A PH Lady Journalist Is Worried About The Animal Manure That Goes Into The Organic Fertilizer

So, why do they use animal manure to make organic fertilizers anyway?

Rena S Hermoso writes “Knowing the Potentials, Limitations Of Organic Produce And Farming[1]” (17 July 2020, BusinessDiary), and it is not so-good-news:

(In) recent years, organic produce has been gaining attention from the public for its nutritional benefits and being pesticide-free. However, the public must also realize that organic produce has its own set of potentials and limitations. While it is important to know the benefits of consuming organic produce, it is also equally important to learn its limitations to mitigate its negative effects and maximize its full potential.

This is journalistic hyperbole that media serve and people relish so they buy more print copies or surf the media websites more often. That first paragraph makes it appear that organic farmers do not really care about their customers except as buyers of their farm produce.

This perceived threatto health of organic consumers is explained vaguelyby Miss Rena in these words:

Just like how pesticide residue or contamination threatens the safety of conventionally-grown produce, microbial contamination is the threat to the safety of organically-grown produce. This is primarily due to the use of animal manure in organic production. More so, microbial contamination cannot just occur during the production stage but in every stage of the handling-distribution chain.

That is based on prejudice and not from a scientific study. Miss Rena did not do enough background research on this one to know that organic fertilizers are produced only when the organic materials have decomposed completely – no plant or animal tiny or small are left alive in that converted mass, all microorganisms killed. So, how can the animal manure infect the farm produce growing in the field?  

But prejudice is prejudice, and I am sure there are thousands, nay millions who share the same view, if inarticulated.

Well, if I were a farmer and wanted to make honest money from organic produce, I will avoid animal manure altogether. I will grow my food crops with organic mulchinstead. That organic mulch I will build on top of my farm like this:

Farmers hate the weeds – I love them! I will use the rotavator to plow in the weeds and crop refuse (if any) so that in one passing, the soil has been cut to tiny pieces and the vegetation has been cut to tiny pieces – and mixed together in one smooth operation. As I continue to rotavate my field, I will continue to create that organic mulch over my field. When I am done rotavating, I already have my organic fertilizer – man-made, natural.

My organic mulch should be the answer to the challenge, articulated by Dormita R Del Carmen, a University Researcher of the Postharvest Horticulture Training and Research Center, PHTRC, of UP Los Baños, as reported by Miss Rena, for organic farmers to deliver “organically-grown fruits and vegetables that have same safety, quality and shelf-life as their conventionally-grown counterpart.”

Not all organically grown farm produce are equal!@

 

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[1]https://businessdiary.com.ph/15458/knowing-the-potentialslimitations-of-organic-produce-and-farming/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

PH DA Capturing The Full Power Of The Digital

In this Digital Age, the DA-ATI should be #1 in terms of knowledge dissemination. First Class.

The Agricultural Training Institute, ATI, is the official training arm of the Department of Agriculture, DA – as such, it should be on top of the situation. Well, with the video above, it’s trying to be. But there is more to be done. Like: Showing every single step. Putting in English captions.

Do you realize that prior knowledge is no longer a barrier to learning anything new?

That video is on practical ensiling with plastic bags, for the goats: using sugarcane tops, corn, sorghum, napier, even rice straw. Ensiling keeps the nutrients and moisture in the leaves while they await to be fed to livestock.

ATI’s digital work has just begun! In its own website, ATI says:

Extension services continue to evolve. With the challenges that extension workers and farmers face, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) continues to explore various strategies to improve its efforts as the extension and training arm of the Department of Agriculture.

The top image is my screen grab of a demonstration of “Paano Ang Wastong Paggawa Ng Silage?” (What Is The Right Way To Prepare Silage?) It is an evolution of ATI extension because it is virtual, not simply physical.

Now, there are 41 training centers all in all under ATI. If extension is to evolve, and it should, without planning and coordination, we are talking of 41 training centers producing similar video materials on a total of 41 Philippine crops (my low estimate)!

