Ilocano Pinakbet Has A Pest Management Lesson For You!

Main image: Locusts big and small. My screen capture of a video of a locust swarm wanting to feast on an unidentified cornfield, video by a non-Filipino shared on Facebook by SRO[1]. My reaction was, in 1 word: “Monocropping.” It is monoculture that brings the plague of pests anywhere in the world.

I meant, if a few locusts find a large tract of cornfield, they will feast on it and grow in numbers – and attack the next cornfield in greater number, and so on and so forth. A law of Mother Nature.

In monoculture, there is no balance of nature. Why don’t we have swarms of locusts in the Philippines when we also grow corn? Because we don’t have very wide fields of corn like those in Africa (where the above video probably comes from).

Pranav Baskar has written, “Locusts Are A Plague Of Biblical Scope In 2020. Why? And ... What Are They Exactly[2]? ” (14 June 2020, NPR). Among other things, he says, ”Hundreds of millions of the insects have arrived in Kenya, where they're destroying farmland" –

Titanic swarms of desert locusts resembling dark storm clouds are descending ravenously on the Horn of Africa. They're roving through croplands and flattening farms... unprecedented threat to food security.

We don’t have to live in Africa to learn the Lesson of the Locusts: Look for natural enemies of the locusts. The Department of Agriculture of Australia[3] has a list of such natural enemies: wasps, flies, mites, nematodes, protozoans, fungi, bacteria and viruses, predators.

The same story with diseases that devastate your rice or onion or sugarcane or whatever crop. If you don’t have crops that encourage the multiplication of the natural enemies of those pests and diseases, you get only the pests and diseases!

To avoid having to resort to insecticides and fungicides, farmers have the choice of multiple cropping, intercropping or simply trap cropping – except that these are not being emphasized by farm technicians, and I have yet to read my alma mater, UP Los Baños underscoring such types of cropping.

My favorite “model” for a farm that enjoys a natural balance of populations of insects, worms and so on is the planting in same field of the Pinakbet Vegetables: tomato, eggplant, string bean, okra, and ampalaya (bitter gourd). That is to say, the insects that love the tomatoes have to contend with the insects that love the eggplant and those that love the string bean and so on – no, they cannot multiply to an infestation population.

About the pinakbet, it is cooked with a little bit of pork, preferably belly. The Ilocano pinakbetis short for pinakebbet, made to shrink – each of the ingredients in that mix is made to shrivel by cutting only tips of vegetables and not opening the pot while cooking is going on. That’s keeping your health inside those things. (Pinakbet image from Busy Beta[4], where the squash makes it a Tagalog pinakbet.)

The Ilocano pinakbet is a lesson in healthy cooking – but first, healthy farming!@517

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[1]https://www.facebook.com/100039782648500/videos/273557047313715/
[2]https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/14/876002404/locusts-are-a-plague-of-biblical-scope-in-2020-why-and-what-are-they-exactly
[3]https://www.agriculture.gov.au/pests-diseases-weeds/locusts/about/about_locusts4]https://busy.org/@zoeroces/pinakbet-of-ilocano

Farmers & “The New Gains Revolution”

To the Facebook sharing by Roberto Acosta of John Berthelsen's “Scientists Renew The Green Revolution[1]”, 22 June, my comment was:

Still short – revolutionizing only the crop, not the farming where the farmer gets proper rewards for his labor – sans usurers, sans merchants.

No: “New Grains Revolution.”
Yes: “New Gains Revolution.”
Small Change, Big Change!

Thanks but no thanks to Bill Gates who funded the generation of Green Super Rices initially at IRRI in Los Baños, Laguna. I was Freshman at the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, when IRRI was born, so you can say I grew up with IRRI in the fields of agriculture.

No John, we are past the need for a New GrainsRevolution and now need a New Gains Revolution!

