Secretary William Dar Dreams Of A PH Database On Agriculture, ADING – Perfect Match For OpAPA!

On 27 January 2021, the press release came out from the Department of Agriculture(DA) titled “DA Taps State Schools For Food Security Policy Research Projects[1],” data-gathering efforts commonly aiming at creating a regional database for agricultural and rural development, urgently for national food security.

The collaboration is another initiative of the DA under its Agriculture Dialogue and Information Network Groups (ADING) Program “that aims to further strengthen and improve public trust and confidence in the Department.” Note: “Ading” in Ilocano means “younger sibling.” Now, not only the aim but the name is perfect – I am thinking of the 17-year old proposal of Mr Dar himself that he called “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture” (OpAPA), which he advocated in 2003 when he was still Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) – with ADING and OpAPA 2021, we have a family of science knowledge banks with Mr Dar as father!
(“Open Learning” image[2] from Frugalmomeh.com)

Under the partnership agreement, the DA will provide funding of P1.5 million to each of the state universities and colleges (SUCs) for data and information gathering on, among other things, (1) impact of DA’s programs on target communities, and (2) technology utilization by farmers and fishers in every region.

The University of the Philippines through the National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), through Project Team Leader Alex Brillantes, will lead the development of sampling design, research protocol, and data collection instruments that will be used by the SUCs in conducting their knowledge searches.

Separately thinking, once all the sets of data are in and processed into knowledge bits & pieces for Internet searches, in In my mind, OpAPA 2021 will answer all questions, English or Taglish, such as:

Which hybrid rice to plant? Where? How much? Whom to ask?

How do I save on expensive inputs: seeds, fertilizers, cultivation, spraying, harvesting, drying, marketing?

How can a cluster, association, cooperative help my farming?

Which vegetables, fruits, flowers are profitable to grow?

How can I farm if I don’t have enough money?

What do I do when I see a number of insects crawling on my rice plants?

What farm crops can be intercropped with a standing coconut grove?

I want to farm, but I don’t know anything about farming – where do I begin?

I fell in love with OpAPA the first time I saw her, sometime in 2003, when I was hired as a consultant for PhilRice. And I was so smitten that within a week or so, I wrote a book dedicated to bring her to life:

The Geography Of Knowledge. TGoK.

I still have an e_copy of that book, 198 pages, which I conceptualized and wrote all by myself. I submitted the whole manuscript to my direct boss – nameless here, forevermore – and nothing came out of it. I don’t think the PhilRice Executive Director ever saw it. Na-tigok!

With OpAPA 2021, Science with a development face should triumph in Philippine agriculture inclusive of the small farmers!@517

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[1]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-taps-state-schools-for-food-security-policy-research-projects/?fbclid=IwAR1_lZr3Wc8zbU1KWcRC_DadDXGBkrxid40gcK8T62jgWczWRIncjVAV5yA

[2]https://www.frugalmomeh.com/2014/09/education-flexibility-thompson-rivers-university-open-learning.html

Communication For Development: Lessons In Photography As, Surprise, Lessons In Better Writing!

Writer Frank A Hilario is highly original, yes. Creative, he invented Communication for Development (ComDev) 40 years ago when he was Editor in Chief of Habitat, a deliberate look-alike of the American National Geographic, published by the Forest Research Institute based at UP Los Baños. Today, from him, you can improve your writing by learning a lesson or two in photography!

Now look closely at my photograph above, digitally transformed into 3 parts: trees, ground of grass, flowers. That’s how your story looks like usually: Promising but failing to deliver!

Inspired by Erniein Sesame Street, your first lesson in writing is that a story has 3 major parts: Beginning, Middle, End. Equivalents in your story: Foreground, Field, and Background.

Note that the Foreground should be Attractive – a mix of colors growing, as if celebrating their sight of the Field. In the above image, I clouded it up so that you will get the picture!