(1) Abaca
(2) Ampalaya
(3) Avocado
(4) Banana
(5) Beans
(6) Cabbage
(7) Calamansi
(8) Cassava
(9) Chico
(10) Coconut
(11) Coffee
(12) Corn 
(13) Cotton
(14) Cucumber
(15) Durian
(16) Eggplant
(17) Garlic
(18) Hot pepper
(19) Jackfruit
(20) Lanzones
(21) Mabolo
(22) Mango
(23) Mungo
(24) Okra
(25) Onion
(26) Papaya
(27) Passion fruit
(28) Peanut
(29)  Pineapple
(30) Pomelo
(31) Rambutan
(32) Rice
(33) Santol
(34) Squash
(35) Strawberry
(36) Sugarcane
(37) Sweet pepper
(38) Sweet potato
(39) Tobacco
(40) Tomato
(41) Watermelon

That’s only my fast list. (And I have not made mention of livestock.)

What am I driving at here? Already, the ATI has 41 crops to produce learning materials for.

Careful!

The ATI must first prepare separate working sets of the digital materials for the 41 crops. Initially, should the ATI distribute the work so that each of the centers works on only 1 crop? Maybe, but there should be Institute-wide final review and recommendation.

Here is the digital package I’m thinking for each crop:

I separate the Learning Materials (texts & still images) from the Training Materials (video accompanied by captions).

The Learning Materialsshould include the following (along with sources of data & information):

(1) Names of crop: common and local
(2) Economic importance:
(3) Uses

The Training Materialsshould show digitally everything from selecting planting materials to caring to harvesting to marketing. Every single step.

ATI, with the Digital Age, you never had it so good! Don’t make our farmers feel bad by failing them!@517

PH Land Reform – Mind Reform Instead Of Distribution Reform

Truth to tell, PH land reform has never progressed beyond distribution of land – because the distribution of land is bad! So now we have many landowners, but no successful farmer from among the beneficiaries.

Small isn’t beautiful!

Is it because of the stupidity of the authors of the law – or the stupidity of the farmers? Neither. It’s the stupidity of some economists!

In his column in BusinessWorld, Raul V Fabella says the Department of Finance, DoF, the National Economic and Development Authority. NEDA, and Congress are “contesting how best to reverse the economic free-fall wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.” The DoF and NEDA believe that the best way is to grant private corporate income tax deduction, to give them “breathing space,” from 30% down to 25%. Economists are hoping that the tax savings will be converted by private firms into new investments, new jobs. Similarly, Congress wants “to create jobs by ramping up state infrastructure spending.”

It happened in the USA, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President:

Realistically, it is only demand-pulling stimulus mounted by a welfare-oriented… government that could arrest the negative feedback loop of a free fall. Classical economists were horrified by Keynes’ heretical position: “What? Pay people to dig holes in the ground only to refill them?” asked detractors. President FD Roosevelt initiated the New Deal along Keynes’ lines: hired idled workers to replant America’s forests, build dams and roadways, and this pushed back the crisis.

Thank you President Roosevelt! After this pandemic, with our idled workers we will replant devastated Philippine forests, build dams and roadways.

But right now, I’m more interested in agriculture than infrastructure. I don’t know why but no economist, not even Mr Fabella, talks about economies of scale.

The main trouble with CARP farmers is that they do not consolidate their operations, so they do not enjoy economies of scale.

For farmers, land ownership gives you the false impression that you should be doing things on your own. They have to change their minds!

I don’t blame the farmers. I graduated from the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, but I don’t remember a single lesson in farm consolidation to operate more efficiently with less cost per unit of work done.

No Sir, Mr Fabella, debt condonation will not result in renewed and better farming – CARP farmers know that they will always remain poor. You know why? When a farmer wants to buy seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, he borrows money from a usurer. When harvest comes, he is forced to sell at the price that the merchant is offering, to pay off his debts.

