PH Aggie Journalists Always Talk Of Innovation But Ignore What SEARCA Now Also Emphasizes – Sustainability

Before I forget and before anyone completely ignores it, ever since UPLB Professor Glenn B Gregorio became Director of SEARCA 1 year ago, that SEARCA has been innovating and coming out with ideas like Accelerating Transformation Though Agricultural Innovation, ATTAIN (part of its 11^th Five-Year Plan).

Despite the implication of balance in the very name 2020, to SEARCA this year is not to be balanced – it has to be innovated on, transformed, modernized, not to mention engaged in “Education and Collective Learning,” which is a SEARCA modernization in itself. Nice touch!

Really, since I am a graduate of UP College of Agriculture, UPCA, now UP Los Baños, where SEARCA is based, I have been in and around this institution since its birth in 1966, when I was a Substitute Instructor in Horticulture at UPCA – but SEARCA has never been this intellectually informed and informationally aggressive.

And so I quote from Leah Lyn D Domingo’s institutional news, “SEARCA Unveils New Strategy To Push Agricultural Innovation[1]” (01 July 2020, SEARCA), saying that from 01 July 2020, SEARCA will from now on be guided to ATTAIN “the transformation of farmers who are stuck in the belief that farming is limited to production, into new farmers operating in a modern agriculture ecology,” as according to Mr Gregorio. He says:

For the next five years, SEARCA commits to accelerate transformation that elevates the quality of life of agricultural families through sustainable livelihoods and access to modern networks and innovative markets.

I especially note the 3 terms caught in that sentence:
sustainable livelihoods
access to modern networks
innovative markets.

Sustainable livelihoods – When you read PH newspapers and magazines, 99% of stories are about successful individuals, mostly professionals and/or those with access to adequate capital. Each of those stories is about a livelihood that is sustainable – only to that individual farmer concerned, not any other farmer, for lack of resources. The success story is notrepeatable. The writers of those single success stories mistake sustainability with individual success. And this journalism has been going on for 60 years! (sustainability image from Massage Magazine)

As I am finishing this essay, on Facebook, I see being shared Zac Sarian’s story titled “Farming When Money Is Not A Problem.” Precisely, my friend, money is always a problem to the poor farmer! I am the son of a farmer, and my father was not poor, but he always had a problem with money – he did not know how to save. Which characterizes many Filipino farmers today: They do not know how to save money!

Access to modern networks. “Networks” means both physical and digital. The value chain is a network, and should not be ignored, as often it is. Today, the digital network is for everyone, and you are left far behind if you do not harness its power of translocation!

Innovative markets. With innovation, a country’s economy will thrive.PH aggie entrepreneurs, farmers included, must come up with new or improved products for exports.

Innovation with Sustainability? We can ATTAIN!@517

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    [1]https://www.searca.org/news/searca-unveils-new-strategy-push-agricultural-innovation

How About “One Ebullient Cordillera – Embracing The New Normal Towards Prosperity!”?

Inset, the Facebook sharing of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar after having been appointed as Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security in the Cordillera Administrative Region, CORDS-CAR, the region aiming for “One Resilient Cordillera” under a Whole of Nation Approach – in peace. This is exactly how I would love the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, BARMM, to behave as a whole people: Security along with Development.

It is the Ilocanos who have been in peaceful association with the Igorots, the Cordillerans. The Ilocanos and Igorots respect each other’s distinct culture, with ethnic jokes coming back & forth. I know because I am an Ilocano, and I have visited Baguio City a great many times not to notice. (I also notice the disappearing native pine trees, but that’s another story.)

So, I am not surprised that William Dar, an Ilocano like me, such that he prefers to be called Manong Willie, is supporting the Cordillerans in their fight against the Communist Party of the Philippines, CPP, along with the Cordillerans in their fight against poverty in the nature-rich mountains.

