This Writer Sees, “When Farm Groups Go Up, Up Goes The Nation!” Kadiwa Is A Godsend – Whose Idea Do You Think?

National recovery is a prime concern of the Du30 Administration, and this is visible in the latest joint move of government agencies to generate wealth via production of food from lands and waters, with financial support for farmers and fishers, as well as improvement of tourism economics.

ANN says “DA, NEDA, DTI, Other Gov’t Agencies Join Forces Towards National Recovery” (Author Not Named, 25 Jan 2022, DA.gov.ph):

Looking beyond the global economic slowdown… Philippine government agencies forged an alliance towards recovery and rebuilding the country’s economy under the Task Group on Economic Recovery – National Employment Recovery Strategy (TGER-NERS).

The TGER-NERS virtual press conference was held 18 Jan 2022 with cabinet secretaries Karl Kendrick Chua (National Economic Development Authority), Ramon Lopez (Department of Trade & Industry), and Berna Romulo-Puyat (Department of Tourism) sharing their agencies’ energized economic & employment plans.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar “presented the continuing efforts of the DA in partnership with the local government units (LGUs), private sector, and farmers’ and fisherfolk’s cooperatives and associations (FCAs) in attaining the national food security goals of the Duterte administration.”

I note the DA’s emphasis on cultivating partnerships with other government departments, LGUs, the private sector, and FCAs. Previous heads of the DA failed to see the intrinsic value of partnerships.

Mr Dar cited the DA’s initiative “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita” (“Kindred Spirits in Harvest & Income” – Frank’s translation):

To make food affordable and accessible to the public, and strengthen markets for our farmers and fisherfolk, the DA has implemented nationwide the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita marketing program.

Louise Maureen Simeon says this modern Kadiwa is “a collaborative project of the DA, Department of Interior & Local Government and Food Terminal Inc (15 Sept 2019, “Government Revives Marcos-Era Stores,” PhilStar Global):

The Kadiwa store system was originally introduced by… President Ferdinand Marcos to help bring down the prices of agricultural commodities. It was also implemented by (President Joseph Estrada).

Kadiwa is a marketing lesson from Apo Ferdi. A good idea should never be allowed to die – especially for the common good!

Mr Dar said, “The initiative that directly links farmers with consumers is a win-win strategy, benefitting both food producers and consumers.”

Today’s Kadiwa stores began rolling out March 2020. As of 15 Dec 2021, Kadiwa stores had catered to 1.5 million households with food produced by 38,383 farmers and fishers around the country.

ANN says:

In the remaining months of the Duterte administration, the DA Kadiwa marketing program aims to serve more clients – roughly 3,000 individuals and 100,000 households per month.

I see Kadiwa as an anti-profiteering program to restrain the desires of merchants to extract pounds of flesh from consumers Shylock-like.

The DA through its Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has also extended financial support to small farmers and fishers, as well as the youth engaged in agribusinesses.

With TGER-NERS in full swing, I foresee the Philippine economy will respond with a TIGERGER - Ilocano word that suggests a positive trembling in excitement!@517

Fighting Climate Change: Reinventing Agroforestry Into “Regenerative Agroforestry” – Frank A Hilario, Philippines, 15Jan22

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Yes, we are hopeful when it comes to meeting the challenges of climate change that brings super-typhoons like Odette – we can blunt the winds and absorb the rains by behaving intelligently with our farms and gardens. I am looking at a science I have just reinvented and now call Regenerative Agroforestry (RegenAgro). Growing the soil first, followed by growing food & wood at the same time in the same place. Farm & Forest In One.

Invented pre-1900s, time to reinvent Agroforestry! On this subject, American experts Gary Bentrup and Kate MacFarland, both of the USDA National Agroforestry Center, write (June 2020, FS.usda.gov):

Adapting to climate change requires a comprehensive approach that involves public and private lands. Agroforestry is the intentional mixing of trees and shrubs into crop and animal production systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits. This private land management approach provides opportunities for shared stewardship on agricultural and forested lands, including those adjacent to public lands. Agroforestry allows land managers to integrate productivity and profitability with environmental stewardship that will contribute to healthy and sustainable landscapes.

