06.LetMyPeopleGo – We Must Bring Back Soil Health – William Dar. Here’s To Your Health!

“Bring back soil health. It is a must!” 

We must go back to healthy soils. This comes from the Facebook sharing of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie; soil health was his main message during the 3^rdSEALNET Meeting on 23 September 2019 at the Bureau of Soils & Water Management, Quezon City. SEALNET is the Asian Soil Laboratory Network, established in Bogor, Indonesia, in November 2017, for “the harmonization of soil laboratory methods[1].” (I can’t find anything more about the Network, except that the leadership is female; the current Chair is Gina Nilo of the Philippines.)

“Bring back soil health. It is a must!” I have never heard of any PH Secretary of Agriculture saying anything remotely related to the health of the soil as a crucial national resource. I am not surprised with Manong Willie saying that because he was from 2000 to 2014 the Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India – if you do not aim to bring back soil health to the semi-arid tropics, what kind of international science leader are you?

I know much about Manong Willie’s leadership work at the ICRISAT because he appointed me international consulting writer for the institute, and I wrote from 2007 to 2014, and ICRISAT published 7 books of mine about its aims and achievements. And so I know that, relevant in this case, for 9 years under his leadership until he retired, ICRISAT was the leading institution in the farming renaissance throughout the Indian state of Karnataka. The project was called Bhoochetana(Revival of the Soil). It reached over 26,000 villages and 4.2 million farmers; with science-backed innovations, the Indian farmers experienced 20 to 66% higher crop yields and obtained net benefits totaling US$ 453 million in 9 years[2].

And so, here was Manong Willie asking his SEALNET audience: “Why is bringing back soil health a must?” His answer was: “The soil is the foundation of the food system, and with the continuous degradation of this important resource, it will affect the entire production system.” And no, “Even if you have superior genetic materials to grow, if the soil is depleted (of plant nutrients), food productivity levels will just continue to go down.”

He called for all SEALNET member-countries “to elevate the game in rejuvenating the soil, otherwise we will not be able to optimize agriculture to feed the growing population.” The Facebook sharing does not mention if Manong Willie talked about Bhoochetana, but the experience is the source of the statement by him “that a massive soil fertility mapping must be carried out all over the Philippines as part of its efforts in revitalizing the soil.”

With 23 member countries across Southeast Asia, SEALNET “aims to calibrate and harmonize soil laboratory methods for sustainable management and protection of soil resources.” I say if those countries get their act together and carry out an Asian version of the Indian Bhoochetana, their peoples will also go from rags to riches!@517

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[1] http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/pillars-action/5-harmonization/sealnet/en/

[2] https://www.icrisat.org/bhoochetana-an-exceptional-story-of-innovation-scale-up-in-agriculture-bringing-prosperity-to-over-4-million-farmers/

05.LetMyPeopleGo – When PH Journalism Is Lacking While PH Rice Is Not!

For sure, armchair journalist, that’s me before, during and after this coronavirus lockdown. But I never run out of content – and certainly not context – when I write my news-views. 

Christina Mendez of The Philippine Star, who wrote the story accompanied by the image above, may not be an armchair journalist, but her article runs out of content – and context – I’m sorry to say. And no, it is not a minor lack.

The title of her Star story is, “Philippines Seeks ASEAN Help In Sourcing 300k MT Of Rice[1]” (above image). In content, the title is justified because, as Ms Christina says:

The government has tasked the DA and concerned agencies to work on the importation of an additional 300,000 metric tons of rice through government-to-government arrangements with ASEAN trading partners and/or from all sources, including India and Pakistan at the ASEAN-level tariff.

But when you read her article of 218 words, including the title, the context is that the Philippines is running out of rice stocks!

In fact, the context is subtle – and not subtle. In her 5^thand last paragraph, Ms Christina says:

To ensure food adequacy in the country in the next few weeks while the country is in a state of calamity, Nograles said the task force has directed LGUs to allow farming and fishing activities to continue;  and  allow the free movement of all supplies used for agriculture, including food packaging and manufacturing materials.

