Obstacles Vs Opportunities To PH Agriculture – Fictionist F Sionil Jose Sees One, Science Writer Frank A Hilario Sees The Other

F Sionil Jose and Frank A Hilario are only 1 town apart in origin, fictionist from Rosales and science writer from Asingan in Eastern Pangasinan. And yet looking at the same scene, one sees a sunset, the other sees a sunrise!

It’s in the perspective. Mr Jose writes, “William Dar And Our Food Insecurity[1],” looking at such as “actually this country’s most serious (problem).”

He equates our failure to produce enough rice for the Filipinos as “food insecurity” – which is incorrect. While we may be the #1 importer of rice in the world, food security means we just have to produce enough income to import the food that we lack.

Thus the new PH Agriculture slogan, “Masaganang Ani at Mataas na Kita” (Bountiful Harvests and Bounteous Income, my translation). Public & private partners are to help Filipino farmers produce rice at the least cost, and sell at the best price.

Mr Jose makes 5 specific points:

1) Our arable land… is about twice that of Japan but we produce less rice than the Japanese.

That is why, my dear Mr Jose, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has come up with his “New Thinking for Agriculture” with 8 converging paradigms designed to bring prosperity to farmers and fishers; and these are:

(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.

We continue with Mr Jose’s list:

2) There is not enough land now to distribute…

The incontrovertible fact is that land ownership has never guaranteed economic use of land. That is why Manong Willie has in his list #4: “Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms.” And the most dramatic proof that farm consolidation favors all participants is the world-renown success of Dalisay Rice in Leyte, of which I have written: “Dalisay Rice Revolution – PH Rice Farmer Leaders Raising Hell, Brave Lady Raising Hopes[2]” (19 November 2019, Ammom, Pilipinas).

3) Farm work is still tedious and the children of farmers leave the farm for more comfortable and financially profitable jobs.

Not anymore Sir, with so many farm tools and equipment, from seeder to combine harvester. Our farmers never had it so good when it comes to technologies & systems that minimize costs and maximize returns!

4) Irrigation: In so many countries in the world farm production improves only with massive irrigation projects.

Sir, where it is available, there is so much wasted irrigation water in the Philippines! And yes, we can raise rice and other crops with hardly any irrigation water at all.

5) And finally, although this is beyond William Dar’s responsibility, the undiminished poverty in the rural areas has been the primary recruiting appeal for the rebel movement.

Exactly why public & private partnerships in the new PH Agriculture are encouraged to work out with farmers good entrepreneurship to receive their just rewards.

The Ultimate Sunrise?
Poverty Emancipation!@517

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[1] https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/03/16/2001207/william-dar-and-our-food-insecurity?fbclid=IwAR2--SICXySM9f_ih23XbE7m6vZUVkoi5JWxJ8uRO90IcSzVIzxlZ2ftkso

[2] https://ammompilipinas.blogspot.com/2019/11/dalisay-rice-revolution-ph-rice-farmer.html

UP System Going Digital Is Asking For The Moon! Ask Me

Today, Saturday, 14 March 2020, on Facebook I read the UP Los Baños, UPLB, memo from the Chancellor’s Office that starting Monday, 16 March, UPLB, including UP Rural High School, will be shifting to online classes. Citing Corollary Community Coronavirus Clampdown Concerning Close Contact Communication. 

Online teaching? Ah, UP, teach yourself first! (Other SCUs likewise.)

This teacher’s prediction:
The Coronavirus Curse is forever changing
the educational scene, thank God!

Where is UP now? I am very disappointed with what I see. Above images: Moon shot by me 08 March 2020, 10 PM: moving target. Lower image from UPLB[1] –

Walang kabuhay-buhay! Still life.

UPLB, your community is only inside the campus?

In this Digital Age? My alma mater UPLB, and the whole UP System:

Actually, the whole PH educational system is notprepared to go digital!