Rather than debt condonation, I recommend that CARP farmers in a town be organized into a multi-purpose cooperative. The coop will then be the source of much cheaper loans, as well as the keeper of farm machines that everybody can use. The coop can ask financial and other assistances from the Department of Agriculture under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar.

Then I’m sure the CARP farmers will rise to the occasion after the pandemic!@517

 

Who Are The First Ones To Recommend Their Children To Not Become Farmers? Farmers!

This is the Philippines, ladies and gentlemen, farming country, and the male parent does notwant his son to become a farmer himself!

That is a major finding of UP Los Baños lady researcher Florencia G Palis in her study “Aging Filipino Rice Farmers and Their Aspirations for Their Children” (June 2020, Philippine Journal of Science, Science & Technology Information Institute).

Son of a farmer, that is notnews to me, but it’s still dismaying.

Miss Palis found the farmer fathers would rather have their children study and apply for jobs in the cities or work abroad. That was 65% of her respondents; only 35% wanted their children to be like them, farmers.

In her paper, Miss Palis said, as reported by Dhel Nazario, “Farmers Not Keen On Children Following In Their Footsteps – Study[1]” (23 July 2020, Manila Bulletin):

The risk associated with rice farming as a means of livelihood further discourages parent farmers to aspire for their children to be like them. The uncertaint(ies) in yield and income (are) real to them and they attribute (those) to unpredictable weather situations, unstable output price and input costs, and natural disasters like heavy rains, floods, and drought, including pest and disease infestations.

As a farmer’s son, and an Agriculturist, I can explain those uncertainties in yield and income.Most likely those farmers are still using their own varietal selections, so they cannot expect higher yields. Or when they transplant the rice seedlings, it’s helter-skelter – how do you expect good growth from the seedlings you did not value much by giving them improper distancing (should be 25 x 25 cm) and planting 2 or 3 seedlings per hill (should be only 1 single seedling per hill, following the technique called System of Rice Intensification, SRI)!

Aling Tasya said, “My waist and back are painful, especially during and after transplanting the rice seedlings. I need to bear these pains so that I can provide some food for my family.” Aling Tasya, if you did the SRI, you would have enjoyed your transplanting of rice! SRI would also double your yield, even treble it – ask your local farm technician about it!

Miss Palis also pointed out:

With high input costs, they are forced to borrow money from informal lenders who charge them high-interest rates, or traders who require them to sell their produce immediately at a low (price) after harvest.

Aling Tasya, what’s causing your poverty are those people taking advantage of people  when they need money!

Miss Palis says, “There is a need to pay attention to rural services for agricultural extension including hassle-free and practical mechanisms of providing capital to farmers.”

Don’t forget cooperatives!

Now, madam, if you have been browsing Facebook, during these months of lockdown, you will have known of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” – and the current national efforts, led by him, to help farmers financially and mechanically by providing farm machines.

These are the worst of times,
and these are the best of times!@517

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[1]https://mb.com.ph/2020/07/23/farmers-not-keen-on-children-following-in-their-footsteps-study/?fbclid=IwAR0BvetY0buXJzzglTxT3tAmdVHRuSu4CeP1JxRAdvNhTC0R5tRuUXN1oA4

Birds Of A Feather Flock Together – An Agricultural Advice For The Cordillera Autonomous Region

On 19 September 2019, the Cordillera Autonomous Region, CAR, via the Cordillera Regional Development Council, adopted the Cordillera Regional Development Plan 2017-2022 Midterm Update that detailed the region’s strategic thrusts for 2020-2022[1] (ANN, Cordillera Autonomous Region, National Economic & Development Authority):

The Regional Plan is aligned with the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 (that) serves as the current administration’s strategy for national development anchored on enhancing social fabric (malasakit), reducing inequality (pagbabago), and increasing growth potential (patuloy na pag-unlad).

