Schools, Universities & Colleges (SUCs) – In Playing Your Expected Roles In Research, Development & Extension (RD&E), Where Is Development And Where Is Extension? Agriculture Secretary William Dar Is Asking!

I say, all those state-supported schools. universities & colleges (SUCs) in the Philippines, led by UP Los Baños, which supposed to be innovating by doing research, development and extension (RD&E) in Agriculture, have been doing much R and hardly performing D, much less E!

I present that as the background to keynote address of Secretary of Agriculture William Darat the 25 May 2022 “Inclusive Innovation Conference” sponsored by the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), that the Department of Agriculture(DA), through its agency Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), has been allocating an average of P446 million yearly to SUCs for their “development, technology commercialization, research facilities, and scholarships starting 2017.” ANN says (Author Not Named, 26 May 2022, “DA Invests P2.2B In SUCs For Outputs To Benefit Agri Sector,” Department of Agriculture, DA.gov.ph), specifically Mr Dar said:

We need more output and convincing outcomes arising from these investments. Please keep elevating your game.

Not even the lead among the SUCs, UP Los Baños, has elevated its game. An alumnus of the UP College of Agriculture (UPCA), now UP Los Baños, I should know, as I have been in and out of the Los Baños campus since 1959. I graduated from UPCA in 1965; was employed as Chief Information Officer (not the title) of the Forest Research Institute, based in the UPLB campus. Long before UPCA became UP Los Baños, UPLB has always been brandishing its activities as comprising RD&E. Unfortunately, over the years, up to now, UP Los Baños has been doing mostly Research, Research, Research! Hardly Development, and much less Extension. Likewise, the other SUCs.

Today, I also note that it is only Mr Dar, himself a PhD alumnus in Horticulture of UP Los Baños, who has implicitly castigated UPLB as the leader of the SUCs in failing their roles in D and E. Aside from Instruction, the other SUCs have also been doing Research, Research, Research!

Developmentwould be combing up the results of research – new and/or improved knowledge – and packaging them for Filipino farmers into tips, techniques, tricks, technologies for production, processing and pocketing profits. At the very least, these should be presented in publications, better in websites.

Extension is something else. There is an impending food crisis, Mr Dar says:

You must blaze the trail in never-before breached frontiers of science, innovation, and technology, with the resources at your disposal: your vast tracts of land not just as experimental fields but also as food hubs in themselves.

ANN says, “According to the Secretary, main innovations could lie in the simplest transformations such as the expansion of the SUCs’ roles in the community.”

“Expansion of the SUC’s roles in the community” – I take that to mean in 1 word: Extension. SUCs, if you do not extend your new or improved knowledge even to the community where you are based, you are at best only half-performing your social role. I say, shame on you!@517

DAGDAGs For Extension! Not Only Should DA Be Telling Farmers What To Do, It Should Be Extending, Offering Options Of What Farmers Could Do!

Today, I would like to deal with Agricultural Extension, which has been set aside by the PH Department of Agriculture (DA) after the creation of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI).

All I know is that ATI used to be BAEx – Bureau of Agricultural Extension – extensionists seeing farmers in their farms or homes, advising about techniques & tricks in agriculture. I saw it firsthand – in the early 1960s, my brother Emilio, a graduate of Araneta Institute of Agriculture, was very zealous about extension, especially with a motorcycle assigned to him by BAEx. For instance, I remember him teaching farmers how to plant rice in measured distances, he actually helping string out the field with little white strings tied on to indicate exact places to insert the seedlings. No sloppy work, my brother Emilio. Don’t underestimate Araneta!

Today, what I know is that ATI is all Training, Training, Training – not minding Extension much. But my writing the essay, “‘The Biggest Job In The World Is Getting Bigger” – BASF, Referring To Agriculture. If We Want To Succeed In The Field, PH Needs Billions In Its Budget!” (20 May 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com), reminded me, via a provision of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), that Extensionis necessary and that in fact the RTL provides every year P1 Billion for “Extension and Training.” Note: “Extension and Training” – Extension is first!

Extension is not simple but complex, as the above image shows. There is more.
(Extension image from Slideshare.net)

On its own website ati2.da.gov.ph, in “About ATI,” it says:

Agricultural Training Institute is the capacity builder, knowledge bank and catalyst of the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries extension system.

ATI as “capacity builder” yes – trainer. But “knowledge bank” and “catalyst of the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries extension system” – sorry, not yet!

