“Agriculture Is The New Sexy” – Ramon Yedra. On Captivating Young Farmers Aged 18-30

“Agriculture is The New Sexy” – Ramon Yedra, on Facebook. Some synonyms of sexy: attractive, beguiling, exciting, winsome looks. When he was 18 years old, our National Hero Jose Rizal called the youth “Bella esperanza de la patria mia” (“Beautiful hope of my fatherland”) in his poem “Ala Juventud Filipina” (“To The Filipino Youth”). That was 142 years ago – what took us so long to cerebrate the youth winning in the business of agriculture?!

Above image shows the 6 national winners in the “Young Farmers Challenge: Kabataang Agribiz” of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Without identifying each image, Kristel Merle says (17 Dec 2021, “DA Hails Top Innovative Agribusiness Models Of Youth Farmers[1]” DA.gov.ph):

Outlasting competitors from other regions, the Top 6 that emerged to have the most Outstanding Youth Agribusiness Models are the “3R's Zero Waste Project” (Region II), “Smartlink” (Region IV-A), “Mac's Bounty Farm” (Region IV-B), “Lapaqueño” (Region XIII), “Agribata Brand: Instant Cereal Powder for Kids” (Region IX), and the “Dalikan Rabbit Meat and Chilli Processing” (CAR).

Personally, I take the search for business-minded youth by the DA with Mr Yedra as Director of DA Agribusiness & Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS), culminating 17 December, as an un/intended tribute to Rizal, whose heroism is celebrated every 30 December (1896) – executed at age 35, an uncelebrated, unknown but outstanding Mindanao farmer himself!

ANN says about this youth-in-agriculture-business program of the AMAS (Author Not Named, 17 May 2021, “Agribusiness And Marketing Assistance Service[2],” DA.gov.ph):

The Young Farmers Challenge Fund (Kabataang Agribiz Competitive Grant Assistance Program) is a competitive financial grant assistance program for the youth who (wish to) engage in (any agri-fishery-based enterprise). The Program (is) open to all interested youth with proposed business ventures with profitability potential (seen). The grants shall serve as start-up capital for the planned innovative agri-based micro-enterprise operated by an individual youth or as joint venture between two or more individual youth.

Kristine Evangelista, DA Assistant Secretary for Agribusiness says, quoted by Rosette Adel (11 June 2021, “DA Seeks Competitive Youth For ‘Young Farmers Challenge’ Agribusiness Grant[3],” PhilStar.com):

The main objective of this initiative is to encourage and motivate the young Filipinos to go back into farming and so we want to ensure that we give them assistance every step of the way.

Note: “To motivate young Filipinos to go back into farming” (my emphasis). Ms Rosette says Ms Kristine says:

The majority of the youth are no longer interested in agriculture. The average age of farmers as of 2018 is 57 years old. The number of farm workers has also declined at around 1.5% per year since 2007. Those employed in agriculture likewise declined to 9.8 million in 2020 from 11.84 million in 2015.

The beautiful hopes of the fatherland are losing courage in farming as a sexy expectation for rich personal lives. That is why we need such stimuli as Kabataang Agribiz, a challenge to the youth to bring out their love of family and country!@517

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[1]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-hails-top-innovative-agribusiness-models-of-youth-farmers/

[2]http://agribusiness.da.gov.ph/2021/05/17/the-young-farmers-challenge-fund-kabataang-agribiz-competitive-grant-assistance-program/

[3]https://www.philstar.com/business/2021/06/11/2104756/da-seeks-competitive-youth-young-farmers-challenge-agribusiness-grant

“Odette, Be Not Proud!” The Storm-Sent Message From Bohol Is: “Do Not Lose The Light!”

Super Typhoon Odette visited the Philippines Tuesday-Saturday, 14-18 December 2021, and wrought told/untold destruction and death – and doomsday feelings.

Looking for a bright sign beyond the bad news, I found it in Laya, Baclayon, Bohol, where my good friend Nestor Maniebo Pestelos must be in anguish; here he shares on Facebook the 2 images above and this:

The most tragic event in our place in Laya: Typhoon Odette completely destroyed the 25-year old family-owned Balay Kahayag, a training and retreat center which also served as low-cost venue for activities of NGOs, faith-based organizations, and academic institutions. It served for 18 months as Bohol’s only drug rehab center. Now it’s gone.

“Now it’s gone.” Super Typhoon Odette completely demolished the structure but left a message, “Balay Kahayag” – translation, House of Light. The message I read here is: “Do not lose the light!”