“To ensure food adequacy in the country” is pardonable, but not “while the country is in a state of calamity” – since she does not explain the calamity, the reader will equate it with the country truly running out of rice stocks.

No, Ms Christina, the Philippines is not running out of rice stocks even right to this minute!

The problem has arisen out of lack of intelligence – where “intelligence” means, according to American Heritage Dictionary, “information, especially secret information gathered about an actual or potential enemy or adversary[2].” The “potential enemy” in Ms Christina’s story is “lack of rice stocks.” In other words, her story is factual, but she did not bother to add content – and thereby change context – to her story.

The truth of the matter is that online in the same newspaper, PhilStar, before Ms Christina’s story, Louise Maureen Simeon on 13 March 2020 wrote “Government Assures Public Of Stable Rice Supply[3].” Ms Louise said, “NFA administrator Judy Dansal said there are 455,000 bags of rice in Metro Manila which is good for 40 days.” And, Ms Louise says, “The continuing transfer of 2.22 million bags of rice to NCR from the nearby rice-producing regions is also being fast-tracked.”

Not only that. Your armchair journalist has found this bit of news from the official page of the DA dated 13 March 2020 (image): 

DA Chief: “Don’t panic, we have enough food!”

Female-shared or male-supplied, very negatively-slanted journalism is at least 100 years old in the Philippines. It is time to kick the bastard out of this beloved country of ours!@517

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[1] https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/03/29/2004027/philippines-seeks-asean-help-sourcing-300k-mt-rice?fbclid=IwAR1EF-PEJze4p3rjvnBblp3ccBmqbwo12P0saJb0tsPWH72I_KQ18zmBh44&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Autofeed

[2] https://www.thefreedictionary.com/intelligence

[3] https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/03/13/2000288/government-assures-public-stable-rice-supply

04.LetMyPeopleGo – My Response To Eufemio Rasco’s Challenge To Grow Your Own Food

Eufemio Rasco’s Facebook sharing very early this morning, Sunday, 29 March 2020: 

“If all of us must stay home, we should grow our own food! Mahirap ba imemorize yan?”

The last part: A Filipino joke: “Is that difficult to memorize?” Actually, it is saying, “That’s not difficult to remember, you…!” No insults intended, I hope.

The first part: That is a logical thing to think. However, these are not rational times. So, my Facebook comment was this:

hindi lang mahirap, hindi puede - wala kami ni 1 square foot of earth to plant. don't tell me to plant on pots - wala ring space. you don't know how it is to be land-poor.

(It’s not only difficult, it’s impossible – we don’t even have 1 square foot of earth to plant. don’t tell me to plant on pots – still no space.)

“Grow your own food” (image from Grow Your Own Food, Facebook[1]). Not to be simply ignored, Mr Rasco is a former Executive Director of PhilRice. After an hour or two thinking about this, I remembered my standing agricultural challenge that I have blogged about, since last year or the year before. I will again write about it, this time challenging Mr Rasco to sponsor it financially, and calling it now:

H Farming:
Horticulture Helping Homes Harvest High in Farming

H Farming is now my challenge to Mr Rasco:

If you have at least 2 ha of riceland, or if you know someone who is willing to turn his property into a project for the hungry during the lockdown, anywhere in Pangasinan, Bulacan, Batangas or Laguna, and pay for the inputs, I will be Project Leader; I will visit infrequently and need help just for food and accommodation. Now, the project description:

Land: 2 ha, Irrigation not necessary.

Planting materials: rice seeds, moringa cuttings, vegetable seeds.

Equipment (hired): hand tractor with rotavator blades.

H Farming Area 1:
1 ha, rice only, planted using the technique called System of Rice Intensification, with 20 cm x 20 cm distance of planting single seedlings.