Be that as it may, I keep looking for the in/dependent CAR plan for regional development in the next 20 years, but I cannot find any. So, the CAR is left saying, above, ”enhancing social fabric” and “reducing inequality” and “increasing growth potential.” The CAR has no Vision, Mission, Goal and Strategy by itself, which I think is unfortunate. So it cannot plan except vaguely what development programs have to be done for the indigenous peoples – Igorots – of the Cordillera. (Image of young eagle leaping into freedom for the first time from Manila Bulletin[2].)

I suggest a Vision, and it could be something dreamable like

Cordillera, The Vegetables Capital of the Philippines.

“Vegetables,” plural. Each province of the Cordillera could select its preferred vegetable to grow and attract customers from all over Luzon.

Now note the superimposed images above: Secretary of Agriculture William Dar and Sadanga Mayor Gabino Ganggangan in a press conference “on efforts to end local Communist armed conflict, the Covid-19 situation, (and) regional development” (from Facebook sharing of PIA Cordillera, 19 June 2020).

When Manong Willie was Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, from 2000 to 2014, ICRISAT had an achievable Vision: Science with a human face. Science in the service of the people.

Now that the CAR linkage with the DA has been achieved, I suggest that the CAR strengthens its ties with this government agency so that the autonomous region can receive any combination of the assistances that the DA is providing farmers all over the country. That’s why I suggested Cordillera as The Vegetables Capital of the Philippines. (And by the way, Manong Willie has a PhD in Horticulture that he obtained from UP Los Baños in 1987; if you did not know, Vegetables (Olericulture) is 1/4th of the concerns of Horticulture; the other 3 are Flowers (Floriculture), Trees (Pomology),

Importantly, your vegetable farming in each CAR province should be run by multi-purpose coops, which I call Super Coops, which then takes care of everything: seeds, fertilizers, organic pest & disease control agents. loans, technologies, systems, machinery, drying, warehousing – up to marketing. Yes, the marketing should be done by the Super Coop, to protect the interest of the farmers.

And you know what? All these thoughts have been simmering in my mind since I came to know William Dar, when he was still DG of ICRISAT. He retired as DG in 2014 – but there is still much genius and guts in him to watch out for!@517

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[1]http://car.neda.gov.ph/rdc-car-discusses-gains-remaining-challenges-and-development-strategies-in-updated-regional-development-plan/

[2]https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/08/26/cordillera-autonomous-regions-time-has-come-1/

The Chickens That Laid Golden Eggs – A PH Story

With this, Reader, you will realize that we Filipinos have had those Golden Hens – so I am calling for raising of PH native chickens in the entire archipelago, in thousands of islands. (golden eggs image from Fine Art America[1])

With Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, if the PH Department of Agriculture, DA, produce enough stocks of native chickens for 7 selected regions of the country – the agency under it, the Bureau of Animal Industry, BAI, could if they would – we Filipinos would be witness to many a vibrant PH poultry businesses: eggs, raw meats, processed meats, even pre-cooked whole chickens, and the live birds themselves.

It would be the Golden Age of Chickens the entire world has never witnessed before!

I don’t know why no Secretary of Agriculture has ever pursued a native chicken program in this country: Poor taste?

You don’t have to import anything to grow the native chickens into a multi-billion peso industry. Of the fowl, the Philippines has at least 7 strains, according to Zac Sarian (Zac B. Sarian[2]): (1) the Banaba from Batangas, (2) Boholano from Bohol, (3) Bolinao from Pangasinan, (4) Camarines from the Bicol Region, (5) Darag from Panay, (6) Paraoakan from Palawan, and (7) Zampen from Zamboanga. I will add the (8) Joloano from Basilan, from the Philippine Native Animals 150-page book I edited & produced for the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center, NSPRDC, published in 2016 and authored by Angel Lambio, Rene Santiago and Karen Dimaranan; here is the complete title:

PHILIPPINE NATIVE ANIMALS
Source Of Pride & Wealth Worth Conserving & Utilizing

The native animals are carabaos, chickens, cows, ducks, goats, horses, and pigs.

I don’t know why no one has ever campaigned for a national production program using our native chickens.

