Rice Farming Is A Way Of Life? It Should Be A Way Of Hope!

Last night, someone who calls himself "Rice Farmer" emailed me a message all of 97 words excluding the greeting "Sir" – my response was this: 

(Kaibigan), hindi ka nagbabasa! Facebook o dyaryo. Puro ka negative. I forgive you!
(Friend, you have not been reading! Facebook or newspapers. You are all negative. I forgive you!)

Now here are the sentences (with his errors) Mr Rice Farmer sent me followed by my comments.

Napakagaling ng ating DA Secretary. Walang siyang pakialam and pagbagsak ng presyo ng palay 7-11 Pesos lagn....Bravo Mr DA Secreatry.

(Sarcastic: Our DA Secretary is very good. He cares nothing about the falling prices of palay, 7-11 pesos only. Bravo, Mr DA Secretary.)

Masunurin sa Presidente... utos pababain ang presyo ng palay kahit na maghikahos ang mga Rice Farmers' Ang galing ng solusyon. Pinautang ng 15 libong piso na walang interes.

(He is a loyal follower of the President… ordered him to bring down the price of palay to the point that rice farmers become paupers! The solution is brilliant. Allowed to loan out 15 thousand pesos without interest.)

I wonder if that is the kind of thinking with many of our farmers today?! Aside from the factual errors, there is the perceptual one: President ordered Secretary to bring down the price of rice!

Alam ba niya na pinayayaman nila ni Presidente ang mga palay buyers at middleman and Rice importers.

(Does he know that he and the President are enriching the palay buyers and middlemen and rice importers?)

Noong pinopost mo na ang kailangan ay si Dar sa DA naniwala ako. Ngayon alam ko na marunong siya sa technology pero wala siyang awa sa mga magsasaka,. Dapat mag-resign na siya.

(When you were posting that the DA needed William Dar, I believed you. Now I know, he is knowledgeable in technology but he has no mercy for the farmers. He should now resign!)

My response here:

Never mind wrong spellings and attribution – "DA Secretary" instead of "Agriculture Secretary" – but I must note that:

He is angry!

Sir, anger will get you nowhere. I appreciate that you have been reading my essays in my blog, Ani Kitá (Slogan: "We harvest together, or scatter separately."). It turns out you have been reading your thoughts into mine!

Almost 4 months ago, on 19 April 2019, I blogged, "PH Will Never Rise From Rice Alone – William Dar" (page 23 of my challenging yet creative ebook, Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained, a free copy of which you can email me for, frankahilario@gmail.com). I say now to Mr Rice Farmer, borrowing from the Bible in which I believe: "No man can live on rice alone!"

I have just googled for (exactly as you see below but not italicized)
rice farming "way of life"
and I got 18.3 million results. That is to say, millions too many believe that farming is a way of life.

I say: No! It should be a way of hope!

And that is why we should listen sensibly to William Dar, PH Secretary of Agriculture!@517

William Dar – The New Moses With The New Tablets!

He is a Filipino; he is the new PH Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar, who was the longest-staying Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, from 2000 to 2014. ICRISAT's commandment at that time? "Science with a human face." What was God's Ten Commandments all about? I say, it was "Spirit with a human face!"

To understand in one sitting Mr Dar as the new Moses, I recommend that you read my new ebook, Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained, with 79 precision short essays of exactly 517 words each including title – where you can find what I call The Gospel Of The Eight Paradigms (page 7 in the book); imagine 2 tablets with 4 entries each, not unlike the above image of Moses with the modern tablets! (image from Jaime Peterson, pinterest.ph).

Not a paradigm, you can get my real ebook free via email, frankahilario@gmail.com, up to midnight of 17 September 2019, after which I will charge US$17 or P900 a copy (pdf).

Right now, I can see those tablets that the modern Moses now holds presage the appearance from the new PH DA those tablets of Mr Dar's 8 paradigms:

(1) Modernizing agriculture.
(2) Industrializing agriculture.
(3) Promoting exports.
(4) Consolidating the farms.
(5) Developing roadmaps.
(6) Building infrastructure.
(7) Having higher budgets and investments for agriculture.
(8) Having legislative support.

Paradigms? Consider them commandments, because they are! Mr Dar labels himself a Servant-Leader – so, we must follow the leader!

If you think of those 8 paradigms in terms of modern tablets for farmers, you are smart. Broadly, 17 years ago, that was already what was in the mind of Mr Dar when in 2003 he recommended the adoption of the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, for PH R&D agencies.  

Says C Marquez Jr (17 November 2004, "Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture," The Natural Resource Management Network, comminit.com):

As one organizer put it… "And this shall give them options, a basket of technologies, information that shall empower farmers to make better decisions…

Yes, but I already had that idea for OpAPA a year before!