Not even much-honored and 62-year old International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) is that “extensionable”. The IRRI Knowledge Bank tells you exactlywhat to do. Nyet!

A proper Knowledge Bank gives you options with the sets of knowledge you can withdraw from it. This bank will give you basic knowledge about things, such as what are the:

available hybrid rice varieties & characteristics
sources & how to obtain such varieties
source-prescribed method of planting a hybrid
successful farmers with those varieties
necessary budgets
expected incomes.

A proper Knowledge Bank gives farmers options to choose from: technologies, techniques, tips. If not, don’t call it a “Knowledge Bank” – instead, call it an “Instructions Bank!”

So, here’s my advice for Mr Dar to create an extension program to be called DAGDAGs:

DAGDAGs – Digital Agriculture to Accelerate Acquaintance of Generalizations & Givens for Development-Directed Activities Grounded On & Supported by Science

The basic word DAGDAG is both Tagalog and Ilocano. In Tagalog, dagdag means “extra” while in Ilocano, dagdag means “remind” or “push to follow instructions.”

DAGDAGs would not only add to but greatly multiply the efficiency of necessary extension efforts of the DA – including harnessing the power of the Internet!@517

"Let There Be Light!"

[The following essay is 100% by Amparo “Lola Ampy” Medina Reynoso Hilario, 76, who as a first-time writer surprises me, her husband of 55 years, who has been formally writing for 57 years, her sharing of a radio interview on 15 May 2022, among others about the PH Department of Agriculture and Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. She knows my loyalties, of course. Note: Original edited for length. (My) title plus her text (except this note & author line) follows my self-imposed length: 517 words. My photograph of her taken in Asingan, Pangasinan 28 April 2018, in front of Danggay House.]

By Amparo “Lola Ampy” Medina Reynoso Hilario

Early morning, Sunday, 15 May 2022 (feast day of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of farmers, and incidentally the name of the town in Nueva Ecija where I was born), while trying to tune in to a regular Sunday radio program (“Men of Light” over DZRV), I chanced upon another radio station SuperRadyo DZBB, the program title and name of host I missed, but the name of the person being interviewed and topics being discussed caught my attention and I decided to listen.

The guest was Dr Henry Lim, President of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (FFCCC). He was speaking for the FFCCC. He was asked a number of questions on different topics, such as the P33 wage increase for minimum wage earners in Metro Manila only; his answers were in my opinion clear and satisfactory.

On the composition of the incoming administration’s cabinet, three departments & their heads were mentioned: Finance (Sonny Dominguez), Trade & Industry (Ramon Lopez) and Agriculture (Dr William D Dar). The host and the guest agreed that these three government agencies were key and strategic instruments to the success of the country’s socio-economic recovery program (post-CoViD pandemic). Dr Lim remarked that both Dominguez and Lopez had been doing a “good job.”

Then came a side comment from the program host that it is the Department of Agriculture “na dapat mauna” (“should be first,” meaning in leadership change). To this, Dr Lim opined that Secretary Dar has also been doing a good job, but hampered by budgetary constraints. He even elaborated that for rice production, the Philippines cannot be fairly compared with those of Vietnam and Thailand due to some factors like difference of land area for rice production, not to mention the bigger share of % of GDP allocated to agriculture in both countries mentioned. Aside from that, Dr Lim noted that there were some issues beyond the control of the DA as they were not within the scope of the office, such as rice smuggling & hoarding. Dr Lim said that despite these, the DA had made some progress in terms of increased rice productivity.

Lastly, Dr Lim made a very strong and valid observation that the DA indeed is a very large agency that is in charge of multiple commodities/disciplines, not to exclude the need for continuous support and training of farm workers, entrepreneurs and even enthusiasts. In this context, he enumerated some of them – agricultural crops (for food, shelter, clothing, raw material for value-added products), farm animals (swine, poultry, ruminants); and on top of these, the agency is also tasked with the vast aquatic resources of the country. both fresh and marine resources – can you beat that!

At this juncture, the program was drawing to an end, and the radio host thanked the guest Dr Lim (and I thank him ,too, for setting the record straight as some parties had opted to make it an election and/or selection issue), and I switched to my regular Sunday radio program “Men of Light”.

And to all I say, “Let there be light!”@517
“Above image from The Kabbalah Center, kabbalah.com]

Washington SyCip Thinks About PH Education, And This UP Teacher Thinks About Enriching UP System’s Academic Freedom!

The just-concluded PH national & local elections, especially the presidential voting, or what is shaping up as non/victory – among other things, has called attention to the kind of education that we Filipinos have been undergoing since the American Thomasites came in the 1900s. This is a UP System teacher speaking.

