“Farmer Poverty & The Philippine Crisis” According To UPLB Prof Ted Mendoza. Here Comes Me, The Editor In Chief!

On the Internet, our UP Los Baños science friend Prof Teodoro C Mendoza has just come up with a book-length treatise on what ails Philippine Agriculture, titled “Farmer Poverty & The Philippine Crisis.”

No, he did not ask me to edit that manuscript. Excuse me, but once an editor, always an editor,

Since I graduated with a BSA Ag Edu from UP Los Baños in 1964, with a background reading English and American literature starting in my high school days at the reading-rich Rizal Junior College in Asingan, Pangasinan –  I slowly began to become The Editor In Chief (TEIC) who questioned everything in sight. Well, that’s the perfect attitude of a TEIC!

Prof Ted cites many factors associated with Poverty:

1.     Corruption in govt spending

2.     Overpopulation

3.     Corrupt leaders

4.     Children leav(ing) farms

5.     Rent-seeking political allies

Prof Ted’s is one way of looking at Farmer Poverty – from the Inside of government – I look at farmer poverty from the Outside. But as the ideal TEIC, I always want to simplify, and it’s as simple as this:

Modern Farming: High Costs = Low Returns.

1.     Farmers don’t know how to save? They have nothing to save! How can you enjoy Much Returns when you are burdened by Much Costs?

2.     Farmers are not enjoying the best harvests they can get from their farms – instead, they incur so much damage from pests. That is because the crops do not grow naturally and the insect pests love the chemically grown crops!

Prof Ted says:

“… the Philippines’ endemic poverty, unchecked population growth, labor export dependence, and spiraling indebtedness are (neither) natural phenomena nor failures of isolated governance – but the result of deliberate structural sabotage.”

“Sabotage” – I will leave the reply to government experts. Me, I’m simply convinced that if our farmers practiced Regenerative Agriculture (RA), they will redeem themseleves from the eyes of their families, as with their country.

Under RA:

(1)  Crops grow with low costs.

(2)  Crops yield high harvests.

(3)  No need for pest & disease control by chemicals.

An enumeration of RA should be enough:
(1) Cover Cropping,
(2) Crop Rotation,
(3) Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry),
(4) Green Manuring,
(5) Intercropping,
(6) Multiple Cropping,
(7) No-Till Farming,
(8) Organic Fertilization,
(9) Ratooning,
(10) Rotational Grazing,
(11) “Three Sisters” Planting,
(12) Trap Cropping, and
(13) Trash Mulching.

Prof Mendoza mentions “unchecked population growth” – that argument becomes personal because I have thirteen (13) children with only one (1) wife! In any case, “unchecked population growth” assumes that the economy is doing well – and I know that my country’s economy is unwell under current national leaderhip.

What I know based on my UPLB training and personal outside-UPLB readings & learnings is that in agriculture, we insist on scientist-determined crop growth patterns and products and not nature-based results such as crop outputs from organic matter-enriched soils.

Prof Mendoza? Perhaps we can conduct a side-by-side actual study comparison of the actual ways we believe should be practiced by farmers?@517