In his support statement on Facebook, Manong Willie says:

Together, let us commend and support the people of Sadanga for keeping and upholding their indigenous ways and a rich history against tyranny and terrorism. Indeed, our communities must remain free and not become bases for terror groups and their illegal activities.

That is part of the statement of support of Manong Willie to the Elders of Sadanga and Mayor Gabino Ganggangan. Sadanga, under Mayor Gabby, is the most active municipality in all of Mountain Province in terms of development programs along with the defense of the people’s way of life. In any case, when Manong Willie says “Sadanga” there, he means all of the Cordillera.

I say: Not only should it be to declare as persona non grata the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and other leftist organizations, but to declare persona non grata poverty of the Cordillera peoples!

If I were Mayor Gabby, that statement of support from Manong Willie will serve as the key to opening opportunities and knocking down obstacles towards the regional development not only of Sadanga but all of the Cordillera. Mayor Gabby must note, if he has not already done so, that Manong Willie has come out, even before he was appointed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as Secretary of Agriculture on 05 August 2019, with his “The New Thinking For Agriculture” that has 8 components that he refers to as “8 paradigms,” and these are: (1) Modernization. (2) Industrialization. (3) Promotion of exports. (4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms (5) Infrastructure development. (6) Higher budget & investment. (7) Legislative support. And(8) Roadmap development.

There must be new thinking for agriculture in the Cordilleras!
(Thinking about BARMM.)

The Facebook post from PIA Cordillera says, “One Resilient Cordillera embracing the new normal towards recovery.” #WHOLEOFNATION.

Beyond recovery, anybody or group talking of any of those 8 paradigms are friends of the Cordillerans.

In there, the Ilocanos will stand with the Igorots!@517

Marlen V Ronquillo’s Old And William Dar’s New Thinking For Agriculture

It occurs to me early this morning, 0600 hours Tuesday, 30 June 2020 in Manila, that I am not at rest yet with Marlen V Ronquillo’s Manila Times column of 28 June 2020, “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest” after I came out with my earlier essay, “Marlen V Ronquillo – I Agree With You, “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest[1]” (29 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital). I have something much more to say about Mr Ronquillo’s claim below:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is so engrossed with propaganda and image building that it totally jettisoned its legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers.

Should be written “image-building” – hyphen necessary. But that is minor. The major point is this:

Yes, Mr Ronquillo, I can tell you that the DA under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has been “so engrossed with propaganda and image-building” for Philippine agriculture!

“Propaganda,” says my favorite American Heritage Dictionary, means “The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause[2].”

Yes, Manong Willie calls it “The New Thinking For Agriculture” and I have been writing much about it (try this: “Revolutionizing PH Agriculture And How We Write About It – Manong Willie & Frank H[3]”). When he was appointed on 05 August 2019 as Secretary, Manong Willie already had with him ready “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that must emanate from considering interrelationships of the “8 Paradigms” as he called them (my listing):

(1) Modernization.
(2) Industrialization.
3) Promotion of exports.
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development.
(6) Higher budget & investment.
(7) Legislative support.
(8) Roadmap development.

Now you know why Secretary of Agriculture William Dollente Dar has been not only all over the place but all over the country!

In fact, I feel that the propaganda has barely started. It will take us up to 2022 to fully explain and exemplify what all those 8 paradigms mean and must signify!

I repeat what you said earlier in your column:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is so engrossed with propaganda and (image-building) that it totally jettisoned its legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers.

Like I said, Mr Ronquillo, you have not been reading. After all the image of those unhappy years of PH agriculture, we need a new image of farmers now smiling widely because they know that the DA is helping them with much government funds allocated for their welfare, especially during this pandemic lockdown, where everything is abnormal.

I repeat, Mr Ronquillo, how on earth can one explain in just one sitting and one place all those 8 paradigms in Manong Willie’s mind? Aside from the DA, other government agencies must know and understand all those paradigms so that they can relate to any of them properly – must also be involved are local government units and the private sector.