Why? Simple – It has notbeen teaching itself digitally. In UP, teachers and students have been preoccupied with protesting, nationalism – not learning to learn.

Digital is the ultimate lesson!
But you have to learn how it can teach you.

Ask me. I became digital on Innocents’ Day 35 years ago! Not bragging: I could do a one-night-stand all-digital lecture-demo at UP Diliman Sunken Gardens if they ask me, frankahilario@gmail.com.

Nonetheless, what I’m most interested in as a teacher are neither materials nor manners of presentation.

I’m most interested in the process of learning.

I started teaching myself digital when I was already 45 years old – the process of learning is crux.

Remember, Teacher, when going digital, you don’t have the class-roomed attention of your students – remember, they all have cellphones!

So, Teacher, you should be Challenging Learners to Think!

Think Critical thinking, and think Creative thinking. Critical is logical, so you have to follow rules – sequential, numerical, alphabetical, chronological, whatever. Creative is illogical – out of the blue, “a happy thing happening when you’re not looking for it,” intuition, “a little bird told me.” Think. And think again. (I can teach you both.)

There is no excuse for not going digital, especially if you are from UP, the National University of the Philippines. I am UP ’65 with a BSA in Ag Education. I must be a good teacher because I taught myself personal computing. Today, at 79 I blog everyday, thank God; from 2007, I have blogged some 6,000 essays, 7 million words plus.

How to be intelligent about it? Be original: Like, reverse roles – it should be fun – students ask questions to test teacher! Now, teacher will really have to study. Students will study even more because they want to ask the hardest question(s) – and what happens? You have already taught them even before you meet in your class online!

The secret of teaching is learning –
the best way to learn is to teach digital,
with some words, plenty of images.
This is a Facebook hound speaking!

When the learner studies to teach, he learns best. Not only that – he enjoys doing it!

Where did you learn all that? From this teacher
who has been ambidextrously digital since 1985.@517

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[1] https://uplb.edu.ph/all-news/uplb-dti-laguna-open-facility-for-start-ups-small-businesses/

Coronavirus Has Lessons For Medicine – Exact Same Lessons For Agriculture!

Dr Farrah Agustin-Bunch, MD, shares on Facebook her “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Resources” and says[1]: 

As far as Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is concerned, we need to focus on prevention and strengthening our immune systems.

Same as in crops & livestock!
This is a UPLB Agriculturist speaking.

Thus, the USDA unit Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, SARE, says, “Healthy Soils Produce Healthy Crops[2].” Here are 2 knowledge bits from SARE:

By adding cover crops and switching to no-till, Junior Upton drastically improved his habitually compacted soil. Photo by Dan Anderson, University of Illinois

Nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria flourish in healthy soil. Photo by David Nance, USDA ARS

Note that Mr Upton has “cover crops” – plural, meaning the soil in his field is not exposed directly to sunlight. Plus he practices “no-till” – he does not cultivate his soil in any manner, which leaves the soil micro and macro organisms to contribute what they will to enriching the soil with moisture and plant nutrients.

The soil is “healthy” in terms of being able to provide for the nutrient needs of the crops to the fullest extent possible, without chemicals added in any way. “It contains favorable biological, physical and chemical properties.” When you have a soil rich in organic matter like that, your habitually compacted soil is habitually friable now.

As to the nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria as observed by the USDA, they thrive in a healthy soil – and that means plenty of natural N for any crop that needs it when it needs it. Those bacteria are perpetually fixing that nitrogen!

And so, SARE says:

A healthy soil produces healthy crops with minimal amounts of external inputs and few to no adverse ecological effects. It contains favorable biological, physical and chemical properties.

Why does the soil need such organisms as bacteria, fungi, amoebae, paramecia, nematodes, springtails, insects, ants, earthworms and beetles among other creatures of the earth? SARE says they:

(1) Break down litter and recycle nutrients.

(2) Convert atmospheric nitrogen into organic form and then reconvert into inorganic for crops.

