Searca & PH DA For Cultivating “Transfarmers” 2021

In the above image I copied from the Facebook sharing of Searca Director Glenn B Gregorio, he is inspiring any and all of us: “Let’s get smarter; let’s go digital agriculture!” The lower image is titled by its source “Digital Agriculture” – is it?

(lower image[1] from Wallpaper Access)

Mr Gregorio was the keynote speaker in the virtual launching of AgriEX, its common project with APPGeese, a start-up company based in Pasig, Philippines, to design a first-ever digital platform in the provinces of Laguna and Quezon (“Searca, APPGeese, Inc. ink MoA To Develop A Pilot Digital Agriculture Platform In The Philippines,” Nathan P Felix, 08 October 2020, Searca.org). The AgriEX Virtual Launch, with the theme “Magtanim Ay ‘Di Biro” (Planting Is Not Fun) was held on 19 February 2021 via Zoom and Facebook Live.

AgriEX is a farmgate-to-fork digital project, meaning it will help Laguna and Quezon farmers sell their produce using the Internet. I love it that Mr Gregorio refers to the target farmer with a new name – transfarmer – emphasizing the deliberate choice of becoming a different kind of farmer.

In the case of the PH Department of Agriculture (DA), the necessary assistance to farmers is much, much more. The DA news release of 05 September 2020, “DA To Strengthen Family Farms, Promote Digital Agriculture[2],” says Secretary of Agriculture William Dar said during the first-ever virtual meeting of the 35th FAO Asia Pacific Regional Conference held 1-4 September 2020:

It is important that we continuously empower vulnerable groups — smallholder farmers, fisherfolk, rural women, the youth, indigenous communities, and farm families, in general – by providing them the needed technical, marketing and financial (supports), amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Let us particularly note the 3 types of assistances Mr Dar enumerates that are needed by farms: 
(1) technical, (2) marketing and (3) financial supports.

AgriEX is solely marketing, and that’s quite alright – marketing assistance is necessary especially now that government controls movements of people and produce.

As an alumnus of UP Los Baños, I’m more interested in the technical support that digital agriculture can provide farmers and fishers. The thing is that whether we advise farmers digitally or not, we tell them exactly what to do. We really treat farmers as robots.

If you look at the lower image above again, it shows many fields planted to many different kinds of crops. We do not teach farmers anything like that. Multiple cropping should also be packaged as among the contents of digital agriculture.

In summary, this is what I think the Knowledge Bank of Digital Agriculture should contain:

Opportunities, Options, & Obstacles in Agriculture.

Here’s talking mostly of the technical part of the knowledge bank of digital agriculture:

What are the Opportunities – including markets?
What Options does the farmer have with, for instance, rice? What else can he do?
What are the Obstacles to his crop and/or livestock labors?

We must make more knowledge available digitally if we want Philippine agriculture to be the best tomorrow via the transfarmers of today.@517

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[1]https://wallpaperaccess.com/digital-agriculture

[2]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-to-strengthen-family-farms-promote-digital-agri/

Filipino Farmers Don’t Give Credit To Credit – What’s The ACPC For?

This is both a Glad and Sad Story. Glad: The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has maintained its ISO 9001:2015 QMS Certification[1] as of October 2020. Sad: Many a poor Filipino farmer remains the loser in the credit card game played in the villages.

Well, farmers don’t realize it as credit – they just know it’s Fast Cash, no questions asked, no collateral, no waiting in line. We call it “Five-Six” – it’s really a “Borrow Now Pay Later Plan” – borrow 5 pay 6, 20% interest within 100 days, even within 24 hours. Fast cash for the borrower, fat cash for the lender. Aren’t both happy?!

Isn’t that a failure of credit consciousness in the Philippines? Isn’t that a failure of an agency to promote credit worthiness in both borrowers and lenders?

No, not so fast! Because, right now, there is no single public agency tasked to promote the use and demote the abuse of farm credit in the Philippines. The nearest body I can think of is the ACPC, but my googling tells me I’m wrong.

A little bit but necessary history: The ACPC was created in 1986 by Executive Order (EO) 113 signed by President Corazon C Aquino on 24 December 1986. Via EO 113, according to its website[2], the ACPC was mandated:

To assist the Department of Agriculture (DA) in synchronizing all credit policies and programs in support of the latter’s priority programs. It was also tasked to review and evaluate the economic soundness of all on-going and proposed agricultural credit programs, whether for domestic or foreign funding, prior to approval. Also, ACPC was tasked to undertake measures to increase its funds base and adopt other liquidity interest stabilization and risk cover mechanisms for its various financing programs.

The ACPC is mandated to: “Synchronize all credit policies and programs.” “Review and evaluate the economic soundness of credit programs.” “Increase its funds base and adopt risk cover mechanisms for its financing programs.”

Nothing said about the ACPC officially acting on non-formal credit that farmers almost always turn to, to their dis/advantage.

The ACPC became an attached agency of the DA via EO 116 in 1987: “To support priority DA programs; to review & evaluate credit programs for funding; to increase funding for various programs.” No, nothing said about helping farmers with their dis/credit relationships with moneylenders. I wonder why.

I believe the lack of a specific law is to be blamed for the continued and widespread presence of usury in the farming villages. Convenience remains the enemy of poor farmers.