The usual news story today is either negative or shocking, vintage The Manila Times, founded by Thomas Gowan, an Englishman living in the Philippines. Wikipedia tells us “The paper was created to serve mainly the Americans who were sent to Manila to fight in the Spanish-American War[1].” So, the perspective of Times’ stories was “Fight!” To embolden soldiers and readers so they will ask for more. Peacetime, that’s bad journalism.

Time to apply my ComDev:

The Beginning of your story should be able to catch the reader’s attention by being positive, welcoming, if not colorful. Negative, shocking or threatening is the usual news story, opinion piece, or highlight of today’s media. You don’t need Creativity there – all you need is Negativity!

Importantly:

The Beginningshould be a problem that looks solvable, to be fulfilled when in the Middle.

The Middleof your story should be the encouraging narrative you want to relate, to which you attracted readers via your Beginning.

The Endof your story should be the denouement, the resolution of the unfolding story you told in the Middle.

If you started with an un/stated promise of good in your Beginning, the End should now go back to it and point to its fulfilment – or the promise of something good or better – or what else needs to be done to complete a beautiful picture.

Now, look at my unretouched photograph below. It’s a scene from the UP Los Baños campus, shot with a not-so-advanced Sony camera on 08 July 2007 at 0946 hours. The undivided, beautiful image I show here is to inspire you to write your beautiful news story, column or essay on Philippine agriculture.

One of the photography lessons Biju Arayakkeel gives in his “10 Storytelling Lessons From Photography[2]” (October 2020, Toastmaster.org) is this:

“As a storyteller, I want to share a compelling story that can touch the hearts of my audience, inspire them, and leave them with something to ponder and act on.”

Positive, Inspiring, if possible Creative. Go, ComDev, go!@517

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manila_Times

[2]https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2020/oct/storytelling-lessons-from-photography

The IRRI That Was/Is Misunderstood

No, I am not an un/known paid apologist of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), but I am an agriculturist, UP Los Baños, and a writer, creative and critical – you have to appreciate being Critical before you can achieve the genius level of being Creative. And practice makes perfect, so!

The top image says, “IRRI: The Miracle That Never Was & Never Will Be,” a Facebook sharing by a group (never mind who). Here is its list of “Little-Known Truths About How IRRI Harms Filipino Rice Farmers” –

1: IRRI ignores the effectiveness of the peasant-oriented approach to growing food.
2: IRRI ignores the cries for justice of its workers and peasants whose rights it violated.
3: IRRI undermines self-sustaining peasant farming.
4: IRRI’s Green Revolution model is now being decried worldwide as it worsens the climate crisis.

Peasant-oriented approach to growing food?

Whatever it is or how it is carried out, sorry, but that “peasant-oriented approach” has failed to banish poverty among the farmers who do not know how to properly apply technology for farming.

Justice For IRRI Workers & Peasants?

Since 1959, when I was Freshman at UP Los Baños, I have been in and out of the campus, and I never heard, even whispered about IRRI abusing or not treating its employees right.

Personally, I see IRRI is not that brave. In 1980, I actually applied for a position in its Information Division – and I aced the Aptitude Test! What happened? IRRI was afraid of my genius.

3: Self-Sustaining Peasant Farming?

I happen to be the son of a not-so-poor farmer, so I know that our poor farmers do not know about self-sustaining farming – they are always the losers in the bargain! They are not entrepreneurial. They do notlook at it as a business, which it is.

The farmers have to learn to mind their own business!

4: IRRI’s Green Revolution Worsening Climate Change?

To this I will have to agree 100% – but first, I must explain that in fact it was our President Ferdinand “FM” Marcos who declared the Green Revolution based on IRRI’s so-called Miracle Rice (IR8).

Yes, since there are millions of hectares of ricefields all over the world, they must be the source of nitrous oxide, the deadliest climate change gas the world has known. And that exactly is why we need the New Thinking for Agriculture that Secretary of Agriculture William Darbrought in with him when he was appointed 05 August 2019.