(3) Synthesize enzymes, vitamins, hormones and other important substances.

(4) Decompose weed seeds.

(5) Suppress and/or prey on soil-borne plant pathogens and parasitic nematodes – good food!

A soil’s physical condition – its degree of compaction, capacity for water storage and ease of drainage – is also critical to soil and plant health. Good soil tilth promotes rainfall infiltration, thereby reducing runoff and allowing moisture to be stored for later plant use. It also encourages proper root development.

What is usually thought of is that the irrigation canal does both – it carries the water for wetting the field and carries the water for drying the field. Note what is being neglected by aggie professors and farm technicians alike: A good soil serves as storage for water needed and drainage for excess.

Note also that SARE says that a good soil “encourages proper root development.” The root nourishes the shoot – the shoot produces and nourishes the grains.

A good soil is hard to find – you have to cultivate it!@517

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[1] https://www.facebook.com/pg/DrFarrahBunch/posts/?ref=page_internal

[2] https://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Books/Manage-Insects-on-Your-Farm/Text-Version/Managing-Soils-to-Minimize-Crop-Pests/Healthy-Soils-Produce-Healthy-Crops

Binhi Awards For Agricultural Journalism: Relevance To The “New Thinking For Agriculture”

This is the 2020 journalism contest based on 2019 outputs; the title of the Facebook sharing on the Binhi Awards is: 

Excellence In Agriculture Journalism

with the subtitle

The future takes roots
in the binhi of ideas
that you plant today.

The Tagalog “binhi” (Ilocano bin-i) means seeds for sowing.

The 3 Major Categories for the 2019-2020 winners are:

(1)   Agricultural Journalist Of The Year

(2)   Agri Beat Reporter Of The Year

(3)   Environment Journalist Of The Year.

The Minor Categories are 12, including newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, and photojournalism. There are 5 new special categories: SL Agritech Best In Rice Reporting (new), Best Agri Tourism Reporting (new), Young Agri-Vlogger Of The Year (new) – 18 & below, college student; Agri-Vlogger Of The Year (new) – 19 and above; and Best In Agri-Finance Reporting.

At the webpage of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, PAJ – https://www.pajofficial.com/– I cannot find any rules or guidelines for judging the reportage. I don’t know why. The Binhi Awards is itself a prize to me, even after 40+ years, because as Chair of the PAJ committee on awards in 1976, the whole package was my idea, including the name. (Binhi also means germ, the beginning of anything[1].)

Today, Friday The 13^th, March 2020, there is no PAJ webpage dedicated to Binhi, and that tells me 2 things:

One: They have not written some sort of a Bible for Binhi Awards for all those 44 years. No, not that the PAJ members do not care – just that they have no digital hands! In contrast, my essays are all over the Internet, thousandsof them. I graduated with a BSA major in Ag Education, so I must be a good teacher because I taught myself!

Two: Something is missing in the PAJ website about the “New Thinking for Agriculture” with its embedded 8 paradigms to backstop it, all coming from the head of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie outed since he took over the Department of Agriculture, DA, on 05 August 2019. Journalists should be always up-to-date, right?

The deadline for submission of Binhi entries is March 20 – for more relevant judging, it’s not too late to require the authors of any of the entries to declare the following:

(1)  New Thinking: How are they directly relevant to the “New Thinking for Agriculture”?

(2)  The Paradigms: Which one(s) of the 8 paradigms supporting the “New Thinking for Agriculture” is/are directly involved in the story: Modernization? Industrialization? Promotion of exports? Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms? Infrastructure development? Higher budget & investment? Legislative support? Roadmap development? Explain in a sentence or two.

Necessarily, the Binhi Awards Committee should be aware of all of the above so that each of them can criticize each entry and justify their vote: Yes, No, Yes + comments. Why not invite PAJ insiders and outsiders to the committee for their knowledge of the “New Thinking for Agriculture”?

