Goodbye 2020? My Lamentation On Fragmentation & Individualism In Philippine Agriculture

Louise Maureen Simeon quotes Secretary of Agriculture William Dar as saying, “Fragmentation, Individualism Make Philippine Agriculture Uncompetitive[1]” (08 October 2020, MSN.com):

First, our farmers remain individualistic, unorganized and thus are not linked directly to markets. Second, our farmlands are small and fragmented.

Me! Not We. Yes, individualistic – the kind of Filipino farmers that PH journalists keep on cultivating! If Inadvertently.
(“Me We” image[2] from Reason)

“You there, as a farmer you too, U2 will succeed if you follow this farmer’s example.”

Note that “U2" is the very successful Irish musical band. U2 is Irish, became and still is wildly successful, with Bono as lead singer[3] (Wikipedia). The truth is that since 1976, when U2 was formed, no other band has succeeded like it has, including The Beatles.

Why am I talking U2 here? There is another historical development that has been actually limiting farmer success – the #1 kind of story that some journalists come out with, the one I call here the You Too, U2 Story.

Lesson: A U2 story, whether about a farmer or the Irish band, cannot be easily duplicated. So, Mr U2 Journalist, from now on don’t tell me I have not warned you about writing another U2 story!
(“Storytelling” image[4] from Rockcontent.com)

The formula of some journalists, the U2 formula of writing a farmer success story, began some 60 years ago. I was around, physically watching, when that formula was being concocted at the Department of Agricultural Communication, now DevCom, at the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños – it was a Peace Corps Volunteer who was teaching journalists how to write aggie success stories, the one I am now calling U2 stories. (By the way, that Peace Corps Volunteer happened to be Irish-American, what a coincidence!) It is not the copycat U2 farmer who will be successful; if the journalist writes enough U2 stories, he will win an award, a national or even an Asian award for his journalism.

You tell the farmer “U2!” That is the everlasting, if unexpressed, message written by the PH journalist when s/he writes about someone who has succeeded financially in his/her farming. The message of the U2 story is this:

If you follow this farmer’s example, you too will be quite successful!

No Sir/Madam! The farmer must find his own formula to succeed in his own farming. Financial and intellectual resources are not the same. UP Los Baños teaches good farming but not how you can become a financially successful farmer – and continue doing it, to lift yourself out of poverty!

Those journalists, (al)most of them love to feature stories of financially successful individuals (rarely families) in agriculture. I forgive them – They know not what they do! Those journalists do not realize that they are celebrating individualism among farmers. May their tribe decrease! (I mean the journalists.)

Please, no more U2 stories for farmers. The story the good journalists must write must be of successful farmers in an association, group or cooperative. No more, no less!@517

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[1]https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/fragmentation-individualism-make-philippine-agriculture-uncompetitive/ar-BB19PyiW

[2]https://reason.com/2017/08/04/individualism-increasing-across-the-worl/

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2

[4]https://en.rockcontent.com/blog/thought-leadership-long-form-storytelling-content-marketing-success-2/

UP Researchers – How Can You Serve The People When You Are Digitally Naïve!?

Agriculture needs new or improved science, technologies and systems in order to increase food produced for the country and indirectly increase the benefits to farmers. Now, this science requires that first it be published as technical papers by researchers so that it can be popularized by extensionists to share with the farmers. Now, these technical papers cannot be found: UP researchers are hardly publishing! In the almost 10 months since the pandemic lockdown in March in these islands, what have researchers of the UP System done in the matter of publishing technical papers based on completed or promising ongoing research studies? None. Before the lockdown? Hardly. It’s the technology, desktop publishing, DTP – they don’t know.

How do I know? I have been in and out and around UP Los Baños since 1975 when I became the Editor In Chief of 3 regular publications of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, now ERDB, in the upper campus of UP Los Baños: the monthly newsletter Canopy, the quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop¸ and the quarterly color magazine Habitat. The years were 1975-1981. Non-digitalpublishing.

Digital. From 2001 to 2008, I was Editor In Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, and I was the one who made the PJCS world-class or included in the international elite list popularly called ISI, now Web of Science. And you know what? The desktop publishing, DTP, work for all the issues of the PJCS was from beginning to end 100% digital – by yours truly.

UP researchers do not want to do that themselves. They simply rely on layout artists who work with Aldus PageMaker or InDesign. But those gentlemen can only do so much! And they don’t have the mentality of Science Serving Society.