That must-remain-unknown group argues that “IRRI is implicated in the harsh realities plaguing the rice sector: poor, debt-ridden rice farmers, supply shortages, an overdependence on imports, poisoned environment, and health.” No, it’s not IRRI who is at fault; who is guilty is more our local government leadership who does not understand or appreciate how farmers remain poor – they like to borrow a fast P5 and pay a fat P6! And the Merchants of Venice take advantage of them almost always.

“How could a supposedly premier rice institution fail so spectacularly in its promise?” No, IRRI never promised You a Rose Garden!@517

Public Servant – To Find Meaning, Don’t Look In The Dictionary!

Can’t find inspiration? Me, with already an idea on what to write on, I further inspire myself with an image or photograph, such as the one above: “What if the meaning of life is to find meaning in life?”
(image of Philosoraptor[1] from Imgflip)

This essay was inspired by the Facebook sharing shown on my son Jomar Hilario’s own digital campaign for a million or more Filipinos each to pursue a Virtual Career (VC). On my own, I began my one-man digital work from home (WFH) early 2007: writing, editing, desktop publishing.

On Facebook, then-flight attendant Ludmila Carluen Barrica shared, “There Is Nothing Wrong With The Job But With Finding Meaning In What You Do.” Based in Doha, for many years, she was lonely, angry, frustrated, what-have-you – she reached near-breakdown.

I wanted to quit. My prayers for years included a constant plea for guidance how I could resign from what the world coin(ed) as a prestigious job. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, it (helped) me discover the world and discover myself. And in so doing, I discovered that there (is) something wrong not with the job but with finding meaning in what I do.

She says she reached “rock bottom” but, fortunately, she came out of there. She credits God helping along the way. She explains how:

I began to see my job differently. Passengers and colleagues (became) not external and internal customers, but human beings. (So I began to treat) people with respect, in reverence (to) God who created them. No more irate passengers, no more difficult crew, no more demanding or annoying characters but people who need(ed) to be served and loved.

And from human beings, I (now) saw people as angels and angels in disguise.

True enough, you attract what you think. An outpour(ing) of God’s comrades came to my life in the (forms of) mentors, coaches, family, friends, church community, colleagues…

Today, Miss Ludmila has a successful virtual career. She is not specific but she describes it thus:

In December 2020, with the aid of God’s angels and angels in disguise, I was able to submit my resignation. I surrendered my flight attendant/trainer/OFW wings but gained another set of wings, given by my new boss, the King of kings and the Lord of lords! He calls me not just to be a stewardess up in the air but to be a faithful steward-ess of His blessings.

Beautiful!

Instinctively a writer or not, I say she writes with much power because she tells you how she feels. As a writer, when you reach that stage where you find personal meaning in what your story, you become much happier – and much more inspired!

Me, I write to help media people get interested in getting into or deeper into PH Agriculture to help themselves better – and in so doing help the poor farmers rise from poverty and stay up there. Media people have to look for personal meanings of Agriculture in their lives, so they can inspire others to look for theirs.@517

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[1]https://imgflip.com/i/y2x8l

“THiNK DiFFERENT” – My Creative Offering To PH Agriculture & My Gift To Aggie Journalists

You too can be creative! Promise.

I thought about my new blog’s name “i THiNK DiFFERENT” the other day, Saturday in Manila, 10 April 2021, which Filipinos refer to as “Araw Ng Kagitingan” (Day Of Valor), and which I see differently – It’s “Day Of Defeat,” as about 60,000 Filipino and American soldiers surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Forces in Bataan and they were forced to walk to Tarlac, about 100 km, and the Death March killed about 5,000 Filipinos and 500 Americans.

In other words, I am what I call a Thinkerer, you know what I mean. And so is Anna Marsh, CEO of Studiocanal UK, who has written “11 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently![1]” (10 May 2017, Just Creative).

Miss Anna begins by saying:

Creative people always see things with a different perspective. They see themselves not for what they are, but for what they can be.