Mr Bentrup & Ms Kate are telling us that to combat climate change, we need to involve public & private properties with a common approach: agroforestry. We grow trees along with crops and animals in the same location for the good and goods they bring to the surroundings, our residences and business places. They say that thus, agroforestry enables us to “contribute to healthy and sustainable landscapes.”

“Sustainable landscapes” – I want more! Instead of sustainable agroforestry (SustainAgro), we can make farms & fields beyond sustainable via my reinvention: regenerative agroforestry (RegenAgro).

What’s the difference? Sustainable is being technically feasible, economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable – while regenerative goes beyond sustainable, encouraging & supporting regrowths of biological elements: soil, all kinds of plants and organisms that by simply living their lives promote biological growth of other species, from microorganisms (such as viruses & bacteria) to macroorganisms (earthworms). When the invisible and visible creatures grow in farm or field, they renew the soil, and thus begins the revival of the whole area, up to and including the trees.

Anytime, RegenAgro beats SustainAgro! A whole village comes alive!

Contrast:
Agroforestry brings us 2 major items: food and wood.
Agriculture brings us only food.
Forestry brings us only wood.

The above image of “Agroforest” from the USDA is a beautiful combined illustration of the uses and/or values of an agroforest or mini-forest: (a) alley cropping, (b) windbreaks, (c) riparian forest buffers, (d) silvipasture, and (e) forest farming – where “alley cropping” is planting a crop in-between rows of another crop, “riparian” refers to the bank of a stream, and “silvipasture” means “forest” plus “grazing.”

While we await for the whole civilized world to work out as one in curbing climate change, let us practice Regenerative Agroforestry. Let us cultivate in the city and countryside farm-forests for protecting ourselves from typhoons – in the meanwhile enjoying the ambiance and good food showing up in the in-between different crops growing with delight!@517

UP System: The Trouble With Teachers Is That The Learners Know Better!

This is a teacher speaking, an agriculturist, UP '65 (BSA Ag Edu), a Civil Service Professional (80.6%), wide reader, natural-born thinker and self-taught creative writer – I pity grade schoolers, high schoolers and college students who are forced to learn by rote, to memorize without understanding. Happened to me!

“Teaching-Learning” image from Timeshighereducation.com)

I am a farmer’s son; naturally, my favorite people are the farmers, male. Today, how do we teach farmers? Mostly by telling them who, what, where, when, why, how, and how long. We expect them to simply listen and obey. They are half-empty vessels of existence that must be filled up with knowledge.

I am reading a Facebook post by my alma mater UP Los Baños: “ILC Is Now The Center For The Advancement Of Teaching And Learning” (13 Jan 2022, UPLB.edu.ph), that which says:

UP President Danilo L Concepcion approved the proposal of UPLB to pilot the expansion of the mandate of the Interactive Learning Center (ILC) through its reorganization into the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL). This was after the UP President’s Advisory Council (PAC) endorsed for President Concepcion’s approval… the “Pilot Expansion of the Mandate of the UPLB ILC and its Reorganization as the CATL, consolidating the Functions of Various UPLB Committees to Improve Teaching and Learning.” President Concepcion approved this endorsement on 03 Dec 2021.

Googling, this is the first time I learn that UP Diliman itself has an ILC. Now then, from a clear single mandate of “interactive learning” to a double mandate of “teaching and learning” – the UP System has in effect and in fact reinvented education into 2 separate activities:

Teaching on the part of the teacher and
Learning on the part of the student –
2 distinct, separate activities.
With the UPLB ILC becoming the CATL, the UP System has reinvented education. This teacher now ask: Is that good or bad for the Philippine Educational System? After all, UP is the National University System.

As a mere citizen, I cannot disapprove of this seemingly-simple-but-actually-complicated educational move by my alma mater UP, but I do not approve of it either! To separate the teaching from the learning is to separate the teacher from the learner, no ifs and buts.

As a UP-taught teacher and a self-taught creative thinker, I have come to realize that, as the title of my essay puts it, “The Trouble With Teachers Is That The Learners Know Better!” The teachers teach by rote; the learners learn by understanding – and the teachers have never learned from the learners how to teach!

“Advancement Of Teaching And Learning.” UP wants to advance the use of digital tools in teaching, which is good, but UP is separating the use of digital tools in learning, which is bad!

