The Flowers Of May Are Free, And So Is My Ebook Of Essays Advocating PH Agriculture: Greenfields Asia.

Lockdown or not, May is a beautiful month. In the Christian world, May belongs to Mary, a much-revered figure as Mother of Jesus, who is Christ, who is the Son of God and who became Man to save the sinful humans from the wrath of God the Father. It’s complicated, but that’s how I see it in my mind’s eye.

Figuratively, the flowers of May I expect growing this year are the journalists and columnists who care, or should, about Filipino farmers in general, and not only their media.

Images: beautiful May from Jack Hartmann[1]; PressFreedom from Twitter[2]: The silencing of a free press can be by government – or by the members of media themselves refusing to take the side of the millions. In the case of PH agriculture under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, it’s the aggie journalists who have so far refused to exercise their media freedom and take the side of promoting PH agriculture – not demoting it as do a handful of aggie journalists or columnists, and farm leaders. If you do not promote the new agriculture, it’s because you are unable or refuse to see the flowers, not just the ones in your album. Like: Do you know “The 8 Paradigms” that accompany The New Thinking For Agriculture from Manong Willie?

On the other hand, I can easily see the beauty of May. The first murmur of rain, the first opening of flowers, are all welcome sounds and sights.

Personally, I am now welcoming May 2020 with the release of my book, in pdf, Greenfields Asia, 100 essays published in my blog, Journalism 4.0.

Uniquely, Greenfields Asia is how to think of PH agriculture creatively. And expansively.

The flowers of May I’m offering are the fields I cultivate belonging to The New PH Agriculture as I term it as espoused by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who assumed his position as Head of the Department of Agriculture, DA, on 05 August 2019. In his own words, Manong Willie is calling for “The New Thinking For Agriculture” that is embedded in what he calls “The 8 Paradigms” – read my book to find out what!

I would like to emphasize that I can call my work THINK Journalism, following American guru Zig Ziglar’s THINK-ing – True? Helpful? Inspiring? Necessary? Kind? I do refrain from negatives.

Since my advocacy is virtual, essentially via online essays, it must also become visual, to lend evidence to the eyes and credence to the mind. Hence this pdf manuscript I’m sharing.

The book I have right now is all of 283 pages, yours for the asking (email frankahilario@gmail.com). I’m offering it also to the farmer leaders and/or advocates who occasionally speak up and only negatively. They better learn the concept of inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD, from Manong Willie, or they cannot keep up with him intellectually! I say, if they are looking for a single secret of success in farming, it’s not landownership but marketing!@517

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[1] https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/280278776794205509/

[2] https://twitter.com/supermantweets/status/594853966229438464

UP Researchers: Lockdown First, Food Security Later. SEARCA Director: Farmers Now!

The UP group is after flattening the curve first, that is, no new cases reported of Covid-19, before the lifting of the lockdown. The SEARCA Director is looking at the already flattening curve of the number of farmers, their income and GDP! A hole-istic view vs a holistic view.

The UP group is afraid that without a lockdown, the virus will become badder; the SEARCA Director is afraid the continued lockdown makes PH agriculture even badder! The UP group is thinking of thousands; the SEARCA Director is thinking of millions of food producers and millions more adversely affected by the producers adversely affected. The UP group is counting its big data; the SEARCA Director is counting the millions of farmers.

The UP people are happy in their offices – the Filipino farmers are unhappy in their fields and homes. The UP people forget that the human body’s first shield against disease is healthy food, and that if you lockdown agriculture, you are solving some problems and creating a million more!

The UP people want to help in theory, sooner or later; the SEARCA Director wants to help in practice today, now! (image of Modern Warfare from Activision[1])

Jonathan Cellona of ABS-CBN News says the UP group says[2]:

Prematurely lifting the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon could spell catastrophe and might result in surge of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the country.

Melody Mendoza Aguiba reports in the 08 May 2020 of ABS-CBN News[3] what the SEARCA Director is thinking, that is, “Rethink agriculture interventions as Covid-19 lockdown reduces number of farmers, their income, and GDP”:

The government should “rethink” interventions in agriculture as the Covid-19 lockdown has further cut number of farmers and their income – resulting in depressed demand for goods, food insecurity, and declining Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Onto the second month of the lockdown, a decline in Philippines’ agricultural production is being placed at 2.97% due to a decrease in the number of farmers tilling the land.

