PH Agriculture Today: 90% Problems & 100% Potentials! 1st 100 Days Of Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar

If you want to improve PH Agriculture, you have to start from the top! And with optimism, not pessimism. I describe new Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie's 1st 100 days as: 

Patiently preparing for a food secure PH
& income-secure farmers.

My single-double image is the perfect metaphor for PH Agriculture today – you can look at it either as dark or bright. (original image, right, from Rappler.com[1])

The way Filipino farmer leaders look at PH Agriculture today: All problems, No potentials. They want guarantees, so they demand this and that. No initiatives, no thoughts on how they could help the new Department of Agriculture, DA, under Manong Willie (inset) to "level up Philippine agriculture."

Manong Willie spoke to the country on Tuesday, 19 November 2019, at the Rural Development Education Center of the Agricultural Training Institute along Elliptical Road on his "1st 100 Days" as Secretary of PH Agriculture.

The first things he said about those 100 days:

Truth be told, that period has not been easy.

We inherited a sector that is in critical stage as it has erratically grown this past decade. Poverty remains high, and rural and agricultural in nature.

I writer say, poverty is the ultimate problem,
not rice tariffication, not land ownership.

But first things first. What did Manong Willie do?

The DA as an organization had to be put in order so that it serves the Filipino people better, faster, and with greater precision.

Inside the DA, there were some management problems. Manong Willie said:

I have... asked for hard work and sincere public service from the men and women of the Department of Agriculture as we pursue a "new thinking for agriculture." I likewise (did) enjoin them to abide by the principles of ease of doing business, and providing efficient, effective, timely, swift, quality service to our clienteles – in keeping with the President's directive that we do what is right and with legal basis.

Manong Willie did not elaborate on The New Thinking for Agriculture, but it can be summarized by simply listing down what he himself calls The Eight Paradigms:

(1)  Modernization of agriculture;

(2)  Industrialization of agriculture;

(3)  Promotion of exports;

(4)  Farm consolidation;

(5)  Infrastructure development;

(6)  Higher budget and investments for agriculture;

(7)  Legislative support;

(8)  Roadmap development.

A very intriguing part of the 1st 100 Days report is this:

We have... minimized rent-seeking activities in the Department, which told horrors of how and where funds were being used and how a number of units were used to extract money from private sector groups in agricultural business. Those types of transactions have now been stopped and the use of regulatory powers has become transparent to avoid rent-seeking activities of those heading such offices.

There goes an honest man!

Outside the DA, there were 4 immense challenges: dreadfully falling prices of rice, palay & copra; deadly incursion into piggeries of the African Swine Fever; worrisome invasion of the Fall Army Worm in cornfields. But:

We shall overcome!@517

---

[1] https://www.rappler.com/business/industries/247-agriculture/57558-philippine-agriculture-preparing-el-nino

Dalisay Rice Revolution – PH Rice Farmer Leaders Raising Hell, Brave Lady Raising Hopes

PH rice farmer leaders keep raising their voices, decrying that the Rice Tariffication Law, RTL, is killing the farmers. And yes, they are planning a national rally against the RTL, which means essentially against Secretary of Finance Carlos Dominguez who insists on the wisdom of the RTL: "No Turning Back On Rice Trade Lib – DoF Chief[1]." And against head of the Department of Agriculture, DA, William Dar/Manong Willie, who is 100% sold on the RTL and is implementing the DA's part. They are The Darling Ones of PH Agriculture.

The Daring Ones are the farmer leaders. "Rice Tariffication Law Worse Than Yolanda, Says Rice Farmers Alliance[2]." They are growing louder, shouting that the RTL is decimating farmers. Or, at the very least, the RTL is keeping farmers poor. And that is what Rachel Renucci-Tan of Dalisay Rice is responding to (words on image):

Farmers in the Philippines are poor because of many factors. One of which is because they are trapped in (a) vicious cycle of debt, and they lack the financial capacity to buy inputs for their farm. Further, the poverty of rice farmers is not the result of plummeting palay farmgate price. Rice farmers' poverty is caused by a confluence of deeply rooted factors that pre-date the Rice Tariffication Law.