UP researchers just have to master their software – publishing technical journals. I always demand the utmost from my software, so I taught myself to do it: editing, formatting text, creating columns, layouting sections and pages. To show you that I have mastered my software, I am now going to tell you that I use ONLY Word 2016 in working with photographs, pages, papers, books, blogs.

Even with so much time in their hands, why are the researchers in the entire UP System largely ignoring the wonders of digital publishing? UP researchers are not dumb – they are just naïve! Or worst: Uncaring.

Let us take up my alma mater UP Los Baños.

How can the results of research in agriculture reach the farmers eventually when the researchers do not begin the process of publishing them?!

First, the results of researches need to be published as technical papers. Second, the technical language need to be transformed into the popular tongue. Third, the new and improved science need to be extended to the people. To begin that process, the only intelligent way to deal with unpublished technical reports is to publish them!

That’s how important technical publishing of science in agriculture or any other field is. So, UP Los Baños itself should be strongly behind researchers needing to publish!@517

PH Agriculture Deliver-E – Death To The Merchants Of Venice!

 

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar says, “Online is the new byword in food security” (14 December 2020, DA press release). That is on the occasion of the launching of Deliver-E on Monday, 14 December 2020, with additional P20 million grant, on which USAID Philippines Mission Director Patrick Wesner said[1] (Catherine Talavera, “USAID Allots P20 Million For Deliver-E Expansion,” Philstar.com):

This expansion seeks to improve user interface, onboard more farmer cooperatives and institutional buyers, and integrate supply and demand analytics functions that can help inform government policies and interventions to strengthen the country’s agribusiness value chain.

Miss Catherine says:

Deliver-E is a digital platform that connects farmers to buyers through an efficient and transparent end-to-end market-based system. It operates through a sophisticated blockchain technology developed by a Filipino tech startup, Insight Supply Chain Solutions.

In Deliver-E, the user-interface is digital; the farmer cooperatives are the suppliers of farm produce that eventually reach institutional buyers via the value chain. Deliver-E insures that the food supply is available anywhere in the country.

Jun Yap says (14 December 2020, “Deliver-E: ‘Game-Changer’ For Farmers, Consumers,” Tribune.net.ph): “This initiative is all about bringing farm produce closer to consumers and cutting layers of traders.”

Essentially, Deliver-E connects electronically the demand and supply of farm produce, eliminating the middleman and, thereby ensuring that the farmer receives the fair market value of the sweat of his labors. Now then, Deliver-E enables the farmer to avoid low prices for his produce, always and ever.
(“Umiwas sa mababang presyo[2]” image from YouTube.com) – “Avoid low prices” offered by middlemen

“This initiative is all about bringing farm produce closer to consumers and cutting layers of traders. Through technology and innovation, it will be game-changing not only for our farmers but also for our consumers[3],” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said (ANN, 15 December 2020, “Deliver-E Will Be ‘Game-Changing’ For Farmers And Consumers – DTI Chief,” DailyGuardian). According to Mr Lopez, “Deliver-E is a digital platform that connects farmers to buyers through an efficient and transparent end-to-end market-based system.”

Mr Lopez also said, “This is part of our strong partnership with Agriculture Secretary William Dar as we jointly work on solutions to increase farmers’ income, provide better supply chain in agriculture and its link to industry processors or direct to marketplace, and delivering fresher products for consumers.”

Actually, the initial launch of Deliver-E was in April 2020 yet, or 7 months ago. ANN says, “Since April, this innovative platform has mobilized over 260 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables and recorded more than P7.15 million worth of transactions.”

Fresh produce, fair price, faster, even for/from far-flung areas. That’s what Deliver-E promises. Good for farmers, good for consumers – bad for the middleman who always takes advantage of the supply-sale situation.

However, there is a catch – Deliver-E rewards more the more efficient farmer than the one who does not care about costs & returns, and even borrows from a usurer for his expenses!

Deliver-E delivers death to the Merchants of Venice!
It also delivers disappointments to the inefficient farmers.
Fair enough!?@517

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/15/2063766/usaid-allots-p20-million-deliver-e-expansion

[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koxYZY0NrEk

[3]https://dailyguardian.com.ph/deliver-e-will-be-game-changing-for-farmers-and-consumers-dti-chief/

Filipino Fictionists Fixated On Foreign Formulas – Why Not True Tribal Tragedies & Triumphs?

What are Filipino English writers doing? Nobody writes in support of farm families, and there are millions of them!

To borrow from Shakespeare, I write not to bury Caesar but to praise him.