In the meantime, we can only urge the ACPC to do institutionally more to promote its role in carrying out its functions expanded by Republic Act (RA) 7607, the Magna Carta of Small Farmers, to: “(1) conduct institutional capacity building programs and (3) to develop special projects to promote innovative financing schemes for small farmers.” RA 7607 did not address credit ignorance and abuse.

I believe we need a PH law passed addressing the widespread Five-Six loan arrangements, with the ACPC taking charge.@517

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[1]https://acpc.gov.ph/acpc-maintains-its-iso-90012015-qms-certification/

[2]https://acpc.gov.ph/about/#:~:text=Agricultural%20Credit%20Policy%20Council%20(ACPC,of%20the%20latter's%20priority%20programs.

8 Credit Programs Of ACPC Show Filipino Farmers Are Bankable!

Above is the front cover of a coffee-table book published by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) titled The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable. The inset logos show that the ACPC is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA). The inset text says:

With credit, the ACPC looks forward to the day millions of poor farmers and fishers, along with their households, have become as resilient as the bamboo, that is, pliant, sturdy, resistant to stress, can withstand harsh weather, and thrives even on infertile grounds.

Yes, the ACPC now knows our farmers are “Bankable!” – given the ACPC’s financial assistance andsupervision to individuals and groups. That is the lesson I personally learned in my field trips and subsequently singlehandedly digitally producing the above ACPC coffee-table book subtitled Celebrating 25 Years Of The ACPC. (I myself celebrated when that book came out.)

Late January in 2012, Executive Director of the ACPC Jovita Corpuz, from out of the blue picked me to produce a coffee-table book to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of ACPC on the coming 25 April, about 3 months away. Gathering her staff, she asked me pointblank, “Can you do it?” I said, “Yes Ma’am!”

(I did, a self-taught Digital One-Man Band: writing, editing, taking photographs, layouting, and desktop publishing – digital results 144 pages. 500 copies printed.)

For necessary photographs, with Allen Ducusin, an ACPC senior staff, I personally visited several projects showing success with the assistance of the ACPC, from Ilocos Norte to Nueva Ecija to Bulacan to Dumaguete City (travelled by car to near Mt Canlaon, 150 km away).

Some projects I took photographs of in place: “ACPC-Tobacco-Rice Contract Growing System” in Ilocos Sur; “Cooperative Bank Agri Lending Program” in Pamplona; “Oil-fired Palay Drier” in Villaverde, Nueva Vizcaya; “ACPC Agri-Microfinance Program” in Binangonan, Rizal – the ACPC helping small borrowers manage the risks of their enterprise. I bought a new Lumix FZ100 superzoom all-digital camera for this project. As a result of that photographic journey, all book pages had images in full color, half of the shots mine.

In summary: Under supervision of the DA, the ACPC is in charge of the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit & Financing Program (AMCFP), which is the umbrella of 8 programs (alphabetically listed):

1, Agri Microfinance Program
2, Cooperative Agri Lending Program
3, Cooperative Banks Agri Lending Program
4, Direct Market Linkage Development Program
5, Rural Household Business Financing
6, Sikat-Saka Program
7, Special Agricultural Financing Window
8, Upland Southern Mindanao Credit And Institution Building Program.

The AMCFP partners of the ACPC are the LandBank, which addresses financial requirements in agriculture; DBP, which addresses funding needs of businesses and economic sectors; and People’s Credit & Finance Corp, which addresses microcredit needs of disadvantaged people.

A good baseball team, the ACPC has all the bases covered!@517

How About PH DA Setting Up Satellite-Based Internet In The Countryside?

If the Internet were cheaper, faster and available even in remote areas in the Philippines, with knowledge-conscious Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, it would be as easy as ABC husbanding Agriculture to many thriving industries. Millions of Filipino farmers & fishers would be informed and rise from poverty. Asa ka pa! Hope for more!

Those dreams of empires may not be long in coming. Above, 2^ndDistrict of Albay Representative Joey Salceda is the principal author of the bill “Satellite Internet Liberalization Act” approved Wednesday, 24 February 2021, by the House Committee on Information & Communication Technology (Filane Mikee Cervantes, “House Panel Approves Satellite Liberalization Bill,” PNA). “A House of Representatives’ panel on Wednesday approved a (proposed) measure allowing small-town Internet service providers, schools, and civic organizations to use the country’s satellite orbital to provide internet service to the countryside.”
(top image[1] from FilipinoHotTopics.com, lower image my photograph)

In such a case, no one can stop a small town from becoming Big Town!

Internet, Agriculture. You have questions on:
crop adaptability?
cropping season?
entrepreneurship?
fertilizers?
fishing laws?
loans?
machineries?
markets?
pesticides?
prevailing prices?
raw materials?
seeds?
technologies?
weather?
(The-ask-me-anything knowledge bank.)

Conversations, documentations, questions & answers could now be lightning fast. Lecturers or technicians need not be at the location to provide expert and on-time advice and/or instructions. Businesses will grow!

Mr Salceda says the Philippines’ “months of lockdown due to the pandemic have steered the nation into the digital economy, demanding that telecommunications companies improve their Internet services.”

