“In This Age Of The Internet & Climate Change, What Can IRRI Learn About Global Agriculture? Asking For A Friend!” – Frank A Hilario

I personally know IRRI has the “Riceworld Museum & Learning Center” because my son Paul Benjamin was once its Curator; years earlier, I had graduated from the University of the Philippines Los Baños in whose campus IRRI is located.

I was UPLB Freshman when IRRI was Rice Freshman in 1960 when it was established. I have been in and out of the campus since then, and as a writer & editor, today I want to know about IRRI’s scientific contributions to the rice world in the field of climate change.

Today, IRRI tells me in its website (IRRI, irri.org):

Climate Change & Sustainability

Rice production is both a victim and a contributor to climate change…

At IRRI we develop and adapt climate-responsive solutions, working with extension agents, national research institutions, and governments across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa, to promote sustainable rice-based food systems.

First, we help rice farmers adjust to climate change. By leveraging the genetic diversity of the Rice Genebank, the world’s largest repository of rice varieties, we breed rice varieties that can survive unforeseen climate shocks and thrive in marginal environments. We also boost the mitigation of future climate crises by developing new cultivation practices and technologies that minimize greenhouse gas emissions, enhance input-use efficiency, and predict and respond to future climate threats. Finally, we work with governments to provide an evidence base so they can make informed decisions and set policies to meet their development agenda and their SDG contributions. (End of IRRI info sharing in this regard)

IRRI works institutionally “to promote sustainable rice-based food systems” – and thus, it works to breed rice varieties that can “survive unforeseen climate shocks and thrive in marginal environments.”

Good!

“[IRRI also boosts] the mitigation of future climate crises by developing new cultivation practices and technologies that minimize greenhouse gas emissions, enhance input-use efficiency, and predict and respond to future climate threats.”

Also Good!

But Not Good: IRRI mentions its research works on generating “cultivation practices and technologies that minimize greenhouse gas emissions” – but it omits mention of how many/much greenhouse gases (GHGs) are generated by rice chemical agriculture. Why? IRRI cannot mention what it does not work on, is why. And why not? Good question!

IRRI is 62 years old and should have realized at least in 2007 when Al Gore began pounding on our heads the threat of global warming brought about by climate change brought about by, among others, chemical agriculture.

IRRI’s work is “to promote sustainable rice-based food systems” – I say that that is quite inadequate! It should be “to promote regenerative rice-based food systems,” such as via organic farming. However, IRRI hardly talks about organic agriculture, and I found one reason why: “Study: Modern Rice Varieties May Not Be Suited For Organic Agriculture” (Rice Today, ricetoday.irri.org/).

If IRRI wants to be relevant in these climate-change times, it must breed rices suited to put a stop to GHGs from chemically enriched ricefields. Otherwise, IRRI’s research is all gas!@517

The Great Lesson In Teaching From Non-Teacher American Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead – “Teach How To Think, Not What To Think.”

I saw the Facebook sharing 07 Aug 2022 titled “The State Of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” with the subtitle/comment, which is itself a judgment on Philippine education: “Bakit kulelat ang Pilipinas? English kasi ang medium of instruction.” (Why is the Philippines dead last? Because English is the medium of instruction.”)

The source of the document is The World Bank (worldbank.org). I now investigate it as a bonafide teacher – an alumnus of UP Los Baños with a BS Agriculture course major in Ag Edu (Civil Service Professional 1964. 80.6%). So?

After examining “The State Of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” – this Filipino teacher says: “All in all, the document is inconsistent and insufficiently debated upon! The World Bank has much to learn!”

The document as quoted says:

Prioritize teaching the fundamentals. Given the staggering loss in institutional time, learning recovery efforts should focus on essential content and prioritize the most fundamental skills and knowledge, particularly literacy and numeracy, that students need for learning within and across subjects and for more advanced learning in the future.

“Staggering loss in institutional time” refers to the 2 years of pandemic controls. It recommends to “prioritize the most fundamental skills and knowledge, particularly literacy and numeracy, that students need for learning.”

“Literacy” – and the comment that somebody quotes is to teach in Pilipino/Tagalog and not in English. But in fact, as a teacher I know that literacy is not “the most fundamental skills” to learn – I now point back to you what the above image shares:

“Children must be taught howto think, not what to think” – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist.
(“Children must be taught” image from deviantart.com)

Who is Margaret Mead? From History.com(history.com/topics/womens-history/margaret-mead):

Mead discovered her calling as an undergraduate at Barnard College in the early 1920s in classes with Franz Boas, the patriarch of American anthropology, and in discussions with his assistant, Ruth Benedict. The study of primitive cultures, she learned, offered a unique laboratory for exploring a central question in American life: How much of human behavior is universal, therefore presumably natural and unalterable, and how much is socially induced?

“Universal human behavior”? It must be the thinking.
“Socially induced human behavior”? It must be what one learns.
So, teach the universal: Teach thinking!

For instance, instead of teaching “2 + 2 equals 4” only, teach:

2 + 2 = 4
3 + 1 = 4
4 – 0 = 4
5 – 1 = 4
6 – 2 = 4

What is the lesson there? There are many ways to skin a cat!

There are 2 ways I know of thinking: creative and critical. What I have just shown you is critical thinking – not yet creative thinking.

Now then, if you want examples and examples of creative thinking, note that in this latest blog of mine – Towards A New Eden  – I already have almost 1,000 essays.

