PH Hybrid Rice Companies – Challenge For You To Fund A Central Luzon Techno Demo With FAH As Project Leader Using His “Hybrid Rotavator”

Attention PH hybrid rice companies – from Asingan, Pangasinan, I Frank A Hilario challenge you to jointly finance a techno demo with a reprogrammed PhilRice rotavator in 7 Central Luzon provinces: Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales (plus Pangasinan, my home province). With an off-the-shelf rotavator operated with my strict instructions, based on experience, I promise you: Zero Fertilizers, Very High Yields!

(Images: Top, sign of 8^th National Rice Technology Forum held in Asingan-Urdaneta 2019, my photograph; bottom, from PhilRice, philrice.gov.ph)

Unbelievable! Yes, that is why I am asking for a techno demo, to convince all the doubters, unbelievers. I will now call my challenge:

Hybrids Zero-8
(That is, hybrid rice plus hybrid rotavator plus zero fertilizer equals 8 tons/ha harvest.)

As of now, it’s unbelievable! I tell you: “Think Organic Agriculture (OA); think Regenerative Agriculture (RA) – I should say, Regenerative, Remunerative Agriculture(2RA). Via trash farming.

15 years ago, in 2007 I first wrote about “Hybrid Rice” – see my essay “A Different Internet: Values For Sale” (23 April 2007, Frank A Hilario, blogspot.com). And in that same year, as a WFH for ICRISAT, I first wrote about the “Rotavator” or “Rotary Tiller” (10 June 2007, “Isabela Principle 2: In Rain, Don’t Look At The Water!” iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com).

Yes, my favorite single topic is the rotavator. Here are a few essays I blogged on the matter over the years:

2013 Dec 14 (“Organic Fools? The Myth Of Dr Henry I Miller Of Stanford University” (Frank A Hilario, blogspot.com)

2014 June 12 (“USAID In STRIDE. Does Your Innovation Speak The Farmer's Language?” Nagkaisa*, blogspot.com)

2016 March 31 (“Ilala & Cotabato’s Drought Of A Thousand Days,” Frank A Hilario, blogspot.com)

2018 March 26 (“Organic Farming & The Lesson Of The Rotavator: How To Feed The World,” Organic Country, blogspot.com)

2018 June 29 (“William Dar, Disruptive Technology & The Amancio Tourist Farm You Haven't Noticed,” A Magazine Called Love, blogspot.com)

2019 Oct 03 (“Appreciating Organic Farming,” Agriculture Magazine, agriculture.com.ph)

2021 Jan 21 (“PH Horticulturist Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar Pays Attention To The Soil First, Not Crop,” Communication for Development, blogspot.com)

2022 Jan 17 (“Transforming Ifugao Rice Terraces Into Food & Wood Wonders – I Wonder How?” Primate Change, blogspot.com)

2022 Aug 18 (“‘For The Farmers, My Dreams Are Simple’ – President Ferdinand ‘BBM’ Marcos Jr: ‘Sustainable Livelihood, Food Security And Affordable Food For All’” EarthMinds, blogspot.com)

2022 Nov 01 (“BBM’s Dream Of P20/Kg Rice – To Help Make That Dream Come True Almost Immediately, Somebody Fund Me As I Re/Invent A Mechanically Intelligent ‘Masaganang Sakahang Kabalikat’ Rotavator (‘MSK Rotavator’)” EarthMinds, blogspot.com).

Now, back to my challenge: PH hybrid rice companies, fund my proposed techno demo of Hybrids Zero-8 – I “adjust” the rotavator to create all over the field an automatic organic mulch(organic fertilizer), harvest 8 tons minimum. For project funding, P1 million should be enough, for 8 techno demos in 8 provinces, at P125,000 each.

Afterwards, the hybrid rice returns will be in the millions!@517

 

My Missions ImPossible – Collecting & Communicating Knowledge Bits & Pieces In Anti-Farmer Poverty And Anti-Climate Change Agriculture, Then Digitally Extending The Same To People

In my country the Philippines, looking at Agriculture, I have long seen that there is a confusion of minds on the relationships among & between Instruction, Research & Extension.

