29 July 2019

Sustainable Development With Your Hybrid Rice And My inRevolution


These are revolutionary times. That's exactly why I have this new blog.

Beginning today, Monday, 29 July 2019, I'm going to write about PH agriculture using what I call The inRevolution. I'm referring to the use of modern media any material: text, image, video or mixes that are produced in any manner that is intuitive, innovative, ingenious, intellectual, even incredible – all for Development, all inclusive of the Poor.

Journalists, digital inRevolution is what we need today – and, at 78 going on 79, if I can do it, you can do it!

And, The inRevolution must be for sustainability. In this case, agricultural sustainability.

About any company's hybrid rice, everyone talks about achieving the higher yield, up to treble. But nobody is talking about sustainability! (image from Vermillion Energy, sustainability.vermilionenergy.com)

Differently, I'm talking about If Sustainability. From now on, I'm going to investigate any idea, concept, theory, practice, technology, system, project, program, or initiative in agriculture by trying to ascertain or appreciate first its If Sustainability – that is:
If technically feasible, and
If economically viable, and
If ecologically sound, and
If socially acceptable.

Those are my Big Ifs!

Or, to put it differently, those are 4 Swords of Sustainability precariously hanging over the head of any raiser of crop or livestock, just like the Sword of Damocles that hung over the head of King Dionysius, in the anecdote of Timaeus of Sicily (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org).

ANN says the Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice, has its Hybrid Rice Research initiative (Author Not Named, 10 May 2018, PhilRice, philrice.gov.ph), with this Goal:

To develop wide-adaptive, high yielding hybrid rice varieties suited for commercialization with agro-morphological traits, acceptable grain and eating quality, nucleus and breeder seeds of parents, and F1 hybrids in support of hybrid commercialization. It also targets to develop associated integrated crop management technologies for increased seed yield and seed quality of parent lines and F1 hybrids.

Yes, Sir, Mr PhilRice, but our farmers need sustainability now, today!

Well, last March at the 8th National Rice Technology Forum, NRTF, at the boundary of Urdaneta City and Asingan, Pangasinan, hybrid rice producers participated in demo plantings: Bioseed, SL Agritech and Syngenta, among others. At the Forum, they talked about higher yields, but no one talked about insuring sustainability. I will help you propagate your hybrid rice if you can convince me of the sustainability that follows in its use.

By the way, today is "International Tiger Day 2019" – the tiger's population itself is in great need of sustainability (Jagran Josh, Jagran Josh, "International Tiger Day 2019: History And Significance," jagranjosh.com). If I may paraphrase John Donne:

No animal is an island entire of itself; every one is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friend's or of thine own were.

So, from now on, I will look at your act
or aim if in sync or out of sync
with sustainability!@
517


28 July 2019

SRO – From Boondocks To Mountaintops Of Science Management World


Today, Sunday, 28 July 1935, SRO's Birthday – Differently, how to retell a story already told twice? On Santiago Rigonan Obien, Rice Guru: How do you relate a story already told in 2 books in 582 pages? 

Use your imagination!

I used more to come up with a 3rd book. My brainstorming and typing gave me Draft #1, 258 pages, in 2 months out of 2 earlier books, autobiography and compilation of compliments from family, friends, and colleagues of SRO. Completely different. Also Ilocano, also an original aboriginal!

It was also a Sunday when SRO was born in Ilocos Norte. Up to high school, he studied there; for his BSA he attended the University of the Philippines' College of Agriculture in Los Baños, Laguna; and for his MS and PhD degrees the University of Hawaii East-West Center in Honolulu.

SRO's official journey as a science manager, for which he did not study, began in 1977 when ground was broken for the Philippine Tobacco Research & Training Center, PTRTC buildings and President Ferdinand Marcos appointed him PTRTC Director there on the campus of the Mariano Marcos State University, MMSU, where the PTRTC buildings were built.

SRO has been an innovator. Like, at the PTRTC, he introduced the bright idea of engaging the better tobacco growers themselves as trainors in formal and informal settings.

From 1977, he managed, in different scales of engagement, the PTRTC, MMSU, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Postharvest Research & Extension, and the Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice. All successfully, with PhilRice being his greatest innovative story. (What dimensions of leadership did SRO have? All in my book.)