People, did you know we have 6 National Writers Workshops? At least the ones I can count:

1)  Ateneo National Writers Workshop (Loyola Heights, QC)

2)  Iligan National Writers Workshop (Iligan City)

3)  IYAS La Salle National Writers Workshop (Bacolod City)

4)  Silliman University National Writers Workshop (Dumaguete City)

5)  UP National Writers Workshop (Diliman, QC)

6)  UST National Writers Workshop (Baguio City)

That means we Filipinos are encouraging our writers in English in the fields of fiction. Now then, let us listen to National Artist for Literature F Sionil Jose delivering his keynote in the 27^thIligan National Writers Workshop[1] held 30 November to 05 December 2020 at the University of San Carlos, at the MSU Iligan Institute of Technology, speaking 01 December 2020, reported without title in the 07 December 2020 issue of PhilStar.com. F Sionil said:

(The Workshop) has so much to contribute to our national culture – not just the indigenous literatures on this big island, but so many facets of its culture, the folk arts, the dances and the history of its courageous and enterprising people about whom we know so little.

So, all those national writers workshops have been focusing on the PH local arts, cultures and indigenous literatures.

I hope that this workshop will also have discussions on history, politics and philosophy, that it enlarges its focus to include nationhood, that it nurtures the bonding of writers and that it imbues them with a higher purpose that will make them more human, more compassionate.

F Sionil is encouraging Filipino writers to engage in history, politics, philosophy – and nationhood, “to make (writers) more human, more compassionate.”

Ha, ha! I have just the right attitude for a proselytizer for Filipino writings in, as my title suggests, “tribal tragedies & triumphs.” As a creative writer for agriculture, I am of course referring to tribal lands and technologies. I dream of Filipino creatives becoming nonfiction writers – supporting PH Agriculture.

And here is relevant news: “World Bank invests P629 million in Mindanao[2]” (Louise Maureen Simeon, 14 December 2020, PhilStar.com). This is through the Philippine Rural Development Project of the DA, for Mindanao alone. That comprises some 108 sub-projects. There are a total of 24,000 beneficiaries for 54 sub-projects. The report is not complete, but 24,000 people alone should be worth at least 24,000 little & big stories in agriculture!

This is where we need non-fictionists badly. Not only hundreds but thousands of stories of Filipino farmers await to be told.

There are 116 state colleges & universities, SCUs, in the Philippines – if only 50 of those SCUs nurtured each 2 non-fiction writers, that is, writers of and for PH Agriculture, we have 100 active journalists supportive.

And they should be enjoying Freedom of the Impress because they are public, not private bodies. Inexpensive too, via freeblogs.@517

 

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/12/07/2061962/keynote-speech-delivered-iligan

[2]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/14/2063553/world-bank-invests-p629-million-mindanao?fbclid=IwAR3W0BvlaEggTwGxUFEyQTZOUtuOYNJCdaBLkHUk-F10TufkKAhkVyCW9Fc&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Autofeed

You Are Pro-Farmer, I Am Pro-Agriculture – There Is A HUGE Difference!

I know someone who is always looking for the Negative in the developing story of PH Agriculture, even before Covid-19. Me? I’m an Ilocano, original aboriginal. I blog Positive for my country’s Agriculture, not simply Farmers. In Oscar Wilde’s language, I see the Doughnut while the other fellow sees the Hole!

So, I want to encourage people to blog for Agriculture. I’m 80 – if I can blog, why can’t you? 

I’m a thought-provoker in Agriculture, mind you – and now, mind that the name of this blog of mine is: Brave New World@PH. It now has 659 short essays of 517 words each – yes, I’m always counting. For 2020 alone, I have been blogging every single day since New Year’s Day.

“This Love Of Mine” is a song sung by my favorite Frank Sinatra. I love it because I can sing it sounding like him, and of course he’s my namesake. “You have gone” – You there is Freedom of Movement. But as a creative thinker, I don’t really mind. What I mind is that I seem to be the only blogger positive for PH Agriculture. (I also want to be a blogger for bloggers.)

Above, I look exactly like that blogger myself, with big ears, long hair, beard, mustache… except that I use an external keyboard, A4Tech, and a 2^nd20-inch monitor, ViewSonic.