Our multi-interest & inquisitive friend Ramon Yedra has shared on Facebook a glimpse of the thinking of Washington SyCip of the smashingly successful SyCip Gorres Velayo, which Mr SyCip founded [?] March 1946 as a one-man accounting firm. Today, “SGV is currently the Philippines' largest multidisciplinary professional services firm with nine offices across the country” (sgv.ph). These include “assurance, tax, strategy and transactions, and consulting services.”

Thus, anyone can be in awe of Washington SyCip. Quoted above:

My father insisted that the whole family go to public school because public schools could compete. I went to Mapa High School and Burgos Elementary School. I could compete with any La Salle or Ateneo graduate.

Competition. Education as equalizer. I teacher am sure Mr SyCip outcompeted most, if not all of them.

Now, if you look at SGV’s big 4-5 groups of services – they are in the field of “critical thinking.”

Mr SyCip thought about education as the door to competition for the poor to get out of poverty.

Now, I public (UP) teacher ask: “Why did Washington SyCip not succeed in the field of education for conquering poverty?” One answer: “He did not discover transformative education.”

Above, the lower image is from the Facebook page of Saint Louis University (SLU) in Baguio City (Facebook.com/slu.edu.ph). On its Facebook page, SLU says:

Saint Louis University is an excellent missionary, and transformative educational institution that is zealous in developing human resources to be creative, competent, socially involved, and imbued with the Christian Spirit.

Excellent! This UP System’s teacher says. And that gives me an idea:

Why not the UP System “enlarge” its concept of Academic Freedom to include not only “Critical Thinking” but more so “Creative Thinking” – an undiscovered country in many a UP System campus!?

Public or private, education should be much more creative and less critical. At UP Los Baños, where I obtained my BSA major in Ag Edu in 1965. I was already both a creative and critical thinker that UPLB did not have to teach! And that is how I discovered myself with my open mind American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner’s organic farming technique he called “trash farming” – and which today I have seen as “regenerative farming.” (For more details, see my essay “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” 16 Feb 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com).

A creative mind is an open mind. If I were notcreative, I would simply have criticized Mr Faulkner’s idea using the UP Los Baños chemical agriculture paradigm!

What the world needs now is an education, public or private, that teaches critical as well as creative thinking. This layman teacher salutes you, Saint Louis University, Baguio City!@517

Digitizing PH Agriculture 2022 – With Central Luzon State University & Department Of Agriculture

Where is the Science of Agriculture in the Philippines leading to now? Good question!

ANN says “DA Launches First National Center For Precision And Digital Agriculture” (Author Not Named, 06 May 2022, Department of Agriculture, DA.gov.ph):

Agriculture Secretary William D Dar spearheaded the inauguration of the Precision and Digital Agriculture Center (PreDiC) facilities located in Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

In the field of precision and digital agriculture, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is starting from scratch.

During the inauguration ceremony on 06 May, Secretary Dar encouraged PreDiC officials and staff to continue bringing in the latest prediction and digital agriculture technologies and to adapt them to the Philippine setting to further improve agricultural production in the country.

In the lower image above, from DataLoop (dataloop.ai), a digitally operated drone sprays the field of what looks like corn. This is precision technology. This is an example of what I think PreDiC is aiming at. I understand Mr Dar is encouraging PreDiC experts to scout around the world and digitize the knowledge as PreDiC content.

“Digital agriculture” to me includes “stored web knowledge in agriculture aimed at being used.” I remember Mr Dar proposing in the early 2000s the “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA)” when he was Director General of ICRISAT. Mr Dar turned ICRISAT from dead last to #1, a dream agency among the 15 international research agencies under the CGIAR; unfortunately OpAPA, which was not directly guided by him, remained a dream.

For OpAPA, I was hired as a communication consultant by PhilRice. To help operationalize the concept, I wrote an entirely digital book, The Geography Of Knowledge (TGoK), 198 pages, that I submitted to Roger Barroga, my immediate supervisor, on 28 Dec 2003. I still have a digital TGoK – I created the whole thing/think out of the mud of my thoughts and knowledge, so I valued it that much. Unfortunately, there was no reaction from PhilRice.

Today I want to revise TGoK and submit to PreDIC to enhance its Digital Agriculture – I call my proposal now Popular Science (PopScience), a Knowledge Bank containing technical knowledge translated into and/or interpreted in popular language. The explanations or elucidations of English terms will be understandable by 3^rdyear high school students.