H Farming Area 2:
1 ha, multiple cropping; planted to rice and vegetables, plus trees such as coconut, santol, coffee, cacao, mango. No fertilizer, chemical or organic – to enrich the soil, immediately and naturally, I will have the area “plowed” using a hand tractor, making sure that not the farmer’s choice disc blades (round) are used but Frank’s Choice of rotavator blades (L-shaped). Frank’s Choice is backed by a 50-year experience with my brother-in-law Inso in Asingan, Pangasinan, whom I taught how to use the rotavator so that it will cut the soil and weeds together in small pieces, mixing them as it rolls along the field, thereby laying a surface mulch all over the place. It is the surface mulch that begins immediately to turn into true organic fertilizer to grow healthy crops.

Mr Rasco, or anyone else, if you agree to the above, my battle cry “LetMyPeopleGo” now has a new meaning: “Release my people from the bondage of chemical agriculture!”@517

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[1] https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Grow-Your-Own-Food-400182200097640/

03.LetMyPeopleGo – Boosting Your Health To Fight Covid-19: William Dar

Rita Dela Cruz of the Communications Group of the (new) Department of Agriculture, DA, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie shared last week on Facebook this: 

Agriculture Secretary William Dar reiterates his advice to the consuming public to look after their health by eating nutritious vegetables and fruits to boost their immune system in fighting Covid-19.

“Eating nutritious vegetables and fruits to boost… immune system.”

Better late than never!

Today, with that quote from Sec Dar, those 4 familiar words just above have as one 2 meanings:

One, procrastination– You have either postponed or ignored your own body’s need for a stronger immune system.

Two, ignorance – I myself did not know how to deal with what looked like dermatitis – my long-distance daughter Dida’s New York-UP Institutes of Health diagnosis via my PH daughter Ela's cellphone photography – on the lower part of my left foot above the ankle for the last 2 weeks. No, I did not go see a medical doctor; I wanted an herbal or such doctor to deal with it. Yet, too expensive. Surf the Web. No success. It had been painful, yes. And it swelled unless I elevated that foot above my reclining body.

Then, yesterday afternoon, Saturday, in desperation, I crushed 2 tablets, 500 mg each, of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) on a generous amount of virgin coconut oil, VCO – and applied liberally by my own hand my own concoction. And? And lo and behold, this morning, Sunday, I woke up at about 0200 hours, and what did I see? No more swelling! No more pus! No more pain! Let God be praised! And Vit C, and VCO! You have to help yourself.

Yes, we have to take care of our own health – and we can. We have to.

Now, back to the coronavirus, Covid-19. All media is newsing us 99.99% of the time are the numbers of dead, new cases, isolated, intubated – and only 00.01% the need to build body resistance to fight the coronavirus, or any disease-causing organism for that matter.

Differently, the new DA’s Ms Rita says, “This is in line with the recent dispensed advice of the World Health Organization… to the public on eating healthy and nutritious (food to) help their immune system to function properly.”

Sec Dar says:

We need to take this seriously. If your body is healthy and strong, you are maximizing its ability to fight infection, and have a higher chance of recovering from Covid-19 or any other sickness.

I repeat: “We need to take this seriously. If your body is healthy and strong, you are maximizing its ability to fight infection…” Given that, I say, exposure to any disease-causing organism, or non-organism, does not automatically mean you contract the disease.

Last night, on Facebook I greeted President Rodrigo Roa Duterte showing his own picture with these words:

“mr president, if you end the lockdown now, you will have a nationally happier birthday!”

Well, we are all Pilgrims, life goes on, and all countries are threatened by a modern disease – that one called Progress.@517

02.LetMyPeopleGo – How PH Science Can Help Fight The Coronavirus

Yes, first, let my people go! 

Lift the lockdown to get all the science in!

As you will note on the introductory number in my title, yes I am writing a series on the coronavirus lockdown, the economy as well as society. Because nobody is pointing out scientific choices, I am now. (choice image from secondlineblog.org[1])

Yes, I believe the lockdown is a medical disease itself that should be cured first! And immediately!

Reading now, on 27 March 2020 Shaira Panela says the National Academy of Science & Technology, NAST, came up with an official position and was “pushing for a research-based approach to combat the COVID-19 pandemic[2].” The NAST was talking about (my list):

(1)   Conducting new/improved mathematical modeling studies in epidemiology.

