You are looking at The Bridge to Prosperity found in Asingan, Pangasinan – Ilocano-wise.
How do you like it: That your Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar/Manong Willie, is an agriculturist and Ilocano? That your science writer, Frank A Hilario, is an agriculturist and Ilocano? That the Ilocanos are known to be industrious and frugal? I love it! Except:
We Ilocanos are not frugal in farming. We Ilocanos have to be taught what we already know!
To do that, for my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan, I have been thinking of an agri-tourism program with our Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative’s 4.2 hectares of land down the Sinapog Bridge (beautiful scene above). Under the bridge, Nagkaisa has authority over those hectares. The other day, I discussed with Nagkaisa Chair Roger Daranciang my proposal for a “Farmer-Friendly Agriculture, Ilocano-Wise” techno-demo program involving Asingan’s 21 barangays.
When you find the formula for prosperity, please multiply it!
Note the name of the program: “Farmer-Friendly Agriculture” – if your agriculture is not a farmer’s friend, it is a farmer’s fiend.
Note that in the image above, at the right of The Bridge to Prosperity, you can see this enumeration:
Scientific
Productive
Economical
Healthy
Biological
Acceptable
Enriching.
Productive
Economical
Healthy
Biological
Acceptable
Enriching.
Those 7 adjectives I derive from my decades of in-field and off-field professional learning of agriculture, including the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, originated by Fr Henri de Laulanie, SJ, who was assigned in Madagascar and described as a “visionary realist[1].”
Yes, our new PH Agriculture must be visionary and realistic!
Visionary: You dream of a coming common prosperity for all who pass by the bridge of life.
Realistic: Your feet are planted firmly on the ground, as well as on the bridge. Such prosperity will be brought about by following the precepts of the 7 virtues of FFA.
Scientific means that its claims are accurate. For instance, square planting with single seedlings at the corners gives maximum space for each seedling to grow its maximum number of tillers.
Productive means since it grows the maximum number of tillers, each hill produces maximum yield.
Economical means the farmer spends the least amount of money in seeds, cultivation, weed control, pest control, irrigation, harvesting, drying and selling his palay.
Healthy means the rice grains produced are free of residues of chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides.
Ecological means FFA is engaged in a mixture of crop species to insure a natural balance of insects and other organisms that can cause infestation or disease, so there is no need for pesticides.
Acceptable means the community approves of the system of growing your crop because it does not harm the environment in any way.
Enriching means the farmers will become richer and richer. How? We will follow the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT’s strategy of Inclusive Market-Oriented Development, IMOD, adopted when Manong Willie was ICRISAT Director General. Via IMOD, the cooperative assists farmers in producing, processing and marketing their produce, to optimize expenses and maximize incomes. Consistently.
If you make the farmers richer, you will make the whole country happier!@517
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