Why shouldn’t I enjoy my blogging!? With an ergonomic keyboard and a big, beautiful, bright monitor.
(image of blogger[1] from Yoast.com)

And what do I write about? Any subject or topic in or related to Agriculture – and related fields like
Communication,
Cooperative,
Extension,
Green Manuring,
Inclusive Development,
Intercropping,
Monocropping,
Natural Farming,
Organic Farming,
Policy,
Publication,
Research,
Seminar,
Systems,
Technology,
Training,
Weeds,
Workshop.
Youth.

I cry my heart out, it's bound to break
Since nothing matters, let it break
I ask the sun and the moon, the stars that shine
What's to become of it, this blog of mine?

I’m dedicating this essay to workers with words in Agriculture in the Philippines – especially those working out Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that is fed by unending streams of thoughts he calls “8 paradigms” – Modernization, Industrialization, Promotion Of Exports, Consolidation Of Small- And Medium-Sized Farms, Infrastructure Development, Higher Budget & Investment, Legislative Support, and Roadmap Development.

If you haven’t noticed it, my blog is titled “Brave New World@PH” published at Blogspot.com (free). This blog of mine goes on and on… subject, style, sequence, start & stop. That’s how I write.

And the software? Word 2016. Did you say, “Old”? You haven’t used it!

Since today is a lucky number, 13 December 2020, I am offering absolutely free writer’s advice to anyone who emails me – to show that you are serious about writing, send me a complete draft, 500 to 600 words, not longer. It doesn’t matter how bad it looks to you – as your Author’s Editor, I will give you complete advice, free!

Note: This offer of free Author’s Editor advice is good up to midnight of 31 December 2020.(frankahilario@gmail.com)@517

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[1]https://yoast.com/using-images-in-your-blog-post/

What Can SCUs Learn From Remote Teaching In Favor Of Their Students? First, They Have To Think!

 

If you are meeting your class online somehow, you are receiving your remuneration but you are wasting everyone’s time, including your own! Chances are, there is no learning at all.

If you are a mentor, teacher, instructor, or tutor in any subject, science or specialty, and you are using textual, visual or video materials, chances are you are unaware that you are not educating people at all – you are either entertaining them when you should not, or you are throwing bits & pieces of knowledge into the brains that you think are bottomless!

Today, Saturday, 12 December 2020, a Facebook post tells me “Remote Learning Isn’t Working[1]” (ANN, Patriotpost.us). ANN says:

Earlier this year, fears over the coronavirus shuttered classrooms across the country as school systems opted for makeshift online learning. At the time, the stopgap measure seemed like the only way to keep our kids both safe and engaged with their schooling.

That’s the US – but it’s true for the Philippines too. So, teachers and students have been forced to teach and learn in front of computers. How good has the learning been? The discovery: “Months later… the evidence now shows many children are failing their online classes.” Actually, the adults are failing too.

ANN says, “Remote education may be fine for some adults, but most kids need to be in schools with their teachers and classmates.” That is, back to the teacher’s direct control: “Do this, do that.” Whether in grade school, high school, or college: Teaching/learning in the classroom is essentially memory work. And that is what teachers are insisting even in online education.

What all teachers need to do is teach how to think.
What all learners need to do is learn how to think!

Since I studied to be a teacher in agriculture, UP Los Baños '65, I’m thinking of the state colleges & universities, SCUs, and how they are teaching their students agriculture. And of course teachers are teaching students like they had been taught:

Class, your assignment on Wednesday is the composition of the soil. We will discuss the details. And – be ready for a quick quiz.

On Wednesday, the class will recite on the nutrients that crops absorb from the soil for growth, and why at a certain point in time, there is a need for some fertilizer to be applied. The professor talks about  a total of 16 essential nutrients that plants need in order to grow well. But he does not explain why there are only a few kinds of commercial fertilizers available: such as supplying only nitrogen, only phosphorus, only potassium, and all of those 3, NPK, called “complete fertilizer.”

Think about it. The lesson does not include how the soil has naturally built up its own composition, and how the nutrients found in it are replenished naturally – or how the farmer may induce the natural replenishment of the richness of that soil. Via “natural farming,” say.

SCUs, think about it. Teaching is teaching how to think!@517

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[1]https://patriotpost.us/articles/76389-remote-learning-isnt-working-2020-12-11?fbclid=IwAR2u4CDLgQQ3vNyNGiUrjPB1QnLDpcSZstKN7CP_ziMp4TOjbtFp7JlK2rg

SEXY CiA – How To Grow Young Entrepreneurs In Agriculture, A Proposal

The KPAP aims to produce young leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the agriculture and fisheries sector.

