Farmers, ROTC Law: Obey First Before You Complain!

First, here is critical thinking at work, as practiced by Happy Farmers in their Facebook page (as Roserfina Del Rosario shares, "Happy Farmers: Tanim Dito, Tanim Doon," 02 August 2019) (Plant Here, Plant There), all my translation:

Happy FarmersKeep on sharing
Where is justice for the farmers?

P2,000 seeds

P3,500 pulling

P7,500 rotavating, levelling

P5,500 transplanting

P2,500 weedicide, insecticide

P10,000 fertilizer

P2,000 pabigas (can't translate)

P2,000 weeding

P8,000 crude oil

P10,000 credit

P8,000 reaper

P3,000 food for workers, helpers

equals 

P64,000 total expenses

P70,000 gross at average 100 cavans per hectare X 50 @ P14/kilo palay

P6,000 net for farmer per hectare.

The supplication of farmers:
Buy the palay right, P17 or P18/kg, both seasons harvest time.

Happy Me:

If you buy the palay at P18, that will give the farmer a total of P90,000, or a net of P26,000.

If I were President Rodrigo Duterte, will I order my Secretary of Agriculture to buy palay at P18 or even P20/kilo? Yes, but only once. Not the next time.

As PRRD, I will require the farmers to first obey Frank's Law before they complain, Frank's Law of Diminishing Costs:

(1)   Cut costs of production.

(2)   Get credit from the banks, not usurers.

(1)   Save on transplanting. From the farmers themselves, the numbers say a farmer is spending already P9,000 just for transplanting (pulling the seedlings, then transplanting). If the farmer transplants at only 2 weeks after sowing the seeds, the seedlings are still very small, can easily be pulled out of the soil, easier to transplant. That should reduce the expenses of transplanting to save P5,000 already! You will increase your yield too – lesser stress to the transplanted seedlings!

P5,000 plus P6,000 – the farmer nets P11,000 and not only P6,000.

(2)   Save on weeding.P2,000 for weeding plus P1,000 for weedicide. I'm an agriculturist; I know that there is no need for weeding – you can plow the weeds and incorporate them with the surface soil to make an organic mulch all over the field; It's called trash farming. You save P3,000 – and you enrich your soil too!

P11,000 plus P3,000 – the farmer nets P14,000 and not only P6,000.

(3)   Save on fertilizer.P10,000 for chemical fertilizer. There are many organic fertilizers now available in the Philippines, or the farmers can make their own. With organic fertilizers, farmers should be able to save P6,000 each cropping season.

P14,000 plus P6,000 – the farmer nets P20,000 and not only P6,000.

With (2) plus (3), you are also saving against Climate Change!

(4)   Save on usurious loans. P10,000 for credit ("porsyento ng porsyentuhan" – percent of percenter). If farmer borrows from a bank, or cooperative, he saves P7,000 minimum.

P20,000 plus P7,000 – the farmer nets P27,000/ha and not only P6,000!

Happy Farmers, I hear you:
Rice for consumers is bought at P50/kilo, but rice from farmers is bought at P14/kilo – where is the justice there!?

Happy Farmers, you will make me extra happy if you obey first Frank's Law of Diminishing Costs.

After that, you can complain as you wish. Happy complaining!@517