Garden In A Forest, GiaF – Why Not For The New PH Agriculture?

Shared on Facebook is the above image from the article by Michael A Bengwayan, “RP Forestry Weds Science With Indigenous Knowledge – OpEd” (13 January 2020, Eurasia Review^[1]). 

The concept I call it now Garden in a Forest, GiaF. That name is new, but the concept of agroforestryis old, like the story of cacao & trees. Cacaoforest.org says^[2]:

Cocoa agroforests are found in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Theobroma cacao naturally grows in the lower strata of the tropical forest with weak light and high humidity. The presence of shade species in agroforestry systems is thought to filter access to light, ameliorating the microclimate, while storing water and nutrient for the cocoa plant.  

Now, Mr Bengwayan is talking excitedly about an agroforestry place called “Habitat” in mountainous Benguet in northern Philippines, 30 years old. I should know the feeling, because the name “Habitat” is exactly the one I assigned to the quarterly popular magazine of the Forest Research Institute based in Los Baños, Laguna – and my first article in the maiden issue was about agroforestry! Some 40 years ago. I had visited Pastor Delbert Rice in Imugan, Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya, who was helping the mountain tribe Ikalahan in their hillside farming. I saw a series of organic-matter trenches constructed to stop the water from rushing off the hill and eroding the soil.

In his Eurasia Reviewarticle, Mr Bengwayan describes his Habitat:

Situated in this landslide-prone municipality of Benguet in a once-eroded five hectare area, the model called the “Habitat”, showcases a pine tree (Pinus kesiya/insularis) woodlot, nitrogen-fixing tree-based soil and conservation system, native tree and shrub buffer zone that feeds a spring to support 25 families, an Arabica coffee-pineapple agroforestry, and mixed stands of cacao, lanzones, pomelo, santol, mango, lemon and rambutan.

In that 5-ha mountaintop of 18% plus slope grow 3,000 pine trees, other trees, shrubs, bamboo and grass species. Growing below the pine trees are the shrub rono (Miscanthus chinensis, from China), hedges of leguminous trees such as Calliandra calothyrsus (from Mexico), large-leaf Flemingia (Flemingia macrophylla, Taiwan), (Desmodium rensonii, also Mexico), bamboo, giant ferns, Ficus nota, Ficus pseudopalma and non-PH-native Ficus ulmifolia, Pittosporum resineferum as well as rambutan (Indonesia).

Such biodiversity! (But too many pine trees.)

I wonder why Mr Bengwayan is not happily recommending more plantings of coffee, pineapple, cacao, lanzones, pomelo, santol, mango, lemon, and rambutan. There should be more of these to make those 25 families richer in terms of fruit sales to the lowlanders. Then, yes, Habitat can claim to be a “Garden in a Forest,” GiaF – “agroforestry” is such a boring term to use on such a lovely place. Let us have more GiaFs!

And make Habitat even worthier of visits or, at least, personal videos uploaded on YouTube!

Also, note that I noted the origins of those exotic trees, at least 6; caveat: Species introduced into a place always bring foreign pests and diseases.

Indigenous knowledge is essential. Biodiversity is paramount. Biodiversity means you have to learn to love your own!@517

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[1]https://www.eurasiareview.com/13012020-rp-forestry-weds-science-with-indigenous-knowledge-oped/?fbclid=IwAR2za6NwQ9Cr1A08r3aMSlSCXI-tPCc5ksYg73FSygcu1JaQLLhkVjZ024M#.XhvjFDmG1qs.facebook

[2]http://www.cacaoforest.org/news/cocoaagroforestry

SCUs, interACTs, Community Education & The Search For Entrepreneurship In PH Agriculture

Following the policies & pronouncements of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, I have been thinking positively about Philippine state colleges & universities, SCUs/SUCs.

Today, Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020, going through my many piles of books, I arrive at an insight, an extremely exciting educational extra-challenging role of the SCUs/SUCs:

interACTs

interACTs is acronym for Internet-Assisted Agriculture-Based Artistic Communication of Technologies, Tools & Transactions. The word Agriculture actually includes 3: Agronomy (field crops), Animal Husbandry (poultry & livestock), and Horticulture (garden crops). Technologies are the soft knowledge from sciences and actual experiences; tools are hardware; and transactions are credit and marketing.