Due to lockdown, mobility restrictions result (in) quantity reduction in farm labor. If it continues longer, this would translate to reduction in agriculture productivity,

The UP researchers are 3: Guido David (Institute of Mathematics), Ranjit Singh Rye (Department of Political Science), and Ma Patricia Agbulos (OCTA Research). Their paper is titled, “Covid-19 Forecasts In The Philippines: Insights For Policy Making.”

I believe in The One, not The Three. I believe in The One’s insight for policy making now, not later!

SEARCA Director Glenn B Gregorio said:

The loss of income and economic slowdown would also result in decrease in demand, particularly among the farmers and farming families with no safety nets.

Ms Melody said the Director also said:

The downturn in agricultural production is worsened by farmers’ limited access to farm inputs and markets to sell produce. This has already resulted in profit losses and wastage of farm produce such as that in vegetable capital Benguet.

UP Theory versus SEARCA Reality. Over researcher Data, I choose farmer Reality. No, nobody can eat Data!@517

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[1] https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.activision.com%2Fcall-of-duty%2F2019-11%2FModern-Warfare-Tactical-Map-Intel-Krovnik-Farmland&psig=AOvVaw3L1S3OKX4-AlWa3y1wiaOM&ust=1589312127642000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCLj8y9DHrOkCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

[2] https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/23/20/university-of-the-philippines-up-study-on-enhanced-community-quarantine-recommendations

[3] https://growthfeatures.com/2020/05/08/rethink-agriculture-interventions-as-covid-19-lockdown-reduces-number-of-farmers-their-income-and-gdp-searca-chief/?fbclid=IwAR1oZIjvOx8L3N6F7lVGSnoIuJR7nVr1_3lP-l2SK7Y7Cji3d2bp-zIatOs

Asia Limited – It Is Asians Limiting Asia’s Growth!

It is us, not the US, not them. 

For all our aggie troubles, we Southeast Asians, we Filipinos are to blame for our disappointing progress, not having understood well our socio-economic lives. And it is no laughing matter. (Sharing a light moment in a meeting, lower image, head of PH Department of Education Leonor Briones and SEARCA Director Glenn B Gregorio – She is head of SEARCA’s focal PH agency.)

Especially in Agriculture.

Since their May 2020 “SEARCA Policy Paper 2020-1” (upper image), those 4,100 words the authors Glenn B Gregorio and Rico C Ancog spend on the huge subject matter – excluding tables and figures – are too daunting for me, I will concentrate on the most meanings-full paragraph of them all, the 4^th, the items of which jibe with those being addressed by the PH Department of Agriculture, DA, that I support.

The authors say:

The limited capacity of the Southeast Asian countries to maximize the contribution of agriculture in terms of yield and income has been due to a myriad of factors, spanning: relatively small farm holdings; problematic land and tenurial systems; limited availability of high-quality seeds; pests and diseases; constrained access to farm inputs, irrigation, and recommended agricultural practices; weather and climatic hazards; environmental degradation; absence of sufficient safety nets and financial support; and lack of strong market institutions, among others.

Count the ;s plus 1 equals 9: That is a long list of constraints!

“Yield and income” – isn’t that literally but an unconscious affirmation of PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s current slogan, “Ani at Kita!”

9 constraints limiting Southeast Asia from maximizing the outputs and outcomes from its own agriculture within the region. Now then, here are my brief comments on the list: 

(1) Relatively small farm holdings –
Contrary to EF Schumacher, Small is not Beautiful.

(2) Problematic land and tenurial systems –
Sorry, the activists are blaming lack of land ownership as the reason for farmer poverty.

(3) Limited availability of high-quality seeds –
It is only now, during the Covid-19 lockdown, that so much high-quality seeds are quite available, even free.

(4) Pests and diseases –
Wide monocultures bring about pest infestations and disease infections.

(5) Weather and climatic hazards –
Come with the times.