“Typhoon Odette (Rai) destroys homes, uproots trees, and topples power lines just a week before Christmas” – Acor Arceo (19 December 2021, “After Leaving Trail Of Destruction, Typhoon Odette Exits PAR[1],” Rappler.com). How much agony there must have been during and after Odette in Bohol, Cebu and other places in the Philippines ravaged by Odette? I can only surmise.

More than commiserating, I am positively thinking regenerative thoughts. We cannot regenerate those lives lost, domiciles destroyed, and buildings blasted, but we can regenerate the Earth, literally! Let us now call on RegINA, Queen Mother Earth (look above)!

As an agriculturist, I believe the dimensions of Odette’s destruction are the dimensions of our sins against Queen Mother Earth, in not following her Laws. And so Climate Change keeps worsening.

In agriculture, the first thing we disturb is the soil – now, therefore, we must learn to disturb it only in a way that we help it regenerate itself – we give back to the soil what we have taken from it: Natural Wealth, which is Inter/National Wealth!

How? Here is some science:

Agroforestry. Grow trees with food crops simultaneously in same field or farm; practice no or minimum tillage – do not apply chemical fertilizer or chemical pesticide.

Nature Farming. Derived from Mokichi Okada’s philosophy of Agriculture sans the use of any chemical fertilizer and/or pesticide, “(with the) underlying philosophy that views the life-sustaining powers of the soil as integral to the workings of the universe[2].”

Organic Farming. Preparation and application of non-chemical fertilizer(s) to grow crops, including non-chemical pesticide(s).

System of Rice Intensification (SRI). Minimal soil disturbance, equidistant planting of rice. I believe SRI can be modified for other farm crops.

Trash farming. Rotavate shallowly, so that blades cut & mix weeds and crop leftovers all over the field as organic mulch.

Whichever you choose to contribute to combat climate change, be sure to choose this: No more Chemical Agriculture!

Zero chemical agriculture means no added greenhouse gases emitted from the manufacture, storage & transport of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

If we stopped completely chemical agriculture today, next year we would see, I would say, gentler winds and softer rains.@517

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[1]https://www.rappler.com/nation/weather/typhoon-odette-exits-philippine-area-responsibility-december-18-2021/

[2]https://www.apo-tokyo.org/resources/p_glossary/nature-farming-2/

My Brainchild, Sylvatrop, PH Forest Research Journal – Not Traveling The Information Superhighway, Now 3 Years Late!

Happy Memories: Editing a technical journal before The Digital Age, when printing itself took 1 month for an issue of 100 pages to come off the press with distribution copies. We even befriended the typesetter and layout artist to accelerate the printing process!

As the chief information officer, I was the one whose brainchild it was – complete name: Sylvatrop, The Philippine Forest Research Journal – first published by the Forest Research Institute (FORI) with me as Editor In Chief. I left FORI in 1981 for greener pastures; FORI has since transformed itself into the Ecosystems Research & Development Bureau (ERDB), and its mother agency the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR) has since become the publisher of the journal, name shortened to Sylvatrop.

Sad News: Sylvatrop has been coming out very late, at this Digital Age – the latest, July-December 2018, that is, 3 years behind schedule! We must publish results of researches as soon as possible, to keep the technical public up-to-date with science.

I am reading what Adreana S Remo and Carmela Kris Armilla have written for the agency’s website, “ERDB Launches Pilot Mentorship Program To Increase Published Research Results[1]” (undated, Erdb.denr.gov.ph). Having been Editor In Chief of The Typewriter-Age Sylvatrop of FORI and The Digital-Age Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS) of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines based at UP Los Baños, I see that the ERDB led by Director Henry A Adornado is finally doing something concrete in terms of speeding up publishing the results of ERDB researches. If late, Director Adornado has this Digital Editor In Chief’s congratulations.

The need for publication is being met now – the speed is not. Now an octogenarian, thank God, a self-taught digital writer, editor & desktop publisher, I shake my head – with their issues 3 years late, the Sylvatrop people require technique, technology and time to catch up!

Good Old News: I was the Editor In Chief who made the PJCS from being 3 years late to up-to-date in 3 years and, in 2007, included in the elite international list “ISI“ (now “Web of Science“). Quality works! My secrets? These: Beginning 1975, I was editing typed manuscripts; beginning 1985, self-learning digital skills: writing, editing, layouting, up to complete desktop publishing.