In interACTs, the common goal for participants, groups or individuals, is sustainable entrepreneurship. Yes, ultimately, technologies, tools and transactions must interact to provide sustainability, characterized by technological feasibility, economic viability, environmental soundness, and social acceptance. That applies to any and all interACTs-supportedenterprises.

The above image is from the cover of the book titled Search For Sh@red Meanings authored by UPLB Professor Rhodelia L Gabriel of the College of Public Affairs & Development, CPAf, and edited by Frank A Hilario, 200 pages, published 2004. As the acronym CPAf intimates to me, community education refers to public affairs & development, meaning, you do not separate public affairs from citizen or village development. Note that I superimposed the word interACTs, to signify that community education must be ultimately for sustainability.

Community education is the call of the times, and digital is the way to go!

In my mind, projects under interACTs are community education programs and projects pushed by SCUs working with local government units, LGUs, in their areas. They can ask for direct financial assistance from the national government, from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, RCEF, c/o the DA, or directly from the DA itself.

LGUs & RCEF: go digital for PH Agriculture!

The SUCs, under the Commission on Higher Education, number 102[1]. They can work wonders with productive agriculture and creative communication.

All digital.

Any enterprise in Program interACTs must be entrepreneurial: technically feasible and economically viable. But it must also be developmental: environmentally sound and socially acceptable, nay desirable.

To start, for communicators in the SUCs, there is no need for printed materials – they can start blogging almost instantly. Age is no excuse, and this 79-year old can inspire and teach them as I visit their campuses.

Community education in what? First, youth entrepreneurship in agriculture, because youth are more receptive to new ideas. Adult or senior business-mindedness next.

Yes, in carrying out interACTs, I recommend that the local multi-purpose cooperatives be directly and solely involved. Virtual classes can then be sponsored by cooperatives of which the learners should be a member. This is putting radio courses for farmers to sleep, where there are nodemonstrations. Digital courses are ideal because everything can be demonstrated by sight, not simply explained to the ears. And a demo can be rerun again and again onscreen, yes.

Additionallly, this is putting the Farmer Field School, FFS, to pasture. Goodbye FFS, nice meeting you!@517

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

How Are PH Media Treating The DA And Secretary William Dar? Poorly!

Our PH media are treating the Department of Agriculture, DA, under Secretary William Dar/Manong Willie exactly as they treat every other source of news: piecemeal – look at my word cloud (thanks! Jason Davies[1]). 

At 0435 hours today, Tuesday, 21 January 2020, loading Google Chrome, I decided to surf for “William Dar” just like that. Here we are:

Onions – 19 Jan 2020, Philippine Star: “Agriculture Secretary William Dar says there was truly a two-month shortfall in local onion production late last year – about 25,000 metric tons.”

Taal damage – 16 hours ago, ABS-CBN News: “Gov’t offers livestock haven as Taal agri damage hits P3.2 billion.”

Fish kill – 16 hours ago, ABS-CBN News: “Taal Lake fish kill ‘starting’ with bangus, agri chief says.”

Vision – 03 Jan 2020, Inquirer.net: “DA 20/20 vision needed in 2020.”

Youth – 10 Jan 2010, Inquirer.net: “Govt allots P2B for youth farm projects.”

Pork – 4 hours ago, Philippine Star: “DA bans pork imports from Indonesia: allows entry of meat.”

Relief goods – 17 Jan 2020, PNA: “(Dar) donates more relief goods to Taal victims.”

Millennials – 17 Jan 2010, Manila Bulletin: “DA entices millennials to go into farming.”

Farming loans – 14 Jan 2020, ABS-CBN News: “Farmers, fishers affected by Taal Volcano eruption to get gov’t…

Rehab plan – 15 Jan 2020, Manila Bulletin: “DA crafts comprehensive rehab plan for farmers, fishers.”

Policy – 03 Jan 2020, PNA: “Dar issues policy framework for agri-industrialization.”

Mutual France – 08 Jan 2020, Philippine Information Agency: “PH, France to strengthen agri trade.”

Du30 assistance – 15 Jan 2020, Philippine Information Agency: “PRRD distributes P160M-wroth of agri-fishery assistance to…”

Plans – 04 Jan 2020, Philippine Information Agency: “Dar issues marching orders for 2020.”

