Super Coop Bank – The Missing Link

The above main image is actually the cover of the book published by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, ACPC, of the Philippines, which is under the Department of Agriculture, DA. The book was published in April 2012 celebrating ACPC’s Silver Anniversary. Titled The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable and subtitled Celebrating 25 Years Of The ACPC, all 150 pages of it, it is a coffee-table book, all pages in color. I was the one-man band writer, photographer, editor, desktop publisher – within 2 months of contract, it came out 25 April in 25 copies, first delivery, in time for that 25th-year ACPC celebration, at its Pasig City offices.

The cover is my photograph of a white-onion field of the Kalasag farmers’ coop in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, that has had years of rewarding production-to-marketing arrangements with national/international fast-food chain Jollibee Foods.

I did not think about it until today, Tuesday, 21 July 2020, when my 6-year old ideal of a Super Coop got married to the 8-year old reality (in my mind) of the Coop Bank, into the:

Super Coop Bank.

With billions of pesos, the ACPC has been working over the years with coop banks all over the country – a few of which I visited for the coffee-table book. With the ACPC, these coop banks have been successful in their operations working with cooperatives.

And that’s the point. This is what I am now thinking, not only to pursue but to push for agriculture development in the Philippines, and knowing that the ACPC is under the DA:

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar should build a number of pilot Super Coops in PH using Coop Banks under the direct supervision of the ACPC.

The Coop Banks will directly/indirectly supervise the application of coop loans so that in a little while the family of each farmer member of the Super Coop will be released from the shackles of poverty and stay out there in the field of prosperity as long as it behaves properly!

How? With generous loans granted to Super Coops, a Coop Bank will help each coop manage specifically the following:

(1) Production Loans. Granted to Super Coop farmer members, with training & instructions before the granting of each loan. Production covers the processes from planting to drying. No more loans from usurers, no matter how friendly they are, or even if they are family!

(2) Technologies Bank. The Coop Bank will require the Super Coop to gather data & information and make these available such as technologies and systems in usable media forms for the production of any crop, livestock, or any combination.

(3) Postharvest Loans. For the Super Coop itself to put up processing and warehousing units to handle and store farmer produce.

(4) Marketing Arrangements. The Super Coop will forge buy-and-sell transactions with institutional or group buyers – never individual buyers. (Bagsakan centers will not be used as display-to-sell places.)

Via the ACPC, with so many of them cultivated in the country, Super Coop Banks cultivating Super Coops will lead to the eradication of poverty among poor Filipino farmers!@517

Journalists, Careful With Your Words – Editors, Careful With Your Journalists!

The moment I read the last 2 words in Revin Mikhael D Ochave’s title of his story in the BusinessWorld Online this morning’s Monday, 20 July 2020, “Philippine Food Security Seen Depending On Maximizing Research[1],” my editor’s instincts told me there was something wrong. (“Being Wrong” image from Compression Institute[2])

And there it was, same mistake by 2 different people – and, already

You know that 2 wrongs don’t make 1 right!

Those mistakes are in the very title of that story, and I repeat:

“Philippine Food Security Seen Depending On Maximizing Research”

Wrong word used, on 2 counts. One, there is no such thing as “minimizing research.” Two, even assuming that there is “maximizing research,” the report has nothing to do with it! 1 fault, 2 faulters.

Before I say more, let me introduce myself. BusinessWorld does not know me from Adam, so let me establish my credentials. I will mention just 3.

One, you can say English is not a foreign language to me, an Ilocano. I am a graduate of UP Los Baños, BS Agriculture with major in Ag Edu, 1965, with a Civil Service eligibility at Professional Level. I fell in love with the (American) English language when I was in high school yet more than 60 years ago. With all those classics, poems, westerns, and Perry Mason, the library was my intellectual home; the Reader’s Digest was my Bible. From them, I got theory and knowledge. My English became American.