Why? The relevance of aggie journalism should now be to the new PH Agriculture in the leadership and headship of Manong Willie!@517

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[1] https://www.tagalog-dictionary.com/search?word=binhi

Victorias City Forest Park – 3 Radically Different Lessons For PH Agriculture

“Lawyer Converts 40-Hectare Sugarcane Plantation Into Man-Made Forest” – in this almost-5-year old article, our Ramon Magsaysay-award winning journalist friend Zac Sarian is his usual self, telling a success story. Zac tells us:

Did you know that in Victorias City where sugarcane is king, an enterprising lawyer-businessman has transformed a 40-hectare sugarcane plantation into a manmade forest?

The businessman is lawyer Nordy Diploma, 80. In his long 2015 story, which appeared in Agriculture Monthly, which he edits, Zac tells us that in the Nordson Forest Park, Atty Diploma has established (above image I composed from the YouTube presentation[1]) these 3:

(1)   Forest Park

(2)   Gawad Kalinga Village

(3)   Negros Science High School.

Today, as a high school teacher taught at the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, graduating with a BS in Agriculture major in Ag Edu in 1965, and as a creative thinker, I have intuited 3 radically different lessons from Zac’s story, these:

We need a village; we need education, especially science education; and we need a natural environment. Really, we need to learn lessons from these 3 environments:
the environment of a village, evillage;
the environment of science, eScience:
the environment of Mother Nature, eNature.

Absolutely, yes! This is all for the good of PH Agriculture; this is much more than the lopsided inclusive growth model trumpeted by the World Bank – this is the egalitarian inclusive development model broadcast to the world by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when now-PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie was ICRISAT Director General, from 01 January 2000 to 31 December 2014. I am well-acquainted with it, being ICRISAT’s international consulting writer for 8 years, 2007-2014.

As I have pointed out in several essays, inclusive growthgives you Gross Domestic Product, GDP, good for business; inclusive development should give us Gross Domestic Prosperity, GDP², good for all, the prosperity distributed down to those who have less in life, especially the cultivators of the soil.

The lesson of eVillage tells us that it takes a village to nurture a child – all children, even as we have all been children.

The lesson of eScience tells us that we need the wisdom we can derive from experimentations to teach each of us about how to live in harmony with the environment.

And the lesson of eNature tells us that we need the continued blessings of Mother Nature to continue to be blessed by our village and our science.

Now then:

(1)   A hundred success stories are not enough. We need everyfarmer to succeed, every family to thrive in every village!

(2)   We need to teach in high school the science of living in society. We need to live in harmony with everyone and with everything.

(3)   We need to keep the environment in balance, even as we disturb the soil and go growing our crops & livestock.

Keeping in mind the eVillage, eScience, and eNature, I Frank A Hilario wish you the blessings of 2020’s first Friday the 13th!@517

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Native Chickens For Brave Ilocanos To Raise!

Within the “New Thinking for Agriculture” by head of the Department of Agriculture, DA and Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, there are small & big roles for any local government unit, LGU (partnership with local efforts), and any Filipino farmer (such as native chickens to raise). I’ll go with the Ilocano farmer anytime.

I am now in my hometown Asingan in Pangasinan and, together with Chair Roger Daranciang of the Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative, will be talking to Mayor Carlos F Lopez Jr for a Nagkaisa-LGU joint 4.2 ha project. It calls for a partnership that will be the first in Asingan, that covers the whole production-to-marketing value chain with any of the native animal species such as chickens and pigs, for food & tourism. The project will attempt to bring down the costs to the minimum and bring up the returns to the maximum. The goal is not merely poverty reduction but poverty eradication, not poverty amelioration but poverty elimination. This production-to-marketing arrangement borrows from the inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD, model practiced by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when now Manong Willie was still the Director General of ICRISAT. IMOD favors the farmers, not the merchants.