UP Diliman: Above, the superimposed image I got from the ILC Diliman Facebook post is “Inc” as it is, but the words are clear about what they are trying to display: “Upgrade to Interactive.”

UPLB: “Forget Interactive.”

FAH: “What is the UP System trying to prove!?”@517

In PH Agriculture As Elsewhere, We Need Badly A Paradigm Shift From Grey To Green!

“Innovation is the hobgoblin of little minds” – to sharpen an old saw by Ralph Waldo Emerson. That is why I love it that Manila Times columnist Fermin Adriano has written: “Agricultural development, even at the very beginning of mankind, only occurs whenever innovation is introduced” (13 Jan 2022, “Agriculture And Technology,” Manilatimes.net).

Emerson has been one of my American favorite writers-philosophers. Status quo is preferred by people to something new and different. From Mr Adriano’s standpoint, I will carry innovation farther & further in the matter of Climate Change, our planet’s persistent perturbing phenomenon.

While above image illustrates “Issues with Pixel Editor/Zooming” (Esri.com ), I see it as a graphic & dramatic shout to stop global warming: Change the grey to green!

Already, I was a Global Cooling warrior writer several months before Al Gore & the Inter-Governmental Panel for Climate Change co-won the Nobel Peace Prize 2007, especially since I began to appreciate the differing roles of “Adaptation” and “Mitigation.” In my 14-year old essay, “The Yankee Dawdle. On Discovery Sorghum, The Great Climate Crop,” 04 February 2007, iCRiSAT Watch), at the very least I pointed out a necessary Paradigm Shift:

Paradigm: Science with a human face.
Shift: From grey to green.

More than less, Mr Adriano is calling for more innovation in PH Agriculture, which happens to be under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, a known international science innovator since his 15-year success being Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). In fact, from Mr Dar’s ICRISAT slogan comes that paradigm above: “Science with a human face.”

Even more so now, I believe we need that paradigm shift; as Mr Adriano quotes from University of Minnesota professors Yujiro Hayami and Vernon Ruttan, who co-authored the paper "Induced Innovation In Agricultural Development" at the University Minnesota, USA, with these 2 theses:

One is that agricultural development, even at the very beginning of mankind, only occurs whenever innovation is introduced.

Two, if the state invests in the appropriate technology to improve agricultural productivity, then the agricultural development process in the country will be accelerated.

The innovation I want adopted & adapted in all Philippines is regenerative agriculture – for this, I brainchilded just last year, 2021, the blog RegINA Queen Mother Earth.

A cultivated soil is grey; a regenerated soil is green. To regenerate agriculture, we must regenerate as much as possible the growing conditions when open lands are left to fend for themselves naturally.

With my RegINA, I hope to convince more & more people, Filipinos and foreigners alike, to change their conventional or inorganic agriculture to Regenerative Agriculture. This one is at least getting popular, as shown in being shortened to regenagri by foreign farmers such as Agri-Tech Centres from the UK, and regen ag by Regen Ag Book Club from the US.

I did not know it then but today, yes, regenerative agriculture is the paradigm shift I was calling for 14 years ago to be the international induced innovation: “From grey to green!”@517

Digital PH – Finance Dept Urging Digital For LGUs, Why Not ATI Travelling The Information Superhighway?

ANN says Secretary of Finance Carlos G Dominguez says, “We have seen the future and it’s fully electronic” (Author Not Named, 14 Dec 2021, ”Dominguez To LGUs: Boost Revenue Generation Through Digitalization,” DoF.gov.ph). He is minding mining the wealth of data discovered, discussed & displayed:

(Secretary) Dominguez has called on local government units (LGUs) to adopt digital technologies in tax administration and their other business processes in order for them to build their revenue generation and mobilization capabilities under the new normal…

He is saying LGUs can generate much more financing for themselves via electronic means. When they are willing and ready to learn, the DoF will gladly assist them:

(He) assured local executives that the Department of Finance… and its attached agency – the Bureau of Local Government Finance… – are prepared to support their respective LGUs in modernizing and professionalizing the local treasury and assessment service, and in helping them with their digital transition initiatives.