PopScience will capture & via a website will present already-existing technologies & systems and make them available electronically to schooled as well as unschooled farmers.

PopScience is designed as a digital library for all farmers, presenting:

1.     All known pieces of knowledge necessary for a specific technology, or system.

2.     Options and choices for each knowledge component, such as varieties of rice, location of farm, system of production, harvesting methods, processing of harvest, markets etc.

3.     Machines & equipment for specific purposes explained.

4.     Credit sources & terms, including banks & cooperatives.

5.     Experiences of successful farmers.

PopScience will be useful for formulating training as necessary.

PopScience will later be translated into Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisaya, Muslim etc.)

Not to forget, PopScience will be searchable even by cellphone!@517

“The Measure Of Love Is To Love Without Measure” – St Francis De Sales. The Measure Of Leni Is The Measure Of Love

I have loved Writing since Grade 5, 1951;
I have loved Agriculture since UPCA, 1959;
I have loved Organic Farming since Trash Farming, 1966;
I have loved Blogging since Blogspot.com, 2000.
Endless Loves. True Love is Endless.

(images: Leni quote from Facebook sharing of Elsie Lantican; Heart & Quote from Pinterest.com; “Red Squares & Foot” from me, 28-08-2006)

Whomever you voted as PH President, with the electoral count reporting a Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcoslandslide victory, here comes Leni Robredo with her undying love for her country, my country.

Above is a 2-sentence quote from Leni; I shall now translate it freely:

“Ang pag-ibig, nasusukat hindi lang sa pagtitiis, kundi sa kahandaang lumaban, kahit gaano kahirap, para matapos na ang pagtitiis.”

Love is measured not only in suffering, but also in readiness to fight, no matter how difficult, to end the suffering. 

“Ang nagmamahal, kailangang ipaglaban ang minamahal.”

The lover needs to fight for the loved one.

I love you, Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo; Ma'am: You wring out the best in me!

For this essay, I was looking for quotations of love, and I found via Google Chrome that of “Francis De Sale” – “The measure of love is to love without measure.” When I checked with my favorite quote webpage Goodreads, I found that the correct name of the source is “Francis De Sales,” the saint. And next to that, I found this quote in the title of the book by Ryan Holiday: The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art Of Turning Trials Into Triumph.

The obstacle to Leni’s presidency? Negative election results reported – ah, Ma’am, that is the Obstacle that is the Way.

Obstacles do not get in the way – they are the way!

The Obstacle in my writing is Chemical Agriculture, since 1966, when I accidentally discovered Edward H Faulkner’s “Trash Farming.”

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals & happiness” – Thomas Jefferson, philosopher & American President.

I will now revise Jefferson to say, “Regenerative Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to good wealth, good health, good morals & happiness.”

Back to my lesson from Leni – Now then, to end the sufferings of soils being abused, of food growers not earning much, of fields denied their biodiversity, of human consumers denied healthy foods, and all of us suffering from climate change also because of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from farms big & small:

We must practice Regenerative Agriculture, one method of which is the preparation of organic materials to apply to our farms and/or gardens.

Yes, Ma'am! Yes Sir! Organic farming is natural love bestowed on the land – natural richness, goodness, health. If you apply organic materials to the soil, you feed the invisible organisms such as bacteria, and visible organisms such as bugs & earthworms – they all contribute to making the soil healthy, wealthy and weather-wise!

Regenerative Agriculture is fighting the enemies with 100% Natural Love!@517

For Youths All Over The Philippines, I Say, “The #Futureofwork Is Farming With Your Mind First.” For “The Young Farmers Challenge,” Please Include Regenerative Agriculture!

You have to make farming exciting, challenging. I’m not young anymore; I’m 81 and you may be 18, but if I had a piece of land and some funds, I would attempt farming my way – Minimum Tillage with Maximum Rewards. That would be exciting!

Above, in his intro, Ramon Yedra encourages more of the Filipino youth aged 18-30 to go into agribusiness. Mr Yedra is Director of the Agribusiness & Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) of the Department Of Agriculture (DA); the AMAS is pursuing the program called Young Farmers Challenge (YFC), also referred to as Kabataang Agribiz.

There, Mr Yedra shares link to Kay Calpo Lugtu’s article, “For Young Filipinos, #Futureofwork Is Farming” (21 April 2022, Manila Times, manilatimes.net). Ms Kay says:

… The pandemic's silver lining was that people started thinking about alternatives to working and earning a living. There's a lot of dialogue about how digital technology has changed the way we work but there should be more stories about how lessons from the pandemic changed the way we think and dream about how to live.

