“Thinking Globally, Acting Globally”! PH Agriculture Should Be, As I Put It On The Cover Of My 7th Book Published By ICRISAT – Let Us Ask How? Director General William Dar

“Thinking globally, acting globally.” Succeeding, William Dar needs at least the next 6 years as Secretary of Agriculture to lead us Filipinos from a disagreeable-business to agribusiness desired!

Honestly, we Filipinos need a wide-angled leadership of our agriculture to inspire our farmers and fishers to escape the prison of poverty and explore the outside universe of prosperity. Now then, we must continue with Mr Dar inspiring us to achieve “Masaganang Ani at Mataas na Kita” (“Bountiful Harvests & Bounteous Income” – my translation).

Why Mr Dar as the next PH Secretary of Agriculture? Let me give my forthright thoughts – we need someone with:

1.     international experience as science leader;

2.     100% empathy for poor farmers;

3.     wide-angled, ie, global view of Agriculture;

4.     proven hard work for country, preferably Ilocano;

5.     implements “Science with a human face.”

Allow me to elaborate:

1.   Global Experience As Science Leader

Above, from the cover of my 7^th book on the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) published by ICRISAT – note millionaire Bill Gates (blue shirt) and ICRISAT Director General (DG) William Dar(white). Mr Gates visited ICRISAT on 31 May 2013 after donating $ Millions via Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, funding institutional partnerships in Africa and Asia. I wrote on page 45 of my book:

Bill Gates is not Ambassador of Microsoft Goodwill this time; he is Ambassador of Good Works – he has pledged his billions to the art and science of what he calls “creative capitalism.”

And? Up to today, I say Mr Dar is ambassador of “Creative Agriculture.”

2.   100% Empathy For Poor Farmers

Indeed, he is much acquainted with poverty. Mr Dar came from a poor Ilocano family unable to send him to high school – his uncle did.

3.   Wide-Angled View Of Agriculture

Leading and visiting projects of ICRISAT in Asian and African countries, Mr Dar developed an unusual panoramic view. In photography, a wide-angle lens will capture more than you usually see at a glance, background and foreground – a view for planning & acting.

The cover of my book, the title of which also came from me, also says “ICRISAT & PARTNERS: Thinking Globally, Acting Globally.” Mr Dar knows that – while you act locally, you must think globally again & again. He anticipated that by coming out with his “The New Thinking For Agriculture” (Philippines), bringing it in when he became Secretary of Agriculture 2+ years ago.

4.   Hardworking Ilocano for his country

Mr Dar is one diligent Ilocano – a not-so-public display of that is, retired from ICRISAT as DG, coming back to his country, he founded and became President of The InangLupa Movement – he is dedicated to the good of his Inanglupa(Motherland) Philippines!

5.   implements “Science With A Human Face”

“Science with a human face” was his successful mantra for ICRISAT. Today, as Secretary of Agriculture, Mr Dar is implementing “Science with a human face” dedicated to all Filipinos. Honestly. Faithfully.@517

New Thinking For Agriculture! Double Challenge: To Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) members: “Masaganang Balita At Mataas Na Ani” (Bountiful News & Bounteous Harvests)

Why members of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) have yet to herald their own “Masaganang Ani At Mataas Na Kita” (Bountiful Harvests & Bounteous Income)? Except in the Binhi Awards – and that which I fathered.

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar fathered The New Thinking For Agriculture some 3 years ago before 06 August 2019, the day he was appointed as head of the Department of Agriculture (DA) by outgoing President Rodrigo R Duterte.

What about New Journalism for The New Thinking? I have yet to see many instances of the news & views written by PAJ members on The New Thinking (TNT), which of course is dynamite! For PH Agriculture.

Scary? I have yet to see members of the PAJ active in promoting non-scary science to the farmers.

Public journalism is for the public good. In agriculture, it seems to me the PAJ members have yet to deliver the goods! Via Popular Science.

Let’s review some history of aggie journalism.