Now, he says:

The new jobs are digital. We will need new jobs as we recover from the coronavirus disease. We will not get those jobs without faster internet, so this is a matter of national emergency,

Mr Salceda notes that, in a recent study by Tufts University in Massachusetts and Mastercard Inc, the Philippines is running behind regional competitors Indonesia and Vietnam.

The internet is the lifeblood of the new economy. If you do not have fast Internet, you're as good as finished in the global competition. If we (have) bigger ambitions for our country, we need faster Internet.

Mr Salceda is also the principal author of the House proposal “Faster Internet Services Act” that will encourage more competition in telecommunications – for faster and better services.

The Philippines is ahead in terms of user experience. This country has some of the world’s best designers. In fact, the index ranks us 10th on that score, but the country’s infrastructure and regulations have to catch up.

Personally, the Internet is in my blood now. I started travelling the information highway some 23 years ago. I began blogging in 2005 and, for many years now, I have stood as the world’s most creative writer nonfiction online, having blogged at least 5,000 long essays at least 1,000 words each.

Today, at 80, I am a work-from-home (WFH) Ilocano at ease with American English, earning frankly more than I have ever experienced since I graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1965. Thank God for WFH via the Internet!@517

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[1]https://filipinohottopics.com/rep-salceda-inumungkahi-na-gamitin-ang-satellite-technology-para-mapalakas-ang-internet-connection-sa-mga-malalayong-lugar/

Learning From People Power 1986, Leaning To Science Power 2021!

I did not go during the first days of the 1986 show of force called EDSA People Power Revolution. A million bodies gathered at points along Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue (EDSA) after Jaime Cardinal Sin via Radio Veritas called for people to show up in support of the rebel leaders, Vice Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, who were already holed up at Camp Aguinaldo after declaring their withdrawal of support of President Ferdinand “FM” Marcos, their co-Ilocano.

On Tuesday, 25 February 1986. I showed up at EDSA, and that was when FM and his family decided to fly to Hawaii, in defeat. That is why my private joke is that when FM heard this Ilocano coming, he decided to leave Malacañang!

Differently, I believe the “EDSA Revolution” or “People Power Revolution” was in fact the “People Leaders’ Revolution” – we saw the strength of numbers, not appreciated the power of the leaders to draw such numbers.

Today, I believe we should be harnessing Science Power 2021. At the forefront should be leaders of millions of Filipino farmers who work Philippine soils. Example: The lower image is titled by its source thus: “Empowering Filipino Farmers Using the SARAI Training Toolkit for Rice and Corn[1]” (dated 2017, UPLB.edu.ph). Project SARAI, or Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines, is a project funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) with UP Los Baños’ School of Environmental Science and Management (UPLB SESAM) as the implementing body.

2021 versus 1986, we Filipinos should all be wiser.

Today, in farmers’ fields, armed with Science, the undeclared but more massive Science Power 2021 is being led by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. He has his New Thinking for Agriculture that is accompanied by “8 Paradigms” as follows:

(1) Modernization;
(2) Industrialization;
(3) Promotion Of Exports;
(4) Consolidation Of Small- And Medium-Sized Farms;
(5) Infrastructure Development;
(6) Higher Budget & Investment;
(7) Legislative Support; and
(8) Roadmap Development.

And under the OneDA Approach, here are the 12 key strategies being invoked at the moment:
1. Farm Clustering/Bayanihan;
2. Province-Led Agriculture And Fisheries Extension System (PAFES);
3. Agri-Industrial Business Corridors (ABCs);
4. Infrastructure Investments;
5. Post-Harvest, Processing Logistics & Marketing Support;
6. Digital Agriculture;
7. Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Measures;
8. Mobilization & Empowerment Of Partners To Attain Scale;
9. Global Trade, Export Development & Promotion;
10. Food Safety & Regulations;
11. Ease Of Doing Business & Transport Procurement; and
12. Strategic Communication Support.

We have more than enough agricultural revolution to wage to the end of the decade!

I go back to UPLB SESAM, which developed the following technologies and systems for the farmers initially in Mindoro:

(1)   Automatic Weather Station,

(2)   Unmanned Aerial Vehicle/Drone,

(3)   SARAI Enhanced Agricultural Monitoring System, and

(4)   SARAI Knowledge Portal.

We should all be smarter. As knowledge revolutionaries, with a Science Power 2021 Portal, farmer progress should multiply social benefits!@517

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[1]https://sesam.uplb.edu.ph/news/empowering-filipino-farmers-using-the-sarai-training-toolkit-for-rice-and-corn/

02, Less Is More – SCUs Or Not, Students Will Learn More If They Were Taught Less!

This is a teacher speaking – one with an open mind and open notes of knowledge gathered from googling. I’m saying after observing education via secondhand news, from Argentina to England to the Philippines, in schools or in homes, in private schools or SCUs: Students are taughtfacts – which is unmindful teaching!

Facebook sharing: In the Philippines, Mila Concepcion (not her real name) is saying, “I have declined to teach in 3 universities where I (taught) before the pandemic, because I am not sure I will be as effective as in the traditional face-to-face-interaction in class.” Ms Concepcion typifies teachers who think teaching is imparting knowledge 100%. Ms Concepcion, hindi ka nag-iisa. You are not alone; there are millions and millions of you.

