Want An ISI-World Class Journal? You Need An ISI-World Class Editor – Frank A Hilario

Above, the SEARCA Style Guide is a thick 100-page manual addressed to authors submitting their papers for publication by the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Graduate Study & Research in Agriculture, SEARCA. The Style Guide is formidable, even daunting – and very heavy, literally, as it has thick paper dividers with labels. I am an Editor in Chief many times over, but I am daunted by this Style Guide. This is the latest edition.

As an author of a technical paper, are you brave enough to open the pages of the Style Guide – 100 pages and there is no index for locating an instruction with its exact page to check with?

Being a practical man, what did I do when I was Editor in Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, the Journal of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines, CSSP? I wrote an entirely new Contributors Guidelines of only 2 printed pages, and that included how to format your References or Literature Review, a tedious process. I know. So what I did was I did the final formatting of those lists myself, never returning the papers for correcting their references notfollowing the guidelines. And I'm very fast, because I knew exactly how it should look like when printed – and I'm very fast when it comes to Windows and Microsoft Office apps.

And what happened when I did all that? Within 4 years, the PJCS became world class or listed in the elite international list referred to as ISI (now ISI/Web of Science/Web of Knowledge). And ISI is Heaven to journals and authors – they get international recognition, and if you are a faculty member of the UP System, you get a bonus of P50,000 for every technical paper you publish in an ISI journal.

Your journal is not for you; it is for authors. You have to help the authors in any way you can. After all, your journal owes its existence to authors! In short, when you are helping your authors, you are actually also helping yourself!

Now, you may say I am only talking about this to remind the world that I am a world-class Editor in Chief. Yes and No. I am writing about this because I want to help science bodies take maximum care of their technical publications, not allow them to wither and die.

As Editor, I am a digital surprise. I want to tell you that I have been using Microsoft Word as my desktop publisher in the last 26 years, and I have produced many books to show as proof of work.

Are you still publishing your journal using a desktop publisher that is as cumbersome as Microsoft Publisher, or PageMaker, or InDesign? Let this 79-year old help you!

To show how grateful I am to God as an Editor in Chief, for your group or office, including SEARCA, I am volunteering a full day's free lecture-workshop on technical writing, including desktop publishing a technical journal yourself. Email me if interested: frankahilario@gmail.com.@517

Senior AgriPreneurship, Yes? Some Ideas Don't Grow Old! Like Organic Farming

Under the new PH Agriculture, with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, one of the paradigm shifts is toward youth entrepreneurship in farming. Youth would mean not more than 25 years old, right? Manong Willie is thinking of funding each youth entrepreneur with P500 K to kick off a bright idea or something off the ground, literally.

To be fair – Manong Willie, how about cultivating us senior entrepreneurs in agriculture? I'm 79, and I have a bright idea of my own for a mini-max kind of farming: you know, minimum inputs, maximum outputs.

My bright idea has to do with a different kind of organic farming. No, it is not the organic farming you keep reading about in books, newspapers and even on Facebook. Except the name, this idea actually has been in my mind in the last 50 years or so; yesterday, when I saw the book published by the Asia Rice Foundation, ARF – see half of book cover above – I was reminded of it. It just so happens that the cover shows green and brown – nice metaphor for young and old.

I'll take the P500 K Challenge!

But first, let me talk more about the Asia Rice organic fertilizer book, a compilation of the papers presented in a 2009 Rice Forum organized by the Asia Rice Foundation  and sponsored by PhilRice and SEARCA.

The very title Revisiting The Organic Fertilizer Issue In Rice tells you that the Forum speakers and panelists were not 100% sold to the solo use of organic fertilizers on rice. In the very Foreword to the book by Ronilo A Beronio, Executive Director of PhilRice, the issue is presented in the paradigm of all-or-nothing. Says he in his last paragraph:

We are all for soil that can sustain the needs of our rice crop. We are all for sustainable farming. It's just that we have different formulas. Organic farming sure is a good way to go. But organic fertilizers alone are not enough to produce the food needed to adequately feed our people.

The problem with that paradigm is that to Mr Beronio, organic fertilizing equals organic farming, 100%. That is incorrect 100%.

Take it from me, the pioneer and prehistoric proselytizer for organic agriculture in the Philippines – I wrote about it in the Philippines Free Press when nobody else was talking about it. Indeed, I taught organic farming at the College of Agriculture of Xavier University in Cagayan De Oro City in 1968. How? I put it into my syllabuses in Horticulture – Floriculture, Ornamental Horticulture, Olericulture, and Pomology. (You can ask Nicky Perlas, Right Livelihood awardee, to show you his copies.)