Two, I began my unusual career as an Editor In Chief in 1975, Dinosaur Age (big typewriters). I founded and edited the 3 major publications of the Forest Research Institute, FORI: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly popular magazine Habitat. My English became scientific.

Three, I began my even more unusual career as Editor In Chief after FORI. Self-taught in the Digital Age, I became Editor In Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, in 2003, based at the campus of UP Los Baños. I was a one-man band Editor, Secretary and Layout Artist (Desktop Publisher) for the PJCS for the issues 2001 to 2008, and my total performance was international, so that the journal was included in the elite list (popularly called “ISI”) within 3 years, from being late 3 years. The ISI list includes only those whose scientific publications are of international quality.

Long story short, we go back to Mr Ochave’s story, “Philippine Food Security Seen Depending On Maximizing Research.” The problem there is “maximizing research” – I have never come across such a term or reality!

I blame both the Author and Editor.

I know it was written in a hurry, as most news items are – as you can see in the breathless construction of sentences and sequences of words. Please, when you write about science, about research and development, R&D, especially in agriculture, forget about “maximizing R&D.”

Actually, the BusinessWorld  report was on maximizing the “knowledge economy” in agriculture and maximizing the “intellectual capital” spent towards food security.

That’s capital!@517

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[1]https://www.bworldonline.com/philippine-food-security-seen-depending-on-maximizing-research/
[2]https://compression.org/being-wrong-adventures-in-the-margin-of-error-by-kathryn-schulz/

We Need More Prosperity Journalists! Pushing Farmers Up Maslow’s 2nd Level Hierarchy Of Needs

Farmers are humans, aren’t they? They have to meet a hierarchy of needs, as according to American psychologist Abraham Maslow, just like we do. Above, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar is speaking for farmers as he should. On his 4^thday as Secretary, Mr Dar (image from Food Evolution[1]) cited the “Family Income and Expenditure Survey,” which said that a typical Filipino farmer earned an average of only P100,000 per year, just over P8,300 a month, or had less than P300 daily available for expenses[2] for his family (08 August 2019, Ralph Rivas, Rappler). That is poor!

“Dar also admitted that prosperity is ‘non-existent’ in almost all agricultural households.”

So I say that a poor Filipino farmer family is not safe from want, not secure in meeting those physiological needs – the only resort is borrow usury money.

From the Maslow image (The School Of Life[3]), the 4 levels of human needs are:
4^th, Esteem (respect)
3^rd, Belongingness & Love (friends, lovers)
2^nd, Safety (security, protection)
1^st, Physiological (food, water, warmth, rest)

As the son of a farmer, an Agriculturist with a BSA from UP Los Baños, a very wide print and digital reader, a self-taught digital worker with words & ideas since 1985, and a blogger since 2005, in my mind and in my heart I know that the millions of PH farmers have reached only the 1^st Level and have not breached the 2^nd Level – our farmers do not yet feel secure and protected with their income and status in life.

Why have we been neglecting our farmers in the sense of Maslow? When will PH farmers breach the 1^st Level and go up the 2^nd?

To be prosperous, the farmer must be able to meet his (and family’s) Safety Needs.

It’s the income. The farmer’s income is enough only to meet the Physiological Needs but not the Safety Needs. So, how many Filipinos can you say are prosperous farmers right now? <1%.

We have not been intervening between farmers and usurers, and between farmers and merchants who take advantage of sellers all the time!

When one farmer prospers, he is lucky.

Social prosperity must be the goal of the journalist, not to mention of the government. 

I am now calling for more journalists pushing for farmer prosperity, journalists writing to help farmers pursue their needs for Prosperity (2^nd Level).

Being pursuers of farmer prosperity is not being consciously done by current aggie journalists – they simply report the news they hear or read, and hardly think to do more.

Yes, the reporting job is done, but the prosperity work is not there – I believe that is because aggie journalists do not think it is their duty to help farmers achieve the 2^ndLevel of Needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy. I must blame the old & new schools of journalism & communication for this – they don’t teach Maslow!

