Goodbye 2020? My Lamentation On Fragmentation & Individualism In Philippine Agriculture

Louise Maureen Simeon quotes Secretary of Agriculture William Dar as saying, “Fragmentation, Individualism Make Philippine Agriculture Uncompetitive[1]” (08 October 2020, MSN.com):

First, our farmers remain individualistic, unorganized and thus are not linked directly to markets. Second, our farmlands are small and fragmented.

Me! Not We. Yes, individualistic – the kind of Filipino farmers that PH journalists keep on cultivating! If Inadvertently.
(“Me We” image[2] from Reason)

“You there, as a farmer you too, U2 will succeed if you follow this farmer’s example.”

Note that “U2" is the very successful Irish musical band. U2 is Irish, became and still is wildly successful, with Bono as lead singer[3] (Wikipedia). The truth is that since 1976, when U2 was formed, no other band has succeeded like it has, including The Beatles.

Why am I talking U2 here? There is another historical development that has been actually limiting farmer success – the #1 kind of story that some journalists come out with, the one I call here the You Too, U2 Story.

Lesson: A U2 story, whether about a farmer or the Irish band, cannot be easily duplicated. So, Mr U2 Journalist, from now on don’t tell me I have not warned you about writing another U2 story!
(“Storytelling” image[4] from Rockcontent.com)

The formula of some journalists, the U2 formula of writing a farmer success story, began some 60 years ago. I was around, physically watching, when that formula was being concocted at the Department of Agricultural Communication, now DevCom, at the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños – it was a Peace Corps Volunteer who was teaching journalists how to write aggie success stories, the one I am now calling U2 stories. (By the way, that Peace Corps Volunteer happened to be Irish-American, what a coincidence!) It is not the copycat U2 farmer who will be successful; if the journalist writes enough U2 stories, he will win an award, a national or even an Asian award for his journalism.

You tell the farmer “U2!” That is the everlasting, if unexpressed, message written by the PH journalist when s/he writes about someone who has succeeded financially in his/her farming. The message of the U2 story is this:

If you follow this farmer’s example, you too will be quite successful!

No Sir/Madam! The farmer must find his own formula to succeed in his own farming. Financial and intellectual resources are not the same. UP Los Baños teaches good farming but not how you can become a financially successful farmer – and continue doing it, to lift yourself out of poverty!

Those journalists, (al)most of them love to feature stories of financially successful individuals (rarely families) in agriculture. I forgive them – They know not what they do! Those journalists do not realize that they are celebrating individualism among farmers. May their tribe decrease! (I mean the journalists.)

Please, no more U2 stories for farmers. The story the good journalists must write must be of successful farmers in an association, group or cooperative. No more, no less!@517

---

[1]https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/fragmentation-individualism-make-philippine-agriculture-uncompetitive/ar-BB19PyiW

[2]https://reason.com/2017/08/04/individualism-increasing-across-the-worl/

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2

[4]https://en.rockcontent.com/blog/thought-leadership-long-form-storytelling-content-marketing-success-2/

UP Researchers – How Can You Serve The People When You Are Digitally Naïve!?

Agriculture needs new or improved science, technologies and systems in order to increase food produced for the country and indirectly increase the benefits to farmers. Now, this science requires that first it be published as technical papers by researchers so that it can be popularized by extensionists to share with the farmers. Now, these technical papers cannot be found: UP researchers are hardly publishing! In the almost 10 months since the pandemic lockdown in March in these islands, what have researchers of the UP System done in the matter of publishing technical papers based on completed or promising ongoing research studies? None. Before the lockdown? Hardly. It’s the technology, desktop publishing, DTP – they don’t know.

How do I know? I have been in and out and around UP Los Baños since 1975 when I became the Editor In Chief of 3 regular publications of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, now ERDB, in the upper campus of UP Los Baños: the monthly newsletter Canopy, the quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop¸ and the quarterly color magazine Habitat. The years were 1975-1981. Non-digitalpublishing.

Digital. From 2001 to 2008, I was Editor In Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, and I was the one who made the PJCS world-class or included in the international elite list popularly called ISI, now Web of Science. And you know what? The desktop publishing, DTP, work for all the issues of the PJCS was from beginning to end 100% digital – by yours truly.