Thus, UP Los Baños (UPLB) has 5 Vice Chancellors: Academic Affairs, Community Affairs, Student Affairs, Instruction, and Administration(UP Los Baños, uplb.edu.ph). But I don’t understand why there is also “Research And Extension Services” as well as “Research, Development, Extension” (ovcre.uplb.edu.ph).

In confusion, there is no strength!

Today, Friday, 16 Dec 2022 (Manila), I decided to pack in my decades-long blogging into 2 definite knowledge suitcases: “EarthMinds” and “The Editor In Chief.” The first blog has this “EarthMinds’ Mission: Digital Collection of Knowledge for anti-farmer-poverty & anti-climate-change Modern Agriculture. The second blog has this “The Editor In Chief’s Mission: Digital Extension of Knowledge in anti-farmer-poverty & anti-climate-change Modern Agriculture.”

“Clarity precedes success” – Robin Sharma.
(“Minds” from minds.org.sg), “Earth” from 123rf.com)

Actually, UPLB is not conducting when it should be conducting Extension. There is its College of Development Communication (DevCom), and should be the one engaged in communication for development – Extension – but DevCom is not into Extension. Unfortunately.

Wake up, UP Los Baños “Minds”!

And what about me who is only 1 person – how can I conduct extension services? Good question.

In 2003 if I remember right, Filipino Director General William Dar of ICRISAT based in India submitted to the agriculture science community a proposal he called Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture(OpAPA). It called for the creation of a “Knowledge Bank” as basis for extending explainable/explained scientific data & information to farmers and organizations. I was hired as a consultant, and I wrote & produced a digital 198-page “creation book” that I titled “The Geography Of Knowledge” (TGoK) – you have to travel the road if you want to learn.

Today, I can say that “The Geography Of Knowledge” is my 19-year old contribution to the world’s Agricultural Extension. Without a Knowledge Bank, there is much confusion.

Essentially, the concept of the Knowledge Bank that I advocated for OpAPA via TGoK is like this:

If I search for specific instruction, I would get it.

If I did not know what is to expect, such as if I wanted to learn more about hybrid rice, I would open the TGoK website and simply type “hybrid rice” (with or without the double quotes), and when I press Enter, the screen would show me images and/or icons – with or without words – and when I click on an image/icon, I am shown different images of rice with their hybrid names; when I click on an image, I am shown other images, such as Seeds, Seed Plots, Transplanting… I am on my way to learning!

The Knowledge Bank assumes that I do not know anything except, for instance, the name of a crop and I want to learn more about it. I do not have to know any technical terms beforehand in order to learn from TGoK.

Am I communicating?@517

 

How PH Agriculture Can Cultivate Business-Minded Farmers – Thinking Super Coops

Yesterday, after I uploaded my essay “Enterprising Awards – In The Spirit Of Jose Rizal, We Need New Media Heroes For PH Agriculture![1]” (19 June 2020, THiNK Journalism), I realized that what I was asking the aggie journalists to do was impossible!

I was asking them to write about Small But Enterprising Farmers. That was an impossible task – no farmers in the Philippines as yet is minding his own business! (image “Mind Your Farm Business” from Real Agriculture[2])

What we have in journalistic articles in aggie media online and on print are mostly well-to-do farmers who of course succeeded in growing their farming business. They are not typical of poor farmers. What I was thinking of were small farmers who made big because they learned their entrepreneurial lessons. The problem is that right now, there are no trainings or classes to teach the small farmers to think big and handle their finances from cultivating to marketing and earn what is due them as producers of food.

What happens is that farmers borrow from usurers to pay for their seeds, fertilizers, farm chemicals, and some other perceived needs. They also borrow money during the lean months, of course at usurious rates, which they have to pay come harvest time – with the price of rice dictated by the merchant, who happens to be the one whom they owe their loan(s).

What to do? I am thinking that for farmers to rise from poverty to prosperity, we need to:

(1) Build Super Coops. These will provide everything that the member farmers need, from loans to inputs to machinery to marketing services.

