How Common Sense Will Advance PH Agriculture – Advice Of William Dar

In his Manila Timescolumn of today, Thursday, July 18, 2019, William Dar writes up Part 2 of his column series on "The Power Of Technology And Innovation In Agriculture" (manilatimes.net). Not him but me, I look at the whole of it as a lecture on common sense. 

So!

(1)  Common sense is not food sufficiency.
It is food security. Mr Dar says, "The overall objective should be to make smallholder farmers and fisherfolk prosperous and, more importantly, food secure." We may have a sufficient rice supply, but we do not live by rice alone!

(2)  Common sense is not food production, food production, food production.
It is for farmers and fishers "earning enough to buy food for themselves and their families." Not simply higher yields but higher incomes.

(3)  Common sense is not simply technology.
"Technology is just technology until is it used for a noble purpose." Common sense is "using technology and innovation (in) levelling up the economic and social status of smallholder farmers and fisherfolk."

(4)  Common sense is not dictating to farmers what to do. Mr Dar says:
Common sense dictates that scientists and researchers just don't dictate to agriculture smallholders what could work for them; pushing for "once size fits all" science-based solutions no longer works.

(5)  Common sense is not government alone.
It is a collaboration among institutions and stakeholders, scientists, business, local government, academe, state colleges and universities, and NGOs, among others.

(6)  Common sense is not farming, farming, farming.
It is competitiveness, competitiveness, competitiveness. "Eventually, an agriculture sector that successfully uses technology and innovation will see the formation of more agribusiness enterprises and creation of more agripreneurs." That applies to farmer cooperatives as they "become more competitive business enterprises, with the potential of improving their profitability and increasing their capital base over the long term."

(7)  Common sense is not a good list of items of scattered agendas.
It is "a unified ARD agenda and funding or investments," with "one of its main objectives (being) the doubling of the income of agriculture stakeholders in five years." Filipino farmers have for generations suffered from low incomes – we must double their incomes, Mr Dar says, so as not to be "left behind and continue to wallow in poverty."

(8)  Common sense is not a "Don't Disturb" sign at many a closed door.
Mr Dar says:
Gone are the days when scientists and researchers holed up themselves in a laboratory or their offices developing or researching scientific breakthroughs that have little or no application in the real world. But scientists and researchers must also keep their feet anchored on the ground, and this applies literally when working with smallholder farmers and fisherfolk.

The above mage interpreting "common sense" (from engadget.com) is incomplete because it implies intellectualization but does not show that the man's feet are firmly on the ground. Mr Dar says, "Scientists and researchers keeping their feet anchored on the ground is really important."

Whoever you are, common sense is getting your feet wet and dirty, where the farmers are!@517