ANN says PAJ executive officers led by President Alfredo Gabot (unidentified in above photograph) paid a courtesy call 10 Oct 2019, just 2 months after Mr Dar was appointed Secretary (Author Not Named, undated, “Meeting With PAJ Executive Officers,” da.gov.ph):

PAJ, organized on September 10, 1976, is a group of newsmen and information writers. The association aimed to improve the craft and standards of journalism by yearly launching the “BINHI Agricultural Journalism Awards.”

The PAJ execs in the courtesy visit were Fermin Diaz of LaMB Magazine; Noel Reyes, DA spokesperson and assistant secretary for communications and media affairs; Ma Ruby Lumongsod of Quedancor; Ma Aileen Garcia of IRRI; Inez Magbual of Best Media Source Corp; Thelma Tolentino of Farm Book; Michael Alunan of Business Mirror; and Rolly Gonzalo of DWIZ Radio. Also present were members of the PAJ Board of Directors: Roman Floresca, Johnny Goloyugo, and Melly Tenorio.

ANN says:

During the meeting, Dar called on the PAJ officers to strengthen their partnership with DA particularly in promoting its programs and elevate the quality of reportage in the sector.

Mr Dar’s challenge: “Elevate the quality of reportage in the sector” of Agriculture. Right challenge, right people!

PAJ was organized in 1976 by newsmen (embracing women). I came up with the “Binhi Awards” (name & concept), sowing the seeds of fruitful and vibrant aggie journalism, with financial rewards from the private sector. And Doroy Valencia, bless his soul! sponsored it.

Since August 2019, I have yet to see PAJ executive officers activein promoting Mr Dar’s “New Thinking For Agriculture,” the package of which contains Mr Dar’s – which should be every PAJ members’ – new thinking on environmentally-threatened Philippine agriculture, with “8 paradigms” that are “feeder roots” to The New Thinking Tree.

My guess is that Mr Dar has brought to PH Agriculture the complete science that it needs – and our journalists are not at ease with any part of it. In effect, our journalists are ignoring the once-in-a-lifetime Servant Leadership in Science of Mr Dar!@517

When The New World & The New Beings Met, The Humans Forgot About Being True To Mother Earth, She Who Gave Them Their Genes And Geniuses!

05 June 2022, this year, it is “World Environment Day” with its slogan “OnlyOneEarth.” And to that last thought I now add, “OnlyOneMotherNature.” (We Roman Catholics celebrate it as “Pentecost Sunday,” birthday of our beloved Roman Catholic Church.)

Above, I see plowed soil turned mud piles around an ocean of dark water. Our farmers turn a lusty green field (right) into a lake of water and mud (left) – and nearby UP Los Baños approves, or does not object! This field is actually for growing flower crops, but a ricefield is treated exactly the same in the beginning. I should know – I am a farmer’s son in Asingan, Pangasinan. (Have you seen IRRI’s experimental fields?)
(Images: “Pentecost Sunday” from Facebook sharing of Irma Santos Paulme;
field shot by me 09 Dec 2016 in Laguna)

Now I will mix religion with agriculture. The Catholics believe in miracles, and I Catholic can demonstrate a miracle via the ricefield!

I can grow rice without any fertilizer and outyield my neighbor farmers all the time!

No, I don’t own a farm – but we did; and many years ago, I was with my brother-in-law Enso Casasos, farmhand to my aging father, and I told the operator of the huge Howard tractor with the huge rotavator blades – to simply run that monster over the field setting depth of cut to zero. I was going to turn those weeds into natural fertilizer in a miraculous way:

With my rotavator method, immediately, an earthly miracle happens – that machine-made & machine-distributed layer of trash starts to turn itself into an organic mulch that has all the natural richness crops need!

You cannot find a more-fertile fertilizer than that layer of trash created by that rotavator idly running following man’s instructions!

Enso treasured that Asingan rotavator episode. And so, about 20 years later, when I visited my barrio Sanchez in my hometown, Enso told me in so many words:

Manong, malagipmo ni Papang (my father Dionisio whom Enso also called “Papang” in respect and closeness) ken daydi insurom iti daydi Howard operator ti rotavator idiay Domanpot? Umisisem ti bangbangir! Ket pinadasko. Itatta, dagiti kaarrubak nga mannalon, agsidsiddaawda latta gapu to uray ania ti aramidenda, tuladenda amin nga makitada nga araramidek, apay ket dida maala ti apitko nga nagngato? Maabakda latta agingga ita!