In the meantime, also to give importance to today, I'd like to continue using parallel events on July 28 in history; my source is On This Day (onthisday.com).

This day in 1935 was the first flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, whose prototype crashed. In SRO's case, we can consider as prototype the PTRTC, whose presidential decree SRO himself drafted, because there was no agency like it. But this one did not crash – in fact, SRO received awards for the successes of the PTRTC in improving the tobacco growers' lives.

In 1858, July 28 saw the first use of fingerprints as a means of identification of people, by Sir William James Herschel of the Indian Civil Service. In the case of SRO, you saw his fingerprints all over the place when he left handwritten "Love Notes" (Happy) or "Rub Notes" (Harsh) on your experimental plots or your office desk late at night or early in the morning. He did that at PhilRice in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Those notes were first hated and then later on welcomed, because they helped shape research staff as intelligent scientists.

On this date in 1790, Henry James Pye was appointed British Poet Laureate by King George III. SRO is not a poet, but he loves reciting poetry, singing and reading popular & technical literature. Because SRO became a science manager par excellence:

I must conclude that art helps science managers become great!@517

27 July 2019

Coco Levy Fund & RCEF – Billions For Destinations And Not One Cent For A Roadmap!


"Great directives by PRRD to unlock the potentials of the agriculture sector" says William Dar in his Facebook sharing above. That was about the SONA last Monday. 

Yes, Sir, but we do have to be careful. The SONA was a failure in speechwriting (see my essay, "PRRD's SONA – Colorful Words Flying, Malacañang Media Boys Flailing," 24 July 2019, Journalism for Inclusive Development, jinclude.blogspot.com); no, we don't want a failure in inclusive development without planning.

Not only from you but from General Santos City in Southwestern Mindanao and Alaminos City in Central Luzon have come 2 endorsements of the SONA pronouncements on the aggie funds:

22 July, from Alfredo Bronx Hebrona, who has been Regional Governor of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Southwestern Mindanao (Allen Estabillo, 22 July 2019, "Biz Leader Hails PRRD's Commitment To Agri Sector," Philippine News Agency, pna.gov.ph).

24 July, from Leonardo Montemayor, who has been Secretary General of the Federation of Free Farmers, FFF, and now Peasant Sector Representative (Party List) (Jasper Y Arcalas, 24 July  2019, "Congress Must Heed Duterte's Order To Pass Coco-Levy Bill," BusinessMirror, businessmirror.com.ph).

But we must be careful: Easy come, easy go!

There was this 1947 American film "Easy Come, Easy Go" (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org) of winners and losers (mostly losers), each one who held money in their hands and who each gambled the whole sum away.

In our case, the Coco Levy Fund is worth at least P100 billion, and the National Economic & Development Authority, NEDA, has promised the release of P10 Billion from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, RCEF, in the 3rd quarter of this year (pressreader.com).

Isn't that great for our farmers!?

Not yet, no. It's all potential. We might be gambling away those billions of pesos without realizing it.

Certainly, the Coco Fund for the coconut farmers and the Rice Fund for the rice farmers are all meant to improve the lives of the farmers and those of their families, but:

"A goal without a plan is just a wish" – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

We do not have a common Aggie Roadmap.

On 04 July 2019, I wrote an essay, "Wanted: Roadmap To PH Agriculture In 'New Thinking' – William Dar" (j'include, jinclude.blogspot.com). There, I quoted Mr Dar as saying:

The roadmap should be guided by the following goals: increased productivity, profitability, competitiveness, sustainability and resilience.

"The map?" says Patrick White, Australian writer. "I will first make it." First, we have to make the map to where we want to go and then we can happily spend all those billions of pesos!

Else? Easy come, easy go.

To be practical about it, why do we need an Aggie Roadmap? If we follow the recommendations of Mr Dar for "increased productivity, profitability, competitiveness, sustainability and resilience," first we have to work out the strategies so that:

PH farmers become productive. And,
PH farming becomes profitable. And,
PH farming becomes competitive. And,
PH farmers' improved lives and those of their families become sustainable. And,
PH  farmers become resilient to any adversity!@
517

The 4th Industrial Revolution? Ah, We Need To Become All Learners!


