Coconut Is A Lazy Man’s Crop – Time To Wake Up The Farmer!

August is PH “National Coconut Month” – looking at/for the national good of coconut farmers and their families, have we been/are we being holistic?

(image of “The Philippines’ Money-Making Tree[1]” from Fareasternagriculture.com)
(image of “Grass is always greener[2]” from Pinterest)

Let’s see! On Monday, 03 August 2021, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) kicked off this year’s celebration; the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) likewise mentioned it. Now, how do you celebrate when you are confused as to the duration of the observance: Is it “National Coconut Week[3]” (according to the PCA itself), or “National Coconut Month[4]” (according to the ATI)? In fact, in another announcement, the PCA says it’s “Month[5]!”

As I rewrite this, 1611 Friday, the conflicting website entries by the PCA itself are still there. I hope that this is a minor lapse in reportage; I am sorrier to see that the PCA has not brought the coconut farmers from rags to riches, or at least to noticeably richer lives.

Madelaine B Miraflorsays, “Coconut Farmers Are Poorest Agri People[6]” (26 October 2020, Manila Bulletin), and I believe that assessment. From what I know as an agriculturist and a wide reader:

What coconut farmers don’t practice, to their downright disadvantage, is farming systems. Now: If the student has not learned, the teacher has not taught!

In 1985, I edited the book Focus On The Small Farmer[7] published by the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute (FSSRI) of UP Los Baños (138 pages) when Elpidio L Rosario was FSSRI Director. It was the proceedings of a seminar-workshop on coconut-based farming systems held in Cebu. I said in my Editor's Introduction:

(During the workshop), it was pointed out that, ultimately, it is the famer's choice that prevails when it comes to crops. However, that should not negate the duty of the researcher-developer-extensionist to provide the farmer adequate and comprehensive information on which to base a farm decision.

I like what Mr Rosario told those attending the farming systems workshop:

As we deliberate in this particular workshop, let's not forget that in practice … the perspective is the FS (farming systems) approach. What I'm trying to say is that let's not get carried away by the technologies we discuss. It is not enough that we share what are the these special technology packages; equally important is that we put emphasis to the FS perspective as to how these technologies are developed and eventually utilized.

You have to be holistic.

Look at the two images again; why is it that we do not see that “the grass is always greener underneath a coconut tree”? We fail to perceive the rich opportunities under the trees – such as growing banana, coffee, cacao, ginger, passion fruit, pineapple, and a variety of vegetables.

If you are in Metro Manila, the nearest intercropped coconut areas can be found in Batangas and Cavite. When tourists visit them, as they often do, they are rewarded physically – while the farm owners are rewarded financially.@517

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[1]https://www.fareasternagriculture.com/crops/agriculture/the-philippines-money-making-tree

[2]https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/367254544602732994/

[3]https://pca.gov.ph/

[4]https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-main/news/08052020-1529/national-coconut-month-strengthens-commodity-promotion-new-normal

[5]https://pca.gov.ph/index.php/2-uncategorised/312-2020-national-coconut-month-opening

[6]https://mb.com.ph/2020/10/25/coconut-farmers-are-poorest-agri-people/

[7]https://amagazinecalledlove.blogspot.com/2010/01/frank-hilario-focus-on-small-farmer.html

William Dar Redefines The Roles Of HEIs In These Times Of Covid Trouble!

 

Setting aside Covid-19 of which I know nothing about, I say, yes, we are in the midst of an unprecedented Man-Made Crises in food production, processing & marketing – with the smallest producers hit the worst. Now then, we should be looking for Man-Made Solutions!

Here I am invoking hope via the images above: UP Los Baños “Oblation” photograph by me dated 08-09-2018; “Prospects” image[1] from Manila Times, 25-03-2021. “Don’t Lose Hope” Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, here he is invoking help: “Agri Chief Calls On HEIs To Help Gov't In Economic Recovery Efforts” in a press release 11 August 2021 by the Department of Agriculture (DA), where he is head.

Mr Dar was inspiring the higher education institutions (HEIs) “to take an active part in implementing the government's action plans” nationally in “addressing the challenges faced by the Philippine agriculture sector.” This was during the virtual forum on “Viewpoints Of The Forerunners: Future Of Agriculture And Food Systems,” conducted by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) 10 August 2021.

