Top image shows Denmark’s Ambassador to PH Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin; World Bank
Country Director for Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand Ndiame Diop; Central Bank Senior Asst
Gov Iluminada Sicat, and Ben Kritz, columnist of The Manila Times, at the Times-sponsored
economic forum 28 Feb 2023, Manila.
The country's
medium-term potential growth remained close to 6.5 percent, [IMF Resident
Representative Ragnar] Gudmundsson said, reflecting dividends
from recent structural reforms. An improvement in foreign investments, continued
reforms and productivity gains could raise this closer to government targets.
From IMF, Ms Nina says there is more optimistic outlook:
Gross domestic product
(GDP) growth averaged 7.6 percent last year, exceeding the government's 6.5- to
7.5-percent target, due to strong consumer spending, employment gains, and a
continued economic reopening.
As a UP Los Baños alumnus,
BSA major in Ag Edu (1965) and an Internet hound, I have no doubt at all about
what those economic experts are saying, and predicting, and as a Filipino I welcome
their positive GDP prognoses – but I as an agriculturist & a teacher am very
much more interested in directly helping improve farmers’ incomes and resolve
the climate’s outcomes – Farmer Poverty and Climate Change –
my double-focus since Al Gore won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. (And no, those economic experts from Denmark,
World Bank, the Philippines’ own Central Bank, and the columnist of Manila
Times “talked business” – but not the farming business that is suffering from the
ravages of Climate Change, and innocent-looking Chemical Agriculture.
Here is encouraging news for me, from Mindanao. ANN says, “Zambo
Sibugay Guv Palma Wants Farmers To Say Bye To Chemical Fertilizers” (Author Not
Named, 19 Oct 2016, Politiko Visayas, visayas.politics.com.ph).
The lower image comes from this source – we are looking at the source of the biggest
problem of them: Chemical Agriculture!
All those chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides happily being “circulated”
by farmers (lower image) are killing the pests but at the same time are actually
wrecking havoc on the economy in 2 ways – popular agriculture is making farmers
poor and citizens wretched by way of super this and super that: droughts,
floods, landslides, typhoons – all these reducing farm produce and farmers’
incomes. Chemical agriculture is at the same time expensive and generates
greenhouse gases that generate Climate Change.
Thus:
Collectively, the farmers themselves are generating their own problems!
As Zambo Zibugay Governor Wilter
Palma tells us, we must kiss goodbye chemical agriculture and kiss
welcome organic farming. I see his EO 1011-09-05-16-009 on organic farming “will
make the local agricultural products free from toxic substances” – and farmers
richer.
We
Filipinos need more provincial governors like Wilter Palma!@517