As a PhilRice consultant at its headquarters in the Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija. I came up with an ebook titled The Geography Of Knowledge; I said in my 07 September 2018 essay, "Big Data Beyond EXPLOREit@ICRISAT" (Creative Thinkering, creativethinkering.blogspot.com):

In 2003, I already had that idea in my mind and, to prove such a claim, I still have the digital book I wrote singlehandedly, all 198 pages of it, a total of 47,505 words, in pdf, titled The Geography Of Knowledge and subtitled What You Seek Is What You Get!

I submitted that ebook, my proposal to get OpAPA off the ground and into the digital world, with PhilRice as the base of operations for all aggie bodies in the Philippines. Actually, over the years, I have thought OpAPA out of my mind. Nonetheless, I still have that ebook, am now dreaming of tablets to help Filipino farmers decide for themselves!@517

Critics Of William Dar & The New PH Agriculture – How About Some Honesty & Humor!

Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained is my birth month's ebook on the problematic Old and problem-solving New PH Agriculture. The Old harps on the low buying price of palay; while the New helps to cushion the adverse impact of rice tariffication via those low prices.

The Old refuses to let go of the Old Paradigms Lost; the New refuses to let up on its new paradigms of initiatives to immediately stalemate the enemy and ultimately deliver the farmers from poverty – Paradigms Regained.

The Old refuses to go; the New refuses to give up!

It was Robert  Baden-Powell, Father of the Boy Scouts, who said, "Never say die until you're dead." Now then, 2 Filipino boy scouts, full-blooded Manongs, are now revolutionizing how the world treats farmers! One with creative thinking, the other with creative writing.

Manong #1: Here is the 1 month-old "The New Thinking for Agriculture" introduced into these islands by new Secretary of Agriculture William Dar:

Serving Science with a Human Faith.

Manong #2: Here is my new book Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained, inspired explorations of "The New Thinking for Agriculture," in 79 short essays. Smile!

Wholistic and realistic, that's The New Thinking for Agriculture, gentle rains called Paradigms showered and shown on the Filipino people, for the advocates working with the poor farmers & fishers for their ultimate release from poverty.

Witty and idealistic, that's Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained, a wad of interpretations and extensions for the Filipino people for their ultimate release from despair from ignorance of alternatives to the old agriculture. New lessons.

Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained – The title of this single book is a pun on the title of the 2 books by John Milton, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Wikipedia describes Milton's 2 books thus (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org):

Whereas Paradise Lost is ornate in style and decorative in its verse, Paradise Regained is carried out in a fairly plain style. Specifically, Milton reduces his use of simile and deploys a simpler syntax in Paradise Regained than he does in Paradise Lost, and this is consistent with Jesus' sublime plainness in his life and teachings.

Is that right? I did notknow that!

The New Thinking for Agriculture as enunciated by our Agriculture Secretary is stated in scientific jargon, necessarily. He is a scientist first of all.

Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained is my continuing attempt to reduce the technical jargon to popular language. I point out to them as The Gospel of The Eight Paradigms that the Secretary commands us to follow:

(1) Modernize agriculture.
(2) Industrialize agriculture.
(3) Promote exports.
(4) Consolidate the farms.
(5) Develop roadmaps.
(6) Build infrastructure.
(7) Have higher budgets and investments for agriculture.
(8) Have legislative support.

Today, you can enjoy reading about the 8 with my highly imaginative book that reflects the highly original thinking of William Dar – yes, serving science with honor and humor. This is a first anywhere in the World of Agriculture!

Test your genius against 2 geniuses. Get your free copy of my extraordinary ebook now! frankahilario@gmail.com@517

New PH DA's Modernization Paradigm Calls For PhilRice To Grow Up, Not Only Grow Rice!

A Senator, Representative, Philippine columnists in business sections of digital media, leaders of farmers and others on Facebook, are incessantly complaining about: 

Merchants buying rice at the least price, P7/kilo, while production cost is P12/kilo – highway robbery!

They keep protesting, as if nothing is being done about it. Of course, they have the right to grumble – they also have the duty to read the papers, if they cannot go digital, and learn about what William Dar/Manong Willie/Servant-Leader has been doing as new Secretary of Agriculture, while barely 1 month on the job.

And right up to this minute, I can tell that people have not been minding much what Manong Willie calls The Eight Paradigms" that are part of "The New Thinking for Agriculture" that he espouses. My earlier essay, "William Dar Is Agriculture Secretary & DA Is All Over The Place – So Is Science!" (07 August 2019, Ani Kitá, ianikita.blogspot.com), lists the 8:

(1)   Modernization of agriculture
(2)   Industrialization of agriculture
(3)   Promotion of exports
(4)   Farm consolidation
(5)   Roadmap development
(6)   Infrastructure development
(7)   Higher budget and investments for agriculture, and
(8)   Legislative support.