Must also involve? Columnists like you!@517

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[1]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/marlen-v-ronquillo-i-agree-with-you-in.html
[2]https://www.thefreedictionary.com/propaganda
[3]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/revolutionizing-ph-agriculture-and-how.html

Marlen V Ronquillo – I Agree With You, “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest”

Mr Ronquillo, I Frank A Hilario agree with the title of your 28 June 2020 Manila Times column: “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest[1]” – now guess where it’s coming from!?

You say right away:

The time of the virus is, in the ideal world, the time to end the assault on the country’s small farmers. Small farmers in the country are the country’s wretched: invisible to government, prey to repressive laws like the Rice Tariffication Law, avoided like a plague by the banking mainstream — and voiceless and cowed.

Mr Ronquillo, those first 54 words from you are in their combined sense hyperbole – exaggerated and/or without proof given. It is also a logical fallacy called argumentum ad misericordiam, or appeal to pity, not appeal to reason. I studied those in Western Thought, UP Los Baños.

We must always appeal to reason. Now, “A man always has two reasons for doing anything,” says JP Morgan, “a good reason and the real reason.” Let’s see!

You say:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is so engrossed with propaganda and image building that it totally jettisoned its legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers.

Hasty generalization. You have not been reading, Mr Ronquillo.

You know, I came to know well William Dollente Dar, now PH Secretary of Agriculture, when he was still Director General, DG, of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT; he was DG from 2000 to 2014. ICRISAT was/is based in India; if the Indians sensed anything anomalous in ICRISAT transactions in those 15 years, they could have thrown the DG out the window!

A question of money? When William Dar retired from ICRISAT, its net asset was US$ 34,500,000.

ICRISAT hugged William Dar as DG for 15 years, because the Indians knew an honest man when they saw one!

ICRISAT, sister agency of the International Rice Research Institute, was dead last, kulelat, when William Dar came in; when he exited, ICRISAT was already #1 among the 15 international agricultural research centers under the umbrella of the CGIAR. William Dar, Phenomenal Team Captain!

You say:

A resolution filed by members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives tells a heart-rending story. And the tragic thing is that the DA, the agency with the legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers, allegedly is behind a massive fertilizer overprice.

Read my lips, Makabayan Bloc, and Mr Ronquillo!

“PH Fertilizer Purchase: “We Saved P2.2 Billion” – Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar[2]”

That’s my own calculation from the data; that article I blogged 15 June 2020 (THiNK Journalism, Digital). No, gentlemen, the DA under William Dar did not engage in any fertilizer overprice deal – on the contrary, they engaged in a transaction that saved the PH Treasury some P2.2 Billion! If you gathered the facts first, you would not have written that column. William Dar knows his arithmetic even if we don’t know ours!

Look again, Mr Ronquillo – where is the vileness coming from?!@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/06/28/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/in-a-prostrate-sector-vileness-does-not-rest/736049/
[2]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/ph-fertilizer-purchase-we-saved-p22.html

Mr Corn Farmer, Have You Found Your Super Friends Yet? They’re Close To You!

“’Briefing And Consultation On FAW’ Kicks Off In The Town With Sweetest Banana In Asia[1],” the news said from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Agrarian Reform of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, BARMM (Facebook post). FAW is the fall army worm that attacks corn disastrously. There were almost 50 farmers from barangays of the town of Amai Manabilang, Lanao del Sur who attended 23-24 June 2020, in Barangay Punud. The farmers were members of either the Land Owners Producers Cooperative, Punud Bumbaran Agriculture Cooperative, or Ranao Ibaning Indigenous People’s Association. Yes Sir, Cooperative is the name of the Game! (image of 3 friends from Friends Group[2])

But ANN (Author Not Named) mixed sour corn news with sweet banana news in Amai Manabilang – and, later in the text, mentioned the farmers’ expressed request for a farm-to-market road, FMR. I see that this is really a mixed-up report that does not try to empathize with the farmers’ problems except to report them all.