If aggie journalists are not for the prosperity of farmers,
who are?
If not us, who?
If not now, when?!@517

 

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[1]https://foodevolution.com.ph/2020/02/sure-loans-disbursed-to-farmers-reached-p2-25b/william-dar-14/
[2]https://rappler.com/business/william-dar-aims-agriculture-growth-double-income-farmers
[3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0PKWTta7lU

Digitally Reborn – (3) ABS-CBN Helps State Colleges & Universities Offer Non-Degree Courses Aside From Agriculture

I continue to look at ABS-CBN (in denial), in the digital world, where it can make a huge difference.

Worldwide, consider applying for jobs: More companies are now putting more weight on the skill of an applicant rather than the college degree. Ellen Ruppel Shell says, “College May Not Be Worth It Anymore[1]” (16 May 2018, New York Times). And here are “8 Job Skills You Should Have[2]” (Youth Central): (1) Communication, (2) Teamwork, (3) Problem-solving, (4) Initiative and enterprise, (5) Planning and organizing, (6) Self-management, (7) Learning, and (8) Technology. (Above, superimposed, image of 10 skills now being asked for when applying for a job[3], from JVS Toronto)

So, I’m thinking of this giant corporation called ABS-CBN giving assistances, if only digitally, to the many state colleges & universities, SCUs, of the Philippines, in cultivating the skills of the youth in any of the fields in agriculture – without a degree, just simply a certification from any of the SCUs of a certain skill having been acquired within the physical premises of such SCUs. Such as any combination of the following trainings:

(1) Growing a crop;
(2) Raising a native pig;
(3) Processing cacao seeds into chocolate;
(4) Culturing honey bees;
(5) Preparing organic fertilizer;
(6) Business incubation;
(7) Work from home.

Growing a specific crop:
For instance, rice. Thus, we have the so-called System of Rice Intensification, SRI, which is very different from the way we Filipinos have been growing rice. SRI gives much higher yields.

Raising a native pig:
Native pigs are known to be resistant to disease and not picky with food.

Growing & processing cacao into chocolate:
Filipino chocolates are world-class in taste.

Culturing honey bees:
If you live in an open field, you can culture bees for their honey.

Preparing organic fertilizers:
Employing earthworms is only one form.

Business incubation:
This is especially for innovators, or those with new or improved products.

Work from home (WFH):
The trend now is mastery or expertise with applications (PC programs). With adequate assistance from ABS-CBN, SCUs can teach digital skills essential for WFH.

And Multiple Intelligences!

Digital ABS-CBN can assist the SCUs in helping the youth discover and nourish their individual multiple intelligences, MI, as according to Harvard professor Howard Gardner. Here are the 9 Multiple Intelligences:

(1) bodily-kinesthetic – body smart;
(2) existential – world smart;
(3) interpersonal – inner-person smart;
(4) intrapersonal – other-people smart;
(5) linguistic – language smart;
(6) logical-mathematical – reasoning smart;
(7) musical-rhythmic – harmony smart;
(8) naturalistic – Nature smart;
(9) visual-spatial – perspective smart.

If you pursue multiple intelligences, you will see that there are no stupid or unteachable people – only people who have not discovered, or whom you have not helped discover – their individual intelligence, where they happen to be very good at.

Digital skills rather than degrees. MI could be the start of multiple learning & earning genres, not to mention games, all digital. In any field, including agriculture.

ABS-CBN, you must be learning to be very good at digital. Nobody else is!@517

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[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/opinion/college-useful-cost-jobs.html
[2]https://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/jobs-and-careers/plan-your-career/8-job-skills-you-should-have
[3]https://www.jvstoronto.org/blog/10-skills-that-employers-are-looking-for-in-2020/

Philippines & The Return Of The Natives

Today, while I know the Department of Agriculture, DA, of my country the Philippines, has been and continues doing its best to contain the devastation of the African swine fever, ASF, and minimizing piggery losses all over the archipelago, I embark on a journey of nativitization – my invention, to mean going back to the native habits and habitats:

To counterbalance the debilitating force of the foreign invader ASF, I’m thinking of the DA embarking on the rehabilitating force of The Return Of The Natives.