Early this month, Friday, 04 December 2020, Justin B Dela Rueda says different PH public institutions formed the Technical Panel for Agriculture, chaired by Prospero E De Vera III (“DA To Harness Youth Potential In Agribusiness[1],”ATI.da.gov.ph). About the same time, the Department of Agriculture, DA, “launched (the) program seen to empower the younger generation (in) agribusiness.” This is the Kabataan sa Pagpapaunlad ng Agrikultura at Pangingisda, K-PAP, Program. K-PAP is ”Youth in the Advancement of Agriculture and Fishery” (my translation). 
(image of young entrepreneurs[2] from Assignmentpoint.com)

K-PAP is a bright idea. Except that giving it a Tagalog name implies that science, or new and improved knowledge, is unimportant! Importantly, the youth entrepreneurship must follow Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” with its 8 paradigms, which are impossible to translate into Tagalog. Besides, we don’t have a knowledge base in Tagalog – where will you get your science? Too, economics does not lend itself to the National Language.
(image of “8 paradigms – Ani at Kita[3]” from Greenoptions.ph)

Now, I’m thinking of my own acronym to put my youth ideas in memorable terms, and here it is!

SEXY CiA.

Science –
This is composed of new or improved knowledge in agriculture and fisheries, to be obtained from the knowledge banks and/or database of state colleges & universities, SCUs, of the country.

Economics –
The youth must be trained to look atobstacles and then around them, and come up with an opportunity or two for new or improved businesses.

eXtra eXtension –
This youth program must be supported by digitally-abled extension people of the DA; SEXY CiA is for field work, advice given in the field, not simply in a classroom.

Youth –
The ages 18-30 are those of the youth[4] (NYC.gov.ph). In or out-of-school, a young one may be included in the SEXY CiA program if s/he shows high intelligence and/or understanding of the SEXY CiA Vision, which was National Hero Jose Rizal’s own vision:

The Youth as Hope of the Fatherland.

Clustering in Agriculture –
From the very beginning of engagement, the youth must be connected to a cluster: farmer association, farmer cooperative, or farm cluster. This is for practical purposes – for the youth to see and learn firsthand what is actually obtaining in the field as well as appreciate and make use of all the assistances that the DA has provided farmer groups so far: cash, food and equipment. The SEXY CiA youth is going to be immersed at once into the new realities of the Filipino world of farming.

Not to be forgotten is that:

Mentors are necessary.

Mentors may come from the private or public sector. Each mentor must have an appropriate sense of engaging in business in agriculture resulting in sustainable returns.

For a start, the DA may tap UP Los Baños as the model implementing institution, and from there develop the SEXY CiA program with regionally important SCUs in mind later.@517

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[1]https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-main/news/12042020-1453/da-harness-youth-potential-agribusiness

[2]https://www.assignmentpoint.com/business/strategic-management-business/youth-entrepreneurship.html

[3]https://greenoptions.ph/2020/03/14/for-the-youth-you-can-bridge-the-gap/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=for-the-youth-you-can-bridge-the-gap

[4]https://nyc.gov.ph/republic-act-8044/

Webinar Presenter Are You? Much To Learn From Doc Willie Ong, Internist & Cardiologist!

Whatever subject matter you are discussing in a seminar, online or offline, there’s a bad and a good way to do a presentation, PowerPoint or not. Yes, you can learn from Doc Willie!

So today, webinars are in vogue. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that this current trend in educational digital communication began when SEARCA started a series of digital seminars in its fields of interests – agriculture and education.

I have been an active practitioner of science communication in the last 45 years, before the personal computer. with texts, images, sounds and actions; and with the coming of the PC and Internet, with addition of stylized and even magical presentations. Modern media as a whole is the most exciting thing that ever happened before our eyes and between our ears!

So why are webinars boring?!
Because presenters think that anyway,
they are talking to a captive audience –
no need to look from the audience’s point of view.

They are mostly textual, or mostly verbal. You hear the words and then right after that you forget them. I don’t blame those presenters – they did not study to be presenters, only to be experts in their fields. They need help!

Now, look at the Doc Willie image above again – “Kape At Tsaa: Sino Pwede, Sino Bawal.” (Coffee & Tea: Who May, Who May Not). While it is a small frame, since he is using a monitor and not a projector, there are lots of texts and visuals. Of course, Doc Willie goes through all of those materials in the course of his presentation. He is good.

You are attracted and you learn a lot.
Doc Willie did not study communication,
but he is certainly an outstanding communicator!