Mixed signals is typical of PH journalism –
no wonder audiences suffer from astigmatism!

First, the occasion was a briefing on corn farming and the worm. The lecture included “in-depth lecture(s) on corn production technologies, land preparation, water management, integrated fertilizer and pest management, harvesting, and marketing.”

As an agriculturist, I note from all of the above that the lecture on corn production was complete. Now, why the emphasis on the FAW when its population was supposed to be controlled by pest management, never reaching the level of infestation? That suggests the lecturer somehow was in favor of chemical control of the FAW!

Second, ANN said that the proper identification of the FAW was “aimed at empowering the farmers” just in case their corn was infested by those worms. It would have been more value-adding to hear the lecturer point out what practices could be resorted to by the farmers in order to prevent the FAW from increasing its population to the level of infestation. I know that these practices include trap cropping, multiple cropping, and intercropping.

Third, what about the FMR? The farmers said they needed it because of “the difficult and costly transportation of their products.” That is like saying the FMR will solve their problems in transportation and marketing!

No Sir! Instead, the corn farmers need to be educated and
empowered to be their own entrepreneurs!

And I recommend, as I have been recommending since 2014, that trainings and assistances be carried out by a Super Coop to which farmers are members. Assisted by the Department of Agriculture, and private investors, the Super Coop will manage the affairs of the members from production to marketing, taking care of inputs, loans, tools & equipment, harvesting, drying, warehousing when necessary, up to marketing. To banish the need for 5-6 loans by farmers, the Super Coop will offer farmer-friendly loans of any amount any time for any purpose, with the expected or actual harvest as collateral.

The Super Coop is the Super Friends farmers never had!@517

 

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[1]https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=735327293960765&id=424450148381816`
[2]https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/friends-group-icon.html

Gardening For Your Food – How About UP Diliman Showing The Lazy Way!?

I am a UP alumnus, UPLB ’65, son of a farmer and I know of a lazy way to grow your own food. I’m thinking of the public campus of UP Diliman for cultivating gardens such as those above to show passers-by how easy it is to grow a garden – as long as you have a place (superimposed image, Ruth Stout’s book Gardening Without Work from Amazon[1]).

2 books for the price of none!

Now, here’s Book 2 with many and much little works to do:

Above image, Facebook sharing: Lindsay Sheehan’s little red book of ideas[2], published, 26 January 2020, Natural Living Ideas). Here are the titles of her little free notes:

41 Cheats To Garden For (Almost) Free

  1. Assess Soil Texture For Free
  2. Assess Soil PH For Free
  3. Humus
  4. Grass Clippings
  5. Leaf Mold
  6. Seed Saving
  7. Seed Swaps
  8. Seed Library
  9. Plant Cuttings
10. Division
11. Regrow Your Food
12. Perennial Plants
13. Foliage Plants From Scraps
14. Smother The Site
15. Borrow It
16. Freebies
17. Get A Good Deal
18. Seed Starter Pots
19. Potting Soil
20. Containers
21. Reclaimed Wood
22. Scavenged Branches
23. Plant Supports
24. Irrigation
25. Coffee Grounds
26. Tea Leaves
27. Banana Peels
28. Epsom Salts
29. Eggshells
30. Wood Ash
31. Vinegar
32. Aquarium Water
33. Fertilizer Teas
34. Garlic
35. Hot Peppers
36. Insecticidal Soap
37. Epsom Salts
38. Baking Soda
39. Cinnamon
40. Beneficial Insects
41. Companion Planting

Well, Ms Lindsay’s cheating little red book is not well-edited – like, all 41 entries should have a verb just like the first 2 entries have – and they should be given stepwise, sequentially. Never mind!

Now here’s Book 1:

Above, when my wife Ampy saw the Facebook sharing by Jovita Datuin, she said, “You’re assuming we have space for a garden.” And I said, “We don’t even have a square foot of soil to plant a seed. Flower pots – you will put pots in our small rooms?”

