"I Paint My Dream" – Vincent Van Gogh. What Happens If Someone Steals It?

As Pinoy painter Paul Hilario shares today, Saturday, 29 June 2019, on Facebook:

So a big company, (Dreamer Z), used an old work of mine for an event in Manila last night. I didn't know anything about this until I saw a post by a fellow painter. The image is just projected. Is this copyright infringement?

Above: Paul's original painting is shown on the lower half of the image while the Copycat is shown on the upper half with The Man in the Middle whose face is covered with the image of a heart. So, I ask, where is the heart of the Copycat?

"I dream my painting and I paint my dream," said Vincent van Gogh. Dreamers all, we must paint our own dreams. Paul's dream is extraordinary. Dreamer Z has stolen Paul's dream: Should Paul go to court? These were the first responders on Facebook:

Adam Sparks, Angie Galon Maghuyop, Dave Leprozo Jr, Dennis Mariano, Edsel Africa Latorza, Icoy Mercado, Jayco Valmon, Jonathan Benitez, Luigi Concetti, Mache Belangel-De La Torre, Mark Nas, Neilyn Ona Villa, Sayid Cedicol, Sylvia Roque-Arellano, Tiinz Taruc, and Yoli Catalla all said Yes!

Alex Baluyut said Send them a Bill.

Differently from the creative painters, as a creative writer, I said:

Don't pursue the infringement angle. Instead, congratulate the company, in public/private, for having had the good discernment to use a good old painting of yours!

I meant that as a compliment to Dreamer Z – as well as a lesson in Good Manners & Right Conduct, GMRC. Some people forget GMRC.

Overnight, I have been dreaming of a letter to Dreamer Z and have painted it; here it is:

Dreamer Z:
I must congratulate you on your excellent choice of backdrop material for your Manila event last night. Since you did not acknowledge the source, I would like to inform you that the original image of what you projected was painted by Paul Hilario, my son.

The song "If" by Bread (azlyrics.com) says, "A picture paints a thousand words" – and that's exactly why you chose my son's painting to convey the message of Beauty and Challenge to thousands of people as your target audience. Whatever you were marketing – material, manner, mode, or mood, you did see that the painting alone creates an overwhelming overall impression on people.

Sir, you knew that "beauty is its own excuse for being," so said American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, but Sleepyhead You did not realize that you were using this beauty without the knowledge or consent of the creator.

As far as I can see (pun intended), this is an old work by young Filipino painter Paul Hilario in the manner of older French impressionist Paul Cézanne, or old Dutch post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh.

In your copy of Paul's dream, why are the eyes of The Man hidden by the symbol of The Heart? The message I get is: "Beyond what one's eyes see, one should look with the heart to see the good in the world."

Yours sincerely,

Frank A Hilario.517 

Painting, Photography & Perspectives

Having just written and blogged my essay "Why Higher Food Sufficiency Means Higher Farmer Poverty – William Dar" (27 June 2019, Journalism for Development, blogspot.com), which I share and introduce on Facebook with these words: "Why we pamper rice consumers while we pauperize rice farmers!" it strikes me that our Filipino painters, male and female, have also been pampering painting lovers with their creations and at the same time pauperizing their perspectives – I am referring to both painters and lovers of painting.

I, amateur photographer with a Lumix FZ100 digital camera with an Intelligent Auto, iA, mode, shot the photograph above on 20 January 2019. That iA mode takes care of technical details; I take care of the creative image.

That image is my way of showing that our modern painters, the ones I have seen shared on Facebook, many of them, have been giving us mostly closeups, to use the language of photography – sorry, I did not study painting, although for my amateur photography, I studied a little some world master painters like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. Just a little, like perspective, lighting, shadows.

What you are looking at above looks like a closeup, right? That's the problem with paintings today – they are all closeups. I remember that, if I remember right, the submissions for the "Art In Biodiversity" shown at the art gallery of UPLB Los Baños sponsored by the Asean Center for Biodiversity and featuring 100 artists of different media from different parts of the Philippines – they were all closeups. Like my photograph above, you have a limited view.

As an artist, if amateur, I have the right to present a closeup but I also have the duty to present a larger view, to show relationships. Now then, here is that wide-angle view of my camera:

Yes, your view of the farm – now you can see a farm – is constricted by the fence, but at the same time constructed by the fence that seems to stretch itself for you. That is the magic of the wide-angle lens. It allows you, nay it forces you to take the wider view of things, for your own sake.