It's 2 months old, but it's new even to me who am a digital, wide-reading old foggy – 79 in September. Richard Barr says he knows "8 Things Every School Must Do To Prepare For The 4th Industrial Revolution" (22 May 2019, forbes.com). Now:

Broadly:

About the images above, the main image comes from Mr Barr's article; the superimposed one from my external 22-inch ViewSonic monitor. My views:

(1) Mr Barr's modern classroom is too orderly, too regimented for modern learning. Too formal for children to start enjoying themselves and learning much as a result!

(2) Mr Hilario's modern monitor is too cluttered – but that's exactly how I think! at the beginning of writing. And clutter is exactly where to begin teaching the children.

What I'm saying is that the opportunities for clutter belongs to every man, woman and child trying to learn something, especially in the digital universe we are in now.

Specifically:

Here are the 8 things Mr Barr is recommending every school should do:

(1) Redefine the purpose of education.
(2) Improve STEM education.
(3) Develop human potential.
(4) Adapt to lifelong learning models.
(5) Alter educator training.
(6) Make schools makerspaces.
(7) (Cultivate) international mindfulness.
(8) Change higher education.

I am pleased that:

Mr Barr says, "According to The Future of Jobs Report 2018 from the World Economic Forum, executives desired employees with critical thinking and collaboration skills even more than those with tech skills" (italics mine). Everywhere, critical thinking is necessary; so is collaboration.

All learners should be taught collaboration!

Mr Barr quotes from Alvin Toffler's Future Shock: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." After 50 years, Present Shock is that we have hardly learned to learn, unlearn and relearn!

I say, those children in formal schools – and in homeschools – should be taught not only critical thinking but more so creative thinking. For instance:

Critical or logical: 1 plus 1 equals 2. Creative: When is "1 plus 1" not equal to 2? Answers: Look at Mother Nature. Turn to Religion.

So, to redefine the purpose of education, in any art and science, we must learn to think critically and creatively.

By the way, you will note that in (7) above, the beginning word is enclosed in parentheses: (Cultivate). Mr Barr's original list begins with a transitive verb (like "Alter educator training") but not his #7, so I added that verb. Everybody needs an editor.

Mr Barr claims in Bernard Marr & Co (bernardmarr.com) that he is the "No 1influencer in the UK." I don't doubt that; I also don't doubt that he needs the #1 online editor in the world, me!

Mr Barr says:

We still need to help students understand the values that will help us learn how to use (any) new technology ethically and morally…

Yes Sir, technology must be used ethically and morally.

We must give to God what is God's, and to man what is man's in the name of God.@517

26 July 2019

PRRD: "LandBank, Open To Farmers!" FAH: "Sir, I Cannot Even Open Its Annual Report!"


In his State of the Nation Address SONA, PRRD told LandBank (22 July 2019, SunStar, philstar.com):

You are called Land Bank, but you are now the number one commercial bank in the Philippines. What the heck is happening to you? You are supposed to finance agricultural enterprises and endeavors… Go to the countryside and ask the people if there are cooperatives, (help them) to form one.

LandBank is into commercial loans because, Sir, LandBank knows which side its bread is much buttered.

Now, I love it that Sir, you mention cooperatives. And the Coco Levy Fund:

I also have not forgotten my commitment to uplift the lives of coconut farmers and further develop the coconut industry through the urgent utilization of the Coconut Levy Fund.

You hit the nail on the head, Mr President!

I have been proselytizing about cooperatives and The Fund in the last 7 years (see my essay, "A Coop Is Born. Will Nagkaisa Wake Asingan Up?" 23 October 2012, Nagkaisa, nagkaisa.blogspot.com). I was born in Asingan, Pangasinan, and I am a Board Member of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Subsequently, 5 years ago, I wrote an essay, "The Super Coops Of 2014" (30 October 2014, Nagkaisa, nagkaisa.blogspot.com), explaining thus:

Super Coops are where the coco levy funds should go to. Not to a super body, not to government, but to the people. Empower more the many, less the few.

With 10 Super Coops in each of 1,000 towns & cities in the country, 10,000 coops funded PhP 10 M each for 10 livelihood projects with 100 families, or 1,000 families in a town, that's 1 million families in motion & in heaven. The results will be immediate, national, and palpable. The effect will be electric!