(2) Train farmer entrepreneurs. Farmers must begin to think rich. Aside from serving the needs of the member farmers, Super Coops will train them to think like businessmen do – always considering costs & returns. For instance, if you borrow from a usurer, at the very beginning you are a loser.

And that is a job for Superman!

Actually, it’s a job for Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie. That is to say, he now has to think more of cultivating thinking farmers in his push for “The New Thinking For Agriculture.”

To produce those ideal farmers described above, I am thinking of 2 to 3 model multi-purpose coops, Super Coops, built in each of the 17 regions of the Philippines. The PH government, through the DA and public banks, as well as private partners, will help each of the Super Coops to acquire liquid assets as well as tools, machines, equipment, and warehouses for storage of harvests before and during marketing. That would require billions of pesos, but:

We have to invest big in our farmers for them to learn to invest big in themselves!

The farmer members will be trained in new or improved technologies and systems for cultivation, planting and/or transplanting, fertilization, pest management, harvesting, postharvest handling including drying, warehousing, and marketing.

Our small farmers will now have to be trained to mind their own (farm) business, a strange thought to each of them!@517

 

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[1]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/enterprising-awards-in-spirit-of-jose.html

[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=sYhV8pMqeJg

Rigoberto Tiglao Loves “Truth Journalism.” I Blogger Love “THiNK! Journalism.” Think About That!

The likes of Rigoberto Tiglao of The Manila Times are journalists. Who else? On the 30 Nov 2022 issue of that daily, the title of his piece is categorical: “Bloggers Are Not Journalists” (manilatimes.net). I blogger ask: “Does Mr Tiglao have reason and right to declare that negative?”
(“Blog” from deskera.com)

Mr Tiglao opens his column with these words:

BLOGGERS, even prolific ones whom one Red propagandist calls, rather stupidly, "citizen journalists," are not journalists. They are a new creature disseminating ideas and information solely in cyber space, a creature of the digital age. Period.

Mr Tiglao’s positive view is limited to print media, I'm positive about that!

I am a blogger, if self-taught. I started blogging in 2000; since then, I have blogged an unbelievable 9 million wordstotal, mostly about agriculture: policy, science & practice. Also communication.

In 2011, the UPLB Alumni Association recognized my achievement as “Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing.” The basis was my incessant blogging even while I did not take up journalism or any related course. And yes, in both writing and blogging, I am self-taught.

Now then, based on authentic experience, I have the creativity & credibility to defend blogging as journalism.

About credibility, I learned Mr Tiglao has had several awards for his journalism. Here is a list from Wikipedia(en.wikipedia.org): “Best News Reporter” 1983 (Catholic Mass Media Awards); “Best Economic Journalist for Asia” 1983 (Mitsubishi Foundation); “The Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines for Print Journalism” 1992 (Philippine Jaycees). And: from 1988 to 1989, he was a Nieman Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. In 2002, he became a Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at Kyoto University. For all that, I salute him.

Mr Tiglao is a graduate of the Ateneo De Manila and University of the Philippines: Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, his personal website says (RigobertoTiglao, rigobertotiglao.com). Nothing said about journalism. I therefore conclude that he became a journalist in practice.

So, why cannot Mr Tiglao recognize a blogger as a journalist in practice?

Whatever. I do believe as a journalist, Mr Tiglao subscribes to what I call “Truth Journalism,” the popular kind which I'm sorry to say cannot pass The Rotary 4-Way Test:

1.     Is it the TRUTH?

2.     Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3.     Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4.     Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

As a blogger, what I do practice is what I call “THiNK! Journalism,” which runs like this:

True? If True, is it
Helpful? If Helpful, is it
Inspiring? If Inspiring, is it
Necessary? If Necessary, is it
Kind?
THiNK!

Yes, Rappler’s Maria Ressa co-won with a Russian journalist the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize– but she is always in danger of being incarcerated or something because of her brand of journalism that Mr Tiglao shares.

If bloggers too practice Truth Journalism, they are playing a dangerous game. Why don’t they practice instead, and why don’t you Mr Tiglao – THiNK! Journalism?