In 69 words, that is a whole lecture to PH farmer leaders. I repeat the very last sentence: "Rice farmers' poverty is caused by a confluence of deeply rooted factors that pre-date the Rice Tariffication Law."

In the meantime, as Dalisay Rice has shown, among other things, what PH Agriculture needs is Big Business partnering with small farmers to produce rice for the benefit of all parties.

I have written so far 7 essays on Dalisay Rice – see the list and click the links in my 7th essay, "The Rise Of Rices? Dalisay Rice & BigasPh[3]." (Am I a PR man for Dalisay Rice? No, I much believe in the product and how it is produced – favoring the farmers. So, when I say Miss Rachel is The Brave One, it comes from the heart!)

The above image says, after her name, "Chen Yi Agventures (CYA)" – CYA is the company that her husband Italian Patrick Renucci and she Filipina-Chinese own that produces "Dalisay Rice" in Alangalang, Leyte. The entire operation, from harvesting grains to packaging milled rice, is mechanized, the grains untouched by human hands. The farmers own their lands; their ownership, or lack of it, is untouched by the agreement that they produce for Dalisay Rice and follow strict protocols. The palay is processed in the P1.7 billion rice processing complex in Alangalang, the biggest such in Southeast Asia. The rice price the farmers get? Good! And there is no case of 5-6 lending for Dalisay Rice.

Here, CYA has given us a combined lesson in production, processing and marketing of rice:

"Do your business equally in favor of the poor farmers!"

I wish the farmer leaders opened their big mouths to help their members big!@517

---

[1] https://journal.com.ph/specials/business/no-turning-back-rice-trade-lib-dof-chief

[2] https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/11/18/19/rice-tariffication-law-worse-than-yolanda-says-rice-farmers-alliance

[3] https://iparadigmshifts.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-rise-of-rices-dalisay-rice-bigasph.html

What Is The Next Agricultural Revolution? Horticultural – Frank A Hilario, 17 Nov 2019

I did not plan this, but this essay is dedicated to PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, who has a PhD in Horticulture from the national university UP Los Baños. 

Sunday, I came to think that:

Horticulture is the best way to fight climate change!
Horticulture is also the best Agriculture!

Original thoughts inspired by the news from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. "Atlanta Turns 7-Acre Vacant Lot Into Largest Free Food Forest In the Country[1]," Sara Burrows says. That's about 3 ha of horticulture in a citified forest – growing fruits, nuts, vegetables, mushrooms, and herbs for the citizens. There will be walking trails and a native forest restored.

A food forest means trees are welcome, nay necessary. So we turn to Horticulture, where trees are integral.

We need food crops, and
we need trees to fight climate change – so
we need food forests!

And the fastest way to have food forests is to turn Agriculture into Horticulture. In fact. Wikipedia tells me, "Horticulture has been defined as the agriculture of plants, mainly for food, materials, comfort and beauty for decoration[2]."

It is time to change Agriculture to Horticulture and put trees in their proper places in the food chain.

Horticulture has Floriculture, Olericulture, Ornamental Horticulture, and Pomology. Floriculture has to do with flowering plants, Olericulture with vegetables, Ornamental Horticulture with plant forms and foliage, and Pomology with fruit trees. With a food forest, you have several kinds of food:

Food for the body
Food for the eyes
Food for the mind.

Food for the mind? Contemplating Peace, Mother Nature, God.

With Agriculture changed to Horticulture, we now avoid climate change. How? Mostly, we avoid water evaporating from the soil surface, which makes the most significant greenhouse gas[3].

Now, which horticultural crops to grow?

Cacao is best grown with shade trees; coffee likewise. "Sun-Grown Vs Shade-Grown: How It Impacts The Environment And The Farmers" – Abby Chudnovsky, De La Gente[4] (image above from the same source). Cacao and coffee are commercial crops that are welcome anywhere in the world, but we need more than leisure & pleasure drinks – we need food!

So, in your own food forest, choose your food crops: fruits, vegetables, vines, livestock. For all, I recommend the native species.