That's just from me.

Anyway, I'm urging you, Mr President, to urge Congress to amend RA 9520 & create a new Cooperatives Management Authority. For inclusive development, for the good of all, but especially the poor farmers. Those billions in the Coco Levy Fund can be better used for social good.

I go back to LandBank. I said in the title of this essay, "Sir, I Cannot Even Open Its Annual Report!" I visited the website (landbank.com), and typed the search words "Annual Report" (including the double quotes), and the 2018 Annual Report is notyet available! Really, LandBank is behind the times.

To rescue LandBank, I'm volunteering a one-day open lecture-demo on how to prepare an annual report from a mountain of reports. This is a digital 79-year old speaking. If I can do it, you can do it! I will just charge a token of P5K – with a money-back guarantee if not satisfied! Fair enough? frankahilario@gmail.com

Now, Melissa Luz Lopez  says, "Landbank can't survive on farmers' loans alone, DOF says" (23 July 2019, CNN Philippines, cnnphilippines.com). Bad excuse, DoF! Look at the image above – LandBank proudly says at the bottom, "Expanding Financial Inclusion in the Countryside." Are we then to conclude:

That LandBank will expand financial assistance in the countryside excluding the farmers?!@517

25 July 2019

To Awaken, PH Agriculture Needs A Robust Kiss From A Prince Charming!

Image from D23 (d23.com) – Unfortunately, it's the other way around – each of our PH Secretary of Agriculture has been sleeping on the job! since 1898, founding year of the DA. 1898 was a revolutionary year, except that the DA did not take up arms against the enemy – poverty among farmers and fishers.

Pertinently, former Agriculture Secretary William Dar, who continues to espouse what he calls "New Thinking For Agriculture," has come out with his Manila Times column titled "Increasing The Income Of Farmers And Fisherfolk" 1st of 2 parts (25 July 2019 (manilatimes.net), where he says:

I listened very carefully to the State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, and I commend his full support to leveling up the country's agriculture sector by investing in programs to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers and fisherfolk. ¶ This is a very powerful message from the President, as it clearly emphasizes increasing the income of agricultural smallholders.

With PH Agriculture as Sleeping Beauty, we have had a Sleeping Secretary for too many years! Not our Secretary of Agriculture in the time of President Erap – in fact, he (not Erap) made history by trebling the growth of PH Agriculture from minus (-7%) to plus (+14%)! That's treble the growth, treble the income. That's William Dar.

That's our Prince Charming. We need a Secretary like him to wake up PH Agriculture! He will need to make a big, resounding, robust kiss to do that. Otherwise, the fairy tale of our agriculture as Sleeping Beauty lives on.

So, Mr Dar is talking from personal experience when he says:

The main objective of the "New Thinking for Agriculture" is to double the income of farmers and fisherfolk in five years or even less. And it can be done!

Mr Dar is not only talking from personal experience of managing Philippine agriculture from the top. He cites the experience of India, where he lived for 15 long years when he was the Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, until his compulsory retirement in 31 December 2014. He learned from India; India learned from him – now he's educating us about a new Indian agriculture initiative.

Now he cites India as working to make that double-income dream come true through that country's National Institution for Transforming India, NITI. He says:

The NITI paper, in the section "Sources of Growth for Farmers' Income," identified the following as the solutions to increase or double the income of farmers by 2022 or 2023: increase agricultural productivity, improve total productivity factor, diversify towards high-value crop production, increase crop intensity, improve terms of trade for farmers, and shift cultivators to non-farm and subsidiary activities.

Let me enumerate those, rephrasing each with the word robust repeated:

(1)   Robust productivity
(2)   Robust efficiency of production
(3)   Robust number of high value crops
(4)   Robust cropping intensity
(5)   Robust trade returns for farmers
(6)   Robust sponsorship of non-farm and subsidiary activities.

We need a robust-thinking Prince Charming
as Secretary of Agriculture!@
517

24 July 2019

PRRD's SONA – Colorful Words Flying, Malacañang Media Boys Flailing


The SONA could have been PRRD's Tour de Force – there was enough content to strut out with, but the Malacañang Media Boys failed him. They failed to rise to the occasion (image from google.com). The patriotic thing those boys could have done was immediately come up with a 1,500 word summary of what was actually said, minus the colorful language.