Here’s news for everyone! “Educators Around World Seek To Take Axe To Exam-Based Learning[1],” says Bethan Staton (23 January 2021, Financial Times). Her lead sentence is:

“Covid era prompts push to ditch one-size-fits-all approach in favor of skills and independent thinking.”

Goodbye standardized exams! Ms Bethan says, Bill Lucas, Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning at UK’s Winchester University, “believes traditional assessments unfairly (standardize) children of different abilities, fail to capture essential skills and put young people off through (their) rote-learning, one-size-fits-all approach.”

The teacher gives the exact same exam to students in a class, and the next class, and the next. Historically, the school has been a factory of learners since classes began! (That may be Roman Catholic in origin, as during “the Early Middle Ages, the monasteries of the Roman Catholic Church were the centers of education and literacy[2].”)

“Survey after survey says creativity, critical-thinking and communications are what we need. Exams don’t assess those things,” Mr Lucas said.

I will now call those The 3 Cs of Teaching. Whatever you are thinking, from Agriculture to Virology, you have to be intelligent and/or inventive. Creative, Agriculture – To fight pests naturally, plant beautiful flowers that attract those pesky insects instead of feasting on your crop! Critical, Law: There are how many ways of looking at this case? Communicative, Math – Ms Bethan says, in Newfoundland, “one (math) assessment, for example, involved younger children putting knowledge into practice with a recipe.” Everyone enjoyed, everyone learned!

Here’s more. Ms Bethan says:

The project-based curriculum of Animas High School in Colorado offers another alternative. Instead of end-of-year tests, students publish “digital portfolio” websites that showcase their work, goals and interests. Older pupils choose a topic and explore it through a 15-20 page research project, a talk and an initiative in the local community.

There is no end to enjoyable learning if there is freedom in both teaching and learning!

Ms Bethan says:

In the US, some schools and districts have adopted “graduate profiles” setting out competencies or skills such as compassion, determination or creativity. Shelby County, in Kentucky, expects students to be responsible collaborators, life-long learners and critical thinkers, which are necessary requirements in a “knowledge-based economy that emphasizes ideas and innovations.”

All educators must be re-educated!@517

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[1]https://www.ft.com/content/9d64e479-182c-4dbd-96fe-0c26272a5875?fbclid=IwAR3Q7AhrciTYLL558piE9p2NeK0GBerkhMXaPFWFvKWUzjTwVpsK_cT7igk

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education

Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture

Here’s re-inventing the Tagalog expression “Asa aka pa!” from the negative, “Don’t bother, don’t hope!” to the positive, “Hope for more!” As acronym, ASA KA PA!: “Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture!”

While this blog is not to disparage other religious beliefs, I must confess from the start that I am a Roman Catholic. I just created this blog today, ASA KA PA! and I just found out that on this date, the 24^th of February, St Francis “received his vocation” in Portiuncula, Italy – in other words, it dawned on him that his life’s role was as a preacher. (image of St Francis[2] from On This Day) And yes, I was born on another important St Francis date: September 17, which today is celebrated by Catholics as “The Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi.” Stigmata: St Francis was the first person recorded “who bore the marks of the crucified Christ (on) his hands, his feet, and (on) his side[1]” (Sacred Heart Catholic Church). 

As a digital preacher for the development of PH Agriculture, the name of my new blog, “ASA KA PA!” has 3 meanings: (1) “More hope for you!” (2) “Hope for more!” and:

Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate,
Knowledge-Aligned,
Pinoy Agriculture!

That is because I am an Agriculturist, a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, a full-pledged University in itself in the UP System. I graduated in 1965, passed the very first Teacher’s Exam the year before, Professional Level. I have been engaged in what I myself invented: Communication for Development, ComDev, since 1975, when I started working for the Forest Research Institute (FORI), based at UP Los Baños. My FORI years, 1975 to 1981, are descriptive of my ComDev desires for my country – I founded and became the Editor In Chief of 3 FORI publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. Those 3 publications made FORI well known in the Philippines and abroad.

At FORI, I was only beginning to show what I could do as a communicator for development. In those years, the Typewriter was King – except that I did experience the use of the IBM Selectric typewriter with its interchangeable keys: nice touch! I have always typed my own articles. I also learned photography by asking questions with the FORI photographer, who was under me.

On Innocents Day, 28 December 1985, I saw the need for me to learn word and image processing. I never looked back. I learned more digital skills over the years from 1997 (I’m guessing) when we had the Internet installed at home.

Today, I blog my own, and have something like 41 GB of collected photographs in my hard disk, 99% of them shot with my own hands. My latest camera is a Lumix FZ100 digital zoom, with AI capabilities: Just point and shoot! (See image above.)

Now then, I am re-dedicating my life to the development of Philippine agriculture via communication for development with a new slogan: “ASA KA PA!”@517

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[1]https://sacredheartfla.org/about-us/being-franciscan/fraciscan-feast-days/the-feast-of-the-stigmata-of-st-francis-of-assisi/

[2]https://www.onthisday.com/events/february/24

09, The More The Merrier – 1-Ha Garden For 17,000 Households? It’s Faith!