1.  They create their own schedule.

2.  They set aside time to be creative.

3.  They recognize their best & worst works.

4.  They are not afraid of failure.

5.  They take in the world around them.

6.  They stick to their dreams.

7.  They live in the world of fantasy.

8.  They are confident.

9.  They don’t follow boundaries.

10. They ask as many questions as they can.

11. They want space for themselves.

One: I schedule my blogging early in the morning, that is, having written & rewritten the day before.

Two: I prefer writing (first draft) very early in the morning. I rewrite anytime and manytimes.

Three: My best essay so far is the one I blogged 04 April 2021, “2 Leadership Lessons From Apayao Women – Help Yourself By Helping Others.” My best has come when I am already 80.6 years old, thank God!

Four: I never thought of failing in my writing. Made a mistake? I apologize.

Five: You bring out your own genius if you relax after writing a draft. You absorb what you observe. Then you revise. Then you relax. Then you revise again.

Six: I am a self-taught writer. My constant dream is to serve Filipino farmers by writing about how they themselves can think of the science of agriculture.

Seven: “Living in the world of fantasy” is being innocent about a great many things. When you can assume a child’s attitude, you can become a creative writer: I guarantee it!

Eight: I was in high school when I won an essay writing contest in Tagalog – my native tongue is Ilocano. That was when I discovered myself.

Nine: I will disagree with this one. I follow one boundary – when I criticize, you will never know because I suggest something different without mentioning you!

Ten: Yes, I ask many silent questions when I write – that is, I explore many angles. That’s how I often discover brilliance.

Eleven: If you disturb me when I am in front of the computer and typing, I may look at you blankly, as I am in my inner space. Duh!@517

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[1]https://justcreative.com/11-things-creative-people-do-differently/

Truly, Time To Transform Thy Teaching To Thinking!

I am a certified Civil Service Professional teacher. Teachers anywhere in the world, public or private, we have been educated wrong & wrongly!

In the Philippines, the wrong teaching happens, from the most expensive private school International School Manila (ISM), $16,160 per year[1] (Moneymax), to the inexpensive University of the Philippines System (UP System) where mega-blogger Frank A Hilario graduated (UP Los Baños). Teachers teach us to memorize, and then memorize, and finally memorize!

Our teachers do not teach us to think, and how to think!

German American Gundula Bosch says we must “Train PhD Students To Be Thinkers Not Just Specialists[2]” (14 February 2018, Nature.com):

(Today, microbiology) students are taught every detail of a microbe’s life cycle but little about the life scientific. They need to be taught to recognize how errors can occur. Trainees should evaluate case studies derived from flawed real research, or use interdisciplinary detective games to find logical fallacies in the literature. Above all, students must be shown the scientific process as it is – with its limitations and potential pitfalls as well as its fun side, such as serendipitous discoveries and hilarious blunders.

Learning should both be fun and mentally rewarding. Miss Bosch is referring both to critical thinking (“scientific process”) and creative thinking (as in “serendipitous discoveries”). Science should be both mechanical and mental.

Since early 2015, Miss Bosch and Arturo Casadevall have been “(impressing) the need to put the philosophy back into the doctorate of philosophy; that is, pushing the ‘Ph’ back into the ‘PhD.’” She says:

We call our program R3, which means that our students learn to apply Rigor to their design and conduct of experiments; view their work through the lens of social Responsibility; and to think critically, communicate better, and thus improve Reproducibility.

You have to Think Out Science:

Our offerings are different from others at the graduate level. We have critical-thinking assignments in which students analyze errors in reasoning in a New York Timesopinion piece about "Big Sugar", and the ethical implications of the arguments made in a New Yorker piece by surgeon Atul Gawande entitled "The Mistrust of Science."

In R3 Science, you learn how to think of theory – also how to think of methods and results. Critical thinking plus creative thinking. Revolutionary!

Miss Bosch is not finished. She says:

So far, we have built 5 new courses from scratch and have enrolled 85 students from nearly a dozen departments and divisions. The courses cover the anatomy of errors and misconduct in scientific practice and teach students how to dissect the scientific literature. An interdisciplinary discussion series encourages broad and critical thinking about science. Our students learn to consider societal consequences of research advances, such as the ability to genetically alter sperm and eggs.