There was much substance to chew on for the SONA, but those boys were not paying attention. For instance, in the case of Land Bank, PRRD was saying:

What the heck is happening to you? You are supposed to finance agricultural enterprises and endeavors. Bakit wala? (Why none?)

PH President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's, PRRD's State of the Nation Address, SONA, was delivered last Monday, 22 July 2019, at the House of Congress in Quezon City, and I have found it educational. With full text reproduced by PhilStar (22 July 2019, philstar.com), my count was 9,500 words including such entries as [applause] and [laughter] and "p***** i**." Never mind.

So, how did I deal with such a long-winded, unstructured, uneasy speech?

Simple. Because I'm a positive thinker and senior citizen, I looked for the silver threads among the gold!

As an agriculturist, I looked for occurrences of farmer, fisher, and enterprise. Enterprise? Yes, and related words like loan, because I believe that the farmers and fishers should be educated, extended loans, and expertly advised to become at least small-scale entrepreneurs. Yes, I found such vital matters as coco levy fund, and rice tariffication.

My UP Los Baños grade for PRRD of his SONA? 2.5 (Above Average).

And my UPLB grade for the Malacañang Media Boys? 5 (Failed)! They failed to come up with a bright presentation. They failed PRRD!

Those Media Boys could have prepared the SONA in 2 parts:

Part 1 – Executive Summary – To be read. Printed out, distributed.
Part 2 – State of the Nation – Sectioned into hot issues of the year, also printed out.

SONA 2019 should have highlighted the achievements and potentials in different fields.

As a writer and editor public and private in the last 44 years, I know what the Malacañang Media Boys did not know – how to assemble the jumble of data and information coming to them from the different departments and units of the national government.

Not me! I could have shown them how to handle the chaos of content – I have been doing that for 4 decades alone or with a group. It's picking up the grains from the chaff – it's creative thinking.

At the end of his 93-minute long-winded SONA, PRRD said, "I dream of a Philippines better than the one I grew up with." And I? I dream of a better-prepared SONA!

Now then, to the Malacañang Media Boys, here is my birthday gift – it is more blessed to give than to receive. Right in Malacañang, I would love to tackle that mountain of reports in a whole-day free Friday lecture-demo and come up with a coherent & condensed whole.

Boys, you owe it to PRRD!  Help yourselves.
frankahilario@gmail.com@517

21 July 2019

Teacher, Curiosity Killed The Cat. But A Cat Has 9 Lives!


I'm always curious. I saw Jovita Movillon's Facebook linkSaturday, 13 July 2019 (Carrie Lam, "11 Habits of an Effective Teacher," 05 July 2014, Edutopia, edutopia.org), and curiosity led me there. Even if the article is 5 years old, I was still interested in it since I studied to be a teacher and did teach high school and college, and I have been thinking of an alternative school – and therefore an alternative way of teaching – for high school or would-be high school youth. The 11 habits do not simplify teaching, but I'm curious how you can make teaching effective.

I selected these 14 websites carrying the exact same Curiosity story: Collaborative Classroom, Visible Learning Plus, Murrieta K12, Iitk Teaching, Pearl Trees, Teachers Pondering, The Soul Of ESOL, Learn Lead Love, Praveen 897, Academia, Privacy Chain, Curriki, Effingham Schools, and Go Venture Oasis. Meaning the topic resonated with many teachers. So many curious teachers!

Miss Carrie's 11 habits say that an effective teacher:

1. Enjoys Teaching
2. Makes a Difference
3. Spreads Positivity
4. Gets Personal
5. Gives 100%
6. Stays Organized
7. Is Open-Minded
8. Has Standards
9. Finds Inspiration
10. Embraces Change
11. Creates Reflection.

I'm a teacher; which do I choose? NOTA, none of the above! I choose Curiosity as the one and only habit for a teacher to cultivate – because it's easy to memorize, and you always learn something when you are curious.

