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