Am Happy To See The ATI e-Extension Portal, But Unhappy Not To See 1 Necessary Component – A Knowledge Bank!

I don’t really know, but I think I came to know “Knowledge is power” when I was in high school yet, between the years 1952 and 1957, because I know I was already a voracious reader and the library of the high school department of the Rizal Junior College (RJC) in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan, was full of reading materials and open to wide readers like me. (I could even take 3 or more books out for the weekend.)

I just checked the Internet and Wikipedia tells me (en.wikipedia.org) the phrase came from Sir Francis Bacon. Today, if you are out of school for whatever reason, further knowledge is out of your power – unless you are connected to the Internet.

Today, Friday, 31 March 2023, I have been googling on the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of my country under the PH Department of Agriculture (DA), and come across the ATI’s “e-Extension Portal” (e-extension.gov.ph); about it, the ATI website says:

The electronic delivery of extension service is undertaken through a network of institutions that provide a more efficient alternative to a traditional extension system for agriculture, fisheries, and natural resources sectors. It maximizes the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to attain a modernized agriculture and fisheries sector. It focuses on creating an electronic and interactive bridge where farmers, fishers, and other stakeholders meet and transact to enhance productivity, profitability, and global competitiveness.

ATI, you Congratulations, ATI! Glad to say, “Your e-Extension Portal is all for the better!” Sorry to say, the Portal is talking about a “knowledge-base” but not a “knowledge bank” – there is a whole world of a difference!

What we need is an open library for people who are interested in farming but not familiar at all with any of the scientific terms like “chemical fertilizers” and “Climate Change” and “greenhouse gases” – how do you introduce those to the innocent, unknowing mind? That is the duty of the Knowledge Bank.

Sometime in 2003, then-Director General of ICRISAT William Dar submitted a proposal for the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA) via PhilRice after PhilRice Executive Director “Leo” Leonardo Sebastian personally invited me to be a consultant of PhilRice at that time. Inspired and excited, I came up with a 198-page digital book I titled The Geography Of Knowledge (TGoK); in the book, I outlined (with careful “instructions”) for knowledge workers how to create TGoK.

The ATI website says, “The electronic extension (e-Extension) program for agriculture and fisheries started in the Agricultural Training Institute” was launched in 2007 “to integrate and harmonize [an] ICT-based extension delivery system for agriculture and fisheries.” 16 years later and I can’t find it!

Now then, I am offering a digital copy of TGoK to ATI or DA. Intelligently, TGoK should transform into an attractive invisible teacher with inexhaustible knowledge! (Yes, like reading from 333 books any 1 day!)

ATI, your e-Extension Portal is a non-mover of knowledge. As Ralph Waldo Emerson says, “Life is a progress, not a station.”@517