Roman Catholic faith works! From Faithfuls to Farmers: “Tondo Parish Turns Soccer Field Into Vegetable Farm[1]” (Karl R Ocampo, 17 February 2021, Inquirer.net). Above is the soccer field at St John Bosco Parish in Tondo, Manila, all of 1 ha transformed into a giant garden, all vegetables. Now serving the 17,000 households in 17 barangays in that parish. Last January, P17,000 worth of vegetables were sold.
(“FaithWorks” image[2] from FaithWorks.org)

Now, the number “17” has a special meaning to me: I was born September 17. In numerology, “17 represents compassion, self-confidence, spiritual consciousness, and strength[3]” (Numerology Nation). That describes that Tondo parish in their gardening project!

Yes, it was started by the priests of St John Bosco. Parish head Fr Gaudencio Carandang says:

It all started with suffering. We were giving consistent relief to members of our community during the lockdown. They would knock on the parish’s doors and ask for food, and we could not turn them away. But as the pandemic stretched on, donations became fewer, and so did the relief (foods) that we could give. We had to think of something to feed them.

The Church serving the Church.

When the government imposed the lockdown, most of the parish residents, that is, the drivers and street peddlers, eventually lost their sources of income. Thinking about it some more, the parish priests decided to turn the idle soccer field into a busy vegetables field. Through the intercession of Fr Anton Pascual, Executive Director of Caritas Manila and President of Radio Veritas, a vegetable partnership was formed with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). The die was cast.

The DAR provided the inputs: vegetable seeds, fertilizers, basic gardening tools. The parish residents provided the workputs, all volunteer labor. Mr Ocampo says, “Farmer-scientists from Cavite visited the site a few times a week to teach the residents how to properly till the soil and what implements to use on each crop.”

Scene: Volunteers, gardeners, masked and gloved men and women, young and old, enjoying themselves; housewife Sally Funtanares tending the bottlegourd (upo), Barangay Councilman Jun Valdez the chayote, and parish cook Len Molina the cabbage patch.

The soccer field is being used for free. The harvests are sold to the parish residents at low prices; after that, the profit is equally divided among the volunteer gardeners.

Last January, the parish community celebrated its “Pick, Harvest & Pay” festival co-organized with the DAR. Fr Carandang says, “The turnout was overwhelming. It was a success.“ Mr Ocampo says:

Booths lined one side of the field and residents presented recipes showcasing their crop. Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, who attended the festival, said Tondo residents had inspired other local government units in Metro Manila to replicate garden (projects) in their respective areas.

With their own garden projects, Quezon City followed, and Caloocan, and Pasig.

I’m a Roman Catholic; I believe the DAR could save more stomachs, not to mention earn more indulgences, if it helped more parishioners like those in St John Bosco.@

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[1]https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1396854/tondo-parish-turns-soccer-field-into-vegetable-farm?fbclid=IwAR1f1P3P8kSksIjGLnASLmnzFU5s6HQn5Qkodp9bOvkmBqHJJK8WwvcZUzA#ixzz6mmiJOoKK

[2]http://www.faith-works.org/

[3]https://numerologynation.com/angel-number-17/

08, The More The Merrier – Leni Robredo Says We Millions Must Contribute. What? Love!

Servant Leader: Leni Robredo, is a 134-page volume published by San Anselmo Press, Manila, December 2020. I have my copy, thanks! I say neither author, Ed Garcia, nor Editor, Danton Remoto, foresaw it, but here is my review in 5 words:

Ah, a book of love!

Ed Garcia’s name is on the cover, signifying authorship; actually, he wrote many of the chapters, yet he composed the book including 13 other writers: Aida Robredo, Bam Aquino, Chit Roces-Santos, Dean Mel Sta Maria, Doods M Santos, Fr Albert I Alejo SJ, Gay Ace Domingo, Gemino H Abad, Hazel Lavitoria, Jim Pascual Agustin, Leni Robredo, Philip Dy, and Tricia Robredo.

Browsing, I find that the most telling – pun intended – is Chapter X, titled “Leni Speaks,” specifically pages 92-93, which contain her entire online address to the graduates of 2020 delivered via Radyo Katipunan 87.9 FM, 08 May 2020. She speaks for herself best. It’s a total of 1055 words, author and title included. It’s Taglish. (For my free English translation, email frankahilario@gmail.com.)

The title of that message is Love expressed in 3 words and in Tagalog (Filipino):
Palabas At Pasulong.
(Outward & Forward, my translation)
It is a message of Love.
Not simply for graduates, but for all of us Filipinos, including farmers.

The 5^th paragraph of that speech spills it all out – and all in English:

This is where your real work as graduates begins. With imagining the future. You are asked to answer questions like: How do we make sure technology brings people closer, instead of driving us further apart because of the digital divide? If we can never go back to the old way of doing things, how do we make sure that the new world will be shaped more fairly, more equitably, in a way that bridges social gaps and dismantles the injustices of the past? How do we relate with one another in a post-Covid world?

I note specially: “How do we make sure that the new world will be shaped more fairly, more equitably, in a way that bridges social gaps and dismantles the injustices of the past?”