Don’t get me wrong, John. I love what is called Green Super Rice, GSR (above image); in fact, I praised it 5 years ago (“Green Super Rice[2],” 25 June 2015, INA DAGA). This was about Indian farmer Asha Ram Pal of Uttar Pradesh who obtained a yield of 4.5 tonnes, where before that field used to give him only 1 tonne! It was the GSR.

Yet, what are 3.5 more tonnes of rice grains per hectare for if the gains are not capable of releasing the rice farmer from poverty?!

So you see, John, I knew about the New Grains Revolution, my term, at least 5 years ago. Yet, what we need today is the New Gains Revolution!(above inset image of hands and money from Golden Mastermind[3]).

John, in the Philippines, as the son of a farmer, I knew even when I was that high that the usurer was the enemy of the farmer in our rural village of Sanchez in Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, Philippines. One other enemy of the farmer was the merchant – because of debts, the rice farmer had to sell his harvest at harvest time, and that’s a heaven-sent time for the merchant, who would then offer a measly sum for the grains, and the poor farmer had to accept the offer because he would have nothing else. Secretary of Agriculture William Dar knows all these and what needs be done

So, the times of plant breeders are past, John. We are now looking for people who would encourage farmers to become members of a multi-purpose cooperative that would manage the aggie businesses of the farmers. This type of coop I call Super Coop, of which I first wrote 6 years ago (see my essay, “Brain Gain[4],” 01 June 2014, Frank A Hilario).

John, what we are going after now is not only more grains but more gains for each farmer to rise above poverty.

What we need to cultivate now, John, is not any new variety or crop but a new variety of farmer. And no, John, the farmer in The New Gains Revolution need not go to school, need not be young, and need not be a landowner. He needs only be a thinker of more gains and less grains!@517

 

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[1]https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/scientists-renew-the-green-revolution?fbclid=IwAR0-JUSVIP-QVFbxAc7mw4BWYIM2cyKQmsR5wZsMzqHXCut5zwFAB1zu8x4
[2]http://inadaga.blogspot.com/2015/06/green-super-irri.html
[3]https://blog.goldenmastermind.com/money-quotes/
[4]http://frankahilario.blogspot.com/2014/06/brain-grain.html

Why In PH Agriculture, Science Is Not Helping Journalism, & Journalism Is Not Helping Farming

The title of Bruce Tolentino’s Facebook sharing above is, “NEDA Urges Intensified Agricultural R&D To Improve Food Security.” It looks innocent, but it is not.

The source of the news item is the document titled “Inter-Agency Task Force Technical Working Group For Anticipatory And Forward Planning” – you can see that the headline is actually saying that it is NEDA and NEDA alone that has seen the need for intensified aggie R&D! You are looking at the usual PH journalistic hyperbole to catch your attention as a reader.

Actually, it is not NEDA saying that – it is ANN (my acronym for Author Not Named) – as usual the PH journalist is reporting in exaggeration with an intent to shock:

NEDA urges… intensified aggie R&D… food security.

The news is implying that it is NEDA alone that sees the urgency of the matter. This is an example of PH journalism –

Story going for the slant of surprise.

Sorry, but it is wrong. Even if you intensify aggie R&D, you cannot achieve food security – you can only achieve food sufficiency, which is an entirely different thing.

PH journalism must learn 2 things:

One: Do not sacrifice accuracy for shock.
Two: Know the correct meaning of the term you use.

Food sufficiencyis physical; food security is political (policy). Under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, the Philippines is going after food security, while aggie R&D is going after food sufficiency.

For both problems of lack of food security and of food insufficiency, I science writer blame them on budget constraints.

Being an alumnus of the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, and being off-and-on science writer in the last 45 years, and incessant blogger in the last 13 years, I know personally that, for instance, the College of Agriculture & Food Science, CAFS, of UPLB had been conducting as much R&D in postharvest handling of fruits and vegetables since 1977, as its budget allowed. For CAFS, I have just translated from English to Ilocano a brochure on hot water treatment of tomatoes to preserve freshness while awaiting processing or sale. That is to say, it is the lack of funding that is the problem, not the lack of science or planning for R&D.