For Sylvatrop’s sake, I hereby volunteer as an experienced Digital Executive Editor, ranked below Sylvatrop’s Editor In Chief, for 3 years, 6 semi-annual issues, to edit all the papers, desktop publish each whole issue – at the same time show the journal staff, and anyone interested, virtually, how I do/how they can do it themselves. Say yes!

How sure am I the Sylvatrop staff will learn digital publishing from 81-year-old me? I am sure they will – or where will they hide themselves if they cannot be taught even when they cannot deny that I taught myself all that I know about editing technical papers and desktop publishing them into journal issues like I did for the PJCS?

Digital Sylvatrop? Where there is a will, there is a way!@517

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[1]https://erdb.denr.gov.ph/erdb-launches-pilot-mentorship-program-to-increase-published-research-results/?fbclid=IwAR1HFL77Z8d1k-prONji7_UrQNxbAz9fSsYXAIUTwebLX7908lmteJ6LxuA

The Kyoto Protocol Is Ignoring What Exactly? Time To Change Climate Change!

Here is a different kind of play of words – actually, I am playing with ideas that populate the world beneath our feet.

What day is today, just as writing a book on Regenerative Agriculture (RA) is again in my thoughts? It’s Saturday, 11 Dec 2021. I decide on my big, bold, gold? book on RA because I see it as a major force in the fight against Climate Change – subject which surprisingly the United Nations has not yet fully grasped! It just happened that it was 11 Dec 1997 when the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. Note, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change “only asks those countries to adopt policies and measures on mitigation (my underline) and to report periodically[1]” (Unfcc.net); read carefully:

The Kyoto Protocol operationalizes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by committing industrialized countries and economies in transition to limit and reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets. The Convention itself only asks those countries to adopt policies and measures on mitigation and to report periodically.
(“Kyoto Protocol” main image[2] from Sabrangindia.in)

Oh my God! This UN body is intensely looking after mitigation and innocently ignoring adaptation?!

Here’s my view:
Adaptation is preparation before expected climate destruction.
Mitigation is reparation after actual climate destruction.
The climate change responses of the Department of Agriculture (DA) must cover both, not simply the visible – the destruction.
(Above, AdapTriumph-MitigatEndure image[3] from my essay, “Frank’s Vocabulary Of Climate Change,” 12 Aug 2010, A Magazine Called Love, Blogspot.com).

Adaptation: Before the next cropping season, picture the DA assisting farmers in planting flood-resistant rice varieties, so that their crop will still yield the farmers their due despite a flooding.

Mitigation: After a devastating flood or drought, picture the DA asking farmers in a municipality to form a cooperative, via which the farmers are awarded all kinds of assistances such as loans, seeds, fertilizers, tools, machines, even a storage house.

As I was saying before I interrupted myself, I am going to write a book to help farmers here and abroad come to terms with climate change – via the science of regenerative agriculture. The concept of which, as the title of my blog says, I express in the acronym RegINA – Regenerative from Inspiring, Intelligent, Information-Intense, Insightful Nature-Nuanced, Applicable Agriculture. “RegINA” also is short for “Regal INA,” where INA means, in Ilocano, “Big Mother.” That is why the complete name of my blog is RegINA, Queen Mother Earth.

Yes, I said I am going to write a book on RegINA:

Now, where does Regenerative Agriculture begin?

Says the Climate Reality Project[4] (Climaterealityproject.org):

In short, regenerative agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that seeks to rehabilitate and enhance the entire ecosystem of the farm by placing a heavy premium on soil health…

First things first. I mean, I will not begin by simply “placing a heavy premium on soil health” – I will begin by making the soil healthy! “Health requires healthy food” – Roger Williams. First comes first!@517

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[1]https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol

[2]https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/why-india-must-ratify-doha-amendment-kyoto-protocol-pre-2020-period-make-commitment-climate

[3]http://amagazinecalledlove.blogspot.com/2010/08/franks-vocabulary-of-climate-change-v10.html

[4]https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/what-regenerative-agriculture

Rappler Rejoicing & What Has Social Media Wrought? Jeopardy Jamming Journalists With Facts Free Of Fundamentals

I’m imagining journalists in the Philippines covetously celebrating Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2021. All that glitters is gold, and scatters.

Above, Voltaire Tupaz was Maria Ressa’s Rappler Recruit #1; he says, “I was a young advocate then, exploring social media for my social cause” (15 Dec 2021, “Rappler At 10: From Maria Ressa ‘Troll’ To Employee No 1[1],” Rappler.com):

There were 12 of us in the founding team… The civic engagement arm, where I belonged, was called MovePH because we built communities to take action on issues that mattered to them.