In his Foreword to the book, UPLB poultry scientist Lambio said that the following are the attractions of native animals – and they fit perfectly well applied to native chickens, as they are sources of:

(1) pride

(2) distinctive desirable taste

(3) high-quality protein

(4) high income (meat, milk, eggs)

(5) added income (processed products)

(6) recreation

(7) healthful foods.

With or without the lockdown, it now has come to the point where in the Philippines you have to watch out for imported meat that may or may not be tainted with problematic microorganisms like viruses that kill animals – and humans – mercilessly.

So how about a national production campaign by the DA-BAI on our golden-egg-laying birds? The natives are that good!

I am thinking of 7 regions raising their own local endemic native chicken strain, no inter-island competition except for taste.

Food products, pick your choice! Whole chickens, half-chickens, wings, breasts, drumsticks – don’t forget the buckets – the whole family would be fighting for any of those parts, all insanely delicious to the taste! Even in history, it has always been the natives who have excited the discoverers.

For the feeds, noimported ingredients, no added vitamins, no minerals, no antibiotics, no growth hormones necessary!

Golden meats from golden eggs!@517

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[1]https://fineartamerica.com/featured/golden-eggs-golden-eggs-golden-chicken-hatched-from-a-golden-egg-igor-klyakhin.html

[2]https://zacsarian.com/getting-to-know-the-native-chickens-of-the-philippines/

Angel Locsin, Blokes PH

Read up! “Darna sa tunay na buhay.” Darna in real life. Yes, with Norman Willam Santos Kraft per his sharing on Facebook, we are looking at megastar Angel Locsin as a fearless warrior, empowered woman: PH fiction come alive. Heart-warming, inspiring.

“Angel Locsin, Blokes PH” – By Blokes, I mean Bodies leading onto knowledge empowering society. By her bodily presence in rallies and demonstrations, without violence she is encouraging her countrymen to say “No to injustice.”

Blokes also means Bloggers of knowledge empowering society. This is for writers dedicated to eradication of farmer poverty in the country. Blokes is a power word inspired by Darna!

PH aggie journalists! So now I am inviting you to submit articles to me – frankahilario@gmail.com– that I will publish online separately according to the following blogs:

Blokes4Chickens
Blokes4Goats
Blokes4NativePigs
Blokes4Rice
Blokes4Corn.

Instructions for writers:
Submit your article to me, preferably with a photo, and I will help you write a better one; you pay me only compliments.

To write, don’t forget to ask people, read materials available, and surf the Web. Put in also what you know. Are you going to write about the success of someone in the raising of native chickens, for instance? Make sure you also tell what circumstances in the life of that raiser can be compared to others so that they can be encouraged to go and do likewise? As much as possible, that success story must be repeatable by other people.

Write also about a successful family, group, association, or LGU working with farmers with promise of income.

My Role:
To mentor you, I will see to it that you write interestingly and not simply follow the old, lousy formula of Who, What, Where, When, Why? You are not simply writing to tell a story – you are writing to motivate others so they too can succeed if they did likewise. It will all be digital, the editing and mentoring. When I am satisfied with your work, I will then include it in the proper blog and give you the link to it.

Today, unfortunately, our PH journalists who should be openly and actively supporting Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” are nowhere to be found. Not one communicator from the Asian Institute for Journalism & Communication, AIJC; not one from the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, PAJ; not one communicator from the Central Luzon State University, CLSU; and not even one active aggie communicator from UP Los Baños’ College of Development Communication, CDC itself, the original PH DevCom.

The AIJC, PAJ, CLSU, CDC journalists for development are missing!

I think I know why – whatever brand of communication they have been trained on, they simply consider it an ID card for employment, not for public consumption.

It’s not for lack of talent for writing – it’s for lack of appreciation of the need for modern & traditional knowledge empowering society to pursue local and national development, both of which must be inclusive.

PH Journalists, if we don’t write for PH farmer empowerment, who will?
If not us, who?
If not now, when?@517