UP researchers do not want to do that themselves. They simply rely on layout artists who work with Aldus PageMaker or InDesign. But those gentlemen can only do so much! And they don’t have the mentality of Science Serving Society.

UP researchers just have to master their software – publishing technical journals. I always demand the utmost from my software, so I taught myself to do it: editing, formatting text, creating columns, layouting sections and pages. To show you that I have mastered my software, I am now going to tell you that I use ONLY Word 2016 in working with photographs, pages, papers, books, blogs.

Even with so much time in their hands, why are the researchers in the entire UP System largely ignoring the wonders of digital publishing? UP researchers are not dumb – they are just naïve! Or worst: Uncaring.

Let us take up my alma mater UP Los Baños.

How can the results of research in agriculture reach the farmers eventually when the researchers do not begin the process of publishing them?!

First, the results of researches need to be published as technical papers. Second, the technical language need to be transformed into the popular tongue. Third, the new and improved science need to be extended to the people. To begin that process, the only intelligent way to deal with unpublished technical reports is to publish them!

That’s how important technical publishing of science in agriculture or any other field is. So, UP Los Baños itself should be strongly behind researchers needing to publish!@517

PH Agriculture Deliver-E – Death To The Merchants Of Venice!

 

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar says, “Online is the new byword in food security” (14 December 2020, DA press release). That is on the occasion of the launching of Deliver-E on Monday, 14 December 2020, with additional P20 million grant, on which USAID Philippines Mission Director Patrick Wesner said[1] (Catherine Talavera, “USAID Allots P20 Million For Deliver-E Expansion,” Philstar.com):

This expansion seeks to improve user interface, onboard more farmer cooperatives and institutional buyers, and integrate supply and demand analytics functions that can help inform government policies and interventions to strengthen the country’s agribusiness value chain.

Miss Catherine says:

Deliver-E is a digital platform that connects farmers to buyers through an efficient and transparent end-to-end market-based system. It operates through a sophisticated blockchain technology developed by a Filipino tech startup, Insight Supply Chain Solutions.

In Deliver-E, the user-interface is digital; the farmer cooperatives are the suppliers of farm produce that eventually reach institutional buyers via the value chain. Deliver-E insures that the food supply is available anywhere in the country.

Jun Yap says (14 December 2020, “Deliver-E: ‘Game-Changer’ For Farmers, Consumers,” Tribune.net.ph): “This initiative is all about bringing farm produce closer to consumers and cutting layers of traders.”

Essentially, Deliver-E connects electronically the demand and supply of farm produce, eliminating the middleman and, thereby ensuring that the farmer receives the fair market value of the sweat of his labors. Now then, Deliver-E enables the farmer to avoid low prices for his produce, always and ever.
(“Umiwas sa mababang presyo[2]” image from YouTube.com) – “Avoid low prices” offered by middlemen

“This initiative is all about bringing farm produce closer to consumers and cutting layers of traders. Through technology and innovation, it will be game-changing not only for our farmers but also for our consumers[3],” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said (ANN, 15 December 2020, “Deliver-E Will Be ‘Game-Changing’ For Farmers And Consumers – DTI Chief,” DailyGuardian). According to Mr Lopez, “Deliver-E is a digital platform that connects farmers to buyers through an efficient and transparent end-to-end market-based system.”

Mr Lopez also said, “This is part of our strong partnership with Agriculture Secretary William Dar as we jointly work on solutions to increase farmers’ income, provide better supply chain in agriculture and its link to industry processors or direct to marketplace, and delivering fresher products for consumers.”

Actually, the initial launch of Deliver-E was in April 2020 yet, or 7 months ago. ANN says, “Since April, this innovative platform has mobilized over 260 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables and recorded more than P7.15 million worth of transactions.”

Fresh produce, fair price, faster, even for/from far-flung areas. That’s what Deliver-E promises. Good for farmers, good for consumers – bad for the middleman who always takes advantage of the supply-sale situation.

However, there is a catch – Deliver-E rewards more the more efficient farmer than the one who does not care about costs & returns, and even borrows from a usurer for his expenses!