The NAST says the results "may help us better understand how the epidemic will evolve." Note: “will evolve” – if the researchers can predict how the coronavirus will develop given its invasion of society, with their mathematical modeling, they can more intelligently guess what needs to be done to stop the progress of the disease. That’s the theory.

(2)   Use of antibody-based assays to help diagnose people for Covid-19 infection.

Aside from those, the NAST also proposed a number of studies in therapy, vaccine development, and genetics – not individually explained, so I will just note them.

As a science writer, editor of countless BS, MS and PhD theses and dissertations of UP Los Baños students, not to mention science books, and Editor In Chief of 2 technical journals in the last 45 years, I recommend that the NAST as the national science council advise a number of research agencies and/or a number of the Schools, Colleges & Universities, SCUs, to request for funds and pursue comparative studies on how to fight the coronavirus, these ones:

Research Program 01 – 17 regional projects conducting & comparing therapeutic approaches to Covid-19, from Aparri to Jolo.

Research Program 02 – 17 regional projects conducting & comparing “cures” from local and international hospitals.

Research Program 03 – 17 regional projects comparing results on the common use of several herbal supplements to build the immune system.  

I am “singling out” the SCUs because they are in place; we have to conduct location-specific studies.

The NAST was complaining that the “Philippines, like other countries, has proposed novel and sometimes radical measures as possible solutions to the pandemic crisis.” The thing is, NAST said:

Almost all of them, however, are not based on scientific studies but largely on expert opinion and what we think worked and did not work during the SARS problem in 2003 and the influenza global pandemic in 2009.

I agree, Sir, Mr NAST, but I must reiterate to the government:

Let my people go!
First!
Too much restriction and damage to the economic and social lives of the Filipinos! Lockdown is not for curing the disease – it is only for “controlling” the spread. That’s an archipelagic bad prioritizing. Because it means those areas that have already been infected, goodbye! Because we cannot yet get rid of the coronavirus!@517

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[1] https://secondlineblog.org/2016/11/i-choose-choice-and-its-not-up-for-discussion/

[2] https://www.rappler.com/science-nature/life-health/256123-national-academy-science-technology-research-based-approach-fight-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR2Gt67Gfn0Nzqp3fNswsG5jYH-n8mrKbYbvVDDgv3HsT1DPg_ExrUBHSx4

01.LetMyPeopleGo – Gone Koko Over Pimentel, Because We Have Gone Loco Over Coronavirus!

Aren’t they sweet!?

PH Senator Koko Pimentel and Ma Kathryna Yu were married on 18 October 2018. Why the date? Ricky Lo interviewed both on 18 September 2018, learned that 18 October 2013 was extra-special, as Kath said[1]:

We had dinner with friends. And although we were in the company of other people, I think we made a “connection” there and then.

How romantic can you get?!

Sen Koko then introduced Kath to his 2 boys in a previous marriage: Martin and Akio. Koko said:

We just spent time with the boys and they immediately clicked with her… I am so lucky to have found a willing and loving mama for the boys. I am also so happy for the boys that now they have a mama.

How endearing can you get?!

Today, ANN[2] says, the Makati Medical Center, MMC, “denounced Pimentel's actions for going to the hospital's delivery complex, saying the senator exposed health workers to possible infection[3]” (20 March 2020, ABS-CBN News).

How insulting can you get?!

MMC, for God’s sake! Sen Koko accompanied wife Kath because she was going to deliver their child and, not young anymore, there may be some kind of emergency he had to decide on immediately. Why do you denounce a husband for loving his wife that much?!

Really, we have gone coco over Koko Pimentel, because we have gone loco over coronavirus!

In my previous essay, “Covid-19 Considered, Let The People Go! – Jun AV Revilla[4],” I agreed with Jun: “Du30, let my people go!” that the coronavirus lockdown is insane, foolhardy, oppressive.

Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization, says that countries cannot simply lock down their societies to defeat coronavirus[5] (Reuters, 22 March 2020):

What we really need to focus on is finding those who are sick, those who have the virus, and isolate them, find their contacts and isolate them. ¶ The danger right now with the lockdowns ... if we don't put in place the strong public health measures now, when those movement restrictions and lockdowns are lifted, the danger is the disease will jump back up 

Really, any lockdown is disaster socially and economically. Why are you so deathly afraid of being infected with the coronavirus?! Look at the latest comparative statistics (19 February 2020, World Economic Forum[6]):

For every 50 people who were infected:
MERS killed 17. Seventeen!
SARS killed 5. Five!
Covid-19 killed 1. One!

Hah! Medicine is logic:

I am your doctor, I tell you what to do and what not to do. Follow my instructions or else! You visit my hospital, you follow the protocols – or I’ll crucify you.

Instead of damning a husband who brought his pregnant wife to deliver their/her first child when she was already 37 years old, this should be a wake-up call for our leaders to let our people go and mind just the health threat.

Otherwise, what is happening is a lockdown on our logic and our compassion (yes!).@517

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[1] https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2018/09/19/1852609/senator-his-lady

[2] Author Not Named

[3] https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/26/20/koko-pimentel-denies-violating-coronavirus-quarantine-covid-19

[4] https://frankhtheblogfather.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19-considered-let-people-go-jun.html

[5] https://ph.news.yahoo.com/lockdowns-not-enough-defeat-coronavirus-095822951.html

[6] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/comparing-outbreaks-coronavirus-mers-sars-health-epidemic

Covid-19 Considered, Let The People Go! – Jun AV Revilla

On Facebook, Forester Jun AV Revilla shares his thoughts on the coronavirus lockdown in the Philippines (below, with minor editing). I agree 100%! If he were a she and more religious and healthier, I can imagine Jun climbing to Peak 2 of Mt Makiling (original image from Wikipedia[1], chains image from Ruth Lindsay[2]) and shouting: 

“Du30, Let my people go!”

I am reminded of the song “Let My People Go” – here are the lyrics (from Fandom[3])

When Israel was in Egypt land
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people go!
Go down, Moses
Way down in Egypt land
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go!

I don’t know if Jun has among friends, acquaintances, or connections, someone he can call to call on President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to say:

No more lockdowns.
Let my people go!
“If not, I’ll smite your first-term dead!”

Thus, with the Lockdown, and with Jun AV Revilla’s words, the prospects are there to shout, “Let my people go! If not, I’ll smite your second-term dead!”

The reality is that Jun said in his Facebook sharing:

The death of a Los Baños patient who was diagnosed with Covid-19 (after death?) underlines the reality that we simply don't have the resources to test and treat Covid-19 patients!!!

When you hear of a death from a virus that all media are portraying as quite deadly, you start worrying about yourself. And yet, Jun says:

It also means that the virus has been in town for several days and will now spread through the local people, with lockdown or no lockdown!!! So, what for are lockdowns? Buy time for what? Delay the inevitable and provide people some psychological relief, and for government to show that they are doing something (for nothing)!? But, at what economic (production at a stand-still) and social costs (hunger/anger/...)...

Jun is saying that with the lockdown we are saving no lives and wasting so much of our economic resources. (Not to mention ignorantly spending on social costs.)

Realistically, with our meager resources, the country can't do much about Covid-19! Let the people go on with their lives but practicing safety protocols...

“Let the people go on with their lives!”

Yes, the people can practice safety protocols even while they go with their lives as before the lockdown.

We must also realize that the poor shall bear the brunt of Covid-19. I can only sympathize and empathize with them. This is going to be true all over the world...I am terribly sorry but we need to be realistic, the sooner the better!!!

The poor will suffer more than the rich – have not the poor suffered much already in this have-nots-have-lots country of ours?

Jun says, “This is going to be true all over the world.” I say, let us allow and help the people to resolve the poverty of their pockets while we resolve the poverty of our health. The poor owe it to themselves – we owe it to the poor!@517

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

[2] http://ruthlindsay.com/let-people-go/

[3] https://lyrics.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Robeson:Go_Down,_Moses