"Curiosity killed the cat" is a proverb or something, meaning it came from folk wisdom. I don't question the old folks, do you? Actually, that saying goes on like this:

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Look at the above image again (by Kenzo Bruijnaers, dribbble.com) – a beautiful illustration of "curiosity killed the cat," suggestive, vibrant with its message, I say. Now this:

You're a cat, so be curious. Curiosity has 9 lives!

I'm 79, in case you were curious. Above Miss Carrie's article is this line: "George Lucas Educational Foundation." Isn't Lucas' Star Wars a curiosity?!

Children are always curious – let them be! Encourage them. They will enjoy learning – and you will enjoy teaching!

Now, how do you encourage more curiosity? Terry Heick has "10 Strategies To Promote Curiosity In Learning" (26 April 2019, TeachThought, teachthought.com). And these are:

1. Model curiosity in its many forms.
2. Embed curiosity at the core of the instructional design process.
3. Analyze curiosity. Help students see its parts, or understand its causes and effects.
4. Reward curiosity. If you want a plant to grow, you feed it.
5. Make curiosity personal.
6. Let students lead. It's difficult to be curious if the learning is passive and the student doesn't have any control.
7. Spin content. Frame content like a marketer – as new, controversial, "frowned upon," etc.
8. Focus on questions, not answers.
9. Connect this to that.
10. De-school it. Let the content stand on its own.

And how exactly do you carry out any or all those 10 strategies to promote curiosity in learning? Be curious – find out today!@517

18 July 2019

How Common Sense Will Advance PH Agriculture – Advice Of William Dar


In his Manila Timescolumn of today, Thursday, July 18, 2019, William Dar writes up Part 2 of his column series on "The Power Of Technology And Innovation In Agriculture" (manilatimes.net). Not him but me, I look at the whole of it as a lecture on common sense

So!

(1)  Common sense is not food sufficiency.
It is food security. Mr Dar says, "The overall objective should be to make smallholder farmers and fisherfolk prosperous and, more importantly, food secure." We may have a sufficient rice supply, but we do not live by rice alone!

(2)  Common sense is not food production, food production, food production.
It is for farmers and fishers "earning enough to buy food for themselves and their families." Not simply higher yields but higher incomes.

(3)  Common sense is not simply technology.
"Technology is just technology until is it used for a noble purpose." Common sense is "using technology and innovation (in) levelling up the economic and social status of smallholder farmers and fisherfolk."

(4)  Common sense is not dictating to farmers what to do. Mr Dar says:
Common sense dictates that scientists and researchers just don't dictate to agriculture smallholders what could work for them; pushing for "once size fits all" science-based solutions no longer works.

(5)  Common sense is not government alone.
It is a collaboration among institutions and stakeholders, scientists, business, local government, academe, state colleges and universities, and NGOs, among others.

(6)  Common sense is not farming, farming, farming.
It is competitiveness, competitiveness, competitiveness. "Eventually, an agriculture sector that successfully uses technology and innovation will see the formation of more agribusiness enterprises and creation of more agripreneurs." That applies to farmer cooperatives as they "become more competitive business enterprises, with the potential of improving their profitability and increasing their capital base over the long term."

(7)  Common sense is not a good list of items of scattered agendas.
It is "a unified ARD agenda and funding or investments," with "one of its main objectives (being) the doubling of the income of agriculture stakeholders in five years." Filipino farmers have for generations suffered from low incomes – we must double their incomes, Mr Dar says, so as not to be "left behind and continue to wallow in poverty."

(8)  Common sense is not a "Don't Disturb" sign at many a closed door.
Mr Dar says:
Gone are the days when scientists and researchers holed up themselves in a laboratory or their offices developing or researching scientific breakthroughs that have little or no application in the real world. But scientists and researchers must also keep their feet anchored on the ground, and this applies literally when working with smallholder farmers and fisherfolk.

The above mage interpreting "common sense" (from engadget.com) is incomplete because it implies intellectualization but does not show that the man's feet are firmly on the ground. Mr Dar says, "Scientists and researchers keeping their feet anchored on the ground is really important."

Whoever you are, common sense is getting your feet wet and dirty, where the farmers are!@517

Double The Aggie Budget, Leni Robredo Promises. What About PH Visionary Leadership?

Will doubling the 2021 budget for 2022 be good for PH Agriculture? Good, but not good enough! I am reading Mara Cepeda ’s Rappler news re...