Now look!

[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]

Throughout the Philippines, farmers grow rice in fields along each other and do not consider themselves competitors! One-crop minded is one-track minded.

Now I bemoan: "Why does PhilRice keep promoting rice only?!" Even a century before Manong Willie came into the scene, Filipino farmers have been growing not only rice but other crops, not to mention chickens and goats, aside from the necessary carabao.

"Modernization of Agriculture" – Manong Willie asks why are 80% of farmlands devoted to only 3 crops: rice, corn and coconut? Our agriculture should be earning more from other crops such as cacao and coffee.

The paradigm of "Modernization of agriculture" calls for, among other things, crop diversification – and nobody is talking about that in media. Multiple cropping was not invented yesterday!

PhilRice's own special project called Palayamanan (Rice For Riches, my translation), set up in 2001, looked promising at the beginning, but has not prospered beyond its promise. It called for "rice-based farming systems," meaning in the same place other crops and livestock are grown – but 19 years later, I cannot find a single report in digital media about Palayamanan making 1 farmer prosperous. PhilRice has a separate website on Palayamanan, but the riches remain unreached.

And so today, Filipino farmers keep complaining about their rice they keep growing, competing against each other!@517

Paradigms! William Dar Is Waking Up FAO & PH Educators Mesmerized By School Gardens!

FAO and PH CHEd, you are only playing in school gardens with the girls & boys. 

Wake up, Sleepyheads!

I just saw new Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie/Servant-Leader shaking the shoulders of sleepyheads FAO and CHEd. Figuratively.

Local and foreign educators are making so much fuss about the value of school gardens – proud image above from fao.org– they do not realize they are making a big mistake in their choice of a paradigm.

Paradigm. Ha!

You can blame the new Manong Willie for starting this national craze about trying to understand paradigms.

Now, what in Heaven's name is a paradigm?!

Let us learn from Investopedia (investopedia.com):

In the investing world, a new paradigm is a revolutionary new concept, idea, or way of doing things that replaces the old beliefs or ways of doing things

So, a paradigm is nothing but a concept, an idea, a belief or way or view of doing things. "School gardens are good for schoolers" is a paradigm. It is good, but not thatgood.

Now you have to make a paradigm shift, changing from old to new paradigm, from schoolchildren to schoolsmarts, from food-minded to business-minded girls and boys!

Yes, I myself previously thought that the cultivation of school gardens made an excellent paradigm for young boys and girls especially in high school. But that changed when I read that on Thursday, 29 August 2019, in a forum at the Central Luzon State University, CLSU, in the City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija, our Servant-Leader said (from his Facebook sharing of 30 August):

Employability must not only be the end-goal of the academe. It is high time that academic institutions embed innovation and enterprise in (their curricula) as these elements are vital to economic prosperity and competitiveness. CLSU must start this initiative.

You got that? From elementary to high school to college, our educational objective has always been for the graduates to get employed. That is the exact un-sane reason why we always have millions of unemployed.

We always train for a million jobs;
at the same time,
we always create a thousand jobs!

So, what should our colleges be doing? Follow the Leader:

We must teach those boys and girls to be innovators and entrepreneurs themselves while schooling!

From studying for a job laterto creating a job for yourself now, that is quite a paradigm shift for college administrators, not to mention students – but that change must be done. It is time, Manong Willie said, to stop pursuing your job after school and start creating your job while in school!

This is a teacher speaking. Manong Willie studied to be a teacher, with a BS in Agricultural Education (1973) from Benguet State University. Older, I am a teacher myself, with a BSA major in Ag Education (1965) from UP Los Baños. This teacher agrees with that teacher that:

Our schools should now make a paradigm shift from producing graduates looking for jobs to graduates with jobs written on their diplomas. Something devoutly to be wished!@517

PH K-12 Good For Critical Thinking, Bad For Creative Thinking & Farming!

MANILA: I am a certified high school teacher, a Civil Service Professional by passing the very first Teacher's Exam in 1964 with a grade of 80.6%. That takes care of the critical thinking part – you cannot study and pass any exam without using mostly or 100% critical thinking. (2nd image from iStock, istockphoto.com)

But I am much, much more a creative writer, starting publicly when I became a copywriter for Pacifica Publicity Bureau in 1974, continuing in 1975 when I joined the Forest Research Institute, FORI, based at the campus of UP Los Baños, and became one after the other the founder and Editor in Chief of the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat.