In the Philippines’ ISM, high school students can learn robotics and food technology – it’s all mechanical thinking, memory work or students simply reciting what they have been instructed to memorize. None of it mental calisthenics.

No, not thinkingly, our teachers are teaching us only to think like them!@517

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[1]https://ph.news.yahoo.com/schools-highest-tuition-metro-manila-020058943.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sLmZhY2Vib29rLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFlqoJ30NFSXe_vSm1deUDFeRz9KRoY4OhjtwyA8bAMkDrT_JAhzeasO0DU1u2zWxwHy7FWvFR95TLz9ilekRvs-2PEZN_OCcAl8i_tqPYhwdfKSMTK2JUBVRosC3DmuzvhIaGPxxxNjhrZTVoyKbijf-T1QFTKjTC-aScA7G_Kx

[2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01853-1

Science Is On The Top Of A UPLB Professor’s Mind. So, It Asks: “Is The Continued Quarantine Justified?”

Belated “Happy Birthday,” Mr President! (28 March 2021). Sorry to spoil your birthday, but the World Bank has spoken: “PHL Reliance On Prolonged Lockdowns Caused Economic Deterioration – WB[1]” (Louise Maureen Simeon, 27 March 2021, The Philippine Star). Carolina Figueroa-Geron, who shared that on Facebook; I read somewhere someone's wishes, “May our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten our darkness! God bless us!”

Miss Louise quotes the World Bank as saying:

The Philippines relied more on prolonged restrictions on mobility rather than an effective test-based strategy. Countries with greater quarterly growth contraction in 2020 had higher infection rates, imposed more stringent mobility restrictions, had more highly indebted governments and were more dependent on earnings from tourism.

Because of mass testing, mobility restrictions were not as severe, resulting in gross domestic product growth for Vietnam (2.9 percent), China (2.3 percent) and Laos (0.4 percent) in 2020. Cambodia’s GDP also contracted, but only by 3.1 percent, and Malaysia by 5.6 percent. The Philippine economy, on the other hand, shrank 9.5 percent, its worst in several decades and the sharpest drop in the region.

Yet, as a science writer, I am more interested in logic than statistics, so I leave the World Bank news to you, and I concentrate on what retired UPLB chemistry professor Carlito “Charlie” Barril (inset image above) says on Facebook on the lockdown. A UPLB alumnus, I agree with him.

Mr Barril says, “DoH data show there is actually no Covid pandemic in RP,” giving 5 proofs (facts), which I edit a little:

Fact #1. DoH data show that more than 98% of reported cases were non-Covid, being mild and asymptomatic. The remaining 2%? Mostly pneumonia, influenza, asthma, etc.

Fact #2. Every Sunday, a big number of recoveries is reported from the ranks of mild and asymptomatic. Today, 28 March 2021, DoH reported total recoveries of 22,000. The highest total recoveries of 40,392 was reported 16 August 2020.

Fact #3. After one year, the number of deaths reported is just 13,170. Even if all these deaths were attributed to Covid, THIS IS VERY LOW compared to the annual deaths of more than 60,000 (2016 data) for flu and pneumonia. Yet we do not lockdown the people due to these diseases.

Fact #4. Total number for RP of 5,705 cases/M is way below the level considered epidemic or pandemic. RP is just 6.3% of that of the USA with 90,853 cases/M. If the mild and asymptomatic cases were removed, the value for RP becomes even lower at 0.13% of that of the USA. This comparison becomes even more significant considering that RP’s population density is much higher than that of the USA.

Fact #5. Another indicator that the Covid situation in RP is just hysteria is the percentage of recovery, which is as high as 93% for RP compared to 64% for the USA and 70% for the world.

Based on the above facts, it is clear that there is actually no Covid pandemic in RP and the continued quarantine is therefore not justified!@517

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/03/27/2087356/philippines-reliance-prolonged-lockdowns-caused-economic-deterioration-wb