Mr Dar was hoping that:

This forum will define the way forward in terms of what is the kind of agriculture that we want to see in this current generation and in the future.

Brave words those! The following list of what to do from Mr Dar is a list for a courageous program of action:

HEIs should proactively engage in creating a quality workforce, driving innovation, increasing employability, upskilling existing workforces, collaborating between education and business, and feeding the country into a knowledge-based economy.

Mr Dar was saying HEIs should in agriculture proactively:

1. produce more high-quality workforce to serve the government;

2.drive innovation, that is, provide the inspiration for and source of new & improved technologies & systems;

3. produce graduates that have high employability;

4. upskill existing employees;

5. collaborate with business concerns;

6. “feed the country into a knowledge-based economy.”

Mr Dar singled out UP Los Baños thus:

While… UPLB is considered as one of the top Philippine universities in terms of research productivity in science, engineering, and health, as reported by the Institutes for Research, Innovation and Scholarship or IRIS, it should step forward in driving agricultural innovation systems in rural areas.

I note: UPLB is not yet driving innovation in the countryside!

I am an alumnus, BSA Ag Education, UP '65. I am a self-taught digital worker, writer, warrior – wide reader. Since 2005, I have blogged thousands of essays in agriculture. The innovation Mr Dar mentions that I am particularly interested in is “a knowledge-based economy.”

He singles out UP Los Baños and says, “It should step forward in driving agricultural innovation systems in rural areas.”

He leaves the matter at hand with an embarrassing question for UPLB officials and alumni:

“Have we measured the degree of influence of UPLB in the transformation of the municipality of Los Baños or the province of Laguna?”

For the answer, go back to the paragraph in italics above beginning thus: “HEIs should proactively engage…”

UPLB, Let Us Begin!@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/03/25/news/national/agricultural-prospects-tackled-in-times-forum/855122

Militant Farmers Need To Fertilize Their Minds, Not Their Fields!

I’m a farmer’s son, a graduate of UP Los Baños, and a wide reader – the last because I want to be a wiser writer. So, I have been reading about the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) – the historic peasant movement of the Philippines. Let’s see now. Have our peasants learned from history yet? Or from agriculture?

MADELAINE B MIRAFLOR says, “Farmers Seek Senate Probe On Rising Cost Of Fertilizer” (10 August 2021, Manila Bulletin):

Farmers are seeking a Senate probe on the rising cost of fertilizer despite the supposed government interventions to bring down farm inputs in the country through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

(KMP) urged lawmakers to probe the steadily rising fertilizer prices burdening rice farmers.

Furthermore, KMP Leader RAFAEL MARIANO said the Department of Agriculture (DA) should explain to Congress where the P10-billion RCEF is going and why it is not helping bring down the cost of farm inputs in the country.

KMP was founded sometime in 1986  (Wikipedia); in the last 35 years, it has not changed its militant tactics – the peasants are still complaining against the actions of public officials and not acting for their private good!

At the top of the page where you’re reading this, is the title of my blog: TIT for TAT. The militants are practicing negative TIT for TAT, not Thinking Inspired Thoughts while forcing Thinking Analytical Traps, as is their historical habit.

Why are KMP peasants not thinking about and/or not practicing farming without chemical fertilizers?! 
(upper image, of a ricefield at sunset , from Businessinquirer.net;
lower image, of soil amendment , from Jobescompany.com)

If they don’t know, let me inform KMP members that farming sans the use of chemical fertilizers has several versions practiced all over the world beginning I don’t know:

biodynamic farming,
natural farming,
organic farming,
regenerative farming,

I call mine, which is simpler than any and all of the above 4, “Green Agriculture Solution,” an adaptation of field-surface mulching – the mulch provides the natural fertilizer at all times as well as the necessary soil moisture for the crops to grow. (See also my essay, “Green Agriculture Solution ,” 08 August 2021, TIT for TAT.)

If KMP farmers don’t know, they have not been thinking that what they know is not enough!

Thus, KMP is complaining about the rising prices of fertilizers and the government not doing much about it – while they do not see themselves in the mirror as not having helped themselves where they can!