(6) Environmental degradation –
Our farmers have not been working their lands soundly, abusing Mother Nature.

(7) Absence of sufficient safety nets and financial support –
Again, it is only now that the DA, and government financial institutions such as LandBank, are hugely supporting aggie endeavors.

(8) Lack of strong market institutions –
That is why farm producers do not receive their due values from the value chain.

(9) Constrained access to farm inputs, irrigation, and recommended agricultural practices –
I put this one last because:

Access is success!

Irrigation, I leave that to government. Access to farm inputs is essentially controlled by private interests. My prescription? Super Coops, exit Suffer Coops[1]!

Finally, recommended agricultural practices are essentially out of reach of farmers. My prescription?

Bright farmer-friendly, BFF webinars, following SEARCA’s initiative this year. With BFF webinars continuing, for aggie success, sky is the limit!@517

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[1] https://greenfieldsasia.blogspot.com/2020/05/in-ph-handful-of-super-coops-hundreds.html

Gulay Archipelago, PCAARRD’s

This is one of William Dar’s sharing on Facebook, today, 09 May 2020 morning, from the ebook Mga Lutuing Katutubong Gulay (Dishes Of Native Vegetables) published by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development, PCAARRD, based in Laguna.

Next to the Tagalog title page is this instruction in English: “Download this free publication at PCAARRD eLibrary.” Yes, English right after Tagalog; because nobody can translate “Download” and “eLibrary” into Tagalog or any local terms. And PCAARRD does not have to.

(There is a catch. No, you cannot download immediately – PCAARRD has to take your Name, Rank and Serial Number! I’ve gone through this once; Soldier, obey first before you complain! No phone number? No download!)

Now, this PCAARRD project they call Science & Technology Academic & Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosks, STARBOOKS:

STARBOOKS, dubbed as the first Philippine S&T digital library, is a stand-alone information source designed to bring S&T information to the grassroots. It aims to provide S&T-based educational and learning resources in various formats to geographically isolated schools and local government units throughout the country, as well as enhance the educational experience of students in its beneficiary schools.

Among its features:
Stand-alone. Accessible to multiple users. Free.

I saw a figure that there are now 1,476 STARBOOKS installed all over the Philippines, as of May 2017. That’s Good News and Bad News. They were very active intellectually & technically up to May 2017 but idle after that – or there are only 1,476 knowledge-isolated places in my country? (See map.)

I think I know why – PCAARRD made it complicated and expert-demanding to come up with other reading materials, not to mention a bigger national budget. You cannot plant knowledge kiosks forever.

I am not saying they are incapable of, but PCAARRD was not thinking beyond complete ebooks like Gulay. Yes, it looks like they brought themselves into the Gulay Archipelago, no escape, and their island is now their own prison! (The 3-book Gulag Archipelago was written by Russian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn about the Communist Soviet forced labor system[1].) The Filipino Gulay is not forced labor, but the way it is constructed is constricted.

But I love the English of it – no genius can translate download and ebook into any of the local languages just yet. They don’t have to – English is excellent, no matter what the UP Diliman people say for all their nationalism. Knowledge has no nationalism. (But translations later.)

Now, my suggestion is for the ladies & gentlemen of ebooks PCAARRD to come up with a series of slimmer volumes as Farmer’s Options – not designed as ebooks but constructed so that even an illiterate farmer, with the help of his daughter or son with a cellphone, can choose for instance between planting Pinakbet Batch A Vegetables (Ilocano original) and Pinakbet Batch B Vegetables (Bisayas modified). Cooking instructions included. Downloadable anywhere, not only in selected, secluded places.

Then PCAARRD would have made my dinners more exciting as a native Ilocano whose grandfather roots came from Rosario in La Union.

As an Ilocano, Pinakbet is my Gulay Archipelago!@517

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelago

PH Agriculture: Why Do We Filipinos Celebrate In Song The Bad & The Ugly?