I go back now to the subject of climate change. Robert Gebelhoff says, "Climate Change Isn't Just About Extreme Weather. Entire Ecosystems Are Collapsing[5]," and that is why I am interested in the concept of food forests. To stop climate change including ecosystems collapse, I believe:

The Practice of Agriculture must completely change into
the Practice of Horticulture all over the world!

The innovators among our farmers should now change their rice fields into food forests.

And of course, when you have food forests, you will have more birds and bees, not only the flowers and the trees.@517

---

[1]https://returntonow.net/2019/06/27/atlanta-turns-7-acres-vacant-lot-into-largest-free-food-forest-in-the-country/

[2]R Arteca. 2015, Introduction to Horticultural Science, 2nd ed., Gengage Learning, Stamford, USA, p. 584. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horticulture

[3]"Climate Changer – Water Vapor Or Carbon Dioxide, I Go For The Female Logic!"

[4]https://www.dlgcoffee.org/news/2017/4/6/coffee-cultivation-sun-grown-shade-grown-and-how-it-impacts-the-environment-and-the-farmers

[5]https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/31/life-earth-is-groaning-under-weight-humanity-do-we-hear-it/

Newton's Diet Did Not Make Him A Genius – We Are All Geniuses. We Just Have To Use Our Brains!

John Thompson writes about Isaac Newton becoming smarter because of his diet ("The Secret To Isaac Newton's Accomplishments Has Finally Been Revealed...[1]" (Newton's image from Twitter[2]). Researching, Mr Thompson's team found out that Mr Newton had a daily regimen of wild Atlantic salmon and broth. Mr Thompson says that they found both the salmon and broth were "packed with (a) high density of Vitamin B and rare magnesium (that) significantly increases the brain's function." Mr Thompson says:

Therefore, by consuming these nutrients, our brain develops more glial cells (that) trigger the release of neurotransmitters, to promote the development of red blood cells that carry oxygen to the brain.

Diet to promote red blood cells that carry oxygen to the brain. Then what? Mr Thompson says:

This causes the memory stored in the hippocampus in the brain to be strengthened while supporting the brain function. In other words, one (becomes) smarter! This was how he was able to think with such imagery and abstraction.

So, with your Newton diet, your brain has more oxygen, your memory is strengthened – but, Mr Thompson, that does not equate to you being smarter! My own genius tells me that.

Let me remind you, Mr Thompson, that there are 2 kinds of thinking: critical thinking, and creative thinking. You need creative thinking to come up with your theory; you need critical thinking to explain your theory.

Perhaps a stronger memory means better critical or logical reasoning. But not creative thinking. Let me tell you now, Mr Thompson; I am a creative writer, and my own genius has produced at least 5,000 long essays, an average of more than 1,000 words each, which I have blogged since 2005. I am the most prolific writer nonfiction online. And those works of mine say:

Creative genius does not require memory!
It is the absence of logic, absence of order.
It is the mind unleashed.

You have your genius, Mr Thompson, and I have mine. My creative thinking genius tells me that:

First, Mr Newton came up with each of his theories not by critical thinking but by creative thinking.

Next, Mr Newton sought to elaborate on each theory by logical thinking.

No, content of the brain does not equate to creativity, to the coming out with a theory, any theory, whether earth-shaking or group-liberating.

No, Mr Newton's diet did notadd to this thinking, only to more oxygen to his brain and enthusiasm to work out his theories. Genius is not in the diet but in the man, and then again, in how one uses critical thinking and creative thinking.

Mr Thompson says:

The true genius of (Newton's) work is how he took those theories and applied them to the universe at large, in a way that had never been done before.

The true genius of Mr Newton was how often he used his genius. The same with us; we should use our genius often! This is a genius often speaking.@517

---

[1]https://totalrecart.com/pages/a-story-of-a-genius?fbclid=IwAR3F7tACxyHlXZxdCwaLcQS6rrN1Aa3hXThhmB4akq
LQDcB6LeVWqbmA4NU

[2] https://twitter.com/isaacnewtinho/status/666399069988888576

PH Journalism On Agriculture Is On Fire – Has Heat, No Heart!