Briefly now, my organic farming is the growing of the soil first– you must start with a rich soil and keep on enriching it even as you grow your crops.

I call my paradigm of organic farming Organic Mattering.

With P500 K, Manong Willie, let this senior AgriPreneur go out and soil his hands and prove he can become as rich as an organic soil in life!@517

Rice Self-Sufficiency Is Small Change – Food Security Is The Big Deal!

His paradigm shifted to the negative, Jasper Y Arcalas says in his latest report in BusinessMirror:"Rice Self-Sufficiency Rate Seen Dropping Further[1]." His story may be factual, but his assumption is frightfully wrong! 

Even if so – So what?!

Every single PH Secretary of Agriculture before William Dar/Manong Willie went after rice self-sufficiency – and of course they all failed. They did not know, or did not realize, that all the odds were against it. For one, PH has the highest cost of producing rice per kilo in the Asean:

PH P12/kilo, Thailand P8/kilo, and Vietnam P6/kilo – how can you compete when you cannot sell lower than your production cost?

How can you compete when
you are a good farmer but
you are a bad businessman?

More than 2 years ago, now PH #1 Farmer Manong Willie already saw the difference between food security and food sufficiency[2]. In his Manila Times column dated 27 October 2016, he noted that The Economist treated food security as the ability of a country to supply food for its population, notproduce it. And so Singapore was ranked as the most food secure in Asia! Manong Willie said, "And come to think of it  – Singapore imports more than 90 percent of its food needs."

Manong Willie noted that Thailand and Vietnam should have been ranked among the top food-secure nations "because they can produce more than enough rice for their populations." That is because rice is not the only food we need as a nation.

That is to say, you know bad economics if you
insist on food sufficiency as good economics.

So, if I may suggest, Mr Arcalas and/or the BusinessMirror should be coming out with a series of reports like "PH Food Security Rate Seen Rising Higher."

In the meantime, as I a science writer who is an agriculturist see it, PH farmers should be lowering their cost of producing rice for the market and at the same time growing food other than rice – all of which they can export and earn much more.

With the export earnings, we can then
import food for our people to eat.
That's called food security.
We cannot eat rice self-sufficiency!

And what does Manong Willie prescribe for food security?

Let us offer viable alternatives to help our poor farmers increase their incomes, giving them the purchasing power to afford and access quality and nutritious food, at all times. Growing high-value crops that have revenue potential  – such as palm oil, rubber, cacao, coffee, mango, pineapple, soybean, and cassava must be pursued with a clear roadmap and assured investment support. That way, farmers do not equate farming as a subsistence but (as) a business to grow and nurture.

In the inset image above, Manong Willie appears on the cover of the Ilocano magazine Bannawag, meaning dawn, a new morning. For their new mornings, what must dawn on our farmers is a business sense.

What our previous agriculture leaders – and reporters  –  lacked was a business sense. What goes around comes around!@517

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[1]https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/11/22/rice-self-sufficiency-rate-seen-dropping-further/?fbclid=IwAR0Qn
4Hb05bfp1hJOtt9zhfStw0H74c9j_d7GUL3k0iyIUS828RoW5UYksY

[2]https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/10/27/business/columnists-business/food-security-vs-food-self-sufficiency/293498/

Rice & Water – How To Look At A Problem 2 Ways & Miss The Point!

Up to now, amidst the crisis of rice prices, PH rice farmer leaders continue to blame the government, and continue to ignore looking for how they can help solve the national rice problem. 

These farmer leaders are repeating exactly the same mistake of looking at the problems of rice production as largely environmental and not technical, not in the manner of growing the crop, not even in the harvesting of the panicles and processing of the grains after harvest – exactly as foresters looked at it more than 12 years ago.

In the first paper presented in the book (image above from the book cover), Felino P Lansigan, Rex Victor O Cruz & Rodel D Lasco say in "Linkages Of Forest And Water Resource Use And Management To Sustainable Rice Production In The Philippines," page 11:

Much of the country's land resources exhibit various degrees and nature of degradation, largely due to adverse topography; climate factors, particularly excessive rainfall; soils that are prone to erosion; and inadequate land use policies. The obsolete policy framework for land use allocation and planning has aggravated the fragmented, inefficient, inequitable, and unsustainable use of land resources, with serious impacts on ecosystems, soil, water, biodiversity, and the poor and other marginalized sectors of... society.

To summarize the above and use it on the problem of rice production:

The problem with rice production is a combination of landscape, climate (especially lack of or excessive rains), eroding soils, and lack of land use policies.