THINK some more, Mr Tiglao!@517

 

Philippine Journal Of Crop Science – Remember 2003-2008? Remember Me? Frank A Hilario, The Wunderkind Digital Editor In Chief?

I'm sorry my country’s technical journal Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS) is late by 4 issues. The latest issue is April 2021 (vol 46 no 1) as of 12 Dec 2022. Which means the journal is late by 5 issues: Aug 2021, Dec 2021, April 2022, Aug 2022 – and Dec 2022. This is sad news to me, Crop Science Society of the Philippines (CSSP), the journal’s old publisher. Remember me? This is your 2003-2008 PJCS Wunderkind Editor In Chief speaking.

According to the website Philippine Journal of Crop Science (philippjcropsci.com), the PJCS is now co-published by the Federation of Crop Science Societies of the Philippines (FCSSP). CSSP and FCSSP: You have not been watching over the progress of your journal?

This UP Los Baños-based technical journal became very dear to my mind and heart when in 2003 the CSSP leadership was looking for an extraordinary Editor In Chief because the PJCS had long been late in coming out with its issues; at that time, the journal was 3 years late, no 2001 issues yet!

I applied, knowing that with my rich expertise in working with MS Office editing up to desktop publishing (DTP) – that is, formatting words, paragraphs, columns, sections & pages; layouting tables, figures & images, etc, to produce digital pages – this one-man band was equal to the challenge. With prior knowledge of the outlines, contents and expectations of technical papers published, for PJCS, I was the lone editorial cum DTP expert. I'm telling you, this is what happened.

I started with the issue of April 2001 (very important note: the year was 2003). To cut the story short, with me working as a one-man band digital editor and desktop publisher (the person), I made the journal up-to-date in 2006, that is, from 2003 to 2006, working double-time, I produced & got published the following issues:

2003, 6 issues published: April 2001, August 2001, December 2001; and
April 2002, August 2002, December 2002

2004, 6 issues published: April 2003, August 2003, December 2003; and
April 2004, August 2004, December 2004

2005, 3 issues published: April 2005, August 2005, December 2005.

With international-quality editing and the issues now up-to-date, the PJCS applied to be included in the prestigious international list called “ISI” (now “Web of Science”)

Cutting the story short: Single-handedly with the personal computer desktop setup of the CSSP, room courtesy of PhilRice Los Baños, I made the PJCS from being late 3 years to up-to-date in 3 years, meaning my digital expertise helped me work double time – and I not only made it up-to-date but made it included in the ISI list, already listed in January 2007.

I was already 63 years old when I started my combined digital editorial & desktop publishing work with that technical journal. Digital victory!

In this Digital Age, there is no reason for your technical publication to be late when it comes out only 3 times a year! Want high-quality editing too? Hire a one-man band wunderkind Editor In Chief!@517

 

The Editor In Chief – All Digital, At Your Service

Looking for an editor for your technical manuscript? You came to the right place!

May I introduce myself, a full-blooded Ilocano farmer’s son: who learned to adore the English language when he was in high school in 1953; who graduated from UPCA, now UP Los Baños, in 1965 with a BSA major in Ag Edu, and the year before passed the Civil Service Professional for teachers; who taught himself digital writing and editing starting Innocents Day 1985 – who believes he must have been a good teacher because he continued to teach himself & graduated to digital desktop publishing (DTP) and has since digitally edited countless theses, journals and books (some his own).

I am a one-of-a-kind editor. I googled for “PC Editor” and the images above are from Clipart Library (clipart-library.com), which has a collection of 46 “Editor Cliparts” showing only 3 people with a PC – 7%, indicating that 93% of editors in the world are still working with typed or printed pages and very few editors are working in the digital world. (Image above: Me, 73 years old, in 2013.)

Noting the above, I am probably the only PC-based editor of technical manuscripts in the world, from draft to final edit before final printing for submission of the manuscript.

I started learning how to use the desktop PC on 28 December 1985, when I also started editing my own works. From then on, no stopping me.