Ask Maria Ressa, and it is journalism under fire – I am going for journalism on fire! With lots of heart. (main image from Santa Fe, New Mexico[1], heart image from Pinterest[2])

Today, Sunday, 17 November 2019, on Facebook I saw Tony Moran's sharing:

What kind of journalism do you call one that values science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, precision, and social betterment?

My Facebook response (edited):

Community Development (ComDev) journalism. I published that concept in Sylvatrop about 39 years ago. I was thinking vs DevCom (Development Communication).

ComDev and DevCom journalisms. Different kinds. My ComDev is communication for development – emphasis on development; your DevCom is development communication – emphasis on communication, as the journalist wishes it.

About noon today, here come my wife Ampy and daughter Ela from Church with the Sunday print edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, banner headline by Karl R Ocampo, "Where Have PH Farmers Gone? Neda Tracks 7-Yr Dip In Agri Labor[3]." Immediately I saw that this was a job for Superman:

For the Village Voice to fly high
above Lazybone Journalism!

Mr Ocampo's piece begins with a discouraging note, and ends in a discouraging tone, with a somber advice from Bruce Tolentino, former Deputy Director General of IRRI for Partnerships and now member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank, in these final 30 words:

A long list and lots of bottlenecks must also be resolved … There are no magic bullets, and the results will need at least five to 10 years to emerge.

Ah, that tells me a long list and lots of bottlenecks must be resolved to get PH journalism to encourage the Filipinos and not simply discourage them!

Mr Ocampo cites only the NEDA report, "Rural Labor Migration: An Analysis Of The Loss Of The Labor In The Agriculture Sector In The Philippines," and does not even state how long it is and how "deep" the analysis. Since he cites only that report:

Mr Ocampo is in fact equating the fate of PH Agriculture with rural labor outmigration – which is short-sighted, to say the least.

Mr Ocampo cites NEDA Secretary General Ernesto Pernia as saying PH Agriculture was the economy's "weakest link" as it grew only 1.1% in the last decade, only 0.75% "in the first nine months of the year."

In contrast, on the 14th of November 2019, Secretary of Agriculture and Manila Timescolumnist William Dar came out with the news that PH Agriculture grew by 2.87% in the 3rd quarter of this year[4].

So, did PH Agriculture grow by only 0.75% or by 2.87%?
I'll take the higher figure all the time!

I'm sorry for singling out Mr Ocampo as a journalist not journeying enough for his country, but he happens to write a piece that is a perfect example. I must say all PH journalists are guilty of only half-trying to be good journalists for development, including Ellen Tordesillas and Maria Ressa.

PH journalists have to give
less heat and
more heart to their outputs!@517

---

[1] https://www.sfcir.org/journalism-under-fire/

[2] https://www.pinterest.at/pin/314548355217504285/?autologin=true

[3] https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1190760/where-have-ph-farmers-gone-neda-tracks-7-yr-dip-in-agri-labor

[4]https://www.manilatimes.net/2019/11/14/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/q3-agri-growth-should-embolden-us-to-move-forward/655823/

Is Rice Irrigation Necessary? Yes, With Dammed Water. No, With Organic Water

Your Choice: Dammed Water

Above image is from the cover of the 2016 book Water In Agriculture published by the Asia Rice Foundation, the proceedings of its Annual Rice Forum 2015 "Water In Agriculture: Status, Challenges, And Opportunities" held in Los Baños, Laguna (296 pages).

The Forum proceeded from the assumption that irrigation water is necessary. To summarize the proceedings, we consult the chapter titled "Recommendations" written by Agnes C Rola, Arnold R Elepaño & Emil Q Javier:

#1: Manage R&D.

#2 to #4, #6 to #8: Manage management of irrigation water.

#5: Manage use.

#9: Manage funding of irrigation water.

How crazy are we Filipinos with irrigation water? Infamously insane – We have 30 agencies working on water! (page 30).

So, I leave you to your insanity.

The book ignored opportunities¸so I'm giving you an opportunity – we find it in Recommendation #5 – "Increase irrigation water productivity through promotion of water-efficient technologies." In fact, I am interested only in the 2nd part of that recommendation: promotion of water-efficient technologies. Hence:

My Choice: Organic Water

I have just invented the term organic water. This is the soil moisture made available to plants through the decomposition of organic matter, the source of the water, hence my name of it.