No Sir! Landscape? The ricelands are there and there is nothing we can do about their locations. Climate: There is hardly anything we can do with the climate directly, but we can anticipate either the drought or the excessive rains. Let the Forest Management Bureau, take care of our forests – in the meantime, our farmers have to accept what the watersheds yield in terms of irrigation water.

And our farmers have to learn how to be efficient users of water.

On page 41 of the book, it is stated:

Lowland rice farmers continuously immerse rice fields in water throughout the season in their belief that rice thrives best under continuously flooded conditions.

The farmers are wrong in believing that rice thrives best when the field is continuously flooded. Flooding is disproved in the practice called System of Rice Intensification, SRI, developed by Jesuit priest Fr Henri de Laulanie. Having discovered Fr Laulanie's SRI in his research in Madagascar, Norman Uphoff has been inspiring the Cornell Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, USA to propagate the method throughout the world.

With SRI, "Rice Does Not Need Water[1]" according to an article by V Vinod Goud in DownToEarth. Actually, that needs editing; it should read, "Rice Does Not Need Flooding Water." Flooding is for controlling weeds; instead, if you rotavate them into surface mulch, you enrich your soil.

Under SRI, the yields are "almost double that of the conventional crops." (inset image above from Mother Nature Network[2].) What else do our rice farmers want?!@517

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[1] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/rice-does-not-need-water-10108

[2] https://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/stories/how-small-scale-farmers-are-growing-more-rice-with-less-water-and-fewer

Use Prezi Or PowerPoint For Your Presentation? Wrong Question!

Look at the fiery image (inset) of Prezi, which I saw on Facebook. Good imagery, bad connection; that's nothow a creative brain works! Look at the main image, my Windows 10 collage: that's how your brain works trying to create something. You need your creativity first, but Prezi ignores it and insists on its own!

"How the human brain works" –
Ha. There is no such thing as a Left Brain and a Right Brain –
That's a no-brainer!

But there is such a thing as critical thinking
and such a thing as creative thinking.
Yet Prezi does not mention either.

The whole claim to fame of Prezi is that, without mentioning & explaining creativity first of all, Prezi is like saying:

Prezi is creative for you, do not worry about it.
That's exactly why you should worry about it!

I have the privilege to say all that. I am the world's most creative writer online, non-fiction; my 5,000+ long essays uploaded in my many blogs since 2005 should prove my contention. (For some quick counts, search the Web for "A Magazine Called Love" and "Frank A Hilario" – including the double quotes.)

Than PowerPoint, Prezi claims being more organized, engaging, persuasive, effective. That is exactly the problem with Prezi: It organizes your thoughts when you do not yet have any!

"No need to start from scratch" –
That is the most anti-creative advice I have ever heard!

You do not have yet the foggiest idea what you want to say and yet you are supposed to be organizing the parts of your presentation already – just because Prezi is ready for you!

No, you are not ready to create a presentation until
you are ready with your main message,
and then the parts that contribute to that message.
Prezi does not know holism –  
The parts do not come first before the whole!

I should know. I worked as a copywriter for the Pacifica Publicity Bureau with Creative Director Nonoy Gallardo (husband of Celeste Legaspi) in the mid-70s, with the great mind of Father of Advertising David Ogilvy (British) on top of our heads.

Prezi's one-of-a-kind open canvas, smart structures, zoom reveal, free movement all make for an easy and enjoyable creation of a presentation – but that is Prezi's creativity, not yours! Prezi is spoon-feeding your creativity, not invoking it.

You, you have to start from scratch!

"Jump-start your awesomeness with these quick, simple ways to create your best presentations ever." But what is your awesomeness presenting except a collection of ideas and no common thread?

Because you have not settled on what is your main selling point!

Prezi even has what it calls story blocks, but it is not asking you to decide on your story first!

"Deliver stunning interactive visual experiences that let you adapt on the fly and zoom in on the topics that matter most to any audience."

Thank you, Prezi, but I have to start
with my main message, not
with you!

(If you need help making your presentation, email me: frankahilario@gmail.com. My first advice is free.)@517

"Research Utilization Is Important" – William Dar. Using Discovered Knowledge, Multiplying The Beneficiaries from 7 to 70 to 70,000

"There should be means in which we can really commercialize the results and lessons we have learned from CPAR," Department of Agriculture, DA Chief William Dar/Manong Willie was talking at the 4th National Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CPAR) Congress held end of October 2019 at the BSWM Convention Hall in Diliman, Quezon City. The Congress was organized by the Bureau of Agricultural Research, BAR, and the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Graduate Study & Research in Agriculture, SEARCA. The BAR is under the DA. CPAR is a program that has been pursued by the BAR in the last 20 years, and SEARCA researchers have been studying (a) CPAR's successes, to be used as guides to pursue similar programs elsewhere in the country, and (b) CPAR's failures, to prevent their recurrence. Funded by the BAR, the SEARCA study began December 2018 and will last until May 2020[1].