In 1963, Ruth Stout came out with her book Gardening Without Work with the subtitle. Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent (New York, published by the Devin-Adair Company). I read Ms Ruth’s book sometime in 1965, but I have never had any chance to apply her ideas. Today, with Ms Jovita’s challenge:

Hereby, I am challenging UP Diliman to allow me to garden along Commonwealth Avenue 1 ha for the public to see. I will put up there so many 1 m x 10 m gardens that interested people can take care of – alongside 10 such gardens of mine.

I will do little preparatory “work” as a gardener. First, I will have the whole area rotavated, and then it’s ready for gardening – anyone can claim 20 sq m on which to plant and take care of a favorite flower, fruit, or vegetable. I will then watch your garden for you.

So there! In UP Diliman will grow the laziest gardens of them all!@517

 

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[1]https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Without-Work-Aging-Indolent-ebook/dp/B01D06KKDW
[2]https://www.naturallivingideas.com/garden-for-free/?fbclid=IwAR3aXgSBAJjLKh_MmJiWu2JnvaFZNFGES1HIGpeqMxOvIPiV_2uK5t92hsw

PH Dreaming Of A Digital DA – The Cellphone As The New Revolution, New Revelation!

Yes, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, it’s time for the Department of Agriculture, DA, to revolutionize its way of handling science, especially now that we have seen how the lockdown has turned things topsy-turvy. A digital DA – digital knowledge – would be a desirable new normal because it could be anywhere everywhere anytime. Ready to serve. Like the cellphone. Via the cellphone. (main image my Windows 10 accidental collage; cellphone image from Vecteezy[1])

The main image shows parts of the town plaza of my hometown Asingan in Pangasinan, where the building in the middle is the headquarters of our Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Coop. Looking at Nagkaisa now, I see any coop building as the location for the training following my reinvention of the Farmer Field School, FFS into the Farmer Filled School, FFS² (see my essay, “Farmer Filled School, FFS² – My Reinvention Of The FFS Of 1987[2],” 13 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital).

I see FFS² as the area of responsibility of the new DA. I see also the DA transforming all of Agriculture into digital format, stored in hard disks at DA Main, as well as its Regional Offices, the science reachable and readable by cellphone anytime anywhere.

Thinking of the new digital agriculture, New DA. Science accessible now, accessible after the lockdown. Instantly, intelligently.

Thus, for the New DA, I am now thinking of the cellphone as “the last mile” for delivering modern knowledge to the remotest places in the Philippines.

The New DA will be propagated by moving images and even moving texts – thus moving hearts, moving hands.

Farmers can then access knowledge in their language anywhere anytime. If in training, they can also interrupt themselves as they wish. Of course, they can ask any question they want, in the manner that they know how, and be respectfully responded to, if remotely.

We must, we can now bring the digital revolution to the farmers!

Regional DA offices will now be the regional centers of the New DA, as they can directly deal with the farmers in their locations if farmers have to visit them.

In my mind, for the New DA, the ideal grouping of farmers is what I refer to as the Super Coop, which becomes their common business manager. The idea of the “Super Coop” I first wrote about 7 years ago (“The Super Coops of 2014[3],” 30 October 2013, Nagkaisa). (Nagkaisa I already mentioned above.)

The new DA will assist each Super Coop obtain resources from government as well as the private sector in matters of common business interests. Through the Super Coop, farmer members will learn to become entrepreneurs and not simply cultivators of the soil and sellers of harvests.

The DA will extend all kinds of assistances to the Super Coops. Among other things, the headquarters, HQ, of a Super Coop will need any number of personal computers with WiFi connections. HQ will also maintain an active link with the municipal and provincial agricultural offices.

Digital: The All-New DA!@517

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[1]https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/448830-a-realistic-cellphone-with-a-colorful-background-vector-illustration 
[2]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/farmer-filled-school-ffs-my-reinvention.html
[3]http://nagkaisa.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-super-coops-of-2014.html