So, when the news came out that a farmer somewhere in the mountains of Luzon dumped so many tons of tomatoes along the road, it showed that the science of postharvest storage of “extra” tomatoes has not reached the countryside. It’s the lack of budget, not the lack of science.

That is because UP Los Baños has not been diligent in transforming technical literature into popular language reading materials. It’s the budget. We recover as one, but one of us needs higher budget!

Why cannot the Philippines take care of its sciences so that the new or improved sets of knowledge, technologies and systems can be translated from technical jargon into the language that the people in the countryside can apply?

Ask UP Los Baños: PH aggie science awaits higher PH budget!@517

The 4th Of July, My Independence Day!

Yes sir! Yes mam! My favorite PH Independence Day is today, the 4^th of July – it was 04 July 1946 when the United States of America gave back my country the Philippines the right to govern itself that it had won back from the Japanese invaders of these islands.

No, not the 12^th of June. Here’s why. From the “Philippine Declaration of Independence[1]” (Wikisource):

And, lastly, it was resolved unanimously that this Nation… must use the same flag… and the colors of Blue, Red, and White, commemorating the flag of the United States of North America, as a manifestation of our profound gratitude towards this Great Nation for its disinterested protection which it lent us and continues lending us. (image of 2 flags from Catholic Global Mission[2])

Even Emilio Aguinaldo knew the value of the US of A! “... this Great Nation for its disinterested protection which it lent us and continues lending us.”

We declared our Independence from Mother Spain and at the same time in the same document declared our Dependence on the United States of America! Goodbye Independence Day 12 June 1898!

Anyway, I have loved the English language, American English, ever since I borrowed my first copy of the Reader’s Digest from the library of our high school, Rizal Junior College, RJC, in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan. I ransacked the RJC library. I was in love with the Digest, TIME and Newsweek, books on British and American literature, westerns, and poems. Among other things, I memorized the Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln, Preamble of the US Constitution, The Highwayman by British poet Alfred Noyes, Psalm Of Life by American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and so on and so forth.

A loner, I just loved the worlds opened to me by reading the best works in the English language.

In 1965, I graduated from the UP College of Agriculture with a BS Agriculture degree major in Ag Education. That continued my love for the English language because teaching in the Philippines was all in English more than 50 years ago.

In 1975, I began to work as the Editor In Chief of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, and I fathered all 3 FORI publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical forestry journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. Of course, they were all in English.

Today, I have the unchallenged 5-year claim of being the “World's creative genius online, most prolific writer of non-fiction. Frank A Hilario[3],” the tagline in my blog Creative Thinkering.

Today, by blogging, I continue to actively support The New PH Agriculture in the mind of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, with his “The New Thinking For Agriculture” as accompanied by the “8 paradigms” of (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. (8) Roadmap development.

So, tell me, how can I not love the 4^th of July as Philippine Independence Day when it gave me the language I adore?!@517

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[1]https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Philippine_Declaration_of_Independence
[2]https://xaverianmissionaries.org/missionblog/july-4th-is-philippine-american-friendship-day/
[3]http://creativethinkering.blogspot.com

PH Aggie Journalists Always Talk Of Innovation But Ignore What SEARCA Now Also Emphasizes – Sustainability

Before I forget and before anyone completely ignores it, ever since UPLB Professor Glenn B Gregorio became Director of SEARCA 1 year ago, that SEARCA has been innovating and coming out with ideas like Accelerating Transformation Though Agricultural Innovation, ATTAIN (part of its 11^th Five-Year Plan).

Despite the implication of balance in the very name 2020, to SEARCA this year is not to be balanced – it has to be innovated on, transformed, modernized, not to mention engaged in “Education and Collective Learning,” which is a SEARCA modernization in itself. Nice touch!