I’ll drink to that! my favorite Nescafé Brown. I am a work from home extension man except in name, starting last year engaged in what I have conceived as communication for village development 2021 (CoViD21) – and Mr Dominguez has set me thinking about the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) under new Director Rosana P Mula, ATI being an agency under the Department of Agriculture (DA), which is headed by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar.

Training via ATI has always been radio-based, and now with the information superhighway, knowledge can travel lightning fast. I want to revive Mr Dar’s 2004 Philippine Knowledge Bank proposal when still Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); he called his brainchild “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA).” I was an OpAPA consultant, and that is how I found out. ICRISAT is very much alive but, let me put it this way, “OpAPA perished along the information highway itself!”

Now then, let me entice Ms Mula with this thought: With knowledge available anytime on the Internet, knowledge will show incredible power to anyone who taps it and uses it for good, better, best.

Today we can reinvent OpAPA as “ATIn Ito” or “ATI Information Network In Trade Options,” learning materials in crops, livestock & industry available via the Internet, pointing out opportunities and obstacles, inputs to outputs, processes & products, costs & returns.

To explain, below is my brainchild “CoViD21_Information_Highway” scrambled list of crops A to Z, with search results highlighted by different text colors – this is also a convenient analogy in itself of the Knowledge Bank:

garlicavocadobananawaterlilycabbagecarrotcassavamangochayotechicocorncitrusverbenacoconutcoffeecowpeatobaccodurianeggplantgrapejackfruitindigosoybeanzinniajutekapokabacalanzoneslimabeannutmegonionpechayyampotatopomelocacaoquininerambutansantolstrawberryhorseradishsweetpotatotamarindricecaimitotomatomangosteenumbrellapinexiguafig

Searched & automatically unscrambled, among other things, ATIn Ito shows you which crop/s to grow in location/s under which circumstance/s. ATIn Ito is a DA open library to provide information on those crops and their planting, cultivation, irrigation, fertilization, harvesting, postharvest handling, storage, processing products, marketing etc. (The original idea-book I wrote for OpAPA can be a starting point.)

Its website says ATI today is “more committed to (bringing) you extension services beyond boundaries.” Today I add: “Digital is perfect!”@517

Young Harry Osboken, Igorot – “Winning Isn’t Everything, But Wanting To Win Is”

2017, failed. 2018, “PanLok Sweets,” failed; “Dalikan Food Terminal,” also failed. 2020, “Dalikan Restaurant,” failed. 2021, “Dalikan Food Terminal,” failed. Harry Osboken failed again and again – but he never gave up. He never got fed up with his foods!

“Dalikan” is Igorot/Ilocano for “stove” or “fireplace.” Where there’s fire, find fine food! ANN says “Igorot Entrepreneur Won 1st Nat’l Kabataang Agribiz, Received Half Million Grant” (Author Not Named, 11 Jan 2022, WowCordillera.com). That’s Harry. With Dalikan, finally Harry has stopped being a loser and begun being a winner. To win, you have to believe in yourself.

Perhaps, Harry learned from famous Vince Lombardi, who coached the Green Bay Packers to 7 American football league championships, who said, “A winner never quits, a quitter never wins.” He also said, “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” Well, Harry never stopped wanting to win – and he won the 6^th time as #1!

Above photo was taken during the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) National Summit and Awarding ceremony; from left to right are Harry Osboken (YFC National Awardee), Ramon Yedra (Director of AMAS), and Shawnie Dale Bitso (YFC Regional Awardee). AMAS is the Agribusiness & Marketing Assistance Service of the Department of Agriculture (DA). AMAS is the sponsor of Kabataang Agribiz (youth in agribusiness), where Harry won. According to the PH Youth-Building Act (1994), youth is aged 15-30 years.

Harry said during the awarding in Calasiao, Pangasinan:

I’d like to thank DA for this wonderful opportunity. From the highlands, we (the youth) seek opportunities in agriculture. We are very grateful for the chance given to us to develop our business and to be able to express our ideas.

AMAS was launched in April 2021. ANN says the DA’s Kabataang Agribiz program “aims to encourage the younger generation to put up ventures in line with agricultural development and food production.”