Deliver-E delivers death to the Merchants of Venice!
It also delivers disappointments to the inefficient farmers.
Fair enough!?@517

---

[1]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/15/2063766/usaid-allots-p20-million-deliver-e-expansion

[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koxYZY0NrEk

[3]https://dailyguardian.com.ph/deliver-e-will-be-game-changing-for-farmers-and-consumers-dti-chief/

Filipino Fictionists Fixated On Foreign Formulas – Why Not True Tribal Tragedies & Triumphs?

What are Filipino English writers doing? Nobody writes in support of farm families, and there are millions of them!

To borrow from Shakespeare, I write not to bury Caesar but to praise him.

People, did you know we have 6 National Writers Workshops? At least the ones I can count:

1)  Ateneo National Writers Workshop (Loyola Heights, QC)

2)  Iligan National Writers Workshop (Iligan City)

3)  IYAS La Salle National Writers Workshop (Bacolod City)

4)  Silliman University National Writers Workshop (Dumaguete City)

5)  UP National Writers Workshop (Diliman, QC)

6)  UST National Writers Workshop (Baguio City)

That means we Filipinos are encouraging our writers in English in the fields of fiction. Now then, let us listen to National Artist for Literature F Sionil Jose delivering his keynote in the 27^thIligan National Writers Workshop[1] held 30 November to 05 December 2020 at the University of San Carlos, at the MSU Iligan Institute of Technology, speaking 01 December 2020, reported without title in the 07 December 2020 issue of PhilStar.com. F Sionil said:

(The Workshop) has so much to contribute to our national culture – not just the indigenous literatures on this big island, but so many facets of its culture, the folk arts, the dances and the history of its courageous and enterprising people about whom we know so little.

So, all those national writers workshops have been focusing on the PH local arts, cultures and indigenous literatures.

I hope that this workshop will also have discussions on history, politics and philosophy, that it enlarges its focus to include nationhood, that it nurtures the bonding of writers and that it imbues them with a higher purpose that will make them more human, more compassionate.

F Sionil is encouraging Filipino writers to engage in history, politics, philosophy – and nationhood, “to make (writers) more human, more compassionate.”

Ha, ha! I have just the right attitude for a proselytizer for Filipino writings in, as my title suggests, “tribal tragedies & triumphs.” As a creative writer for agriculture, I am of course referring to tribal lands and technologies. I dream of Filipino creatives becoming nonfiction writers – supporting PH Agriculture.

And here is relevant news: “World Bank invests P629 million in Mindanao[2]” (Louise Maureen Simeon, 14 December 2020, PhilStar.com). This is through the Philippine Rural Development Project of the DA, for Mindanao alone. That comprises some 108 sub-projects. There are a total of 24,000 beneficiaries for 54 sub-projects. The report is not complete, but 24,000 people alone should be worth at least 24,000 little & big stories in agriculture!

This is where we need non-fictionists badly. Not only hundreds but thousands of stories of Filipino farmers await to be told.

There are 116 state colleges & universities, SCUs, in the Philippines – if only 50 of those SCUs nurtured each 2 non-fiction writers, that is, writers of and for PH Agriculture, we have 100 active journalists supportive.

And they should be enjoying Freedom of the Impress because they are public, not private bodies. Inexpensive too, via freeblogs.@517

 

---

[1]https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/12/07/2061962/keynote-speech-delivered-iligan

[2]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/14/2063553/world-bank-invests-p629-million-mindanao?fbclid=IwAR3W0BvlaEggTwGxUFEyQTZOUtuOYNJCdaBLkHUk-F10TufkKAhkVyCW9Fc&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Autofeed

You Are Pro-Farmer, I Am Pro-Agriculture – There Is A HUGE Difference!

I know someone who is always looking for the Negative in the developing story of PH Agriculture, even before Covid-19. Me? I’m an Ilocano, original aboriginal. I blog Positive for my country’s Agriculture, not simply Farmers. In Oscar Wilde’s language, I see the Doughnut while the other fellow sees the Hole!

So, I want to encourage people to blog for Agriculture. I’m 80 – if I can blog, why can’t you? 

I’m a thought-provoker in Agriculture, mind you – and now, mind that the name of this blog of mine is: Brave New World@PH. It now has 659 short essays of 517 words each – yes, I’m always counting. For 2020 alone, I have been blogging every single day since New Year’s Day.