Under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, the DA must now cultivate what I call the Asian Swine Fervor, ASF², piggeries raising any of the Philippine native pigs, the best under the circumstances: not picky with food or feed; are hardy, resistant to pests & diseases, and most of all have meats more delicious than any of the imported porks!

And of course, you are sure that the animal has not been slaughtered because it got sick with the African swine fever.

The strains/lines of Philippine swine I know are from the provinces of Abra, Kalinga, Marinduque, Mt Province, Pangasinan, Quezon, and Zambales. And how come I know all those? I just happened to be the editor and producer of the book titled Philippine Native Animals and subtitled Sources Of Pride & Wealth Worth Conserving & Utilizing, published in March 2016 by the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center based at Tiaong, Quezon Province. The center is under the Bureau of Animal Industry, which is under the DA. The authors of the book are Rene C Santiago, Angel L Lambio and Karen C Dimaranan. Mr Santiago is the Director of the Center.

Here are excerpts from the book:

Native pigs are known for their ability to grow and multiply even under adverse environmental conditions. They are budget-friendly and thus fit the economic conditions of small-scale farmers. 

The native pigs can (almost) raise themselves, as long as there are low-lying plants in the backyard or farm where they are raised. With their long snouts, they will forage for anything to feed on that is organic.

Yes! Philippine native pigs are organically grounded!

Locally available native foods include taro, sweet potato, water spinach, banana trunks & leaves, copra, rice bran, cassava, elephant yam.

Up to now, the Philippines is having heartaches with the African swine fever. The issue of 14 July 2020 of PhilStar[1] has a collection of news items on the ASF: “As It Happens: African Swine Fever In The Philippines” – the short mentions include what’s happening from February to July in Benguet, Davao Occidental, Ifugao, Kalinga, and North Cotabato. The African swine fever is not going to leave these islands anytime soon!

But take heart – we can conquer the universe of swine husbandry:

With our Philippine pigs:
Cheaper to raise.
Sharper to taste.
Healthier to digest.

Above inset image, charcoal-roasted pig, from Adobo Chronicles[2], with caption: “Filipino lechon may prolong your life.” Why? No vaccines, no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The food is all-natural, the meat au-naturel – the results, a healthy diner!@517

 

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/happens/775

[2]https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fadobochronicles.com%2F2015%2F06%2F15%2Ffilipino-lechon-may-prolong-your-life%2F&psig=AOvVaw2J6QfpMsTYkzuFCAeHYhNj&ust=1595060799236000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCLjYhvDu0-oCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Is IRRI Taking Farmers For Granted?

Yesterday, how did I say UP Los Baños has been treating the Filipino farmers up to now? At best, half-ignoring their knowledge needs(see my essay, “Why Is UP Los Baños Visibly Digital And Invisibly Developmental?[1]“15 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital). Indeed:

For Filipino rice farmers, UPLB has been
developing technologies,
but not developing lives!

Differently, is the internationally renown IRRI, based at the campus of UP Los Baños, any better in dealing with rice farmers in the Philippines and all of Asia? Not that I know of, and I have been in and out of Los Baños, where it is based. Look at the above image again – the cover of the 27-page manual Steps To Successful Rice Production (IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank[2]). I ask: “What does successful mean?”

So! After 60 years of R&D, IRRI has come up with a 27-page distillation of much of what it has discovered about what are the steps to successful rice production.

Is that all the rice farmer needs to be successful?
No, of course not!

If you say, “Well, it covers only technology, and promises nothing more. In that sense, it is a good manual.”

I will say, “Yes Sir, or Madam, it is a good manual – if you don’t know much about the growing of rice. Because the manual is simplistic. The actual title is “12 Steps To Successful Rice Production” – which implies that if you simply follow those 12 steps, nothing more and nothing less, you will become a successful rice producer. I say, maybe, but:

Rice farming is not simply the growing of rice!