To help communicators, now this teacher, UP '65, I think that I have discovered  2 things that a short course should be able to teach: creative writing with digital presentations.

We must graduate from mechanicalpresentations by PowerPoint, say. Academically, we have no excuse not being able to produce something educational and yet exciting:

A challenging, thought-provoking presentation.

Those people with advanced degrees and/or PhDs who conduct webinars or room seminars and who are contented with their old methods of presentation are short-changing not only their audiences but also themselves!

Why cannot a scientist be creative? Doc Willie is creative – surprised? I have watched Doc Willie’s biopic, the original story of which he wrote: “I Will.” That is an unusual title for a human story, but Doc Willie is a highly unusual thinker himself. Son of a rich man who became poor, he continued to attend medical school… ah, I don’t want to tell the story. I have watched the movie twice already, and really, it’s well-written, well-acted and well-intentioned. It is a head-wringing, heart-warming experience.

Doc Willie Ong. In his Facebook posts, the good doctor willingly continues to give wellness advice to readers. And, as you can see, Doc Willie knows how to actively align art advancing animate advice. How about you?@517

Zac Sarian’s "37 Agri Stories" & Sustainability Of PH Farms & Gardens

For 60 years, Zac Sarian chose to write about individuals, and husbands-&-wives, first as absent-mindedly failing, and then business-mindedly succeeding, in PH agriculture.

He died Monday, 07 December 2020 in Manila, but he has journalled at least a thousand aggie success stories that Zac Sarian will live forever!

To honor Zac Sarian, we have to take off where he left off – we have to help beyond the individuals, beyond the couples – we have to help the village not only succeed but perpetuate itself in richness.
(Repeatability image[1] from Environmentalleader.com)

We are talking here of sustainability. Isn’t it a sin against Sociology if in Economics we nurture the successful individuals or married couples but not the whole village? It certainly is a Crime Against Humanity.

We must pursue Sustainability, not simply Success.

So now, if Zac Sarian were for entrepreneurial success of individuals, we must now go for sustained entrepreneurial success of whole villages – residents enriching themselves in agriculture & fishery repeatedly! People cannot lead sustainable lives for long if their village is not sustainable for long.

Your farming system must be sustainable in kind – and repeatable in time.

Let us take the rice farmers: For model sustainability, their farming must have these characteristics, all 5, not simply 3 or 4:

(1) Technically feasible: Does your technology work as claimed by the source? How much mastery do you need to make it work for your good?

(2)  Economically viable: Is the technology cost-effective? Then, you are a winner, not a loser.

(3) Environmentally sound: Whatever you do, it must not be at the expense of the environment. Like, no pesticides, no weedicides, no soil erosion. There should be no burning of crop waste – they can be turned into organic fertilizer.

(4) Socially acceptable: You cannot make money by taking advantage of other people’s ignorance – or not rewarding them properly for their contribution, directly or indirectly, to your endeavors.

(5) Sociologically helpful: After all is said and done, when you sell your harvest, do your net returns enable you to climb up the ladder of prosperity and properly ascend in terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Yvette Natalie Tan refers to him as “Father of Agriculture Journalism” in the Philippines (07 December 2020, “Zac Sarian, Former Manila Bulletin Agriculture Editor And Father Of Agriculture Journalism, Passes Away At 83[2],” MB.com.ph). Ms Yvette is correct.
(cover image[3] from Tribune.net.ph)

Thank you Zac, and goodbye.

What we desperately need now are stories that encourage interlinked successes of farmer associations, farm clusters, and cooperatives in the villages.

Aggie journalism must now work out of “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that is espoused by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar and is fed from what he calls “8 Paradigms” – Modernization, Industrialization, Promotion Of Exports, Consolidation Of Small- And Medium-Sized Farms, Infrastructure Development, Higher Budget & Investment, Legislative Support, and Roadmap Development.

Writing for the New PH Agriculture is not easy, is it? You need sustainability – just as farmers need sustainability. That’s why we need journalists steadfast on sustainability!@517

 

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[1]https://www.environmentalleader.com/2020/02/5-ways-businesses-can-exercise-sustainability-practices/

[2]https://mb.com.ph/2020/12/07/zac-sarian-former-manila-bulletin-agriculture-editor-and-father-of-agriculture-journalism-passes-away-at-83/?fbclid=IwAR2V6A1iRtiR93adZNg95oGb8ddjylvWJqN7RXauaKIVx-f1KZ7YNhybkqU

[3]https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2020/12/07/agri-journalist-zac-sarian-writes-30/?fbclid=IwAR3cIkCiFnzk43CuFXSm6uRib6H9osEDYqe9CEINYM10BWZY_c963okUp7k

Where In The World Is The Los Baños Science Community?

"Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?” was a world-wide hit game show that lasted from 1991 to 1995 for a total of 5 seasons and 295 episodes[1] (Wikipedia). “The show was created partially in response to the results of a National Geographic survey that indicated Americans had alarmingly little knowledge of geography, with one in four being unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean.”

Today, Saturday, 05 December 2020, I ask the question, “Where in the world is the Los Baños Science Community?” My question is different in that I am asking for a place in the geography of knowledge, for essentially a community of people engaged in science for development via agriculture; after all, it is the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture, UPCA (now UP Los Baños) that gave birth to that science on 08 March 1908, thanks to American scientists. (Yes, I am pro-American.)

My question is:

Why has the Los Baños Science Community not been contributing to the survival, revival and triumph of PH Agriculture especially during these lockdown pandemic times?

I’m speaking as an alumnus, UP '65, and as a creative writer for the advancement of “inclusive national development” via agriculture – inclusive of the rise from poverty of the poor, starting with the farmers.

That’s why today I’m looking for the Los Baños Science Community – where is it? I’m talking not simply of UP Los Baños and the other entities that celebrated the virtual 12^th SyenSaya” 2-4 December 2020 – syensaya, a good coinage from sciencia, science.
(SyenSaya[2] image from Facebook page of Los Baños Science Community Foundation Inc)

Carol Yorobe, Undersecretary of S&T Services of the Department of Science & Technology, noted in 2016 that the Los Baños Science Community was now composed of 22 members, including IRRI[3] (Paula Blanca Ferrer, IRRI.org). Easy to say, hard to count!

The units I know are 9: (1) UP Los Baños itself, (2) Ecosystem Research & Development Bureau; (3) Forest Products Research & Development Institute; (4) Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development; (5) National Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology; (6) National Crops Protection Center; (7) UP Open University, (8) IRRI and (9) PhilRice Los Baños.

According to its Facebook page, the Los Baños Science Community, LBSC, was formed in 1984 by President Ferdinand Marcos via Presidential Executive Order 784. The LBSC was registered as a foundation in 2001. The “LBSCFI hopes to transform Los Baños into a model community using science-based technologies[4].”

At most, the vision is for the Los Baños Science Community to become a model community. What about the communities around it – and in other parts of the Philippines?

The Los Baños Science Community has no plans to transform farm communities all over the country using science-based technologies?! With the 12^thSyensaya, the Los Baños Science Community has become virtual, online. On fire? No.

As far as technically assisting in the inclusive national development of PH Agriculture, where in the world is the Los Baños Science Community?!@517

 

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen_Sandiego%3F_(game_show)

[2]https://www.facebook.com/lbscfi/photos/a.366509663473984/2464549123670017

[3]http://news.irri.org/2016/07/the-los-banos-science-community.html

[4]https://www.facebook.com/lbscfi/about/

How To Teach_Learn Anything Technical In Agriculture

You are looking at a rotavator, which I am sure you are not familiar with. Precisely!

Question: As an innocent farmer, or even as an Agriculturist, do you need a technician to learn about a machine such as the above, a rotavator? (CY80[1], Ching Yee Manufacturing, Taiwan). It’s a cultivator with blades that rotate, hence the coined name “rotavator.” The whole thing is dragged, not pushed.

Answer: My answers: Yes – and No. As a teacher in agriculture (graduate of UP Los Baños with a BSA major in Ag Education, 1965; with a Civil Service eligibility at the Professional Level, with high school and college teaching experiences). But as good teachers, we have to learn on our own first before we teach!

Even now, look at those blades. There are 5 pairs of blades. They cut against each other, don’t they? And since the whole thing rotates as those L-shaped and J-shaped blades cut – look at the middle of the contraption – the brown and greens are simultaneously cut and mixed together in the same rotary motion; and this is repeated as you cultivate the field.

Technically, it is called the rotary tiller or rotary cultivator[2]. Australian Arthur Clifford Howard invented this one, patenting the design in 1920, hence it is also called the Howard Rotavator.

The Teaching_Learning Lesson From The Rotavator

If you don’t know anything and want to know more about a machine, go watch someone use it. Observe what happens, and then ask questions. If the fellow does not have the answer/s, so much more to learn!