I understand Leni’s “Palabas At Pasulong” like this: We must get out of ourselves (Palabas) and into society and help it move forward (Pasulong). And that can happen only in an atmosphere of LOVE – inside and outside.

Outward and Forward. This, my dear graduates, is how I propose we approach the future. I do not know if you know or have read the works of novelist Arundhati Roy: We all are passing through the same portal going to the new world, that is what we are experiencing right now. He emphasizes and I quote: “We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

Fight! And your only weapon is? Love.@517

01, Less Is More – How PhilRice Can Reduce A Rice Farmer’s Total Expenses By 51%!

This essay arose from several Facebook comments on my earlier essay “07, The More The Merrier – P1B From DA Supportive Of 10 Bataan Model Farms Leading PH Agriculture[1]” (21 February 2021, BrainScapes). This is my comment in that essay that readers mainly commented on:

I don’t know why, but 60-year old foreign-funded IRRI and 35-year-old PH-funded PhilRice have advocated neither high-value crops (HVCs) after rice nor fertigation, when these technologies are not that new.

Joy Duldulao said: “PhilRice advocates HVCs thru its Palayamanan and FutureRice programs.”

Eufemio Rascoreplied: “PhilRice should not limit itself to advocacy. Advocacy is for those who don’t have the resources. Show by example how the challenge of scaling up can be done in its own farms! Mainstream Palayamanan!”

Roberto Acosta said: “Joy Duldulao, maybe it’s high time to change the success measurement matrix of PhilRice – from increasing rice yield to increasing rice farmers' income and better lives for rice farming families.”

Excellent point, Mr Acosta! Meaning, PhilRice itself has been the one limiting its own vision. I Frank A Hilario say "PhilRice cares" is not good enough!

The best way to increase farmer income? Reduce expenses. Now, in a study by University of Southern Mindanao researchers, MTN Cabasan et al in 2019 reported these rice farming expenses (image above): 27% fertilizers and 24% pesticides[2], for a total of 51% (Global Journal of Environmental Science and Management, Winter 2019, 37-42).

So, how can PhilRice easily increase the rice farmers’ income and better the lives of farming families? Reduce by half total farming expenses!

As an agriculturist, teacher and writer, I will now challenge PhilRice to fund 2 contrasting but comparative rice-growing systems carried out near each other in 2 ha at its headquarters in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, for 2 croppings. Thus:

PhilRice plot of 1 ha – Conventional rice growing
A trusted rice scientist will grow a rice variety of his/her choice. As usual, the soil will be plowed using the disc plow for cultivating the soil. Fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water will be applied.

Frank A Hilario’s plot of 1 ha – Trash mulching
I will grow the same variety of rice in the plot somewhere near the PhilRice field above. I will use the rotavator (above, green image[3] from Wecan Global Philippines) to create a trash mulch all over the field, mixing weeds & crop refuse & soil together to make a rich layer of organic matter that begins to rot immediately. I will irrigate the field.

With my trash mulch, throughout the growing period, there will be zero fertilizers, zero pesticides applied – that will reduce the cost of growing rice by 51%! As the trash mulch decomposes, the soil will become rich and the rice will grow right and healthy. Right at the start, the trash mulch farmer is a winner – reducing cost of inputs by half! (Note: My brother-in-law Enso in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan has been using my trash farming technique for 55 years.) Will PhilRice accept my challenge?@517

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[1]https://braincapes.blogspot.com/2021/02/07-more-merrier-p1b-from-da-supportive.html?fbclid=IwAR2GaIxDKQfT9SfWIO4iG5YI9x35dGHORDEFYqeHYrCMLlqKLpcd4zGigrw

[2]https://www.gjesm.net/article_33161_1ff99de68730a4e0a6826d1770a1c4f2.pdf

[3]https://www.tradekey.com/product-free/Rotavator-1649443.html

07, The More The Merrier – P1B From DA Supportive Of 10 Bataan Model Farms Leading PH Agriculture

Very optimistic – and excited – was Secretary of Agriculture William Dar after visiting 2 model 1-ha farms in the villages of Daang Bago and San Simon in the town of Dinalupihan, Bataan, Friday, 19 February 2021. He said in the DA news release “Bataan Model Farms Demonstrate Future Of Philippine Agriculture” (20 February 2021):

I am thrilled to have seen the progress of this rice-high-value crops diversification system evolving in the Municipality of Dinalupihan. We were here when the idea was being conceived in 2019 and now it has really started its journey, its development.

As an agriculturist and a communicator for development in the last 45 years, I know:

That it is all markedly historical for the Philippines. The cropping calls for rice in the wet season, and high-value crops (vegetables) in the dry season, with fertigation (fertilization via irrigation). And the technology-setup is replicated 10 times in the same municipality.

(I don’t know why, but 60-year old foreign-funded IRRI and 35-year-old PH-funded PhilRice have advocated neitherhigh-value crops after rice norfertigation, when these technologies are notthat new.)

The initiative is officially called the “1Bataan Agriculture Innovation and Technology Center (AITC).” About iBataan, ANN says[1] (“Bataan Standing Tall And Proud,” League Magazine) Bataan Governor Albert Garcia says, “That is the call for everyone to unite, to work together, to create a better province for everyone.”