Chemical farming is expensive, everybody knows that. It also produces unhealthy foods. Truthfully, non-chemical farming can bring down much the cost of farming.

KMP people demand that the government bring down the cost of chemical fertilizers, but they do not demand that their farmers bring down the cost of their chemical farming!

Instead of merely criticizing government. KMP should come up with its own program to self-empower its members in agripreneurship and environmental conservation, being stewards of their farming, lands, and bank accounts. Of course, they can also partner with government.@517

BAVI Billionaire Mascariñas Says, “Our Most Valuable Assets Are People Who Care.”

 

The eggs hatching into Bounty Agro Ventures Inc (BAVI) growing into a new poultry house valued at P10 billion[1] (as of 2015), were laid when the mother poultry house closed down. The first business lesson BAVI learned? I say, “Count the people who care, and together count the opportunities.”

Ronald Daniel Mascariñas, President & General Manager of BAVI, delivered his virtual address, “Your Character Is Your Destiny[2]” at the 49^th Commencement Exercise of UP Los Baños, 07 August 2021. An animal science alumnus of UPLB, “which he credits for forming his ‘Puso Para sa Pinas’ (Heart for the Philippines), a character trait he now challenges graduates to cultivate.”

He tells the story in 2,323 words of how BAVI started – and succeeded. He was head of Purefoods when San Miguel Corporation bought Purefoods and reorganized it – and many of his co-workers lost their jobs. He says, “A lifetime of security went down the drain and many did not know what to do.”

I left Purefoods and considered my options. Among several, I took on the generous offer of financial backing and a free hand by the Cheng family. They wanted me to build a company and run it the way I ran Purefoods. I started BAVI with my people who lost their jobs from Purefoods.

Truly, Mr Mascariñas cared about his people, and so he started a new company with them. Birds of a feather he flocked together!

Leading my own company, (I) and my team were consumed by work. Given another chance, (nights we turned into days to make sure we succeeded in our new livelihood venture.)

We ventured from a traditional poultry integrator to a retailer of roasted chicken by rolling out Chooks-to-Go. That was purely a defensive move, but in Chooks, we found our true champion. It became our flagship brand and cash cow.

Above, the chicken image says, “Laki Sa Alaga, Hindi Sa Gamot” (Grown With Care, Not With Drugs) and “Zero Antibiotics” (image[3] from Foodbevg.com).

After 20 years (with) BAVI, we have grown to become the largest roasted-chicken company in the land with close to 2,000 retail outlets. We are bigger than our numbers 2 to 10 closest competitors put together.

Wow!

Then pandemonium visited with Covid-19 lockdowns.

We were not prepared to deal with the harsh quarantine measures. Within a week, our cash flow dried up. People just stopped buying our products… We were on the road to bankruptcy.

But Mr Mascariñas knew, “Our most valuable assets (were those employees who cared).” BAVI had them.

I saw the boundless faith, uncommon courage and sterling commitment in the men and women in our ranks who went out… to peddle our chicken in communities on lockdown. Most of them didn’t have to do it. It was not in their job description. But they took to the streets to sell chicken, anyway, and with full knowledge of the personal risks to themselves of contracting the virus.

When enough of your people care enough, your company becomes the very best!@517

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[1]https://r3.rappler.com/business/166551-chicken-bounty-agro-ventures-chooks-to-go-asean

[2]https://bavi.com.ph/2021/08/07/your-character-is-your-destiny/

[3]https://www.foodbevg.com/PH/Cagayan-de-Oro/102584741399173/Chooks-to-Go-Cagayan-De-Oro

TIT for TAT: Follow Teaching Inspired Thinking, Forget Teaching Analytic Thinking!

TIT for TAT: Teaching Inspired Thinking, forgetting Teaching Analytic Thinking. I mean, it’s time to start teaching people how to think for themselves and stop teaching them what is critical thinking at the beginning of each lesson.

TIT for TAT. That is the title of this new blog of mine. By “Follow Teaching Inspired Thinking, Forget Teaching Analytic Thinking!” I mean in all schools always teach creative thinking and ignore critical thinking. Students already are critical thinkers. It is not that the science taught is wrong but that if you want to teach thinking, it must be TIT for TAT!