Why can't painters paint with a wide-angle pen or paintbrush? In that "Art In Biodiversity" exhibit, there was no "wide-angle painting" at all. I could not see how one species fitted with many more of the other multiple species, only that this species or those few beloved species were very important points (VIPs) as they were, but no relationships shown. Painting or person, you cannot be properly considered a VIP if you cannot relate with others!

Look at my wide-angle photograph again. It reveals what it must, the relationships of the elements with themselves and with the rest of the world in view – without any words or signs appearing anywhere. Painting or photograph must speak of relationships – or it doesn't speak at all.

This is an amateur lover of painting and photography speaking. And yes, when I write, I always take the wide-angle view. This is a creative writer speaking.517

Why Higher Food Sufficiency Means Higher Farmer Poverty – William Dar

That goes against logic, right? That is from William Dar, from his Manila Times column of today (Thursday, 27 June 2019, "The 'New Thinking' For Agriculture," 3rd of 4 parts (manilatimes.net), where he says, "We must learn from India." He speaks from experience – and from the Indian initiative led by the National Institution for Transforming India, NITI.

Mr Dar stayed in India for 15 years, from start of January 2000 to end of December 2014, when he was Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT. I know because I was international consulting writer for ICRISAT from January 2007 to December 2014, when Mr Dar retired.

From a report on the NITI, one lesson from India is this, Mr Dar says:

Despite the success of India in increasing food production by 3.7 times from 1965 to 2015, resulting in a 45-percent increase in food production per person, poverty persists among its farmers.

Indian farmers multiplied India's food by 370%, that is, 1.7 times more than double, but they have yet to double their incomes. Why is that? Double the yield of the farm does not necessarily double the income of the farmer. And so, "Poverty persists among its farmers."

And why is that? Mr Dar says:

The NITI paper said that even with India's success in increasing food production over a 50-year period, it admitted that the "strategy did not explicitly recognize the need to raise farmers' income and did not mention any direct measure to promote farmers' welfare."

The above photograph, which I shot on 15 October 2015 in Los Baños, shows women thronging within a makeshift National Food Authority, NFA, store to buy rice cheaper than the nearby retail market. Farmers increase rice production and NFA decreases rice prices – terrific for rice eaters but terrible for rice farmers! Our government loves the Filipinos – except the farmers! Our government promotes the welfare of our rice consumers, at the expense of our rice farmers.

Mr Dar says that is what the Indian government did:

In essence, the ranks of farmers in India were simply used as the tool to increase food production, which is a paradigm that is blindly or unintentionally implemented in many (developing) countries, including the Philippines.

The Indian data showed that farm families relying "on self-employment (in) agriculture as their main source of income were earning below the poverty line." I must emphasize: These are farmers producing more food for their country and yet earning less than the poverty line for their families! And, Mr Dar says, "This is similar to the Philippine situation based on latest statistics of the Philippine Statistics Authority."

Why must the food welfare of the country come at the expense of the family welfare of the producers of food?

So, Mr Dar says, India has laid out plans that by 2022-2023, Indian farmers will have increased cropping intensity, diversified toward high-value crops, and improved "the system of trading farm products so farmers get fair or real prices for their produce."

It's The System, stupe!517

Organic Matter & Meal: Global Game Changers Vs Climate Change – Ted Mendoza

Manila: Thursday, 20 June 2019, Kisig G Lopez shared this link, more than 3 years old, and yet it is timely as you will see; ANN says, "Bolivia To Be Completely Food Independent In 2020 By Investing In Small Farmers" (Author Not Named, 11 May 2016, CSGlobe, csglobe.com). 

Also that day, UP Los Baños Professor (Retired) Teodoro Mendoza spoke of "Game Changers In Addressing The Scarcity Of The Two Main Drivers Of Agriculture And Food Systems," at the "SEARCA Agriculture & Development Seminar" at SEARCA headquarters. SEARCA is the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Studies in Agriculture based at the UP Los Baños campus. Mr Mendoza says the 2 main drivers are water and energy.

Elsewhere, the World Food Programme, WFP, writes on the "Climate Impacts On Food Security" (wfp.org). Ha. The WFP is looking at only one side of the coin; the other side is that the pursuit of food security impacts on climate.

Mr Mendoza essentially says the more energy you use, the more climate change you produce. The scientists of WFP and Bolivia are still thinking within the old paradigm:

You must multiply food because population multiplies.
The best way to do that is multiply chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

And Mr Mendoza is telling them right now:
You will indeed produce more food – but
you will also indeed produce more greenhouse gases!