Before that, Mr Tupaz was “exploring social media for my social cause.”

Now I ask: “Social cause?”
Mr Tupaz says, “I was busy fighting for indigenous peoples’ rights in the Cordillera.”

“Fighting for peoples’ rights” was what Mr Tupaz was doing. I would rather do my journalism fighting for people’s good – not “goods” – as I am doing, with this blog RegINA, Queen Mother Earth, which is dedicated to the propagation, as it were, of Regenerative Agriculture, and which idea is enclosed in the first word of the name that when spelled out. this: RegINA – Regenerative from Inspiring, Intelligent, Information-Intense, Insightful, Nature-Nuanced, Applicable Agriculture.

Not another journalist to celebrate, instead I cerebrate. Going not for the gold that glitters, but the gold that spreads out. The Social Gold. “The One That Builds Communities.”

Just like our very own Mother Dear, we must respect Mother Nature even as we do our farming, starting with:

Not disturbing the soil unnecessarily before planting our crop/s. Not plowing by discs to literally destroy the soil structure and expose the clods to the sun and wind that soon dry them up.

I realize, of course, than when I advise farmers, “Do not plow,” that is going against 100 years of history of science-sponsored agriculture in the Philippines, starting with the founding of the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA) in 1909. UPCA has now become a university, namely the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

Unfortunately, as an alumnus of ancient UPCA, now modern UPLB, I can see that Agriculture as a science is still a century old!

So I see that social media as a whole is a limitless, unplanted field for digitally broadcasting knowledge in farming and gardening and fishing for smart social good!

Rappler formed “MovePH” as its “civic engagement arms” and Mr Tupaz was its head, the name being an indication that, as he says, “Because we built communities to take action on issues that mattered to them.”

I have long identified one all-encompassing issue that as a journalist I love to cover and communicate for the social good, that now I call RegINA.  

And so while Rappler’s journalism continues to search for the truth behind each and every major political statement or assertion, I continue to practice my THiNK! Journalism – packaging the True plus Helpful plus Inspiring plus Necessary plus Kind! into knowledge I happily digitally disseminate for the social good.@517

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[1]https://www.rappler.com/about/from-maria-ressa-troll-account-to-employee-number-1/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3SYITkxmTGpqfsIRqgbmM5Crmw2jW9J-u2s-r6Dte3s37vaAKRLwaDdqs

This Teacher Teaching My Alma Mater “UP System” How To Teach Genius Independent Of Covid19 Restrictions!

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country – and alma mater, mine being the University of the Philippines System (UP System), by picking up digital wisdom from where I myself picked up via the personal computer starting Innocents Day 1985.

Main image is my workroom-bedroom. You are not a genius if you cannot work with messy. In the last 20 years, I did not go out of this room just to search for more knowledge – I could always find something useful with Google anytime. To prove my point, within that time, I blogged thousands of essays, at least 7 million words total! (Check out my latest blog with its 1000+ essay in the last 29 months; click this link to visit RegINA, Queen Mother Earth). It’s all communication for village development this 2021 (CoVID21).

Today, I am extremely disappointed that my alma mater is merely following instructions, as according to the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (OVPAA), “Based on the pronouncements (of) the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and the Commission of Higher Education (CHEd)…[1]” (29 Nov 2021, “OVPAA Memorandum No. 2021-164”):

Now then, with its academic freedom and independent genius, why cannot UP teach all-digital all the time?!

Yes, that begins my UP System Lecture on “Waking Up UP On Modern Instruction Systems,” that is, beginning with Harvard professor Howard Gardner’s now-widely-accepted theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) that was first presented to the world in 1983. I have written about MI many times in 14 years, the first in 2007 (see my essay, “Primate Change? Or Climate Change? You Choose! – The Blogal Village Voice,” 03 March 2007, iCRiSAT Watch, Blogspot.com), and the latest last November (see “It’s Time To Teach Teachers & Parents High IQ Is Nothing – “Walang Bubo!” 27 November 2021, RegINA Queen Mother Earth, Blogspot.com).

Now, instead of the UP System simply following the instructions of CHEd, since the UP System has academic freedom, which can be defined also as independence to teach via any combination of the who, what, where, when, why, and how in any subject under the sun in the digital universe, why does not UP teach via the Intelligence (I) set of Gardner?