And I am not talking through my hat. I have a brother-in-law named Lorenzo "Inso" Casasus, a farmer in the village of Sanchez in Asingan, Pangasinan, my hometown. He was our farmhand about 54 years ago. it so happened that I was vacationing from my teaching at the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños. I was minding the plowing of our 1-ha ricefield in the village of Domanpot, near the boundary of Urdaneta City. I told the operator of the big Howard rotavator tractor something like this:

Run your machine over the field
as if you were just passing through.
Do not set any depth of cut, just zero.

Some 40 years later, Inso asked me, in a rare visit at his home, if I remembered the Howard rotavator episode. Yes, I did. Inso said the operator was smiling ear-to-ear, because his fuel cost was minimum! He did not know but my organic matter was maximum! 100%. I knew the rotavator would cut to pieces weeds plus crop refuse plus soil, mix them as it rolled, and leave a layer of surface mulch over that field 2-3 inches thick.

(My original method was inspired by the intellect of American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner who wrote 2 incendiary books in agriculture: Plowman's Folly, 1943 and Soil Development, 1952.)

That surface mulch began to decompose immediately to yield its contents of plant nutrients and water. It yielded my organic water and with it, my organic foods for my crop for the rest of the growing season. And so, Inso had done that for 40 years, and his neighbors had been imitating him – except that they did not notice the organic plowing – and so never approximated his much-higher yield.

They had never known the wonders of organic water!@517

Ilocano, Why I Prefer English As My Writer's Language – I Must Think Global And Act Global!

OMG! See image above: "The Philippines' english proficiency erodes[1]" is the headline of BusinessWorld for its story on 15 November 2019, and that single thing proves 2 things: One, the story is true and immediately verifiable. Two, even the English proficiency of the editors of BusinessWorld has eroded!

I click the Facebook link, and I see that inside the online paper, there is another sign, as it were, that Filipino English has deteriorated. I find the story without a story! The headline is text, of course, but that is all – the rest is all infographics, as if BusinessWorld has forgotten English as a language of communication for its readers!

Not me. I am forever English. I don't like writing in Tagalog (Filipino); I don't like writing in my native Ilocano either – they are both difficult to write with. And none of them even measures half of the richness of published English literature.

I have been writing my essays in English since I was Freshman at the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, in 1959 – and I am not going to shift to the native now. English is my language of creativity that can hardly be changed.

BusinessWorld was founded 27 February 1967, so it is about 52 years old – giving up at such a good age? I am 79 years old, Ilocano, and I learned to love the English language on Grade 1 yet, in 1947, 72 years ago in the village of Sanchez in Asingan, Pangasinan. I never lost the love for the language – even if I did love the Diwang Kayumanggi (for the elementary grades) and the Diwang Ginto (high school years) book series of Juan C Laya, born in San Manuel, Pangasinan, which is next to Asingan, who was probably an Ilocano.

Even if I have to repeat myself, I am going to tell you that counting from 2005, I have blogged at least 5,000 long essays, each one a minimum of 1,000 words in my numerous blogs – would you believe 100 plus? – first at WordPress and now at Blogger. And I am a one-man band, and all digital, when it comes to that: I write my drafts onscreen, review and revise several times; then I upload to Blogger.comwithout changing anything except the font, to Helvetica – no reformatting necessary, no HTML work to be done at all – secret! (If you didn't know, HTML is one common big headache of bloggers.)

I love English because of the great writers quotable, memorable, exploratory, intellectual, and inspiring that are hard to find in the Philippines, among literary, political, or popular science writers.

I love English because as a spiritual guide for the world, whatever you believe in. English is also the common language of knowledge. If I chose Tagalog as my writer's language, I would be a patriot. But between Patriotism and Knowledge, I will always choose Knowledge. Why because Knowledge is Global, while Patriotism is Local.

Spiritually, I must think Global and act Global!@517

---

[1]https://www.bworldonline.com/the-philippines-english-proficiency-erodes/?fbclid=IwAR1d66UbcVz
TLR7ikOiwHJympqM_gz8qZRZG14jtEgKGzlYagBDH-qzWbqQ