I always write creatively. And yes, if you teach creative thinking, your students will enjoy every minute of it – and so will you!@517

PH Agriculture – “A Science With A Farmer’s Face Riding High With Family” Hopefully Under President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr

A for Agriculture. “One of the main drivers of our push for growth and employment,” President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr said in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on Monday, 25 July 2022, “will be in the agricultural sector.” As an agriculturist, my personal vision is: “A science with a farmer’s face riding high with family.”
(my photo taken 2017, edited)

In his SoNA, BBM spoke of assisting farmers financially and technically. The Department of Agriculture (DA) will extend loans, buy farm inputs in bulk – including fertilizers, seeds, feeds, fuel; and will provide financial assistance as desirable. He said in so many words: “We will strengthen the value chain that begins with the farmer and ends with the consumers.”

BBM equated climate change with agriculture, saying:

The production of farm inputs or needs of farmers to develop their farms will be planned as according to simultaneously addressing the challenge of climate change and global warming. (from BBM’s Tagalog to my English)

2 simultaneous DA challenges: farmer poverty and climate change. For my vision, I borrow from the 2000-2014 powerful slogan “Science with a human face” with which Director General William Dar brought the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from dead last (kulelat) to #1 among 15 international science centers, including IRRI. ICRISAT showed the world what “A science” could do.

That explains the image above and my 10-word vision: “A science” has double meaning: “A” for “Agriculture” and “A” for “Superior” or “Outstanding” science. A farmer should be as prosperous as to be able to afford a motorcycle for his family or a tricycle for hire.

The A science of Agriculture that I am convinced the Philippines needs is called “Regenerative Agriculture,” as it is a method of farming that “improves the resources it uses, rather than (destroys or depletes) them, according to the Rodale Institute” (quoted by Climate Reality Project (CRP), climaterealityproject.org/, edited by me).

As an agriculturist, I look at Regenerative Agriculture as A Major Savior of the Planet. According to the CRP above:

The agriculture sector is one of the biggest emitters of CO², the greenhouse gas (GHG) most responsible for the changes we are seeing in our climate today. Together with forestry and other land [uses], agriculture is responsible for just under 25 percent of all human-created GHG emissions.

Agriculture Guilty!

From reading, I know that the agriculture GHGs come from chemical fertilizers: carbon dioxide (CO²), methane, and nitrous oxide. That is why I espouse Regenerative Agriculture which, among other things, employs organic fertilizers:

Zero GHGs!

Organic fertilizers come from nature, most especially from crops harvested from and animal wastes in the farm.

If you apply Regenerative Agriculture, you can expect “A science with a farmer’s face” to produce prosperous farmers.

BBM’s Government will not run out of funds for agriculture promoting solely Regenerative Agriculture – because materials to make organic fertilizers are not imported because the once-living matters are available everywhere. From the dead comes life – how about that!@517

“Serve The People!” People. To Activists Of All Kinds: “Go Social Media!” – Frank A Hilario, Self-Taught Blogger

“Serve The People,” people! In my country, where are those public and private institutions of communication or journalism actively and consistently tapping the power of social media to serve the people?!

As an indefatigable blogger and inveterate browser & user of Facebook, I congratulate new Secretary of Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Ivan John E Uy who says, via a Facebook sharing by Hero Echinique (20 July 2022):

I issue this challenge to all of you. The time to move is now, the time to work hard, the time to have that burning passion is now. I encourage all of you to work together, to join hands, and help DICT, and help the current administration in being able to deliver to our Filipino people – this promise of a better life, of a better future, of a better economy through a digitally empowered citizenry and a digitally empowered government.
(“Social Media” image from Growth99, growth99.com)

Particularly, I note the implied harmony, not dichotomy: “digitally empowered citizenry and a digitally empowered government” – congratulations! Mr Uy is the first leader, pure or mestizo Filipino, to publicly pronounce the necessity of the use of digital media for conversations leading to conversions, with/of citizens in the matter of government pursuits of empowering the people.

The Filipino “citizenry” includes activists whohave not discovered social media power (see my 23 July 2022 essay, ““PH Activists Have Not Learned To Be Intelligent About Their Protests In The Last 100 Years!” – Frank A Hilario, Blogger, Non-Conformist,” Towards A New Eden, towardsaneweden.blogspot.com).

“I issue this challenge to all of you” – Mr Uy is only addressing his ICT people, but as a digital journalist in the last 22 years (yes, since 2000), I see it as a call to action by all media people public or private, the journalists out in the streets, in colleges or institutes of communication or journalism. (I must note here that my challenge to activists in that earlier essay is for them to take to social media and stop protesting in the streets!)

My favorite American Heritage Dictionary defines “social media” thus (The Free Dictionary, thefreedictionary.com):

The websites and applications… by which people share messages, photographs, and other information, especially in online communities or forums based on shared interests or backgrounds.

Tufts (communications.tufts.edu) tells us the popular social media tools and platforms are: blogs, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Virneo, and YouTube.

I have been blogging since 2000, first via American Chronicle, then WordPress, and later to Blogger now longtime. How serious have I been? I have blogged some 8,000 essays since, about 8 million words total, for Agriculture, via what I now call Communication for Village Development in the 21st Century (CoViD21). CoViD21 is it!

(Again, I advise protesters to take to social media. It is not only safer, but it allows communication to be continuing, which it should be.)

“Social media” abbreviates to “SoMe.” “SoMe!” implies “Social media is some force for good, better, best!” Also, “SoMe!” means “So, Me!” So, people, contribute SoMe!@517