Communitizing La Union Rice Farmers – In Union, There’s Strength!

There is the beginningof good news from the Department of Agriculture, DA, Region 1 based in San Fernando City, with Freddie Lazaro writing about a “100-Hectare Farm In La Union Readied For Community Hybrid Rice Farming Project[1]” (13 July 2020, Manila Bulletin). Communitizing (my word) 185 farmers belonging to farmer associations in Santa Maria, Santa Fe, and San Jose, Agoo, La Union is going to be a hard day’s night!

Mr Lazaro says:

The 100-hectare model farm was provided through consolidation by the DA Regional Field Office 1 (RFO1) while pushing forward the concept of farm clustering as a vital tool in leveling up agricultural productivity in the country.

Those 36 words I just quoted are already a mouthful: 100-ha model farm, consolidation, farm clustering, leveling up agricultural productivity… The perspective is that of DA RFO1; where is that of the Agoo farmers themselves?

Mr Lazaro says the farmers belong to associations – not my cup of tea. From my experience as a training consultant for the Department of Agrarian Reform’s project called “Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services,” ARCCESS (with UPLB professor Rene Rafael C Espino as Project Leader), I learned firsthand of the difference in the exercise of power of farmer groups:

To talk to a Farmer Cooperative, you have to talk to all or a majority of the members of the Board; to talk to a Farmer Association, you talk to the President - that’s how powerful he is.

Look at the above images again. “Farm size matters[2]” (from Grist) – not land ownership but economies of scale in operations. Circle of people[3] (from Pleaders), I imagine saying, “Cooperation matters.”

Now then, it’s not too late; I recommend that the DA RFO1 assist those farmer associations turn themselves into cooperatives, with members of the board comprising people of business, faith, civil society, as well as farmers. I am speaking as a long-time member of the board of Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative of Asingan, Pangasinan. In a cooperative, power resides in the people; in an association, power resides in a person.

Also: Our farmers need a modified ARCCESS for community connectivity & support services. “Ken, kakabsat, nalipatanyonsa ti market – asinno ngay ti manayon nga gumatang bagasyo?” Also, brothers and sisters, you seem to have forgotten to arrange for contracted marketing for your rice? 100 ha times 70 cavans/ha minimum to be sold equals 7,000 cavans to dispose of during any harvest. What about warehousing? You have to contract for institutional buyers – otherwise, it will be a buyer’s market!

Ladies & gentlemen, grouping is only the beginning. I know you will succeed – in production. Please look beyond individual farmers’ earnings – you must look at entrepreneurship of farmers and, from season to season, a sustained rise in incomes and therefore in the quality of lives of families. For that to happen, Masaganang Ani at Malaking Kita ay kailangang tuloy-tuloy – Bounteous Harvest and Bountiful Income must be continuous.

DA RFO1, your farmer clustering idea is an excellent start. I’ll be watching you!@517

 

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[1]https://mb.com.ph/2020/07/13/100-hectare-farm-in-la-union-readied-for-community-hybrid-rice-farming-project/?fbclid=IwAR3I1N0F1xTWsu9XG-XAekvUeCfptjELxEZIwxVirDEh1B20EFm60XE_GWY

[2]https://grist.org/food/what-farm-cooperatives-can-do-for-the-food-system-and-farmers/

[3]https://blog.ipleaders.in/how-to-set-up-a-multi-state-cooperative-society/

PH As The Go Lag Archipelago When It Comes To New Knowledge In Agriculture!

In the Philippines, in Agriculture, how far do you think is the Researcher’s Lab from the Farmer’s Field? 

Too far!

The Philippines is the Go Lag Archipelago in the matter of publishing papers in technical journals in agriculture – because Editors In Chief don’t care enough for readers! This is your Editor In Chief speaking.

Actually, there are 2 lags: (1) from Research to Publication, and (2) from Publication to Extension. (images from Go Lag Book & Ride[1], PH map[2] Fine Art America)

The problem of lag lies mostly in aggie universities, including UP Los Baños, the #1 aggie university in the Philippines:

Technical publication is neglected;
Popularization is neglected;
Extension is neglected!