The Family-Friendly Approach, FFA, is my idea. It is a first in PH farming projects. With Nagkaisa, we are seeking sponsorship by the DA. With financial loans from the DA through LandBank, FFA will require interested members to train in the care of native animals and extend easy loans to members, both the husband & wife signing documents to acknowledge the transaction.

A family that works together wins together.

The image above is on page 106 of the book titled Philippine Native Animals that came off the press March 2016, 200 pages, published by the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center, NSPRDC, based in Tiaong, Quezon. (The NSPRDC is a unit of the Bureau of Animal Industry, BAI, which is an agency of the DA.) The authors were Rene Santiago (Chief, NSPRDC), Angel Lambio (UPLB Emeritus Professor) & Karen Dimaranan (Researcher, NSPRDC). I edited & desktop-published the volume. (I took the photo above with my Lumix FZ100 camera; the superimposed head-idea icon is from Iconfinder[1].)

Of our native chickens, Mr Santiago says (page 16): “A study has found … that consumers ‘are willing to pay a premium price for native chicken meat that is recognized for its unique taste and flavor.’ … The supplies of such and other native foods from poultry and livestock are currently quite limited, which presents wide opportunities for investment and entrepreneurship of any scale by Filipinos.

Have you noticed that even in reforestation, we Filipinos use exotic tree species, not the native ones? With Filipino families in their farms raising native animals, we hope to experience what American poet Robert Frost wrote glowingly about in his poem, “The Road Not Taken.” Here are the last 3 lines:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.@517

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[1] https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/1049503/business_entrepreneurship_finance_idea_mind_strategy_icon

UP Los Baños & The Language Of (Popular) Science – For PH Agriculture

 Yes, following the “New Thinking for Agriculture” espoused by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, we need more new & improved technologies. 

You are looking at the cover of the book published by the College of Agriculture & Food Science, CAFS, of UP Los Baños, a copy of which I saw this 03 March 2020 during the 111^th year celebration of the founding of the College of Agriculture, CA, where Manong Willie was keynote speaker.

The book contains more than 200 technologies, with images in full color accompanied by short texts, a total of 114 pages.

As an alumnus of UP Los Baños, I am proud that CA itself has produced so many technologies. Now, as a science writer, I understand that the language is partial to those who understand the scientific jargon – but as a communicator for development, I am disappointed that the text is very limited. Essentially, the text accompanying an image is a caption, not a presentation.

The title and subtitle of the book are forbidding to non-techies:

AGRITECH
The UPLB-CAFS Technologies

This thin full-color book is expensive; I asked how much and the lady said, “P250.” I wanted to buy a copy but she did not have change for my 1K.

Still, I want to help my alma mater. As a self-taught desktop publisher, digital science writer and a dedicated blogger, using mostly my own photographs or images, my better contribution to this effort of extension of the CAFS  is not to buy a copy of the book but to sell to the CAFS the idea that the whole concept of the book needs to be much expanded and made available cheaperin print and online. And yes, the language must be popular, if in English, understandable by at least a senior high school student (later versions in Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano etc.) Then we can be assured of a volume attracting a wide readership – and therefore buyers of technologies. 

The CAFS communication project I have in mind on the technologies needs to produce several user-friendly books to write; I am also thinking of a dedicated website for those 200+ CAFS technologies, the webpages being where anyone with high school English and a cellphone can communicate and download pertinent information and instructions.

The back of the book says:

As this book presents a list and description of technologies developed by UPLB-CAFS, concerned agencies and individuals will be well-equipped in making important decisions as to what technologies must be applied based on the needs of specific end-users.

Unfortunately, I must say no, the book does notpresent adequate information on and not contain enough instructions on the use of the technologies for any decision to be made. Note that the text I quoted above, the one that begins with “IPB Var 13 is an open…”  contains only 71 words!

More data and information must be provided on those 200 technologies. I hope to convince the heads of UPLB on this communication need for the language of science to be that of the people!@517