I love what Mr Mendoza is prescribing in his SEARCA seminar to combat climate change:

(1) Go organic!

(2) Go vegetarian!

With those, I'm putting words into his mouth, but I assure you it is all healthy – to go organicis the best way to healthy food you can find; to go vegetarian is the best way to go organic.

Combined Problem:OM – The Oil and the Meat are the combined problem. Use of oil gives off GHGs; you need oil to give you chemical inputs to grow the food for animals that give you meat.

Combined Solution: What I call the "Mendoza OMs" - Organic Matter plus Organic Meal. Meal, not meat. Mr Mendoza is prescribing that in agriculture, we think organic from beginning (plant food) to end (human food).

That I know, the best symbol of organic agriculture is the earthworm; whom everyone is acquainted with; that I've seen, the best image is above, owned by SS Vermicompost Industry (ssvermi.com). The earthworm, technically a vermin, produces vermicast, or vermicompost, which is actually its waste matter.

Food is energy. Producing food uses a lot of energy.
Water is necessary for life. Meat is notnecessary for life.

Since the growing of animals for meat and milk products consumes the most energy, by shifting to plant-based fertilizers as food for crops and to plant-based diets for humans, Mr Mendoza says we are saving much energy and lessening GHGs.

Go organic!

Now I say:

Anti-climate change, pro-food production: We have to think better than Bolivia & the World Food Programme. We have to think Philippines: Think Mendoza OMs! The common Bolivian-WFP solution is actually increasing and not decreasing climate change!517

"We Need To Bring In More Active Leadership In PH Agriculture" – William Dar

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol should have been there, but was not. I took this photograph on 24 January 2019 at the opening ceremony of the 8th National Rice Technology Forum at the boundary of Asingan, Pangasinan (host town) and Urdaneta City at exactly 7:44:52 AM. International aggie manager William Dar was there (in pink polo shirt), and so was founding PhilRice Executive Director Santiago R Obien (rightmost). My digital Lumix FZ100 superzoom camera is precise and I have set it up to work automatically, that is, on intelligent auto, iA; leadership must activate itself into iA mode. 

In his latest Manila Times column ("The 'New Thinking' For Agriculture," 2nd of 3 parts, 20 June 2019, Manila Times, manilatimes.net), Mr Dar says new thinking for agriculture begins with leadership:

There is… a need to bring in more active leadership into the agencies involved with the country's agriculture sector and engage the private sector in a big way in setting up more agri-based industries and developing markets for agricultural products.

That Asingan Forum was on hybrid rice as an intelligent choice for farmers from Batanes to Jolo, initially to guarantee high harvests. The private hybrid rice groups participating were: Advanta, Aljay, Bayer, BioRice, Bioseed, Corteva Agriscience, LongPing, PhilSCAT, SeedWorks, SL Agritech Corporation, SRI Pilipinas, and Syngenta.

New thinking for agriculture requires that the Department of Agriculture, DA, engage with the private sector in a big way in setting up more agri-based industries and developing markets for agricultural products. It's not too late, but the leaders in PH agriculture must wake up and join those already in the fields!

And that is only a beginning. Mr Dar says:

And while productivity increase is a major objective, it is equally important to produce more income by value adding, processing, manufacturing and developing markets for both raw and processed agricultural products.

Higher harvest in rice is important; equally important is higher income of farmers. For that, national aggie leaders must see to it that PH agriculture becomes an industry up to and including value-added farm produce and products, and that these are sold locally and internationally. Go out and sell!

Industrializing the country's agriculture sector, however, cannot be done haphazardly and must (produce) a framework or roadmap from the government, with the Department of Agriculture taking the lead in planning and implementation, and converging with other government departments and local government units (LGUs) with private sector playing a more active role.

Where is that Aggie Roadmap? Not heard of any. The leadership must come from the DA, Mr Dar says, working with other government agencies as well as the private sector. Now then, I say, the aggie leaders must show their faces in national events!

It is the government that should generate the "big ideas" with the private sector also pitching in their ideas on how to industrialize the country's agriculture sector.

The PH government must lead in industrializing agriculture and actively encourage the energetic participation of private companies. No excuses for waking up late for a 160-km ride!517

Word 2013 As An App Enjoyed 5 Ways

The image you see above of a Word 2013 file is the cover of the latest coffee-table book I have almost singlehandedly produced, all 214 pages of it, images & texts, 11" by 8.5" landscape. Happily, I must say. And that's much, because in 3 months, I will be 79 years old, thank God!