Liza Agoot says in a related story (25 April 2022, “DA ‘Challenges’ Cordilleran Youth To Join Agri Tilt” (Philippine News Agency, PNA.gov.ph), that the YFC is a competition of youth aged 18-30 who must submit “brief business proposals” that they will implement if they get selected at any of the competitive 3 stages-levels: provincial, regional, and national. For provincial winners, the prize is P50,000 each for 1,276 winners; for regional winners, P100,000 each for 48 winners; and P300,000 each for 6 national winners. That is to say, a participant who wins all the way to the national level receives a total of P450,000 towards implementing her/his business proposal.

My recommendation here is for the YFC people to encourage contestants to submit Agribiz proposals on RegenerativeAgriculture (RAg).

This digital 81-year old wishes to entice the digital 18-year olds female & male to explore the world of knowledge of RAg, priorly noting what a great many believers of Organic Agriculture (OA) do not realize – that OA is RAg. This assertion is based on both practical experience mixed with book knowledge accumulated since 56 years ago.

Above, the topmost image is my Windows 10 accidental collage (photo taken 25 April 2018). I choose it to insinuate that via the digital world, while you are standing on Philippine soil, you can travel The Information Superhighway! And yes, OA must be explored much more. I am a dedicated preacher of it because not only that it enriches farmers, but it also enriches our foods and impoverishes climate change!

[The lower image that says, “Dear Young People: (1) Never give up” is from my personal collection (17 May 2017; sorry, I forgot to source it).]

To help Philippine agriculture regenerate the healthy soils, biodiversity, foods, pockets and climate, to the 18-30 year-old daughters and sons of Filipino families, I say:
Help!
Dear young people:
(1) Never give up!”@517

UP System Is NOT Contributing To The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) According To 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) World Ranking – As An Alumnus, I Ask, “Is UPLB Concerned?”

What’s happening to the University of the Philippines System (UP System), of which my alma mater UP Los Baños is a part? It is not contributing to the attainment of the world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)!?

I am reading Christia Marie Ramos’ Inquirerreport of 29 April 2022 – “CHEd: 15 PH Universities Among Top Institutions In UN SDGs Global Ranking” (newsinfo.inquirer.net). The list is found in the 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) World Ranking.

Ateneo University(top image) is PH’s #1 – and the UP System is not in the top list! Is that a reporter’s mistake? I checked. No, it’s a university’s mistake – the UP System is not paying much attention as to how it can contribute much to attain the UN’s SDGs!

Ms Christia says:

CHEd noted that the THE Impact Rankings is “one of the most influential rankings” and is the “only global performance table that assesses universities’ contributions and initiatives to realize” the UN SDGs.

“The assessment uses calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across four broad areas: research, teaching, outreach, and stewardship,” it said.

Implying that the UP System is average in research, teaching, outreach and stewardship when it comes to the attainment of the UN’s SDGs! That surprises this alumnus because UP Los Baños is now digital, as at the gate this is proudly proclaimed.
(my photograph, 05 March 2019)

Is this alumnus ashamed? No. Because unlike the UN experts, I have graduated from the “University of Sustainable Development” to the “University of Regenerative Development.”

I now believe the world should be pursuing Regenerative Agriculture (RAg) instead of Sustainable Agriculture (SAg).

The Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program of the University of California Davis says (sarep.ucdavis.edu):

The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet society’s food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

I now say from where I stand – on healthy grounds renewed with richness by regenerative organic agriculture since 1966 when I discovered American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner’s “Minimum Tillage” that he called “Trash Farming,” and considering Climate Change among others:

Beyond food & textile, the most pressing need of the world right now is to combat Climate Change, and SAg is sagging there. In contrast, RAg can rage against the Climate Crisis!

How? RAg does all these:

1.     zeroes (stops) generation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the field (organic fertilizers do not generate GHGs); and simultaneously

2.     increases (maximizes) generation of healthy soils, healthy fields, healthy foods, healthy pockets, and healthy climates (back to 1. above).

Importantly, will UP Los Baños now upscale its institutional RAg-oriented
Research
Teaching
Outreach and
Stewardship?

Pursuing new knowledge & innovation, educating the aggie students on those needs, getting such knowledge out into the awareness of citizens, and managing what it can, are what UPLB should be doing for Regenerative Agriculture.

It is the least UPLB can do for our country!@517