Bullish Mindanao – 3 hours ago, Manila Bulletin: “Bold moves in a bullish Mindanao economy.”

Food production – 13 Jan 2020, Sun Star: “Domoguen: Decades of reflection.”

My “william dar” Google search actually gave me “5,670 results” but I can’t possibly put them all in a 517-essay just listing them as in above.

Observe now: PH media are piecemealing the news – just like they have been doing in the last 100 years!

That is, while Taal Volcano is spewing ashes, private media are minding only their asses.

Why no Rapplernews in my Page One Google search results? It only means Rappler has not seen fit to bother about the DA and mentioning “William Dar.” That tells me Rappler is more detail-minded than your average PH media who are minding places, people, and phenomena singularly, not trying to connect to the national plans that exist!

The government media are more in tune with the DA with Secretary William Dar/Manong Willie than the private media, except Inquirer.net and Manila Bulletin. May they not rest in press!

So, I’m revising American Mr Rogers’ witty saying about kindness, and saying: “There are three ways to ultimate journalists’ success: The first way is to include. The second way is to include. The third way is to include!” They must be always thinking of inclusive development – a mantra that Manong Willie has been embracing since his ICRISAT years, 2000-2014.@517

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[1]https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/

Taal Ashfall Survivors, Color Your World!

Not my photograph, but I shared it on Facebook with this little-big note: “This is the one I said that is very terrifying – and very beautiful.” Not unlike the mushrooms of the atomic bombs that destroyed 2 Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Is Taal Volcano’s eruption PH’s coffee industry little-big atomic bomb?

Now, I dare you to see beauty in the 17 January news written by Melissa Luz Lopez of CNN Philippines: “Coffee Farms In Batangas, Cavite May Take 1.5 Years To Recover From Taal Eruption[1]”! Emphasizing the terrifying.

A pessimistic Rene Tongson, a Director of the Philippine Coffee Board, said coffee growers from Batangas and Cavite stand to lose around 5,000 metric tons of coffee and up to P1.2 billion based on the market price of roasted coffee.

An optimistic Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie said “coffee plantations can still be rejuvenated as branches can still be trimmed to generate new blooms.”

But Mr Tongson just kept seeing: “Taal's heavy ashfall blanketed coffee fields with thick ash just as the plants were beginning to bear flowers and berries.”

There are thousands of people who have volunteered their own kinds of assistances to the human survivors of Taal’s fury, but other than Manong Willie, no one that I have heard has volunteered to help rejuvenate the coffee trees now covered with volcanic ash.

Well, I Ilocano from Asingan, Pangasinan, am volunteering – see the photograph below? Above all the din, George Calvelo, photographer of much-beleaguered ABS-CBN, has come up with a beautiful picture as amidst the gray ash, red-hat, orange-shirt 57-year old cacao grower Koring shows the way out – rinsing ashfall from his coffee plants in Talisay, Batangas[2]: 

See the magic on the left? 

We all have troubles, but this time, it takes a humble, level-headed coffee grower of Talisay to show Batangueños how to think logically!

Emphasizing the beautiful. So, no, it will not take 1.5 years for coffee farms in Batangas and Cavite to recover – only 1.5 weeks to get the green out of the gray again.

Mr Tongson said:

Most of the leaves are actually covered with ashes… the coffee trees... cannot process photosynthesis...

So, Mr Tongson, follow the simple example of Koring!

Did I not say, “Color your world!”? Just wash off the ash and all the colors will show to cheer you up.

We all forgot water.

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea.”
― e.e. cummings

We are in a sea of trouble right now, the water gray, not green, not blue. We are complaining about the water, not doing something about it!

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr Tongson, do not wait for justice to roll down like water – let us do ourselves justice and with our gray matter use water to wash off all the gray matter on those plants. Water out, gray out, green out. Then righteousness will roll down like a mighty stream!@517

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[1]https://www.cnnphilippines.com/business/2020/1/17/Coffee-Batangas-Cavite-recovery-Taal.html?fbclid=IwAR24IKHwlAvWfAFw22COLYldFvDnL2ARji0-iXYdk1wpr2VPOwjn16vahEY

[2]https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/01/14/20/batangas-coffee-industry-takes-a-hit-from-taal-eruption

To Address The Need For Food, Address The Need For The New Thinking For Agriculture!