Microsoft Word is an ubiquitous application, app, today. This Filipino in Manila is enjoy using this app – are you?

The pleasure is mine!. It has been my pleasure for the last 32 years, from Word 1 starting 1987 to Word XP starting 2003 to Word 2013 starting 2012. And I'm all self-taught.

No, I'm not selling the software – I'm selling you self-teaching the soft skills: creative writing, blogging, editing onscreen, desktop publishing (adding digital photography from my Lumix FZ100 superzoom). Like I said, I'm all self-taught. You can teach yourself too if you're not in a hurry.

So! I have been enjoying:

1)  Editing a technical journal into world-class.

2)  Promoting self-taught digital skills.

3)  Blogging for inclusive development.

4)  Pursuing popular knowledge management.

5)  Producing about 17 books.

Actually, with Microsoft Word since 2005, I have written not only hundreds but thousands of articles and blogged them. You can check out 2 of my blogs with long essays of at least 1,000 words each: Creative Thinkering with 900 essays, and A Magazine Called Love with 2,200 essays.

The technical journal was the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, which as Editor in Chief in 2003 I succeeded in 3 years in putting into the international hits list of journals called Web of Science.

The image above is a screen grab from the coffee-table book I produced for the 440 Group of Volunteers of Bay, Laguna; the last draft I have submitted – the final product is theirs to determine as they are the Publisher. I used only Word 2013 to write, edit and do the desktop publishing, DTP, for the book titled The Best Of Ba-i and subtitled Bay, Laguna As Philippine Center Of The Power Of FAITH. (Here, FAITH is an acronym for the 5 major parts of the book: Faith, Arts, Innovation, Technology, History.) The image is a screen capture from my soft copy. You knew this app as solely a word processor – now I must tell you that the screen grab using the same app shows that Word 2013 for DTP is that powerful.

I say, if I can do it, you can do it!

I can demonstrate all that anywhere in a whole-day lecture-demo in a large auditorium – with a giant screen and Internet connection – at your convenience, for any number of participants with their laptops so they can pick up a few tricks from me. I will charge a token of only P3K. Yes, onsite I will demonstrate everything, including writing an original essay of exactly 517 words on a topic based on the news of the day. Now, this is a special offer that only I can give. Email me at frankahilario@gail.com to learn from a Word 2013 genius!517

Our Green Minds To Triumph Over Climate Change Right Where We Are!

As climate changers, we must pay attention beyond rice only, beyond trees only, and beyond vegetables only – we must cover all. I took the above image at 6:24 AM in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, before the 8th National Rice Technology Forum held that day, 20 March 2019 – here is a selfie that is not a selfie!

In the face of climate change, it may not be obvious, but I am challenging the information workers, communicators and news or views contributors public & private in my country the Philippines for their journalism to work for the Inclusive Development of Agriculture in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. "Inclusive development" means you include the poor as active contributors, not simply remember them when you are ready with your alms or, as practiced by the PH government, ready with the 4Ps: Pray Pay Poor People! This is not cultivating people; not cultivating progress.

Actually, I started this call with my essay "Narrow View On Press Freedom – Joel Salud & Jiggy Manicad's. This Is A Journalist Speaking" (30 January 2019, Journalism for Development, blogspot.com). I say there that Mr Salud and Mr Manicad both have a limited view on press freedom; they are talking only of limitations, not expressions of that freedom towards social progress.

Yes, our journalists hardly talk about climate change and then, when they do, only superficially. It is the greatest challenge in our times, and they are largely ignoring it!

No, our journalists are not ignorant people – they just don't care about climate change except to quote a government official, who in turn says it because he is expected to say it. No, there are no concrete plans of the Philippine government to fight climate change. Or, which is the same thing, no program to help our farmers fight climate change.

Now then, if we marry the Sciences of Forestry, Agriculture and Horticulture, we must be engaged in what I call The Greening Revolution – on the mountains, in the fields, and in the gardens, we must have Green Minds.

This is how to marry those 3 sciences to fight climate change – Think Green to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. So, Think Green when you think:

Forestry.
Agriculture.
Horticulture.

Forestry – Protect the forests as much as you can. When replanting for trees, keep bare soil covered with forest vegetation. Agroforestry? Same thing – Think Green!

Agriculture – Keep the ground covered with green: green manure, intercrops. And no plowing! Some 74 years ago, the foolishness of plowing was exposed by Ohio farmer Edward H Faulkner in his book Plowman's Folly published in 1945, where he said, "The fact is that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing" (amazon.com). Instead, rotavate the soil to enrich the brown with green. Think Green!

