mississippi's leading trade partner outside the U.S. That longstanding relationship is due in large part to the Honduran banana companies' operations through the port of Gulfport. About a third of the bananas consumed in the United States come through Gulfport from Honduras.

"That provides a lot of jobs and economic revenue for the Gulf Coast area. Much of the expansion of the port is due to the expansion in the banana industry. Few people realize that bananas are the No. 1 crop in the world.

"There's great opportunity for continued relationships between Mississippi and Honduras. Hondurans are desperate for used farm and processing equipment, technology, access to markets. I'd like to see those relationships grow.

"Also, the assembly industry is growing by leaps and bounds in Central America. The high-value work is done in the U.S. and then the pieces are sent to Central America for assembly, then re-exported to the U.S. There's been a lot of talk about jobs being exported, but the numbers actually show that jobs aren't exported, and that the assembly industry provides low-cost goods to U.S. consumers without taking jobs away. The high paying jobs stay here. It's not Hondurans doing it on their own; a lot of it is Americans coming down and doing part of the work there."

When Wise talks about his work and his aspirations to make the world a better place for everyone, it's not hard to see quite a bit of his father in him.

Louis Wise, for instance, was a decorated combat pilot, as is Mike. Louis is considered the father of the international agriculture programs at Mississippi State, and Mike is keeping that legacy alive through his efforts in Central America.

Mike is quick to credit his father for his influence and support.

"When I was young, I never got to travel with him, but later, he and Mom came to visit me in Central America, and he came to visit while he was on trips," he recalls fondly. "Dad always had a warm spot in his heart for Central America, and I think he lived vicariously through me when I moved there and married a Central American and started making my career there.

"He encouraged me a lot. He thought it was very important for Mississippi to project itself to other parts of the world and to show the world what we have to offer."

Wise likes to get into the field at least
once a week to meet with Honduran
farmers and advise them on improving
agricultural practices.