[(My free translation: “Manong (elder brother in Ilocano), do you remember Papang and what you instructed the Howard rotavator in Domanpot? He was smiling on one side of his face! (Me: I told him to set the depth of cut to zero, nil, because I knew that the rotavator set was itself so heavy it will cut into the soil anyway – and so the rotavator was hardly using any diesel fuel to run it!) I tried it myself, and my neighbor farmers have been copying everything I have been doing – but never could match my yield!]

If you follow the laws of Mother Earth, she will grant all your wishes!@517

Teddy Boy Locsin Wrongfully Underrates Blogging As Modern Journalism, While Sara Duterte Rightfully Protests Negative Tweeting – I Blogger State That Digital Media Must Mediate In Favor Of Society!

This blogger says I forgive Teddy Boy for saying, “There is no journalism on social media” as quoted by Job Manahan (04 June 2022, “Locsin On Bloggers: ‘There Is No Journalism On Social Media’,” ABS-CBN News, news.abs-cbn.com).

Not meant as an insult, but an insult nevertheless: “There is no journalism on social media” – Teddy Boy’s 7 words of un-wisdom. As a blogger of some 8,000,000 (8 Million) words today since 2000, I forgive him, as there is no school for bloggers – I learned on my own starting 1997, or 25 years ago.

“There is no journalism on social media” – let’s see how it goes. What is the purpose of journalism? The American Press Institute quotes Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel from their book The Elements Of Journalism (americanpressinstitute.org):

The purpose of journalism is [neither] defined by technology, nor by journalists, [nor] the techniques they employ. [Instead], the principles and purpose of journalism are defined by something more basic: the function news plays in the lives of people.

I now say journalism is both news and views. Modern journalism exists in blogs, vlogs, print & broadcast media. We bloggers rely on texts & inert images while vloggers rely on video. The high purpose of news is to communicate facts; the high function of views is to verify and/or intensify/sanctify news.

Teddy Boy, don’t tell me that only what appears in print media is journalism and blogging is only bragging! Among other things, you are definitely discrediting Trixie Cruz Angeles, the appointed Press Secretary of ascendant President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr, who, Krixia Subingsubing & Nestor Corrales say, want to eagerly admit vloggers into Malacañang press conferences (02 June 2022, “Accrediting Vloggers A Palace Media Priority,” Inquirer.net, newsinfo.inquirer.net).

Here comes ascendant Vice President Sara Duterte castigating Raissa Robles: “Sara Duterte Slams Journalist For ‘Demonization‘ Of Mindanao” (John Eric Mendoza, 05 June 2022, Inquirer.net, newsinfo.inquirer.net). Ms Sara walloped vlogger Ms Raissa for her sad and sadistic tweet on the published plan of ascendant Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco “to open up tourism in Mindanao despite the presence of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the region.” Ms Raissa tweeted:

I’m sure the extremist Abu Sayyaf and other bandits would be pleased by the prospects of so many potential kidnap victims…Way to go, Frasco. Prep yourself for ransom negotiations. ASG might ask you to nego personally.

If that tweet isn’t inane, it’s insane! Sane Ms Sara is fuming mad. Considering, she has been long the Mayor of Davao City, the central city of Mindanao. She found the tweet “replete with journalistic recklessness and irresponsibility.” She also said, “What Robles [said] was a demonization of Mindanao and an insult to its people.”

Indeed, since social media is open to anybody wanting to say something, it is quite a temptation to mock people and think one can get away with it. Shame on you, Raissa Robles! Freedom of the Press is not Freedom to Oppress.@517

My Proposal: Unlimited-Usable Popular-Language Bank For Advancing Agriculture (UPLB for A2) – What You See Right Now Should Be A Portent Of Things To Come!

For many years now, right after the painting-filled gate of UP Los Baños at the foot of Mt Makiling, you can’t miss 2 ultra-large modern digital screens (left shown above) – and all you can say, as an alumnus, is? Wow!