Really, since I am a graduate of UP College of Agriculture, UPCA, now UP Los Baños, where SEARCA is based, I have been in and around this institution since its birth in 1966, when I was a Substitute Instructor in Horticulture at UPCA – but SEARCA has never been this intellectually informed and informationally aggressive.

And so I quote from Leah Lyn D Domingo’s institutional news, “SEARCA Unveils New Strategy To Push Agricultural Innovation[1]” (01 July 2020, SEARCA), saying that from 01 July 2020, SEARCA will from now on be guided to ATTAIN “the transformation of farmers who are stuck in the belief that farming is limited to production, into new farmers operating in a modern agriculture ecology,” as according to Mr Gregorio. He says:

For the next five years, SEARCA commits to accelerate transformation that elevates the quality of life of agricultural families through sustainable livelihoods and access to modern networks and innovative markets.

I especially note the 3 terms caught in that sentence:
sustainable livelihoods
access to modern networks
innovative markets.

Sustainable livelihoods – When you read PH newspapers and magazines, 99% of stories are about successful individuals, mostly professionals and/or those with access to adequate capital. Each of those stories is about a livelihood that is sustainable – only to that individual farmer concerned, not any other farmer, for lack of resources. The success story is notrepeatable. The writers of those single success stories mistake sustainability with individual success. And this journalism has been going on for 60 years! (sustainability image from Massage Magazine)

As I am finishing this essay, on Facebook, I see being shared Zac Sarian’s story titled “Farming When Money Is Not A Problem.” Precisely, my friend, money is always a problem to the poor farmer! I am the son of a farmer, and my father was not poor, but he always had a problem with money – he did not know how to save. Which characterizes many Filipino farmers today: They do not know how to save money!

Access to modern networks. “Networks” means both physical and digital. The value chain is a network, and should not be ignored, as often it is. Today, the digital network is for everyone, and you are left far behind if you do not harness its power of translocation!

Innovative markets. With innovation, a country’s economy will thrive.PH aggie entrepreneurs, farmers included, must come up with new or improved products for exports.

Innovation with Sustainability? We can ATTAIN!@517

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    [1]https://www.searca.org/news/searca-unveils-new-strategy-push-agricultural-innovation

How About “One Ebullient Cordillera – Embracing The New Normal Towards Prosperity!”?

Inset, the Facebook sharing of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar after having been appointed as Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security in the Cordillera Administrative Region, CORDS-CAR, the region aiming for “One Resilient Cordillera” under a Whole of Nation Approach – in peace. This is exactly how I would love the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, BARMM, to behave as a whole people: Security along with Development.

It is the Ilocanos who have been in peaceful association with the Igorots, the Cordillerans. The Ilocanos and Igorots respect each other’s distinct culture, with ethnic jokes coming back & forth. I know because I am an Ilocano, and I have visited Baguio City a great many times not to notice. (I also notice the disappearing native pine trees, but that’s another story.)

So, I am not surprised that William Dar, an Ilocano like me, such that he prefers to be called Manong Willie, is supporting the Cordillerans in their fight against the Communist Party of the Philippines, CPP, along with the Cordillerans in their fight against poverty in the nature-rich mountains.

In his support statement on Facebook, Manong Willie says:

Together, let us commend and support the people of Sadanga for keeping and upholding their indigenous ways and a rich history against tyranny and terrorism. Indeed, our communities must remain free and not become bases for terror groups and their illegal activities.

That is part of the statement of support of Manong Willie to the Elders of Sadanga and Mayor Gabino Ganggangan. Sadanga, under Mayor Gabby, is the most active municipality in all of Mountain Province in terms of development programs along with the defense of the people’s way of life. In any case, when Manong Willie says “Sadanga” there, he means all of the Cordillera.

I say: Not only should it be to declare as persona non grata the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and other leftist organizations, but to declare persona non grata poverty of the Cordillera peoples!