Horticulture – I can see rows and rows of flowers, vegetables, fruits and trees with bare soils in between. Instead, gardeners should be covering the soil with productive crops – you get your produce, and you get to fight climate change on the winning side. Think Green!517

All Those Mangoes Should Have Been Sold Before They Were Even Produced!

There is a glut, surfeit, superabundance, overstock, over-supply. "Sweet, velvety, soft and scandalously succulent – we have the best mangoes in the world!" Chef & Filipino food advocate Jam Melchor, is trying to help stem the flood of the world's best by putting out a call on Facebook, tagging chefs, restaurateurs and food advocates. 

That is a report by Yvette Tan published in an online magazine, "Help Luzon Mango Farmers By Buying This Season's Bumper Crop" (03? June 2019 Agriculture Monthly, agriculture.com.ph).

Too many market stalls displaying too many mangoes to love (see image above again), too few mango buyers out of love. Miss Yvette writes:

Reports of tons of produce dumped by the side of the road by frustrated farmers who've grown too much but have no access to buyers have been a depressing occurrence in social media.

I guess too many mango growers wanted to make a killing – all at the same time!

So, Miss Yvette writers, chef and Filipino food advocate Jam Melchor, founder of the Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement, put out a distress call on Facebook, urging food industry friends to help our mango farmers by buying, to call the DA main office at (02)925-3795 so they can be linked directly to those mango producers.

Mr Melchor's post also read:

Remember that picture of tons and tons of locally grown tomatoes dumped by farmers in Laguna in a waste dumpsite last year was very troubling. For one, the farmers toiled to grow those tomatoes and now they got nothing for their effort.

His last plea was this:

Let us not wait for the time when our farmers will give up on us. It is time to rethink how each of us can help them, even in small ways.

Buying all those mangoes will help the mango growers sell, but selling is not the problem – managing the production of those mangoes is the problem!

The problem is not the Department of Agriculture, DA, either. The DA already has enough problems with rice to bother with mangoes!

I mean, technically speaking, it's the whole system of postharvest handling up to the marketing of those fruits that needs to be improved.

As a long-time (board) member of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan, I know that a cooperative would be a great help in systematizing the production as well as the marketing of mangoes when in season. The mango growers can agree to allow the coop to market their produce, even before the first flower-inducing spraying is done, via signed contracts with institutional buyers such as supermarkets, hotels & restaurants all over the town and the next ones. The link to the market should be before production, not after – or the traders will take advantage of you!

I blame all of us for this mango tragedy. We have not been teaching our farmers how to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit so they will grow and go after not the highest income but higher & sustainable incomes. Making a killing can kill anyone.517 

The Fastest List In The World!

This repeated list of 5 has been conjured today, Tuesday, 04 June  2019, in a matter of 40 minutes or so. Just the list. Now I'm going to time myself writing a 517-word essay on it. It's 18:00 as I start, the time including the listing, writing, and the editing. Except deciding on the illustrative image, done writing: 18:50. Rereading the entirety for errors: 10 minutes. Total of 1 hour. (image from Stephen Aedy's Online Income Teacher, onlineincometeacher.com)

The Fastest Editor In The World
I have been editing the writings of others, not to mention my own, in the last 44 years, starting when I became Editor in Chief of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, on 16 April 1975. I founded and edited the FORI 3: monthly newsletter Canopy,  quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. That was the experience of a lifetime. I was happy being Editor in Chief of those publications.

The Fastest Science Writer In The World
The speed writing started at FORI, with those publications. Actually, there were no other writers in FORI at that time, so I wrote for those scientists. I asked for their research or trip reports, and I produced a semi-technical writeup based on the materials. I had always been a writer since Grade 5 when I noticed I was writing excellent "Themes."

The Fastest Coffee-Table Book Producer In The World
I didn't plan to be a coffee-table book producer, but Executive Director Jovita Corpuz of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, ACPC, commissioned me to do the book to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of ACPC. Like me, she is an alumnus of UP Los Baños; she must have asked around. The timetable was 2 months. All she asked was, "Can you do it?" I said, "Yes!" And I did it. all 150 pages of it, 8.5" by 11" trim size. About 50% of the book comprised photographs by me from my ACPC trips to parts of Luzon and the Visayas. That was 2012. Total budget: P1 million.