(photo taken by me 08 Sept 2018)

The digital screen says, “October 10. Luncheon Salu-salo and Raffle Cultural Night.” (Salu-salo, party) This was for the celebration of Loyalty Day, the most attended yearly occasion by alumni of UPCA, now UP Los Baños (UPLB). It was the Centennial Loyalty Day. [You know what? In 1967, I wrote the heart-tugging open-letter “What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?” that singlehandedly changed the Target of Loyalty from vague American (WW1) to Filipino patriotism.]

Above, behind the modern screen you see an ancient tree, one large branch chopped off to accommodate (?) that 21^st century screen. To me, the hidden message is this:

While you don’t get rid of the olden,
you must get on with the modern!

Is my alma mater UPLB that modern in Research, Development and Extension (RD&E)? Yes. And No!

UPLB Extension is ancient, as intimated by the Carabao Park (left of image) that to this day displays carabao heads and a man with a plow. With knowledge dating back 100 years, UPLB continues to ignore the Internet as a medium for its Extension works!

UPLB has nothing remotely like the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA), concept proposal for OpAPA forwarded 19 years ago by then-Director General William Dar of India-based ICRISAT, sister to IRRI in the Philippines. Mr Dar is now PH Secretary of Agriculture – while his OpAPA has been lost in time!

I know. PhilRice recruited me as a consultant for OpAPA, and I wrote a digital book I called The Geography Of Science, 198 pages, detailing how the OpAPA dream could be turned into reality; that book is with me still. Today, the digital world of Philippine agriculture is sleeping and I am still dreaming!

With that ultra-modern screen for passersby, you would think UPLB is ultra-modern, and you would be ultra-disappointed!

An alumnus, I am a BSA major in Ag Edu, 2.36 Weighted Average, with a Civil Service Professional license, 80.6%. Towards the end of 1985, about 37 years ago, I began teaching myself digital writing, editing, image manipulation, layouting, up to desktop publishing. The Hilarios connected to the Internet in 1997; I began blogging in 2000.

My blogging is not primarily motivated by personal glory or profit – it is to serve Philippine Agriculture in a thousand ways more than UPLB has been doing!

Via this essay, this alumnus proposes that a digital Unlimited-Usable Popular-Language Bank For Advancing Agriculture(UPLB for A²) be generated for easy use by extensionists and farmers anywhere anytime – library-able via cellphone. Extension is what is missing in PH Agriculture today!

Hopefully with P17 Million funding from the Department of Agriculture (DA) – the DA knows that knowledge must reach the farmers anyhow anytime!@517

Schools, Universities & Colleges (SUCs) – In Playing Your Expected Roles In Research, Development & Extension (RD&E), Where Is Development And Where Is Extension? Agriculture Secretary William Dar Is Asking!

I say, all those state-supported schools. universities & colleges (SUCs) in the Philippines, led by UP Los Baños, which supposed to be innovating by doing research, development and extension (RD&E) in Agriculture, have been doing much R and hardly performing D, much less E!

I present that as the background to keynote address of Secretary of Agriculture William Darat the 25 May 2022 “Inclusive Innovation Conference” sponsored by the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), that the Department of Agriculture(DA), through its agency Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), has been allocating an average of P446 million yearly to SUCs for their “development, technology commercialization, research facilities, and scholarships starting 2017.” ANN says (Author Not Named, 26 May 2022, “DA Invests P2.2B In SUCs For Outputs To Benefit Agri Sector,” Department of Agriculture, DA.gov.ph), specifically Mr Dar said:

We need more output and convincing outcomes arising from these investments. Please keep elevating your game.

Not even the lead among the SUCs, UP Los Baños, has elevated its game. An alumnus of the UP College of Agriculture (UPCA), now UP Los Baños, I should know, as I have been in and out of the Los Baños campus since 1959. I graduated from UPCA in 1965; was employed as Chief Information Officer (not the title) of the Forest Research Institute, based in the UPLB campus. Long before UPCA became UP Los Baños, UPLB has always been brandishing its activities as comprising RD&E. Unfortunately, over the years, up to now, UP Los Baños has been doing mostly Research, Research, Research! Hardly Development, and much less Extension. Likewise, the other SUCs.

