Interestingly, Inquirer.Opinion has written an editorial about “Championing Nutrition For Kids And Barriers To Productivity.” No, Inquirer does not insinuate that nutrition in the family and productivity of the father are directly related; I am the one saying that if the farmer is not championing nutrition for his children, he is also not championing productivity for his farm.
Are most Filipino farmers come-what-may
farmers, and that explains low productivity in the farms? I believe not – they
just don’t know how. “Dida ammo ti pammalpalatpatanda gapu’t awan met mangibaga
kaniada!” (“They don’t know technical and/or practical ways by which they can
overcome their problems of production and profit because nobody is telling
them!”) No, not any of those involved in the Department of Agriculture (DA),
because the DA is less interested in farmers who are profit-oriented, and more
interested in production-oriented farmers. Yields, yields, yields – not gains,
gains, gains!
Says the Inquirer further:
“If the government truly wants to attain
economic development, it must first help the poorest to overcome barriers to
productivity. And breaking generational poverty begins with ensuring that poor
Filipino children get the necessary nutritional support to help in their mental
and physical development so they can grow to be productive members of society.”
I agree with the Inquirer there, and now I
must insist that farming must stop practicing Chemical
Agriculture (CA) and start practicing Regenerative
Agriculture (RA). With RA, they will gain in their farming much more, as
the fertilizers and pesticides in CA are very expensive – there are no chemical
fertilizers and chemical pesticides involved in RA.
In RA, the simple rule is, as I see it:
Very Low Costs equals
Very High Returns: VLC = VHR.
Am I sure about VLC = VHR? Yes, I have been
writing about low-cost farming in the last 5; see my article “Appreciating Organic Farming” (Agriculture Magazine, 03 Oct 2019). I say,
“RA food is good food!”@517
From a Facebook post from Inquirer “Opinion” (Editorial:
“Championing Nutrition For Kids”
“If the government truly wants to attain
economic development, it must first help the poorest to overcome barriers to
productivity. And breaking generational poverty begins with ensuring that poor
Filipino children get the necessary nutritional support to help in their mental
and physical development so they can grow to be productive members of society.”
Inquirer equates, by insinuation, and I
agree, that barriers to productivity among the poor farmer families must be
overcome: poverty and poor nutrition.
“Hunger and malnutrition among Filipino
children continue to be prevalent, not so much due to a lack of an
institutional framework, but more because of inconsistent implementation of
programs meant to address the problem.
Above:
“If the government truly wants to attain
economic development, it must first help the poorest overcome barriers to
productivity. And breaking generational poverty begins with ensuring that poor
Filipino children get the necessary nutritional support to help in their mental
and physical development so they can grow to be productive members of society.”