In 2005, I began blogging, and with unusual zeal with digital technology and desire to share knowledge from science and folk wisdom, I have since published in my more than 100 blogs more than 6,000,000 words (from about 6,000 long essays of an average of at least 1,000 words each), and became the world's most creative writer online, a claim I have made that remains unchallenged since 6 years ago.

The Department of Education, DepEd, has its K-12 Curriculum, which Education Secretary Leonor Briones describes thus ("DepEd's Digital Rise Has Begun," Facebook, facebook.com):

The K to 12 Curriculum revolves around four core skills that are needed in the modern world: Life and Career Skills; Effective and Communication Skills; Learning and Innovation Skills; and finally Information, Media, and Technology Skills.

The Digital Rise is to support the implementation of the fourth group of skills, more commonly referred to as information, communication, and technology, ICT. Says Secretary Briones:

The delivery of ICT subjects (is) designed to build up the competencies of our children. These include Productivity Tools which are taught as early as Grades 4-6, Basic Programming taught in Grade 7, Multimedia Skills taught in Grades 8-10, and Vocational Courses in ICT, such as computer servicing and call center services, that are taught in Grades 11-12.

So, yes, granting the best results, DepEd will be graduating high schoolers that can handle modern media with more familiarity or some finesse. With my head focused on critical thinking and my heart on creative thinking, I can see clearly that DepEd is training would-be doctors, engineers, lawyers, mathematicians etc – but zero farmers. Digital Rise encourages the use of modern media, but not the use of the medium called the soil, and how to make it productive for society.

In fact, this tendency of DepEd to favor modern media is just a continuation of 100 years of American education in the Philippines, where only in state colleges and universities in the Philippines is the cultivation of the soil encouraged! I love American English but.

I am thinking a radical thought about farming – from high school, treat and teach it as a creative initiative and not simply a collection of logical, mechanical moves, then you encourage multiple kinds of productivity and profitability. Then the poor we would not always have with us!@517

What Is Secretary William Dar Doing Today? Looking At Your Banana!

There he is! Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, looking at those delicious Philippine Cavendish for export (image from Produce Report, producereport.com). Hungry? That is not the problem. The problem is that we Filipinos are exporting banana seedlings to neighboring Asians – seedlings, not fruits. Exporting genes, not hands. That is dangerous to our export health, so says Executive Director Stephen A Antig of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, PBGEA (Carmelito Q Francisco, 26 August 2019, "DA Asks Banana Growers To Pay For Half Of Proposed R&D Center," BusinessWorld, bworldonline.com): 

Mr Antig… flagged the export of banana seedlings to neighboring countries in Asia, which he said poses a threat to the country's competitiveness.

The PBGEA is right. I would not be surprised if he was told more by Manong Willie about being competitive in all of agriculture, being a Man of Science, or by the DA's newly appointed International Banana Man Agustin B Molina Jr, who came from Bioversity International. Manong Willie and Manong Gus have worked abroad for a great many years and know the ins and outs of research and development, R&D. Manong Gus is the one who for years worked on the R&D of the banana Panama disease in Mindanao and helped saved those delicious local Cavendish from extinction and brought them to distinction!

Manong Willie was in Davao looking at how to push banana R&D to keep PH competitive in the world.

From my pertinent essay of 2 years ago, "Science & The End Of The Banana. Part 4, What Are Our Top Bananas Doing?!" (15 November 2017, Gaia Con Gaia, blogspot.com), I quote myself:

According to the latest available data from FAO…, the Philippines was in 2014 #2 banana exporter in the world; in 2015, it was toppled to #4, and in 2016 it went down to #5: 1st Ecuador, 2nd Costa Rica, 3rd Guatemala, 4th Colombia, and 5th Philippines... We are slipping on our own banana peels!

So now our Two Top Bananas are working to make the PH Cavendish industry not only survive but thrive. Manong Willie is busy thinking of your bananas, in R&D, thinking of not only the PH banana being competitive, but the world's Top Banana.

I now quote myself from earlier ("William Dar's New Thinking For Agriculture: Now We Aim For The Golden Age!" 06 August 2019, Ani Kitá, ianikita.blogspot.com):

On the topic of New Thinking for Agriculture right in his first (paragraph) in the Manila Times (manilatimes.net), Mr Dar said:

Does the mere thought of doubling the income of smallholder farmers and fisherfolk sound too daunting or intimidating? ¶ From my standpoint, doubling the income of farmers is doable and should form the core for the "new thinking" to make the country's agriculture more productive, competitive and sustainable, and the country more food secure.

Manong Willie is busy thinking of PH Agriculture being more productive, more competitive, more sustainable, and more food secure. What else do you want from your Secretary of Agriculture?

Manong Willie knows more of your banana than you do!@517