Today’s (06 June 2020) long Inquirer.net opinion piece “Covid-19 Pandemic And The Looming Food Crisis[1]” contributed by retired UP Los Baños professor Teodoro C Mendoza, in 1567 words, frightens the reader twice with “pandemic” and “food crisis.” The opinion piece tackles food importation, and what we need to do to produce our own:
(1) Grow our own food.
(2) Shift to brown rice, or 50-50 white-brown rice.
(3) Eat other food crops: sweet potato, cassava, gabi, banana.
(4) Eat more vegetables and fruits.
Our good friend Ted Mendoza has lots of good ideas, but I don’t like it that he premises them with “a looming food crisis” – as if to emphasize that Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has no actions-plans at all about that!
And yes, our friend is still dreaming, still proposing that the government grant land tenure to landless peasants, who then are expected to lovingly take care of their properties and make them profitable for their families.
Since our friend does not mention them, I will say that Ted Mendoza has notread Manong Willie’s “The New Thinking For Agriculture” and the 8 paradigms that accompany it, where #4 says (my words), “Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms.” Instead of land reform, Ted Mendoza should be thinking of farmer reform, like notborrowing from usurers, notpracticing calendared spraying, and notselling to traders who dictate prices!
Instead of dreaming about poor peasants owning their tiny pieces of land, our friend should be dreaming about PH agriculture and (1) Modernization. (2) Industrialization. (3) Promotion of exports. (4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms. (5) Infrastructure development. (6) Higher budget & investment. (7) Legislative support. (8) Roadmap development. (brain images from Brainscape[2])
I don’t know why he mentions former Secretary of Agriculture Manny Piñol’s estimate of lost income for the farmers – that data is dated, sorry to say. What has Manong Willie said about rice imports? Our friend does not say.
About advanced purchase systems – the DA is already sponsoring those. About companies buying the rice for their employees, that is being taken care of. About money being infused in the rural economies, I cannot count how many billions now. And yes, Manong Willie knows about traders’ control of the price of rice.
Also already being taken care of is “guaranteed price for our farmers.” Manong Willie knows, including crop and farmer insurance.
Our friend also mentions one of his favorite topics: Organic Agriculture. I know he practices organic farming in his little farm near his residence in the town of Bay, Laguna. He says:
Restoring soil fertility is a slow and gradual process. Experiences show that three to five years are required to rehabilitate the soil.
I agree to restore the fertility of fields, but not wait 3 to 5 years to rehabilitate the soil. I am not using old, sloworganic farming technology. I have a rapid-fire idea; I call it the mulch technique – read about it here[3].
We need more enriching thinking about PH agriculture!@517
[1]https://opinion.inquirer.net/130535/covid-19-pandemic-and-the-looming-food-crisis?fbclid=IwAR1VVuXNYRl4UQDMg1WCAp0MHnOO19AF7XnXeLoPjkRubxBhS91Ke1JM_kQ
[2]https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2016/08/better-learning-focused-vs-diffuse-thinking/
[3]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/raised-beds-are-best-way-to-garden-no.html
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