Today, via Facebook sharing, I am reading Glenn B Gregorio’s with co-author Rico C Ancog’s technical paper published in the Central Mindanao University Journal of Science of 02 July 2020: “Food Security Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic: Research And Development Priorities For Higher Education Institutions In The Philippines And Southeast Asia.” Mr Gregorio is SEARCA Director, so I will refer to it as the SEARCA paper.

I note especially this from the paper:

“The need to ensure that research efforts would have significant societal impacts is a philosophy that must be widely upheld.”

We must publish research, popularize the technical, and extend the knowledge so farmers can apply it.

As past Editor In Chief of many a PH technical publication, the twin problems I have seen are:

(1) Few researches are published in technical journals.
(2) Few research results are transformed into popular-language articles understandable by non-scientists.

Of the twin needs, the SEARCA paper says:

Scientists’ ability to tell the individual stories learned from their researches (is) invaluable for the general public to appreciate the value of science-based decision(-)making.

Scientists must relate experimental experience to field experience so farmers can decide for themselves what to do with new or improved knowledge. Nothing is automatic – no matter how good, knowledge does not apply itself!

Research results must be applied. Excellence is useless if it lies dormant in technical publications, libraries, or steel cabinets.

Speed is of the essence. As the one-man digital band Editor In Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, 2001 to 2008, from being late 3 years, I brought the PJCS up to the ISI level where the editors of the previous 25 years failed. I am surprised that the CMU science journal received that SEARCA paper, accepted it on the same date, 20 June 2020, and published within 2 weeks – very fast! The journal must know something other journals don’t.

Now then, I know PH science journals, including within UP Los Baños, take sometimes 12 months to publish an issue. Because Publishing is still in the Pen-and-Paper Age, not yet Digital.

So, Filipino farmers remain imprisoned by a gulag of inadequate knowledge. Borrowing from the title of the SEARCA paper, I say higher educational institutions like UP Los Baños must release our cultivators from Knowledge Insecurity into Knowledge Security!@517

 

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[1]https://www.facebook.com/golagph/
[2]https://fineartamerica.com/featured/philippines-watercolor-map-style-12-greg-edwards.html

Digitally Reborn – (2) ABS-CBN Brings Palatable Food & Agriculture To The Cities

Urban Gardens Magazines. Plural!

My 2^ndproposal for ABS-CBN to resuscitate itself. Publish digital gardening magazines for the cities. Different magazines for fruits, flowers, ornamentals, trees, vegetables. All digital. Chic but cheap. Print on demand.

Above, on a US magazine, the main image says “Grow your own food[1]” (from LookBookReport). As caption to the inset image, Anna Bueno of CNN Philippines asks, “Can urban gardening flourish in Manila?” My answer: “Manilans must learn good urban gardening.” Easily digitally. I have already suggested Turning Agriculture into Digital – see “Digitally Reborn – (1) ABS-CBN Brings Digestible Science To The Farms & Homes[2]” (17 July 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital).

I’m speaking from verifiable experience, and I alone can make the claim you can read as tagline to my blog Creative Thinkering:

World's creative genius online,
most prolific writer of non-fiction.
Frank A Hilario, Guru

That blog alone contains 1K plus essays of a minimum 1,000 words each, different topics.

What can ABS-CBN do now digitally? I recommend for it to create a digital company of bloggers, to which I will be willingly The Blogfather.

The Write Company of ABS-CBN.

All-digital, yes. Some 57 blog-magazines would be easy given the number of garden crops to work with, native and exotic. All digital – print editions at the expense of those who contract The Write Company.

How will ABS-CBN check me out when nobody knows me? Easy! Google for these blogs of mine:

THiNK Journalism, Digital, blogspot.com (reeducating Filipino journalists away from negative towards true, helpful, inspiring, necessary & kind, or THiNK Stories – a revolutionary idea)

A Magazine Called Love, blogspot.com (a rich hodgepodge of essays)
Creative Thinkering, blogspot.com (all about creative thinking & writing)
Pinoy Cinderella, blogspot.com (all about Charice Pempengco)
ICRISAT watch, blogspot.com

The last one is all about the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, which was/is based in India. ABS-CBN can ask Secretary of Agriculture William Dar who was Director General of ICRISAT when he hired me as international consulting writer, work from home, WFH, blogging from 2000 to 2014.

All in all, I have written and blogged some 6 million words or 6,000 articles/essays, each article a proper essay and not simply hodgepodge of paragraphs thrown in. So I should know whereof I write. About the art and science mostly of Agriculture and Creative Thinking/Writing.