The Fastest Photographer In The World
When I accepted the ACPC job, I already had years and years of amateur photography behind me. I studied my photography, learning from the masters of painting – composition, perspective, shadows. That's why I bought a Lumix FZ100 digital superzoom camera because I did not have to worry about ASA, lighting, focus, and number of shots – shoot with all your might. There are no films to scrimp on anymore!

Learn From The Best Learner In The World
Note that I taught myself editing, creative writing, coffee-table book producing, and photography. Not surprised, because I studied to be a teacher – why couldn't I teach myself?

I.         The Fastest Editor In The World

(1)   Experience – 44 years

(2)   Expertise – word processing 

(3)   Experience – creative writing

(4)   Experience – outlining & organizing

(5)   English master – since high school, mastery of the language

II.      The Fastest Science Writer In The World

(1)   Fastest typist

(2)   Fastest thinker

(3)   Fastest organizer

(4)   Fastest writer

(5)   Fastest rewriter

III.    The Fastest Coffee-Table Book Producer In The World

(1)   Writing

(2)   Editing

(3)   Photography

(4)   Desktop publishing

(5)   Revising

IV.   The Fastest Photographer In The World  

(1)   Buy a digital superzoom camera

(2)   Learn from the master painters (not master photographers)

(3)   Shoot early mornings

(4)   Take unlimited number of shots

(5)   Use an app for drama

V.     Learn From The Best Learner In The World

(1)   English Grade 1

(2)   English grammar – Harry Shefter, Shortcuts To Effective English

(3)   Brainstorming – Edward de Bono & his pO

(4)   Editing – repetitive

(5)   DTP – self-taught, very patient with himself

Sagip Saka Is Poor! SakaYamanan Is Rich! Don't Think Poor: Think Rich

And so I continue to build the case of Alternative Intelligence Journalism, in short, AI Journalism. My AI is not Artificial Intelligence; it is "of, with, for the people " (see my first essay, "The Next Journalism – Applying AI, Alternative Intelligence" (31 May 2019, AI Journalism, blogspot.com). From becoming the Editor in Chief of the Forest Research Institute based in Los Baños, Laguna in 1975, today my journalistic journey has been strewn with thousands upon thousands of essays of an average minimum of 1,000 words each – each one urging the reader to THiNK! 

With today's Congress thinking of Sagip Saka, this time, I say:

Philippine lawmakers think too highly of themselves.  

Rowena B Bundang writes, "Senate Adopts House Version Of Proposed 'Sagip Saka Act'" (01 March 2019, Congress, congress.gov.ph). Sagip Saka "seeks to institute the Farmers & Fisherfolk Enterprise Development Program" that will be under the Department of Agriculture, DA.

Having read the whole story, to this legislative initiative, I say: Both Sagip Saka and Enterprise Development are improvable. I mean, we can improve on them. Yes, Needs Improvement.

If Sagip Saka becomes law, I am not going to blame the DA for failing at enterprise development of farmers and fishers. If you look at the provisions of the Sagip Saka bill, the following initiatives will not result in enterprise development as enumerated (text from Miss Rowena):

The forms of assistance under the program are: 1) improvement of production and productivity, including agricultural extension services, skills development, provision of production inputs, equipment, facilities, and infrastructure for production and post-production activities; 2) improvement of producers' and enterprises' access to financing in the form of credit grants and crop insurance; 3) provision of access to improved technologies through research and development; and 4) provision of business support and development services, particularly in the areas of access to markets, marketing, and networking.

No, my dear senators and representatives of our Congress, (1) plus (2) plus (3) plus (4) will not redound to enterprise development! 

Enterprise development means building entrepreneurship among farmers & fishers – and government is the wrong fellow to teach this. We must get the private sector in!

By the way, "Sagip Saka" means literally "Saving Farming" that which implies a low-level expectation. Now then, instead of Sagip Saka:

I propose "SakaYamanan" that which literally means "Farming To Wealth." You must aim high because, if you aim low, you may hit the bottom. Exactly.

What the farmers need is not simply higher income but income that makes a better family life that is sustainable.

Instead of Sagip Saka, SakaYamanan will embody a government program that will provide the funds from government funds for the private sector to actively assist the farmers and fishers in developing their business skills, from soil to sales.

Enterprise development is incorrect; farmer entrepreneurship is correct. You do not develop the enterprise for the farmer – you help him develop himself into an entrepreneur.

SakaYamanan is dedicated to making farm family entrepreneurs. Yes, it better be family.

SakaYamanan is growing rich while growing food!517