News from Rapplerby Sofia Tomacruz dated 16 January 2020[1]:

President Rodrigo Duterte has created a task force to address the root causes of hunger and to achieve food security in the country. ¶ Executive Order No 101 signed by Duterte on Friday, January 10, and shared with media Thursday, January (16), seeks to do this by tasking the group to create a "National Food Policy" that will outline the government's priorities and map efforts to achieve zero hunger. The plan will also include initiatives to improve nutrition, achieve food security, and promote sustainable agriculture.

On Facebook, Eufemio Rasco shared this advice: “The task force must start by recognizing that the issue of hunger is a systems issue, not merely production.” And I said, “agree with you 100%, dong!” And Ceferino Maala said, “Yes it is a (systems) issue. Job creation should be addressed (too). People lalo nat mga mahihirap(especially the poor) should have stable and decent income to be able to buy nutritious food. Kung dole out na naman yan na gaya ng 4Ps (if it is dole out just like the 4 Ps), it will fail again.”

You know what? Everything is a systems issue.
Yes, we all need to make a paradigm shift here.

Like me. I was sadly looking at it as a glass half-empty, before I decided to be happily looking at it as a glass half-full. The pessimist loses; the optimist wins!

Here we are going after a national food policy that takes care of:
zero hunger + nutrition + food security + sustainable agriculture.

I say: What an assignment!

The task force will be chaired by a Cabinet Secretary (no name mentioned), with the Social Welfare Secretary as Vice Chairperson. Members are the heads of the following 10 Departments: Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Budget & Management, Education, Environment & Natural Resources, Health, Interior & Local Government, Labor & Employment, Science & Technology, and Trade & Industry; and 3 other bodies: Commission on Higher Education, National Economic & Development Authority, and Presidential Communications Operations Office.

I say: What an august body!
In fact, I see a bigger picture.

Being a member of the interagency task force, as head of the Department of Agriculture, William Dar/Manong Willie can now easily connect and call on any of those government bodies to help implement his “New Thinking for Agriculture” that is embodied in his “Eight Paradigms,” and push mightily towards sustainable agriculture!

He does not say it, but yes, we can certainly say that the new paradigms for the new thinking has one great aim: Sustainable Agriculture!

Now then, I would not be surprised if The National Food Policy that the task force will come up with will be suffused with programs and projects aimed ultimately at? What else: Sustainable Agriculture.

I repeat: Whether they realize it or not, the activities of the task force will ultimately be directed to bring about Sustainable Agriculture. So, we greet you “Happy New Year!” President Duterte, for your EO 101.@517

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[1]https://www.rappler.com/nation/249479-duterte-task-force-address-hunger-food-nutrition

A Thing Of Beauty Is A Joy Forever!

Sadly, this is also: 

A Tale Of Two Crashes

Since August last year, I have been devoting my creative journalism 100% heart in support of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” with its accompanying “Eight Paradigms” to bring about “Masaganang Ani, Mataas na Kita” (Bounteous Harvest, Bountiful Income, my translation) to PH farmers. And why wouldn’t I? I have known Manong Willie since January 2007, when I began officially as international consulting writer for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when Manong Willie was on his 8^thyear as Director General. He stayed on as ICRISAT DG for 15 years, from 2000 to 2014, and ICRISAT published 7 of my books even as I was based in Manila. Those 7 books are mute witnesses as to how he brought ICRISAT from last to first among the 15 international centers of the CGIAR group.

I have been into creative journalism in the last 44 years, armed with the typewriter, where today, I am tooled with the personal computer, with a dual monitor – above image taken 2017 with my Lumix FZ100 digital camera. It’s a beautiful shot, isn’t it?

If I may say so, it is the artificial intelligence, AI, inside the modern personal computer, PC, with the software Microsoft Windowsand Word, that has helped me tremendously in my writing. Of course I have to master Windows and Word.

You can imagine how bad I felt when last week my Windows crashed, fatal to all my files.