For The Write Company, I will manage for ABS-CBN as Editor In Chief & Publisher. As Editor In Chief I will serve, when necessary, as Author’s Editor, to actively help a writer become the best writer s/he can be – from creative thinking to creative writing.

An agriculturist and a writer, I am volunteering to be to mentor the young staff from gathering background materials to desktop publishing. All digital. All WFH.

Naturally, The Write Company can also produce for ABS-CBN a digital magazine to serve its corporate purposes. Not to mention that any company can hire us to produce the corporate magazine the hiring company managers think they need.

Welcome ABS-CBN Online – at your service!@517

 

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[1]https://lookbookreport.com/review-the-loop-magazine-fb110ecbb0f0
[2]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/07/digitally-reborn-1-abs-cbn-brings.html

Digitally Reborn – (1) ABS-CBN Brings Digestible Science To The Farms & Homes

Giant ABS-CBN Corp and its 11,000 employees all are now looking dejectedly at the future after the PH House of Representatives voted 70-11 denying renewal of its franchise.

Noontime, Saturday, 11 July 2020, I witnessed the tearing up and crying of masked employees of ABS-CBN, video on Facebook. Earlier, Angel Locsin shared that Kapamilya stars like her were dumbstruck, unable to think clearly what to do after that legislative denial.

Yesterday, on Facebook my brother-in-law Teddy Reynoso looked at it differently – that with the denial, it was like those 70 ladies & gentlemen jointly cast an animal into the sea thinking it would drown: It was a turtle!

Another metaphor: Here is ABS-CBN digitally reborn –

Agrikultura Lingkod Kapamilya.
Agriculture Serving The Family.

With this essay, I am suggesting that ABS-CBN swim in the waves of digital waters into the realms of PH Agriculture, whereby even via cellphone the science of the growing of food reaches the farmer anywhere anytime in his or her own terms. (cellphone images from LearningComputer.com[1])

ABS-CBN now brings you digital science!

Turning Agriculture into Digital is the best I can offer as a suggestion for A Second Life for ABS-CBN. I’m speaking from verifiable experience, as I alone can make the claim, that you can read as the tagline to my blog Creative Thinkering:

World's creative genius online,
most prolific writer of non-fiction.
Frank A Hilario, Guru

That blog contains by itself more than 1,000 essays of 1,000 words each, tightly crafted by a self-taught writer of 62 years and self-taught blogger of 13 years.

What can ABS-CBN do digitally? I recommend for it to create a virtual company of bloggers, to which I will be willingly The Blogfather:

The Write Company of ABS-CBN.

All-digital. Any and all topics in food and agriculture written and collected per blog per crop. At least 57 crops. Each blog viewable by cellphone. Downloads into a soft copy, Print on Demand.

Each blog continuously tackles the (a) cultivation of a separate farm crop such as abaca, banana, cacao, coconut, coffee, corn, rice, soybean, sugarcane grown singly or in combination with another crop, (b) technologies for good growth and yields, (c) harvest & postharvest systems, (d) processing, and (e) marketing – not to mention export.

But: ABS-CBN does not know me! No problem. Ask PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, for whom I was a Work From Home, WFH, international consulting writer when he was Director General of ICRISAT based in India, 2000-2014. I wrote and published 7 books for ICRISAT based on my blogposts.

All in all, I have written and blogged 6 million words or 6,000 articles/essays. So I should know whereof I speak: Science of Agriculture, including the Art of Creative Writing.

The Write Company, I propose to manage intellectually for ABS-CBN as Editor In Chief & Publisher. WFH.  The Editor In Chief will also serve as Author’s Editor, to actively help each writer become the best writer s/he can be.

The Write Company will be The Right Company for ABS-CBN!@517

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[1]https://www.learningcomputer.com/top-cell-phone-specs/

ABS-CBN & Media Freedom: Reboot, Not Rubout!

I’m a bloghound, not a TV hound, but media is media. Roman Catholic; I believe in Purgatory, and ABS-CBN has just been sent to Hell!

Today, Friday, 10 July 2020, PH House of Representatives turned down ABS-CBN Corp’s application for a new 25-year broadcast franchise, by these votes: 70 to Deny and 11 to Renew (Jim Gomez, “Lawmakers Vote To Close Down Philippines' Largest TV Network[1]”).

