A not-so-poor farmer’s son from Sanchez, Asingan, Pangasinan, I am an agriculture graduate of the premier agricultural university in the Philippines, UP Los Baños, 1965, BSA major in Ag Edu – I should know much about the growing of rice, right? Well, I don’t!
Right now, I’m thinking of how PH Agriculture with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar can serve the information needs of the 10 million Filipino farmers[1], as counted-reported by Zoilo “Bingo” Dejaresco III (12 September 2019, “The Tragedy Of The Filipino Rice Farmers,” Businessmirror.ph). Our farmers cannot grow enough rice, so we have to import – and the traders take advantage of all of us! We have to help our own farmers grow more rice.
If half of them planted only rice, that would give us 5 million farmers. To do right for everyone, we have to make sure that for those 5 million, their costs are minimum, their harvests are maximum, and their returns optimum.
Are we teaching them well? I will now check not by asking the farmers but by referring to their source of instructions or guide about planting irrigated lowland rice. So, here I am reading out the entries in Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank[2] (Pinoyrice.com).
This is the first thing that appears on the website:
PalayCheck is a dynamic rice crop management system that:
(1) Presents the best key technology and management practices as Key Checks;
(2) Compares farmer practices with the best practices; and
(3) Learns through farmers’ discussion group to sustain improvement in productivity, profitability, and environment safety.
What is (all) that?! I expected farmer-friendly instructions, but it does not even present examples of “the best key technology and management practices!”
(I checked and, no, not even the IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank is farmer-friendly; likewise, it is only expert-friendly!)
Immediately, we need a Rice Knowledge Bank that even a high school student can understand and appreciate. For the sake of our farmers, ultimately for our sake.
As a lowland rice farmer of Asingan, Pangasinan, immediately I would need instructions or pieces of advice, such as these:
ü How much should I loan from our Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative good for one cropping?
ü Which of the available hybrid rice varieties is best for my farm in barangay Sanchez?
ü How many kilos do I sow for transplanting?
ü How soon should I transplant?
ü What is the best distance for planting? Why?
ü Should I use the transplanter?
ü When is the best time to plant?
ü Where can I buy organic fertilizers? If I want to make my own, how do I do it?
ü What about organic pesticides? Instead, how do I make my own?
All that and more a farmer-friendly Rice Knowledge Bank should contain.
Not to forget – the language should be plain English even a high school student understands. (Later, the translations into Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisaya etc.)
My message to Mr Dar now is this:
Let us create a farmer-friendly Rice Knowledge Bank! (Websites for other crops can come later, when we’re happy with rice.)@517
[1]https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/09/12/the-tragedy-of-the-filipino-rice-farmers/#:~:text=TODAY%20there%20are%2010%20million,and%20they%20are%20in%20trouble.
[2]https://www.pinoyrice.com/palaycheck/
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