1. Bodily-Kinesthetic I (“Body Genius”)
2. Existential I (“Life Genius”)
3. Interpersonal I (“People Genius”)
4. Intrapersonal I (“Self Genius”)
5. Mathematical-Logical I (“Number/Reasoning Genius”)
6. Musical I (“Music Genius”)
7. Naturalist I (“Nature Genius”)
8. Verbal-Linguistic I (“Word Genius”)
9. Visual-Spatial I (“Image Genius”).

With/without Covid19 restrictions, why not UP teach any and all subjects via digital communication; each learner finding out his/her genius – with UP teaching thinking, not memorizing? “I am always ready to learn,” says Winston Churchill, “although I do not always like being taught.”

Getting the budget of billions of pesos to change the UP System educationally, from The-Single-IQ today to The-Multiple-Intelligences-Digital-Configuration tomorrow should not be problematic. UP System, this genius will support you. Don’t tell me there are no inside Presidential and/or Legislative Geniuses?!@517

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[1]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G6-XyeUcOJoP6xhnCzwOkBPV1mDb5LZjq96dCU0uNX0/edit

From “The Land Of The Howling Wind,” Cristina Torreda Is PH’s Outstanding Woman Farmer 2021

The Lady is a Triumph!
From Catanduanes, 
“The Land Of The Howling Wind,” 
Cristina Torreda is PH’s 
“Outstanding Woman Farmer 2021.”

This year, when the Department of Agriculture (DA) looked for “Katangi-Tanging Kababaihan sa Pagsasaka at Pangingisda sa Kanayunan” (“Outstanding Women In Farming & Fisheries In The Villages” – my free translation), they found the most outstanding in Catanduanes, known as “The Land Of The Howling Wind” – Ms Cristina.

The news by Lovella P Guarin is, “Catanduanes Strawberry Farmer Wins National Outstanding Rural Woman 2021 Award[1]” (08 Dec 2021, Bicol.da.gov.ph). Earlier, on Thursday, 02 Dec, at the Bureau of Soils & Water Management, adjudged the best among the best rural women engaged in farming and/or fisheries throughout the Philippines, Ms Cristina was rewarded with a Plaque of Recognition (see above) and P150,000 cash (about $30,000) from the DA. (How much is that? Much! If you are earning P10K a month, it will take you 15 months to earn that sum!)

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar himself “recognized Torreda’s resiliency amidst adversities, which sets her apart from the 11 other nominees from the other regions of the country.”

Ms Lovella says Ms Cristina is only 28 years, but she has been “able to establish a flourishing strawberry farm in San Andres, Catanduanes – a typhoon-prone island known as the ‘Land of the Howling Wind.’” Ms Lovella says more:

(Cristina) Torreda started her strawberry farm in San Andres, Catanduanes in 2018 using a mere P15,000 personal loan she spent on her original 130 mother plants. Today, her 1.5-hectare “Cristina’s Strawberry Farm” is now teeming with different varieties of strawberries, blueberry, (mulberry), raspberry, pomegranate, lettuce, dragon fruit and lowland vegetables. Hydroponics technology sustains her year-round production. Local and foreign tourists keep coming back to enjoy picking berries and making their own fresh salad. The strawberry farm also accommodates overnight stay for photoshoot and camping.

Ms Cristina is multi-business-minded!

For judging, the National Technical Committee was composed of heads/representatives of East West Seeds, Food & Agriculture Organization, LandBank, Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan (National Coalition of Women), Bureau of Agriculture & Fisheries Standards, and Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation. Judging was based on 3 criteria: 30% contribution to food security and agricultural development, 30% contribution to sustainable development, and 40% impact on rural development. High standards!

During the awarding, Undersecretary of High Value Crops & Rural Credit Evelyn Laviña, Chair of the Board of Judges, was joined by Commissioner Sandra Sanchez Montano, Chair of the PH Commission on Women, and Deputy Executive Director Annray V Rivera.

Ms Evelyn  said:

The search is a fitting tribute to remind our womenfolk in agriculture and fishery how valuable and precious they are not only to the DA but also to the entire country.

Ms Lovella says:

The annual search aims to recognize the role of women in food production that contributes to food security, reduction of hunger and malnutrition and poverty as enshrined in RA 9710 (Magna Carta of Women).

Here’s to more productive power to the women of the Philippines!@517

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[1]https://bicol.da.gov.ph/catanduanes-strawberry-farmer-wins-national-outstanding-rural-woman-2021-award/