Commercialize the results – That was the challenge Manong Willie posed at the CPAR Congress. We will have to wait for the SEARCA report for our more enterprising scientists or private entrepreneurs to apply and/or improve on CPAR lessons.

"I am challenging CPAR," Manong Willie said. "Hindi na lang from 7 na naging 70, dapat from 70 magiging 70,000 na magsasaka at mangingisda ang makinabang. Ganoon po ang gusto nating makita," Manong Willie said. Not only 7 becoming 70, it should be 70 becoming 70,000 farmers and fishers benefitting. That is what we want to see."

The numbers count.So, after 20 years, how many farmers and fishers have benefitted from CPAR like Vicente Casas Sr from Zamboanga, a rubber plantation farmer, who has increased his profit margin; Sherlie Suniga from Ilocos Region, who has increased access to better trainings and farm inputs? If you have success, prepare to share them now!

The SEARCA research effort is in support of the BAR to be able to scale up and/or scale out tested technologies and farming practices. The study is for 18 months and is being carried out in field offices of the BAR, Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources, and the local government units that are implementing partners.

Yes, what they call "Community-Based Participatory Action Research," CPAR, is all new to me, who have been in and out and around as well as a wide reader on the theory and practice of agriculture since 60 years ago when I was freshman at the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños. So, CPAR implementation in the field has been 20 years, and SEARCA is researching that. Such a study after 2 decades is rather late, but better late than never. Not only farmers but also researchers have to learn what they are doing right, and/or what they are doing wrong.

Even now, it can be asked, echoing the words of Manong Willie:

Will the Theory of Change as applied based on the CPAR findings help PH Agriculture commercialize the technologies & systems tested?

We hope that the answers are in the affirmative!@517

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[1]
https://www.searca.org/projects/technical-assistance/building-up-from-the-gains-lessons-from-and-improvements-for-effective-implementation-of-the-community-based-participatory-action-research-cpar-program

PH Agriculture: Rice Tariffication Is A Must, Farm-Based Exports Are More Must!

PH is a member of the World Trade Organization, WTO, and we have to follow the rules, or we are out of world trade! It is as simple as that. Following WTO, we had to pass the Rice Tariffication Law, RTL, whether we liked it or not. 

Farmer Leaders: If you are thinking only of rice, you are out of this world!

"Rice, Free Trade And Trade Wars" is today's Manila Times column of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie[1]. He points to the ongoing US-China trade war, but PH cannot afford any trade war, can we? Ah, Manong Willie says:

Free trade could also be the key to a country's progress,
if we strive to export more products.

As of now, we are thinking only of rice, and how the prices of unmilled and milled rice have fallen to desperate levels, brought about by rice importation as allowed and encouraged by the RTL. Now we look at the RTL as the Enemy of the Rice People. But in fact, as Pogo says:

We have seen the enemy, and it is US!

Not the United States, not China, not Russia – we Filipinos! Us! I blame it on our farmer leaders, whoever they are, as they think and talk only of rice, rice, rice.

See image above:Our farmers & their leaders do not think of farming as business, of other crops, partnerships – they think only of politics – they do not think distribution, access, corporate, borders, storage, investing. They do not think cooperation!

I quote again Manong Willie: "Free trade could also be the key to a country's progress, if we strive to export more products." We do not need food self-sufficiency; what we need is food security. We can import the rest of the rice we need, but we need to export some farm products as sources of funds: banana, cacao, coconut, coffee etc.

How much was our exports of finished products to 5 Asean member-countries Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2018? US$10.70 billion!

Within the Asean, says Manong Willie, we are already exporting raw or processed rubber, tobacco & substitutes, cereal & flour preparations, sugar, fruits & nuts, dairy products, and animal & vegetable fats. Those exports come not from excess production but from entrepreneurial minds.

Our farmer leaders have always been complaining about farmers not owning the land they cultivate – with the assumption that they will work harder and better if they were landowners. No! That is simplistic thinking.

What our farmer leaders can do now is convince their followers to take advantage of the PH government's complete assistance package and become productive farmers and exemplary citizens, if uneducated.

In the meantime, Manong Willie quotes a NEDA study prescription for a rosy future of PH Agriculture:

The study notes the importance of schemes like land consolidation, cooperative farming, and machinery pooling systems that afford economies of scale and synergies to make the most out of agricultural resources while democratizing productivity gains.

Those gains will be the gains for all!@517

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[1] https://www.manilatimes.net/2019/11/21/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/rice-free-trade-and-trade-wars/657458/