To do the good that we can do, we have to know the bad that we have done. And this one I did not know until today, when I’m turning 79 in a little over 4 months time, this little bad song beloved of many Filipinos: (transplanting image from Shutterstock[1], Good Bad Ugly from Alamy[2])

Magtanim Ay Di Biro
(From Akame117[3])

Magtanim ay di biro,
Maghapong nakayuko.
Di man lang makaupo,
Di man lang makatayo.

Braso ko'y namamanhid,
Baywang ko'y nangangawit.
Binti ko'y namimitig,
Sa pagkababad sa tubig.

Sa umagang paggising,
Ang lahat iisipin.
Kung saan may patanim
May masarap na pagkain.

Braso ko'y namamanhid,
Baywang ko'y nangangawit.
Binti ko'y namimitig,
Sa pagkababad sa tubig.

Halina, halina, mga kaliyag.
Tayo'y magsipag unat-unat.
Magpanibago tayo ng lakas,
Para sa araw ng bukas.
Para sa araw ng bukas!

Here is an English translation; it does not matter how good the translation is (it’s bad):

Planting Rice Is Never Fun

Planting rice is never fun
Bent from morn till the set of sun.
Cannot stand and cannot sit,
Cannot rest for a little bit.

Planting rice is no fun
Bent from morn till set of sun
Cannot stand, cannot sit
Cannot rest for a little bit.

Oh, come friends and set us homeward take our way
Now we rest until the dawn is gray
Sleep, welcome sleep, we need to keep us strong
Mom brings another workday long.

Oh my back is like to break
Oh my bones with the damp still ache
And my legs are numb and set
For their long soaking on the wet.

It is hard to be so poor
And such sorrow and pain endure
You must move your arms about
Or you’ll find you must go without.

Akame117 says it was Felipe Padilla De Leon (1912-1992) who composed “Magtanim Ay ‘Di Biro.” He was multi-awarded: Republic Cultural Heritage Award, Rizal Pro-Patria Award, Presidential Award of Merit, and Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award. The last means literally “Guide to Culture Award.” The composer was telling us that actually those husbands & wives & daughters hate transplanting rice!?

But we have loved the song since it was born, up to now. What do you call this inverse behavior now:

“It is one way of Filipinos laughing at Filipinos.“
“If you are a Filipino composer, you can get away with murder!“

I suspect the poem was composed in the spirit of entertaining Americans, tourists or friends. Yes, at our expense. What are friends for?!

But the planting-rice-is-never-fun joke is on us Filipinos. When transplanted, seedlings break their roots and need time to regrow them. Young seedlings, 2 weeks of age, easily regrow those broken roots, then happily go on and produce many tillers that produce the panicles heavy with rice. Higher yield. Ignorant of science, we prefer old seedlings because they are easier to handle. Old seedlings never die, but they produce fewer tillers, because they have wasted their time and energy growing up!@517

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[1] https://www.shutterstock.com/search/farmer+philippines

[2] https://www.alamy.com/good-bad-ugly-image65100996.html

[3] https://www.slideshare.net/akame117/magtanim-ay-di-biro

With Your Desire To Blog, Join Us As A Friend For PH Agriculture!

If you can write a little essay or article or news in English, whether expertly or awkwardly, and you want to join a group learning to be digital friends of PH farmers, welcome to the club! I’m referring to you if you are, or have dreams to be, a different writer, columnist, journalist, lecturer, avant-garde photographer & essayist, preacher, seminar speaker, teacher, or even veterinarian. (image from Digital Friends[1]) 

You ask: How can poor farmers read English? They don’t have to. Their neighbors can, friends, children. With their cellphones, they can also ask questions.

Today, so much knowledge in agriculture needs to be disseminated, so many practices to be shown, shared and adopted. (We leave the Agricultural Training Institute to its own devices.)

We need you to be friends for, bF4, specific crops or livestock, such as.

bF4 banana

bF4 coconut

bF4 corn

bF4 cucumber

bF4 onions

bF4 pinakbet vegetables

bF4 rice.

Now, you don’t know anything about those crops. If your heart is really in writing, you will find a way to find out, I’m sure!

So, email me your interest to learn blogging as a bF4 a crop for our farmers out there. I will try and get funding from Manong Willie for bF4 writers like you, when you are ready, and you will know when I create your blog for you.

