Income Security For Farmers! My 1Million-Peso Challenge To ACPC & PhilRice Pursuing Regenerative Agriculture

“Yes,” I said essentially Thursday, PhilRice succeeded in its mandate of rice sufficiency, with the wise leadership of Executive Director Santiago R Obien (SRO) – but it should have been given the mandate of food security.
(“Aim for the moon” image from Sleepinggeeks.com)

That was essentially what I said 06 Jan 2022, in my essay: “Why PhilRice Was Not More Fruitful – Because It Was More Faithful” (RegINA, Queen Mother Earth”). SRO was unhappy with it. Now I’m changing my mind, upping the ante, as the expression goes – I want more for more and better, so I have a new mandate for PhilRice & the whole world:

Income security for farmers!

Above, 6+ years ago, I took the original photo on 09 August 2015 at the premises of the Aramal-Tocok FFF Multi-Purpose Cooperative in San Fabian, Pangasinan. I was then an extension consultant for the Department of Agrarian Reform with the team leadership of UPLB Professor Rene Rafael C Espino. The photo shows my love object, the rotavator with its counter-cutting blades pulled by a big-wheel tractor to cut into and prepare the soil for planting (see my essay, “Cultivating The Soil, Raising Animals” (07 Feb 2016, A Magazine Called Love).

This is not an empty challenge. Since I am the one daring, and since my hometown is Asingan, Pangasinan and is close enough to the Science City of Muñoz where PhilRice headquarters is located, I now call on the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) for a loan of P1.57M and on PhilRice to prepare at least 2 ha of farmland for the side-by-side planting of the same hybrid rice variety, with differing experimental treatments:

PhilRice’s Plot
Give it the works! PhilRice chooses its favorite farmer to oversee the growing of rice in this plot; whatever-however they decide to do, it doesn’t matter to me.

Hilario’s Plot
“Mulching Matilda” Agriculture: No plowing, no harrowing, no flooding, no leveling, no transplanting, no fertilizing, no irrigating, no spraying of any chemical. Planting by seeder, following System of Rice Intensification (SRI). (Earlier, I explained Mulching Matilda in my essay, “PH Farmers Want Cost Of Fertilizer Way Down – Much Better, Yield & Net Income Way Up!” RegINA, Queen Mother Earth.)

Mine will be a 5-year revolutionary experiment, the first in the world. With the ACPC loan, I will live in Maligaya for 5 years to watch over my Mulching Matilda plots. Yes, these plots are essentially of regenerative agriculture – Mulching Matilda’s very first act is designed to revive the soil (check out my blog, RegINA, Queen Mother Earth).

With the ACPC loan, also I will build the world’s first-ever digital Knowledge Bank on Regenerative Agriculture, starting with whatever I will be doing for and on that Hilario’s Plot. An iPad would be an excellent recorder.

Income security for the farmer and resource security for the soil – and both must be recurring.

The national goal for “food security” is nice; here I call for “income security,” a different national challenge.

“Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” – Pop Smoke.@517