In the case of the rotavator, I have been reading and writing about it since 08 November 2015 (see my essay “Women, Urban Agriculture & InangLupa[3],” A Magazine Called Love), so I know much about it.

But the lesson here is not to know more from me about the rotavator but to know more about something you don’t know, so that you can begin to understand and then in a little while teach! That is to say, even if the subject – or object – is foreign to you, you can approach to learn about it intelligently:

Understanding what it does is
the beginning of understanding
how it works!

Now I remember – that’s exactly what happened to me when I began to get interested in learning how to do word processing using WordStar Version 1 – starting 28 December 1985, or 35 years ago! First I had to study the commands – I already knew how to type – the first one of course being how to operate the desktop computer and then open WordStar to get to work on something I was writing.

To appreciate how the rotavator works, compare what happens with the disc plow – it throws up chunks of soil from below, inverts them, and leaves them to dry up. There is no mixing of soil and anything green growing – no layer of mulch formed over the surface of the field. Now then:

I’m telling you: It is that surface mulch that is your secret organic fertilizer!@517

 

 

 

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[1]https://cy0520.en.ec21.com/CY80_Tiller_Cultivator_Hand_Tractor--6333548_8566349.html

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivator

[3]https://amagazinecalledlove.blogspot.com/2015/11/women-urban-agriculture-inanglupa.html?view=classic

Andres Bonifacio Should Have Thought More. He Was Well-Read, And That’s Almost My Hero!

 

I'm a teacher, Civil Service Professional Level, and I want to teach what others have ignored about this other PH National Hero.

30 November 2020. Today is the 157^th birthday of Andres Bonifacio, who was born into a middle-class family, not poor[1] (ANN, globe.com.ph). Also according to ANN, he is variously known as “The Great Plebeian,” “Supremo of the Katipunan,” “Father of the Philippine Revolution,” and “First President of the Philippines.” I believe he deserves all those titles.

I am surprised to learn from ANN that the Bonifacios were not plebeian. His mother Catalina De Castro was a half-Spanish mestiza. He spent his early years in Cebu, where his parents hired a tutor for his arithmetic and Spanish. He had 5 siblings; they were orphaned when he was 14 years old. To support his siblings, he had to work – while doing that, he taught himself English while employed as a clerk-messenger by a British firm[2] (Wikipedia). He read voraciously, such as about the US Presidents, Les Miserables, Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, and history of the French Revolution. With his readings, “he laid down the foundation for the Katipunan – its strict moral codes, means of recruitment and mission-vision[3]” (Alen Gonzales, Inquirer.net).
(books image[4] from Inc.com)

We have been wrong thinking about Bonifacio’s thinking – like, he did consider education as the initial way for the Filipinos to improve their lives, having read Noli, but in the end he still insisted on an armed struggle, consistent with a radical interpretation of the Fili, when Rizal was arrested and deported to Dapitan. To me, through the Fili author Jose Rizal is telling the reader:

Armed struggle will get you nowhere!
(image of Bonifacio thinking[5] from manilatimes.net)

Bonifacio was killed by his passion – as was the rebel leader in Fili.

What I’m learning from all of the above is that Revolution is more persuasive than Reform if you want to change society.

But I prefer a Revolution of the Word rather than a Revolution of the Sword.

My phrase “the Word” has 2 meanings: Intellectual and Spiritual, that is, man’s knowledge gained through Man’s Science and God’s love gained through His Grace.

Sustainable practices in farming, for instance, will deliver us from the evils of man’s own destruction of his world. If Science disobeys the laws of Nature, which are the laws of God, Science and Man will not survive. Violence against the wealth of the world will deprive Man of the riches that God intended for him.

Bonifacio wanted the Philippines free from the abuses and tyranny of the Spanish friars who were the rulers of the country, yes. But not from the abuse and tyranny of government and the ruling class, now Filipino!

Bonifacio was married to his second wife Gregoria De Jesus through a Catholic ceremony in Binondo Church in March 1893 (Wikipedia). The rulers of the Philippines at that time were Roman Catholic clergy – how could the Church save itself?

Rizal was right – only Education will Save the Soul of the Filipino!@517

 

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[1]https://www.globe.com.ph/go/entertainment/article/andres-bonifacio-facts.html#gref

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrés_Bonifacio

[3]https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/351927/andres-bonifacio-unconventional-thinker/

[4]https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/why-you-should-be-reading-books-every-day-according-to-science.html

[5]https://www.manilatimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/robin-padilla20161130.jpg