Yes, we need loyal support for “The New Thinking For Agriculture” espoused by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie given substance by “The 8 Paradigms.” Don’t worry – I’ll help you understand them even as you write.

You are reading this in my new blog, Greenfields Asia. Why Asia? Because we must dream bigger than ourselves!

I say Greenfields Asia is a genius of a name, a 3-in-1: Name, Mission & Vision – Greenfields, Greenfields, Greenfields! Asia is the expanse. The name is the Tag, dictionary entry; the Mission is the How, method; and the Vision is the Dream, Ultimate Goal.

Greenfields signify earth growing with greens, that is, grasses & crops & trees, with people living nearby in brown houses, families in content.

You don’t need a journalism course to qualify, just passion for country. You can write news or views, do photography, or even paint! (And you can work from home. email me: frankahilario@gmail.com)

In this digital age, we must work for and write beyond the single success story: Everyone must be a winner!

You can be ignorant of anything or everything, but if you are willing to learn, you will!

What about journalistic or writer slant? Yes. To write any story or essay, you need an angle, a point of view, perspective. I will teach you how to come up with a different kind of bias every time! I have mastered creative thinking, see.

Commitment is necessary the very first time, because you must be willing to learn more, or do more, or do better next time!

Above all, remember this:
There are no perfect writers.

I myself always say:
I am not always perfect!@517

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[1] https://www.digitalfriends.it/

In PH, A Handful Of Super Coops, Hundreds Of Suffer Coops!

Help Wanted!

Above is part of the cover of the January-June 2020 issue of PhilRice Magasin, all 20 pages devoted to cooperatives. The issue is advanced, the cause is delayed.

Naturally, the authors talk enthusiastically about their contents. Cristina A Frediles, Editor. Reuel M Maramara, Julianne A Suarez, Zenny C Awing, Anna Marie F Bautista, Allan C Biwang Jr, and Donna Cris P Corpuz. Nonetheless, in the very first article, Ms Cristina says that as of December 2019, we have only 355 registered rice coops with 167,274 member-farmers out of 2 million farmers. That’s 8.36% coop to non-coop farmers. That tells us that cooperativism is barely alive in the Philippines! Personally, I know so-called coops and farmer associations that are dictatorships of their chairs and presidents!

I can appreciate the enthusiasm of those 7 ladies and gentlemen authors of PhilRice in writing about cooperatives in the Philippines – I hope they are trying to convince more people to form cooperatives or become new members of old ones. They should be thinking of Super Coops:

Super Coops, those that empower their members technically,
the ones that enrich their members legally & sustainably!

I have been a member of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative, NMPC, of Asingan, Pangasinan, for years, quite a few of those as a board member – so I know what is going on. As with probably a great many of the coops in the Philippines, poor farmer-members have not prospered enough to earn incomes that sustain good lives above the poverty line.

Compare now. PH Suffer Coops are:

(1)   Bad entrepreneurs.
They ignore the high cost of production of rice in the Philippines: P12/kilo compared to Vietnam where the cost is only P6/kilo!

(2)   Bad transplanters.
They allow their farmer-members to wait for 1 month or longer before they transplant the seedlings. By that time, the roots are well-grown and break when handled from seedbed to field, delaying the growth cycle. Bad botanists!

(3)   Bad managers.
They do not prepare for the needs of their farmer-members in terms of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, planters and transplanters, harvesters, dryers, haulers – all in one place that all the members can ask for pertinent services at a moment’s notice.

(4)   Bad observers.
They probably are not observing. For instance: Why is it that coops do not encourage their member-farmers to plant rice using the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, that has been shown worldwide to be less costly, more productive and therefore more rewarding? It is not in the nature of Filipino farmers to try new things. More coop leaders should “sell” SRI to their members.

(5)   Bad sellers.
Of course the farm supply owners manipulate their prices at planting time, and middlemen manipulate their price of rice at harvest time.

Solution: The Super Coop as Super Manager.

Let us ask the Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie for the Department of Agriculture to willingly provide financial, technical & mechanical assistances for farmers to build their Super Coops and enjoy Super Incomes!@517