Actually, at all levels of Education since time immemorial, even without us teachers realizing it, the approved approach has always been teaching critical thinking, notteaching creative thinking. That explains why we have millions of critics on thousands of subject matters, but hardly any creatives in thought and philosophy, political or non-political.

What credentials do I have to teach inspired thinking? I passed the very first Civil Service Teacher’s Exam, given in 1964, 80.5%. In Pangasinan, in the Entrance Exam for Teachers, I was #2 with 90.5% – #1 with 90.6%. I was a college instructor at the UP College of Agriculture (now UP Los Baños) and Xavier University College of Agriculture in Cagayan De Oro City. I am a self-taught writer and editor, print and digital; I have blogged thousands of well-organized essays since 2005.

Talk about control. Talk about creativity. Now I will tell you why I chose the multi-image image above: in one word, perspective. Creativity is the ability to take different perspectives at once, at will.

With my Lumix FZ100 digital camera, I took the above image of my PC setup on my external ViewSonic20-inch monitor 21 April 2018, separate individual images in an inadvertent collage with date by my Windows 10 64-bit system.

For the last year or so, I have been meaning to write this, but it was only when I saw 08 August 2021 on Facebook the 1,660-word Sponsorship Speech dated 17 May 2021 of Senator Win Gatchalian of his proposed “Teacher Education Excellence Act” that I decided to act. The trigger was that I disagreed!

Mr Gatchalian begins with these words:

Mr President, distinguished colleagues, the most important factor in education is the teacher. Schools are only as good or as bad as their teachers.

”The most important factor in education is the teacher.” No, Mr Gatchalian. The most important factor is The Philosophy Behind Education. And I say the philosophy must be: Teaching Inspired Thinking, forgetting Teaching Analytic Thinking! From Grade School to University.

Whatever curriculum, the method must be the same: TIT for TAT. And with that, any subject becomes interesting, nay intriguing, at any level. The learner is now knocking at the door of creativity!

Even in teaching farmers, do not instruct; instead, teach inspired thinking.

You see? Teaching inspired thinking makes education more interesting – and more educational!

The Head of the Teacher is The Teacher – The Best Teacher Teaches Inspired Thinking! Think about that.@517

Inspired Thinking By An Indigenous Electronics Tweenager In Mountain Province

“Necessity is the Mother of Invention[1]” – it’s a proverb that can be traced back to Plato’s Republik (Wikipedia). I say, to be able to invent, you have to know something, to care, to observe – and you have to be inspired.

Jessa Mae Gabonsays, “SAAD Youth Beneficiary Invents Improvised Incubator For Brown Egg Production,” 06 August 2021 (SAAD.gov.ph). He is Jomarie Pacpacong, 24 years old, a native of Leseb, Bauko in Mountain Province, and an electronics graduate of the Baguio College of Technology (BCT). Out of available materials Jomarie had improvised an incubator for the “Brown Egg Production Project” of Leseb Community Farmers Association (LCFA). On August 2019, the hens came from the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program under the Department of Agriculture (DA). (Congrats Jomarie and BCT; and thank you, SAAD!)
(image[2] from SAAD but which I chopped and made shorter)

Joemarie says:

Lockdown ket napansin ko nga ginmaget dagiti pakpakanen nga inted iti program nga ag-itlog, sunga napanunot ko kasla mayat padasen iti agpa-adu met iti manok ken tapnu adda kuma maisukat nu kas-kas-anu. Diyayen nga na-antig ti curiousitik nu kas-anu nga usaren agpa-pissa iti incubator ta imbag la nga adda ar-aramiden ken pang-i-apply-an iti kaamuwan iti electronics ken advance nga technology sunga in-youtube ko.

(My free translation: “During the lockdown last year, I noticed that the hens we were feeding given by the Program were “industriously” laying more eggs than usual, so I thought why don’t we try to multiply the flock to be able to replace the old stock when the time comes. My curiosity was aroused and to spend my time and apply what I knew of electronics, I thought of an incubator for hatching eggs, and did research on YouTube.)

He built it in about 1 week.

They have had a problem with the incubator – no other electrical power source during brownouts. With 4 batches of incubation so far, a total of 102 eggs, LCFA had only 19 eggs hatching from 2 batches.