So, it is 1Bataan that is bringing us the IATC farms, a Daang Bago (New Road) to a new PH Agriculture – with technology from Israel. Mr Dar says:

That’s the way it should be for new technologies to be properly introduced, tested, piloted and the learning and experience that we are getting from this important project will really lead and give Bataan the leadership in terms of crop diversification in this country.

This is a public-private partnership in the productive & profitable application of technologies:

The 1Bataan AITC, a Public-Private Partnership between the Provincial Government of Bataan and Agrilever Israel, envisions to help small farm holders achieve prosperity, attract the youth in agriculture, and allow the youth to lead in innovation and excellence. It also aims to create stimulating and well-paid jobs for professionals in the region, attract investors into the value chain, and stimulate cost-effective funding while mitigating lenders’ risks.

The 1Bataan AITC partnership is aimed at attracting not only youth to agriculture but also professionals, investors and moneylenders.

I am sure it will succeed.

Dinalupihan Mayor Angela Garcia said the AITC will be replicated in at least 100 hectares of clustered small rice farms in Bataan during the dry season period of October 2021 to March 2022. She noted that more Bataan farmers are now interested in planting high-value crops and fertigation.

Is the DA sincere in singing praise to the AITC in Bataan? Yes. This can be seen in the announcement by Mr Dar that the DA has allocated almost P1 billion in terms of farm inputs and farmer support projects for the province.

To good be the glory!@

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[1]https://leaguemagazineonline.com/2019/01/bataan-standing-tall-and-proud/

06, The More The Merrier – PH DA Wants 800 Youths In Agribiz Mentorship Program

Forward the 800!

Meanwhile, I am seeing Double. As a cockeyed optimist, that’s what I am doing with the launching by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar of the “Mentoring and Attracting Youth in Agribusiness” (MAYA) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

How is that? One:Youth learning agriculture as a business – happily. Two: Adults & Seniors learning agriculture as a way of life – unhappily. How? Seeing is dis/believing!

The news release from the DA says, “Thousands Apply For Youth Agribiz Mentorship Program[1]” (11 February 2021, DA.gov.ph). On 09 February 2021, MAYA had announced the opening of 800 youth scholarships. Immediately, “The online system was deluged with interested individuals, exceeding by four-fold the required number of interns.” Wanted: 800 MAYA scholars. Responded: 3,000 applicants.
(upper image[2] from DA website)

The young would-be farmers connect!

Already, the 800 are winners: Each MAYA scholar is entitled to a monthly allowance of P20,000 (US$400). And that allowance is only a start.

MAYA is accepting and will be mentoring Filipinos 20-30 years old, graduate of any 4- or 5-year degree course, preferably in agriculture, fisheries, and agribusiness. Says Director Vivencio Mamaril, who is head of the Bureau of Agricultural Research, the DA agency in-charge:

MAYA will be conducted through experiential learning, or a learner-centric methodology, that allows the interns to put into immediate use the knowledge and skills that they’ve learned in a relevant fashion.

In short: Now you know it; now you do it!

That is to say, it’s not the books, it’s not the looks – it’s the application. You don’t learn by knowing: you learn by doing.

This is a 6-month internship program, 24 weeks actual. The 800 will be deployed to different DA national (Office of the Secretary) and regional field offices.

After that, what? They may either opt for an agri-fishery business or pursue a career in the DA or any government agency.

For the business, the MAYA scholar may apply for a zero-interest loan with the DA’s Agricultural and Credit Policy Council (ACPC). With a proper proposal, naturally.

That’s the future. We go back to the present: If farming is not a business, what business have our current farmers doing it!?

Why does farming in the Philippines remain a bad business proposition? Because farmers don’t treat it as a business! Instead, they treat it as a way of life – wasteful fertilizing as a way of life, wasteful spraying against pests as a way of life, wasteful transplanting as a way of life, usurious 5-6 loans as a way of life, low farmgate prices as a way of life.

Ipinanganak tayong mahirap, brod! Anak ng magsasaka. Kaya. (We were born poor, brother! Son of a farmer. So.)

If farming is not a business, what business have farmers doing it!?

The problem with the old farmers is that they look at farming as a way of life, not as a way of bettering a life! Now, they will have to learn from the youth.

So? Forward the 800!@517

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[1]https://www.da.gov.ph/thousands-apply-for-youth-agribiz-mentorship-program/

[2]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-acpc-unveil-two-loan-programs-for-the-youth/

05, The More The Merrier – PH 17 Provinces Lead Agriculture & Fisheries Extension System

Yes, under PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, the Department of Agriculture(DA) will have 17 provinces leading the DA program “Province-Led Agriculture & Fisheries Extension System” (PAFES) nationwide, when in full initial blast, 1 lead province in each of the 17 regions of the Philippines, and here they are, from North to South:

Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)
Ilocos Region (Region 1)
Cagayan Valley (Region 2)
Central Luzon (Region 3)
National Capital Region (NCR)
Calabarzon (Region 4-A)
Mimaropa (Region 4-B)
Bicol Region (Region 5)
Western Visayas (Region 6)
Central Visayas (Region 7)
Eastern Visayas (Region 8)
Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9)
Northern Mindanao (Region 10)
Davao Region (Region 11)
Soccsksargen (Region 12)
Caraga (Region 13)
Bangsamoro (BARMM)

But isn’t that too many leads – you know, “Too many cooks spoil the broth”?