“This Love Of Mine” is a song sung by my favorite Frank Sinatra. I love it because I can sing it sounding like him, and of course he’s my namesake. “You have gone” – You there is Freedom of Movement. But as a creative thinker, I don’t really mind. What I mind is that I seem to be the only blogger positive for PH Agriculture. (I also want to be a blogger for bloggers.)

Above, I look exactly like that blogger myself, with big ears, long hair, beard, mustache… except that I use an external keyboard, A4Tech, and a 2^nd20-inch monitor, ViewSonic.

Why shouldn’t I enjoy my blogging!? With an ergonomic keyboard and a big, beautiful, bright monitor.
(image of blogger[1] from Yoast.com)

And what do I write about? Any subject or topic in or related to Agriculture – and related fields like
Communication,
Cooperative,
Extension,
Green Manuring,
Inclusive Development,
Intercropping,
Monocropping,
Natural Farming,
Organic Farming,
Policy,
Publication,
Research,
Seminar,
Systems,
Technology,
Training,
Weeds,
Workshop.
Youth.

I cry my heart out, it's bound to break
Since nothing matters, let it break
I ask the sun and the moon, the stars that shine
What's to become of it, this blog of mine?

I’m dedicating this essay to workers with words in Agriculture in the Philippines – especially those working out Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that is fed by unending streams of thoughts he calls “8 paradigms” – Modernization, Industrialization, Promotion Of Exports, Consolidation Of Small- And Medium-Sized Farms, Infrastructure Development, Higher Budget & Investment, Legislative Support, and Roadmap Development.

If you haven’t noticed it, my blog is titled “Brave New World@PH” published at Blogspot.com (free). This blog of mine goes on and on… subject, style, sequence, start & stop. That’s how I write.

And the software? Word 2016. Did you say, “Old”? You haven’t used it!

Since today is a lucky number, 13 December 2020, I am offering absolutely free writer’s advice to anyone who emails me – to show that you are serious about writing, send me a complete draft, 500 to 600 words, not longer. It doesn’t matter how bad it looks to you – as your Author’s Editor, I will give you complete advice, free!

Note: This offer of free Author’s Editor advice is good up to midnight of 31 December 2020.(frankahilario@gmail.com)@517

---

[1]https://yoast.com/using-images-in-your-blog-post/

What Can SCUs Learn From Remote Teaching In Favor Of Their Students? First, They Have To Think!

 

If you are meeting your class online somehow, you are receiving your remuneration but you are wasting everyone’s time, including your own! Chances are, there is no learning at all.

If you are a mentor, teacher, instructor, or tutor in any subject, science or specialty, and you are using textual, visual or video materials, chances are you are unaware that you are not educating people at all – you are either entertaining them when you should not, or you are throwing bits & pieces of knowledge into the brains that you think are bottomless!

Today, Saturday, 12 December 2020, a Facebook post tells me “Remote Learning Isn’t Working[1]” (ANN, Patriotpost.us). ANN says:

Earlier this year, fears over the coronavirus shuttered classrooms across the country as school systems opted for makeshift online learning. At the time, the stopgap measure seemed like the only way to keep our kids both safe and engaged with their schooling.

That’s the US – but it’s true for the Philippines too. So, teachers and students have been forced to teach and learn in front of computers. How good has the learning been? The discovery: “Months later… the evidence now shows many children are failing their online classes.” Actually, the adults are failing too.

ANN says, “Remote education may be fine for some adults, but most kids need to be in schools with their teachers and classmates.” That is, back to the teacher’s direct control: “Do this, do that.” Whether in grade school, high school, or college: Teaching/learning in the classroom is essentially memory work. And that is what teachers are insisting even in online education.

What all teachers need to do is teach how to think.
What all learners need to do is learn how to think!

Since I studied to be a teacher in agriculture, UP Los Baños '65, I’m thinking of the state colleges & universities, SCUs, and how they are teaching their students agriculture. And of course teachers are teaching students like they had been taught:

Class, your assignment on Wednesday is the composition of the soil. We will discuss the details. And – be ready for a quick quiz.