Nonetheless, LCFA made money from the hatchlings. Priced at P200/head, the LCFA earned P2,400 from selling 12-week old birds. The rest supplemented the shortage of ready-to-lay-stocks in the locality.

I note that the invented incubator is for an association of farmers – I favor that the DA work enthusiastically with associations and cooperatives for 2 reasons: (1) people enjoy more economies of scale, and (2) the DA helps more people.

Jomarie is the son of Nelia Pacpacong, grandson of Helen Coniyat, who are among the 125 members of the LCFA, which is dominantly composed of Kankanaey indigenous people. (I know Baguio City is mostly Kankanaey, the ones we simply call “Igorot.”)

Ms Jessa says, “The association is grateful for how a son of theirs was able to come up with (an improvised) technology that could inspire the association to push with their future dream of breeding their own stock.” From the brown eggs, LCFA has earned an additional income of P29,322.

“Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age” – Jonathan Swift.@517

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

[2]http://saad.da.gov.ph/2021/08/saad-youth-beneficiary-invents-improvised-incubator-for-brown-egg-production/?fbclid=IwAR1tyQPAKQMVHmkk6QL_zLw4imFLH6bWmkd-pGMwCRIK6LKobpGbMm0X56s

How Agriculture Can Resolve The Dilemma Of Greenhouse Gases!

On Facebook, Bonar Laureto’s sharing from the World Resources Institute was “10 Key Solutions Needed To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” My comment was:

I can give another one (key solution): guess! The World Resources Institute did not look or investigate wide or deep enough! Will write on this.

So here am I. Here are the items in the hard-to-read WRI list of 10 above:

1.     PHASE OUT coal plants.

2.     INVEST in clean energy & efficiency.

3.     RETROFIT buildings.

4.     DECARBONIZE cement, steel & plastics.

5.     SHIFT to electric vehicles.

6.     INCREASE public transport.

7.     DECARBONIZE aviation and shipping.

8.     HALT deforestation & RESTORE degraded lands.

9.     REDUCE food loss and waste.

10. EAT more plants & less meat.

(In the above list, “Decarbonize” is repeated, in #4 and #7 – that tells me WRI did not examine their examination of the matter!

Even granting that WRI is correct, how soon do we get measurable results from any of the “key solutions” to reduce climate change? I’m waiting!

Now, I personally know of a single step to reduce GGs instantly and massively! It’s in Agriculture, which the “10 Key Solutions” miss entirely. I call it:

Green Agriculture Solution (GAS).

I assure you GAS works immediately and literally, eliminating greenhouse gas from Agriculture!

Do you know how big, colossal, gargantuan, immense, massive the results of stepping up on Frank A Hilario’s GAS will be to the whole world? First, know that in my country the Philippines alone, there are 13 million hectares of agricultural land[1]. Immediately zero – applying GAS, there will be zero chemical fertilizer runoffs, zero nitrates from field irrigation water running into streams, zero ammonia from animals’ waste!

This is how my Green Agriculture Solution works:

With crop leftovers and/or weeds on your field, run a rotavator superficially, blades cutting down to only 2-3 inches of the soil surface, thoroughly cutting & mixing soil with vegetation. That is your instant & field-wide application of organic matter.

If you doubt the wisdom of FAH as all gas, I challenge you to set everything up in your field, in my presence, plant rice whichever variety you want the way you want it – and watch what happens from planting to harvesting. My GAS is all green; no chemical fertilizers applied, no chemical pesticides sprayed – and no organic fertilizer of any kind concocted and spread all across the field either.

Why? Because my Green Agriculture Solution will produce the organic fertilizer necessarily and automatically.

Once you apply my GAS, these will happen immediately:

(1)   GGs will be reduced to nada, nil, none, zero – simply because you don’t apply chemical fertilizers.

(2)   Farm will instantlybecome richer in plant nutrients – you incorporate organic materials, and that happens the very first minute you cultivate the soil.

(3)   Soil in the field will not erode, and the moisture will be retained, by the organic materials.

Where my GAS formula is applied in any farm or garden devoted to crops & livestock, these will be the instant results: zero greenhouse gases & healthy foods!@517

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[1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/1045556/land-area-used-for-agricultural-crop-cultivation-philippines/