So I say: Today is PH supPress Freedom Day. The House members voted against Media Freedom, which is paramount – as suggested by the logo of World Press Freedom Day, 03 May 2019: a cellphone[2], meaning to every citizen belongs the exercise of that freedom.

Media freedom is the right of all citizens to use the media they prefer!

Nonetheless: Even if the House voted for a new 25-year contract for ABS-CBN, the problem of media freedom is still there:

I media man Frank A Hilario say: 
Media freedom is not that free!

I should know. I have been blogging earnestly since 2007 in millions of words in a hundred blogs. In my blog Creative Thinkering, my tagline is,“ World's creative genius online, most prolific writer of non-fiction. Frank A Hilario[3].” 

And if you look at the top of my current blog THiNK Journalism, Digital[4], you will note my long tagline, which explains the name and spells the claim:

True & Helpful & inspiring & Necessary & Kind Journalism, in Digital reality – singly by Frank A Hilario, the world's #1 blogger, Filipino.

And that makes my journalism a world apart! Even if it is concentrated on PH Agriculture under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who has the poor at heart.

All the other media men (embracing women) of the world go after the Truth – and then stop there. They do not care if the Truth is un-Helpful and/or un-Inspiring and/or un-Necessary and/or un-Kind!

Reboot, not Rubout!

I believe the 70 members of my country’s House of Representatives who voted to deny ABS-CBN a new lease in life were not using their head. They could have sent ABS-CBN to Purgatory, demanding that it pay a king’s ransom for what they believed the TV giant was guilty of – and then voted for Renewal With Conditions.

It is not only the 11,000 plus employees of ABS-CBN that are now denied their media freedom – it is all humans of the Philippines, 100 million plus, including the babies!

ANN of the News Media Association says (Author Not Named, undated, “Press Freedom: Why is it important?”):

Freedom of expression is a universal human right. It is (neither) the prerogative of the politician. Nor is it the privilege of the journalist. In their day-to-day work, journalists are simply exercising every citizen’s right to free speech.

Denying ABS-CBN Corp’s renewal of franchise is denying not only 11,000 Filipinos but all of us Filipinos the right to free speech. When digital media exercises its freedom, it is neither mechanical nor digital; it is in fact a human exercise of that right.

Let Freedom Ring: Reboot, not rubout!@517

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[1]https://www.stltoday.com/business/lawmakers-vote-to-close-down-philippines-largest-tv-network/article_bc7463bf-8679-55a0-8413-be3c48356852.html
[2]https://minujusth.unmissions.org/en/secretary-general-%E2%80%93-message-world-press-freedom-day-0
[3]http://creativethinkering.blogspot.com
[4]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com

Doing Right With Rice – A Few Roman Catholic Lessons From Madagascar

If you look at this Rappler photo of a single farmer planting rice, it looks like it’s not a big deal and he doesn’t mind being alone in his work.

He should! He is doing it all wrong! All Filipino farmers are doing it all wrong!

I mean, transplanting rice. Unless you are using now the transplanter, you are going the wrong way of transplanting rice.

The man is transplanting rice wrongly, and he does not realize it. And probably neither do you!

It was only early this morning, Tuesday, 07 July 2020 Manila time when I Roman Catholic realized that we Filipinos have been planting rice all wrong since the beginning. Well, we inherited it from the Chinese, from whom we learned rice farming, plowing, etc. The Chinese are smart when they are, but not in this one.

So, here are My 5 Rice Lessons for you today, rich, poor, doctor, farmer:

1.     PS. 

2.     PS.

3.     PS.

4.     PS.

5.     PS!

(1)   Plant Singly.
Plant 1 seedling per hill, no more. This is a lesson from the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, compiled over the years by Roman Catholic Fr Henri de Laulanie SJ that he developed in Madagascar, where only 1 individual seedling is pushed  into a hill and no more. This is for maximum growth of the seedling, that is, in producing the necessary tillers for grains production. This is contrary to the usual practice of bunch transplanting, which results in too few tillers – so? Low yield.