If I were Mayor Gabby, that statement of support from Manong Willie will serve as the key to opening opportunities and knocking down obstacles towards the regional development not only of Sadanga but all of the Cordillera. Mayor Gabby must note, if he has not already done so, that Manong Willie has come out, even before he was appointed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as Secretary of Agriculture on 05 August 2019, with his “The New Thinking For Agriculture” that has 8 components that he refers to as “8 paradigms,” and these are: (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.

There must be new thinking for agriculture in the Cordilleras!
(Thinking about BARMM.)

The Facebook post from PIA Cordillera says, “One Resilient Cordillera embracing the new normal towards recovery.” #WHOLEOFNATION.

Beyond recovery, anybody or group talking of any of those 8 paradigms are friends of the Cordillerans.

In there, the Ilocanos will stand with the Igorots!@517

When Some Filipino Farmers Went Fishing, Du30 Looked And Said, “No Catch!”

Wrong occupation!

The farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, SINAG, according to Arianne Merez of ABS-CBN News (Monday, 30 June 2020), had “alleged that the DA bought overpriced fertilizers… and that “the DA could have saved P2.5 million if it bought fertilizer for the commercial price of P850 a bag instead of P990.”

That would have been infuriating, were it not for the fact that it was funny!  Because SINAG went fishing at low tide when they should have gone fishing at high tide (see image above from WorldFish[1]). Not being fishers? No catch!

This is the 2^nd time I am writing about the alleged overprice of urea fertilizers bought by the Department of Agriculture, DA. The first time, this is what I wrote (“PH Fertilizer Purchase: “We Saved P2.2 Billion” – Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar[2],” 15 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital):

On Wednesday, 10 June 2020, Inquirer.net ran the report by Gabriel Pabico Lalu, “Farmers Claim Fertilizers Given As Part Of COVID-19 Aid Are Overpriced.” Mr Lalu quoted farmers William Laureta of Tarlac and Ernesto Agustin Domingo of Nueva Ecija as saying that the Department of Agriculture, DA, bought 1.811 million bags of urea fertilizer for a total cost of P1.8 million at P1,000/bag. The farmers claimed that the retail price of urea was only P850/bag, or a total overprice of P271 million.

Now note: The farmers’ groups could not even agree how much the DA could have saved if the fertilizers were not “overpriced” – P2.5 million (SINAG) and P271 million (Tarlac & Nueva Ecija farmers). It is obvious to me they don’t have all the facts in! The 2 farmers’ groups were fishing in 2 different waters.

That is what happens when tillers of the soil try their hands at a skill they are not adept at: fishing!

In any case, our President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has stomped his feet and said, “No irregularities in the DA purchase of urea fertilizers[3],” as reported by Arianne Merez (30 June 2020, ABS-CBN News):

President Rodrigo Duterte reported to Congress on Monday that there were no irregularities in the Department of Agriculture's purchase of urea fertilizers as the Senate prepares to investigate claims of overpricing from farmers' groups.

There could not have been overpricing because the bidding was open. Duterte said:

As to the alleged overpricing in the procurement of urea fertilizer, the DA has reported that the centralized fertilizer bidding (was) above board, transparent, and (had) in fact brought urea prices down.

In my earlier essay, I said:

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar says, in a memorandum to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, thru Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, that in fact the DA bought 5.69 million bags of urea at P1,000/bag and, by my (FAH’s) computation, saved the government at least P2.2 Billion!

How can you overprice a commodity by P2.5 million (SINAG), by P271 million (Tarlac & Nueva Ecija farmers), and at the same time save by P2.2 billion (DA)?

Crazy!@517

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[1]http://pubs.iclarm.net/resource_centre/2014-47.pdf
[2]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/ph-fertilizer-purchase-we-saved-p22.html
[3]https://news.abs-cbn.com/amp/news/06/30/20/duterte-to-congress-no-irregularities-in-da-fertilizer-deal?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR0P_F1QEGGn32BstknSZj9KrOVLBad71lr_Sc4HkkpalTCmgrVawCulxSU