On Wednesday, the class will recite on the nutrients that crops absorb from the soil for growth, and why at a certain point in time, there is a need for some fertilizer to be applied. The professor talks about  a total of 16 essential nutrients that plants need in order to grow well. But he does not explain why there are only a few kinds of commercial fertilizers available: such as supplying only nitrogen, only phosphorus, only potassium, and all of those 3, NPK, called “complete fertilizer.”

Think about it. The lesson does not include how the soil has naturally built up its own composition, and how the nutrients found in it are replenished naturally – or how the farmer may induce the natural replenishment of the richness of that soil. Via “natural farming,” say.

SCUs, think about it. Teaching is teaching how to think!@517

---

[1]https://patriotpost.us/articles/76389-remote-learning-isnt-working-2020-12-11?fbclid=IwAR2u4CDLgQQ3vNyNGiUrjPB1QnLDpcSZstKN7CP_ziMp4TOjbtFp7JlK2rg

SEXY CiA – How To Grow Young Entrepreneurs In Agriculture, A Proposal

The KPAP aims to produce young leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the agriculture and fisheries sector.

Early this month, Friday, 04 December 2020, Justin B Dela Rueda says different PH public institutions formed the Technical Panel for Agriculture, chaired by Prospero E De Vera III (“DA To Harness Youth Potential In Agribusiness[1],”ATI.da.gov.ph). About the same time, the Department of Agriculture, DA, “launched (the) program seen to empower the younger generation (in) agribusiness.” This is the Kabataan sa Pagpapaunlad ng Agrikultura at Pangingisda, K-PAP, Program. K-PAP is ”Youth in the Advancement of Agriculture and Fishery” (my translation). 
(image of young entrepreneurs[2] from Assignmentpoint.com)

K-PAP is a bright idea. Except that giving it a Tagalog name implies that science, or new and improved knowledge, is unimportant! Importantly, the youth entrepreneurship must follow Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” with its 8 paradigms, which are impossible to translate into Tagalog. Besides, we don’t have a knowledge base in Tagalog – where will you get your science? Too, economics does not lend itself to the National Language.
(image of “8 paradigms – Ani at Kita[3]” from Greenoptions.ph)

Now, I’m thinking of my own acronym to put my youth ideas in memorable terms, and here it is!

SEXY CiA.

Science –
This is composed of new or improved knowledge in agriculture and fisheries, to be obtained from the knowledge banks and/or database of state colleges & universities, SCUs, of the country.

Economics –
The youth must be trained to look atobstacles and then around them, and come up with an opportunity or two for new or improved businesses.

eXtra eXtension –
This youth program must be supported by digitally-abled extension people of the DA; SEXY CiA is for field work, advice given in the field, not simply in a classroom.

Youth –
The ages 18-30 are those of the youth[4] (NYC.gov.ph). In or out-of-school, a young one may be included in the SEXY CiA program if s/he shows high intelligence and/or understanding of the SEXY CiA Vision, which was National Hero Jose Rizal’s own vision:

The Youth as Hope of the Fatherland.

Clustering in Agriculture –
From the very beginning of engagement, the youth must be connected to a cluster: farmer association, farmer cooperative, or farm cluster. This is for practical purposes – for the youth to see and learn firsthand what is actually obtaining in the field as well as appreciate and make use of all the assistances that the DA has provided farmer groups so far: cash, food and equipment. The SEXY CiA youth is going to be immersed at once into the new realities of the Filipino world of farming.

Not to be forgotten is that:

Mentors are necessary.

Mentors may come from the private or public sector. Each mentor must have an appropriate sense of engaging in business in agriculture resulting in sustainable returns.

For a start, the DA may tap UP Los Baños as the model implementing institution, and from there develop the SEXY CiA program with regionally important SCUs in mind later.@517

---

[1]https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-main/news/12042020-1453/da-harness-youth-potential-agribusiness

[2]https://www.assignmentpoint.com/business/strategic-management-business/youth-entrepreneurship.html

[3]https://greenoptions.ph/2020/03/14/for-the-youth-you-can-bridge-the-gap/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=for-the-youth-you-can-bridge-the-gap

[4]https://nyc.gov.ph/republic-act-8044/