I passed the very first Civil Service exam in 1964 with a 80.6% grade. I must have been an excellent teacher because I taught myself my digital skills, up to and including desktop publishing magazines, journals, and books – completely from draft upon draft up to the point of producing a portable document format (pdf), the pdf file being the one to bring to the printing press (now print-on-demand) for producing submission, distribution or commercial copies.

Repeat: I have been a very good teacher teaching myself my digital skills – and to think that I graduated from college 10 years before the friends Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniakinvented the personal computer in 1975!

Here’s what I do: I edit the technical manuscript completely at first. Then I edit again, the second time. Then I edit again, the third time. Then I send you the “finished product”. I charge you once while I edit many times, charging no extra fee.

Technical editing is a time-consuming process – I am a very patient man when it comes to writing and editing.

I am The Editor In Chief you may not have encountered and ready to serve, digitally. Try me: You send me a complete digital draft copy of your manuscript (thesis or paper) and I will give you editorial comments – free! (PM me for my email.)

As Editor In Chief, I have (1) Mastery of English, American idiom; (2) Mastery of the major parts of a technical manuscript; (3) Mastery of MS Word for editing & formatting & layouting images & tables – I have much experience and more patience in editing over and over again!@517

 

Is Manila Bulletin The Only PH Media Aware Of Its Responsibility As Far As Climate Change Is Concerned? Asking For A Friend!

The top image is accompanied by Manila Bulletin (MB) with this text: “Webb telescope reveals deepest infrared image of early universe.” (uploaded 11 July 2022). MB is enamored with “deep space” – I ask, what about the world we live in, the hundreds of cities, thousands of villages, and millions of farms?

MB columnist Sonny Coloma is happy to report that that media is not only climate-change aware but is doing some things concrete to help combat Climate Change. He refers to it as the ESG Framework – Environmental, Social & Governance (24 Nov 2022, “ESG: Walking The Talk On Ensuring Sustainability,” Manila Bulletin, mb.com.ph). Mr Coloma’s says:

…  Manila Bulletin is conducting its first Sustainability Forum that focuses on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework that has been adopted by many corporations.

ESG is not lip service to MB:

Last month, we revived our face-to-face Sketchfest involving children, youth and budding professional artists in Davao, Cebu and Metro Manila with the theme, “Saving the Earth.” The images they produced impel us to reflect:

Are we are sufficiently aware of the breadth and depth of the sustainability challenge – or as former US Vice President Al Gore cautioned the world nearly two decades ago, are we still looking away at an inconvenient truth?

MB is focusing on Sustainability as response to Climate Change: “The work of attaining – and ensuring – sustainability goes on 24/7; even as we pause.”

I go beyond Sustainability to Regenerativity (my coinage). My research tells me that one of major reasons, if not the major reason that greenhouse gases (GHGs) “continue to rise unchecked” is the continued application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

And so I journalist in agriculture challenge all of Manila Bulletin to junk “Truth Journalism” and instead engage in what I call “THiNK! Journalism.” (See my 24 Oct 2017 essay “THiNK! Journalism: Calling For Nobler Kinds Of People In Media” (Creative Thinkering, blogspot.com).

What MB needs to do is find out for itself how, and how much GHGs Chemical Agriculture is contributing. Our farmers are our Climate Change enemies themselves!

Mr Coloma says, “We do our part in sustaining the environment.” Thank you, Sir, but you have to do more than “sustain” – you have to help “prevent” the further contribution of GHGs at least from agriculture. After all, MB is the publisher of the monthly Agriculture Magazine (Agrimag), now 25 years old (Oct 2022).

Happy! Today, Saturday, 26 Nov 2022, I find Agrimag publishing “Fighting Climate Change Through Agriculture” (24 Nov 2022):

According to Martin Lemoine, Head of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Private Sector Agribusiness Unit, methane from farm animals and nitrous oxide from fertilizers are the two main agricultural GHG emissions. However, there are already interventions, such as modified animal feeds, alternate irrigation practices, specialty fertilizers, and the use of biochar as a soil additive that can reduce emissions.

The article is not original; its source is ADB (adb.org) – but I'm glad because it shows Agrimag has woken up!@517