That is why the Filipino farmer needs the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, which I mentioned yesterday. That is why in 2003 I produced the OpAPA “creation book” titled Geography Of Knowledge, all 198 pages of it.

Sorry, but the OpAPA was not implemented properly, digitally. More so today, the farmer needs to know the whole geography of knowledge of rice – from seed to spoon – and follow-up the value chain, from production to postharvest handling to marketing, locally as well as internationally. If the farmer knew by heart all those 12 IRRI steps, he will still remain poor – unless he learns to be business-minded from beginning to end, counting costs and returns.

Indeed, not guiding cultivators of the soil beyond rice production, UP Los Baños has been shortchanging the Filipino farmers, and IRRI has been shortchanging the Asian farmers!

What would have OpAPA given the Filipino rice farmers? In my book, 3 words:

Advice on Options.

You don’t tell the farmer what to do – you give him advice. You don’t tell him how to solve his problems – you give him Options. You point out to him Opportunities. You advice him on how to overcome Obstacles.

For IRRI, it will have to be something like an Open Language for Asian Farmers, OpLan Asia. All encompassing, all digital, all interactive, all business.

Who told you rice farming is that simple?!@517

 

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[1]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/07/why-is-up-los-banos-visibly-digital-and.html

[2]http://knowledgebank.irri.org/images/docs/12-Steps-Required-for-Successful-Rice-Production.pdf

Why Is UP Los Baños Visibly Digital And Invisibly Developmental?

UP Los Baños, why does it not house the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture?!

Right at the entrance to the campus, 2 big electronic billboards confront you, left and right, open simultaneously and showing exactly the same thing. (image from Good News Pilipinas[1]) My question is, as a 1965 alumnus and communicator for science, why is UP Los Baños not in the forefront of supporting Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s intellectual “New Thinking for Agriculture” – Amor Propio?

The answer to my question in my title is this:

UP Los Baños is strong in Communication but weak on Development! That weakness is self-inflicted – and more than 40 years old.

When I was the Chief Information Officer of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, in the mid-to-late 1970s, I published in the FORI Sylvatrop forestry journal a technical paper on Communication for Development, ComDev, which I presented as a theory in contradistinction from UPLB’s Development Communication, DevCom, the brainchild of Nora C Quebral. My ComDev emphasized communication in pursuit of development, while her DevCom emphasized communication left to the discretion of the communicator whether to support development or not!

So, I’m notsurprised that in the last 12 months, no publication or article published by UPLB or its any of its alumni has pushed for any of the following – I’m assuming the alumni know of their existence as The 8 Paradigms of the new PH agriculture being pursued by one of its alumni, the new Secretary of Agriculture:

(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.

No, I am not saying that UP Los Baños is not intelligent enough to tackle any and all of those paradigms – which I have emphasized by maxing the list. What I’m saying is that UP Los Baños has notbeen paying attention to the developmental needs of the country, especially in agriculture, which is its field! Unpardonable sin.

By the way, in 2011, I was chosen “Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing” by the UPLB Alumni Association when Pids Rosario was still UPLBAA President. Since nobody else has received such an honor – not even in all of the UP System – now I feel I owe UPLB the pursuit of a creative project, even if it is not mine:

Enrich and implement the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA.

Actually, OpAPA was the brainchild of William Dar some 17 years ago yet, but it has languished for 2 reasons:

(1) The implementation was more mechanical than digital, so the speed was that of a turtle.

(2) It was neither technically nor institutionally supported by UP Los Baños. Nobody asked!

Today, we have friends in high places – William Dar has a PhD in Horticulture, from UP Los Baños no less.

I ComDev person now challenge the DevCom people in Agriculture to come out for Agriculture!

As for a budget, surely we can ask the DA. Ready when you are!@517

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[1]https://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/up-los-banos-readies-bio-safe-covid-19-testing-center/