Now, let me compare it with the Ukrainian passenger plane crash in Iran that occurred a few days later:

(1) My Windows crash was a system failure; the Ukrainian plane crash was man-made, the plane being shot down by Iranian missiles.

(2) My Windows crash destroyed all my files; the Ukrainian plane crash killed all 176 people aboard, everyone.

(3) None of those human lives can be resuscitated: every single one of my files is intact – I have been faithfully copying files, documents and photographs, into my external Seagate 500-GB hard disk.

I brought my Lenovo to the computer shop and now it’s working again – with a Home edition Windows 10 (not Professional) and Word 2016(not Word 2019). Both software are working, but they cannot match the speed and sophistication of the versions lost on that crash. (And why did I settle for the lower-level editions? NFA, if you know what I mean.)

Nonetheless, my creative journalism continues. I continue to enjoy my visually sexy PC setup.

The above main image of my desktop setup with my 14-inch Lenovo ThinkPad laptop and my 20-inch ViewSonic external monitor is notnew – the laptop is more than 6 years old and the external monitor 4 years old.

I have been writing – and enjoying – my journalism on & for the new PH agriculture. I see beauty amidst the ugliness. I see the promise of a beautiful tomorrow amidst the travails of the present. With the leadership of the best Secretary of Agriculture PH has ever had!@517

“Natural Farming” – Aggie Journalists, We Must Be Careful With The Terms We Use!

Look at the contrasting images: Which one is correct in claiming what is being practiced is “natural farming”?

Top Image:
This one accompanies the Anonymous WWF-Philippinesstory, “Mindanao Farmers Start Off the Year with Natural Farming Systems Technology” published online December 2019[1]. The World Wide Fund, WWF, is a very credible international source of knowledge on conservation, right? Not this time. Very clearly, you can see the white plastic mulch covering the furrows and bare soil in-between them. Mr or Ms Anonymous, the plastic mulch is not natural. The soil notcovered in-between furrows is notnatural. So much soil bare, notnatural, allowing so much naturalwater wasted because it had evaporated from the unprotected, hot soil surface! That is not conservation; that is not natural. The term “natural” is used here very carelessly. Aggie journalists, wake up!

How come I noticed all that immediately when I saw the photograph? Because I learned my organic farming more then 50 years ago, by reading American authors, starting with gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner of Ohio, and I have never abandoned that concept of working with Mother Nature – although I do not use the term “natural farming” for the kind of organic farming that I advocate.

Bottom image:
This is from the article “What is natural farming” in Final Straw, with this caption: “After harvest, a natural rice field farmed with no till methods[2].” No till, no cultivation.

Independently, Mauna Kea Tea says[3]:

Natural Farming is to do nothing…

(The) basis of natural farming is to do nothing. When you are doing nothing, that is nature at work. Doing nothing does not necessarily mean that you do no work at all. It is to remove all the human prejudice from farming and leave it to nature. It almost appears Zen meditation to be one with nature. Natural farming involves NO TILL, NO WEEDING, NO PESTICIDE, NO FERTILIZER.

Natural is as Mother Nature does. No cultivation of any sort, no weeding of any kind, no pesticide of any source, and no fertilizer of any concoction – none, none, none, none!

The concept of organic farming that I have borrowed from Mr Faulkner involves a little cultivation at the very start. He called it trash farming, where you rotavate the field very shallowly only to cut to pieces the vegetable matter on the surface, such as crop refuse and weeds, and mix those organic pieces with the soil that has been cut up in small pieces in the exact same operation. What happens is that you get a surface layer of organic matter mixed with the soil, which immediately begins to degrade into organic food for your crops! You do not need to concoct any form of organic fertilizer at all – that layer is your organic fertilizer concocted naturally. That’s my natural farming.

And yes, I have a brother-in-law, Inso Casasus, in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan who has been successfully practicing my kind of organic farming in the last 50 years!@517

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[1]https://wwf.org.ph/resource-center/story-archives-2019/mindanao-farmers-graduation/?fbclid=IwAR1WqQC318wzRUCNJvbMn5hXaD6jVqDCuqW4bpnG8KvDFjdPdyjQEa2DAZ0

[2]http://www.finalstraw.org/what-is-natural-farming/

[3]https://maunakeatea.com/what-is-natural-farming/