(2)   Plant Squarely.
Plant each seedling equidistant from each other. Again, a lesson from the Catholic SRI. Use either 15 x 15 cm or 20 x 20 cm spacing. Each seedling in those squares will grow robust and to its maximum, because of the available wide space between competing roots from opposite hills. Robust seedlings will grow robust tillers – equals robust harvests! It is the Lesson of the Tillers that Filipino farmers have not learned  from the Catholics! The fastest way to plant squarely? Use a mechanical transplanter.

(3)   Plant Soon.
Plant when the seedling is still very young, 2 weeks old, another lesson from us Catholics. The usual Filipino farmer practice is to plant 1-month old seedlings. Too old! There is always a transplanting shock, and the young ones can take it without much trouble, recovering fast, unlike older seedlings. I wonder why Filipino farmers have not seen this with their own eyes?!

(4)   Plant Seed.
Plant, don’t transplant – plant the seeds directly, not raise them on a seedbed first and then transplant. No transplanting shock, no additional labor – the seed grows into a seedling, and the seedling grows into a plant without much ado. Why do rice seedlings grow yellow a few days after transplanting? That is transplanting shock – they are trying to recover their health.

(5)   Plant Smartly.
Plant using a seeder or a transplanter. That’s how to get square planting automatically. This is to avoid having to measure out all those squares in the field.

This is a Roman Catholic speaking!@517

San Jose City – Kalasag As Shield Against Fungi, Shield Against Poverty

Noel Ocampo Reyes shares on Facebook that a “Co-op Grows 800 Tons Onion For Food Chain, Makes Own Fungicide[1]!” Excited, yes. That’s Zac Sarian enthusiastically writing (29 June 2020, zacsarian.com) about members of the Kalasag Farmers Producers Cooperative preparing their own fungicide that they call Trichoderma – actually the name of the fungus – that they spray against all kinds of fungal enemies of hectares upon hectares of onion in San Jose City in Nueva Ecija. Zac tells us the Trichoderma initially used came from PhilRice in Nueva Ecija, free for the asking.

Before I forget. Zac mentions that Kalasag is growing onion “for a big fastfood company” – in 2012, already I knew that to be the Jollibee chain of companies. That’s one of the secrets of a good coop: Get a marketing contract with an institutional consumer and you are good for life!

Been there, done that 8 years ago. I visited that place early 2012 to interview and photograph the Kalasag members for the book I was producing – writing, photographing, desktop publishing – to help celebrate the Silver Anniversary of the Agricultural Credit & Policy Council, ACPC (which is under the Department of Agriculture), when Jovita Corpuz  was Executive Director – the book cover I designed you can see inset above, with Kalasag farmers on their fields harvesting. Note that Frank H is showing white onions while Zac Sarian is showing red onions. Both Ilocanos, we have quite different “noses for news” – Frank goes for the producers while Zac goes for the product.

The ACPC book I produced in 2012 titled The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable and subtitled Celebrating 25 Years Of The ACPC, mainly featured the operations of successful coops. 8 years later, here I am proselytizing for more multipurpose coops that are more business-like and which I refer to as Super Coops.

Yes, I am emphasizing more producers rather than products. I am a board member of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative in my hometown Asingan in Pangasinan, and I know that such types of coop hold much promise as farmers’ friends in terms of helping them rise from poverty and staying up there! Nagkaisa is not yet my ideal Super Coop – while Kalasag of San Jose City by all means already is a Super Coop, able and equipped to grow, process, store, transport and market the onions for members. (There are 45 members, according to NRT 2011[2].)  In 2012, I learned each Kalasag farmer earned at least P1 million/ha!

That’s what a Super Coop is for: Helping members cultivate business-mindedness so that they can rise from their poor stations in life to one of prosperity – whether they go for white or red onion, whether they use a natural product as fungicide or not. It’s the cooperative working as one force for all members, not just for a few investors.

We must grow tons & tons of produce – simultaneously, we must cultivate a million farmers via Super Coops like Kalasag who will help them escape from poverty, improve their lives, and sustain themselves!@517

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[1]https://zacsarian.com/co-op-grows-800-tons-onion-for-food-chain-makes-own-fungicide/?fbclid=IwAR1cPMwFlrAj-
qoB3dkrTUFDYSaEDSUTc2HX6y_j4Sq5lMAW0sMMpMuvRw
[2]https://www.slideshare.net/MABSIV/bridging-farmers-to-the-jollibee-value-chain-program