No. The variations in the cooking will be minimal. Science works if you follow the rules – and it will be the same science from Region 1 (Ilocos) to Region 13 (Caraga). (Bangsamoro would/should know what is good for the Muslims.)
(upper image from DA website, lower image[1]from Facebook page of ATI)

Previously, there was this news release, “DA To Pursue Systematic, Strategic Approaches To Further ‘Grow’ (Agriculture & Fisheries Sectors)[2]” (23 December 2020). That is, to “fuel the transformation of the agriculture and fishery (sectors to help propel the Philippines) into a modernized and industrialized economic powerhouse.”

Mr Dar said in his memo to all top DA officials and key technical staff:

We shall depart from our usual approach of just targeting individual farms or groups without producing significant outcomes from interventions. We must be purpose-driven, ensuring that our programs and projects are of value, not only to recipients but more significantly to the whole society in real terms.

The last sentence is of extra-significant value I will repeat:

“We must be… ensuring that our programs and projects are of value… to the whole society in real terms.”

That is why I say: Stop the pursuit of Solo Success Stories! They are anathema to whole-Philippines progress.

The news release said:

At the core of this strategy is farm clustering and consolidation, dubbed as “Bayanihan Agri-Cluster” or BAC that aims to converge and integrate government interventions such as provision of loans, farm mechanization, free seeds and fertilizers, and market support.

Yes, the DA will be providing farmers’ access to loans and farm machines – the seeds, fertilizers, and market support will be free.

The news release also said:

The establishment of “agri-industrial business corridors” or ABCs will also be actively pursued in 2021. These hubs will serve as processing and marketing centers of agriculture and fishery products in identified production areas. All set to groundbreak is the ABC at New Clark Green City.

Mr Dar said, “The ABCs will house agri-business and multi-purpose facilities that will be key to managing and integrating the food supply chain, as well as introducing innovative agricultural (technologies) to farmers.”

The ABCs are designed to serve the whole alphabet of services to Philippine agriculture and fisheries!@517

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[1]https://www.facebook.com/atirtc12/photos/2804726853101167

[2]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-to-pursue-systematic-strategic-approaches-to-further-grow-agri-fishery-sector/

04, The More The Merrier – Mixed Topics To Write Into 1 Coherent Story

To write one solid, smooth-reading, 1000-word essay on several unrelated topics, I will now directly use my writing inspiration The More The Merrier (TM²) on somebody else’s multiple topics.

Let me apply TM²  to the problem of PhilStar Global columnist Cito Beltranin his published column of 12 February 2021 titled “Pigs, LTO, Hospitals, Etc[1]” (PhilStar.com). His piece is all of 991 words, including title and author. His lament is the very first sentence of his column:

“So many topics, so little space!”

I will now write an essay using TM², which I invented Sunday, Valentine’s Day. (Which reminds me; The More The Merrier is my Valentine’s gift to columnists, communicators, editorialists, preachers, speakers, and writers of any kind. TM² enables you to say more with less. Proof: This whole essay is only 517 words, almost 2x smaller than Mr Beltran’s.)

The image I show above, self-titled “The More The Merrier,” is sexual in orientation, so why did I choose it? Because it’s a perfect illustration of The More, The Merrier– several little messages but only 1 main message, repeated throughout: Love. The slogan of its source, LB111, is “Moving Beyond Monogamy.” Now, I have moved it beyond a sexist to a pregnant view!
(above image[2]” from Lab111.nl, which I elongated a little)

So, here’s how I would have written “Pigs, LTO, Hospitals, Etc.” if I were the columnist – TM² is using a single concept that ties up everything; this time, that concept is management:

1.   Managing African swine fever;

2.   Managing the LTO;

3.   Managing vaccination of foreigners; and

4.   Managing public hospitals.

Managing The African Swine Fever (ASF)
Under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is moving heaven and earth and public funds for soft loans for swine husbandry, or wifery – because you have to devote much of your time to grow pigs and, yes, you have to love them. Filipinos or Filipinas know and have always been willing to take the risk of piggery; same risk as pregnancy, I suppose. Noted: The DA is trying to contain the ASF, partnering with the private sector and local government units everywhere.

Managing The Land Transportation Office (LTO)
Legislators are zeroing in on the LTO regarding motor vehicle-related issues, particularly the Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Centers (PMVIC) controversy. Mr Beltran says, “I myself want to put a stop to the PMVIC program, but let us be clear about one thing, this program was hatched by the Department of Transportation and NOT the LTO.”

Managing Vaccination Of Foreigners
What is the plan of the Department of Health (DoH) for the COVID vaccination of foreigners, primarily permanent residents or those stuck in the Philippines? Mr Beltran says, “I was told that foreign embassies have no plan or can’t undertake such an operation, which leaves several hundred foreign spouses of Filipinos/Filipinas worried that they have been left out.” DoH!

I’m done. See? You can manage to write on unrelated topics, uniting them with a single idea! It’s called creativity.@BS

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2021/02/12/2077131/pigs-lto-hospitals-etc/amp/

[2]https://www.lab111.nl/tmtm/