Today, I also note that it is only Mr Dar, himself a PhD alumnus in Horticulture of UP Los Baños, who has implicitly castigated UPLB as the leader of the SUCs in failing their roles in D and E. Aside from Instruction, the other SUCs have also been doing Research, Research, Research!

Developmentwould be combing up the results of research – new and/or improved knowledge – and packaging them for Filipino farmers into tips, techniques, tricks, technologies for production, processing and pocketing profits. At the very least, these should be presented in publications, better in websites.

Extension is something else. There is an impending food crisis, Mr Dar says:

You must blaze the trail in never-before breached frontiers of science, innovation, and technology, with the resources at your disposal: your vast tracts of land not just as experimental fields but also as food hubs in themselves.

ANN says, “According to the Secretary, main innovations could lie in the simplest transformations such as the expansion of the SUCs’ roles in the community.”

“Expansion of the SUC’s roles in the community” – I take that to mean in 1 word: Extension. SUCs, if you do not extend your new or improved knowledge even to the community where you are based, you are at best only half-performing your social role. I say, shame on you!@517

DAGDAGs For Extension! Not Only Should DA Be Telling Farmers What To Do, It Should Be Extending, Offering Options Of What Farmers Could Do!

Today, I would like to deal with Agricultural Extension, which has been set aside by the PH Department of Agriculture (DA) after the creation of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI).

All I know is that ATI used to be BAEx – Bureau of Agricultural Extension – extensionists seeing farmers in their farms or homes, advising about techniques & tricks in agriculture. I saw it firsthand – in the early 1960s, my brother Emilio, a graduate of Araneta Institute of Agriculture, was very zealous about extension, especially with a motorcycle assigned to him by BAEx. For instance, I remember him teaching farmers how to plant rice in measured distances, he actually helping string out the field with little white strings tied on to indicate exact places to insert the seedlings. No sloppy work, my brother Emilio. Don’t underestimate Araneta!

Today, what I know is that ATI is all Training, Training, Training – not minding Extension much. But my writing the essay, “‘The Biggest Job In The World Is Getting Bigger” – BASF, Referring To Agriculture. If We Want To Succeed In The Field, PH Needs Billions In Its Budget!” (20 May 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com), reminded me, via a provision of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), that Extensionis necessary and that in fact the RTL provides every year P1 Billion for “Extension and Training.” Note: “Extension and Training” – Extension is first!

Extension is not simple but complex, as the above image shows. There is more.
(Extension image from Slideshare.net)

On its own website ati2.da.gov.ph, in “About ATI,” it says:

Agricultural Training Institute is the capacity builder, knowledge bank and catalyst of the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries extension system.

ATI as “capacity builder” yes – trainer. But “knowledge bank” and “catalyst of the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries extension system” – sorry, not yet!

Not even much-honored and 62-year old International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) is that “extensionable”. The IRRI Knowledge Bank tells you exactlywhat to do. Nyet!

A proper Knowledge Bank gives you options with the sets of knowledge you can withdraw from it. This bank will give you basic knowledge about things, such as what are the:

available hybrid rice varieties & characteristics
sources & how to obtain such varieties
source-prescribed method of planting a hybrid
successful farmers with those varieties
necessary budgets
expected incomes.

A proper Knowledge Bank gives farmers options to choose from: technologies, techniques, tips. If not, don’t call it a “Knowledge Bank” – instead, call it an “Instructions Bank!”

So, here’s my advice for Mr Dar to create an extension program to be called DAGDAGs:

DAGDAGs – Digital Agriculture to Accelerate Acquaintance of Generalizations & Givens for Development-Directed Activities Grounded On & Supported by Science

The basic word DAGDAG is both Tagalog and Ilocano. In Tagalog, dagdag means “extra” while in Ilocano, dagdag means “remind” or “push to follow instructions.”

DAGDAGs would not only add to but greatly multiply the efficiency of necessary extension efforts of the DA – including harnessing the power of the Internet!@517