Why choose Calasiao as venue for the Kabataang Agribiz national awards? No explanation is given, but here’s something interesting: The word “Calasiao” (Pangasinense) means "a place where lightning frequently occurs” (Pangasinan.gov.ph). The Agribiz awards were for sparks of genius from the youth proven productive. Although incidentally, inspirationally Calasiao was a perfect venue. In nature, National Geographic says, “Lightning Makes Mushrooms Multiply” (10 April 2010, Nationalgeographic.com). Sparks of inspiration bring fulfilment.

ANN says Harry was also given an additional P300,000 grant. Now I add it all up: He received P50,000 as provincial winner; in the next stage of the competition, as regional winner he received P150,000. Therefore, Harry has so far received from AMAS a total of P500,000, or half a million pesos. Bonanza! He said in Calasiao, “We thank you hugely (my free translation) for giving us the chance to be able to develop our business and to be able to express our ideas.”

The source of funds is the Grant Assistance Program (GAP) of the DA’s Kabataang Agribiz. I see that this is the HUGE GAP that fills a HUGE NEED! In the Philippines, it has happened only in the time of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar.@517

Surprise: Young Ilocos Norte Gov MJ Marcos Manotoc Knows Good Governance, Minds Farmers’ Agribusiness!

Agdayawak kenni Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Joseph Marcos Manotoc ta matarusanna iti salun-at ti daga. I give honor to young Manotoc for understanding soil health. More, I much appreciate that he knows the business of agriculture!

Above image shows him addressing the “10-Ha Hybrid Rice Model Farm Harvest Festival Cum Techno Forum” 04 March 2020 at Laoag City (06-03-2020, Leilani G Adriano, “Ilocos Norte Rice Farmers Urged To Diversify Crops,” PNA.gov.ph). He is urging farmers “to shift to (other) high-value crops (HVC) and engage in agribusiness to increase productivity.” This was when 34 farmer-cooperators harvested a high average 8.6t/ha at the rice model farm sponsored by hybrid rice companies.

Mr Manotoc’s message: High yield of hybrid rice is good – the returns from other HVCs make it much better!

Also from Laoag City, Ms Leilanie says (10-01-2022, “Ilocos Norte Sets P6-M to Improve Soil Health,” PNA.gov.ph):

The province… earmarked PHP6 million for the purchase of organic fertilizers and soil conditioners to help farmers restore soil health conditions and ensure a good quality harvest. Ma Theresa Bacnat, Officer-In-Charge of the Provincial Agriculture Office… said improving soil fertility is among the achievements of the agriculture sector under (Gov Manotoc).

As an agriculturist (UP '65) and in the last 21 years a wide-ranging roamer of the Internet for subjects to blog, I say a provincial governor appreciating soil fertility enough to allot P6,000,000 public funds for organic fertilizers tells me Mr Manotoc truly cares about agriculture that enriches soils and farmers naturally!

About healthy soils, Ms Adriano says:

While the province remains one of the top producers of palay and garlic, among others, Manotoc said farmers can have a better chance to earn more if they have a healthy and productive farm lot while minimizing the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides in the long run.

In Ilocos Norte, long live organic farming!

Mr Manotoc is competitive when it comes to Ilocos Norte’s farmers and their rice produce.

“We are not producing enough relative to the land (size),” (Mr Manotoc) said, underscoring the need to assist more farmers to acquire farm machinery, improve soil fertility, and undertake clustering for the mass production of other high-value crops.

I especially note: (1) acquiring farm machinery, (2) improving soil fertility, and (3) farm clustering for growing other HVCs. Mr Manotoc has imbibed the mantra of “OneDA” serving millions of farmers, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, head of the Department of Agriculture (DA) with its attached agencies.

Under the Ilocos Norte government’s soil restoration program, the agriculture office continues to advocate good agricultural practices… Instead of burning farm wastes, farmers are encouraged to collect these and let them decay (into) humus. Humus is known to improve soil structure and drainage as it holds moisture and provides nutrients to the soil.

On his part, Gov MJ Marcos Manotoc is providing rich natural nutrients to the impoverished soil of provincial governance in the Philippines! Although from another province, Pangasinan, as an Ilocano with my grandfather’s La Union origins, I am “Ilocano Proud.”@517