Kristine Sabillo has the good news: "Pinay Chef Bags UN Award For Helping Bicol Farmers" (18 September 2019, ABS-CBN News, news.abs-cbn.com). The contest is called "Young Champions of the Earth" and the individual prize is US$15,000, or P784,000, to be awarded by the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP in New York. Of the 7 global young winning entrepreneurs, 20-year-old Filipino junior master chef Louise Mabulo is the awardee for Asia-Pacific.
Unique! A chef who is a farmer who is an entrepreneur. And inspiring. Youth entrepreneurship in agriculture is one of the many goals for PH Agriculture under "The Eight Paradigms" embedded in "The New Thinking for Agriculture" by new PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar; the lower image above is the title of my ebook of 79 short essays, each a literary-literal information & interpretation of a paradigm, or guide to action. (You can email me for a free copy: frankahilario@gmail.com.)
How is it that a young Bicolana chef is a uniquely successful cacao farmer? In Louise's "Cacao Project," UNEP recognizes her practical and unique experience starting with a typhoon relief project after Typhoon Nina ravaged her home province Camarines Sur in 2016. If you care enough, you can be the best of whatever you want to be!
The Cacao Project has so far trained 200 farmers in agroforestry, and planted more than 70,000 trees in 70 hectares. The UNEP recognizes this as uniquely "taking action to address climate change."
Aside: As far as I an agriculturist am concerned, "agroforestry" here is a misnomer, because the practice is actually growing garden crops like cacao (horticulture) being nursed by tree crops (forestry). Why not call it garden forestry?
Kristine says Louise started her project by buying cacao seedlings with her own savings plus some donations. "While she was focused on her career as a chef, she started going into farming and agriculture as part of her (adventure into) sustainable food value chains." And that was when Louise "realized how unsustainable it was for farmers in Bicol to continue planting crops (meaning, coconuts) that were not climate-resilient." Kristine quotes Louise as saying:
We realized we can't just weather through the yearly typhoon. Coconut trees would take another 5 years (to mature). We had to think of something more resilient and something more profitable for the farmers and with demand for the market.
And, Kristine says, Louise "discovered that the cacao tree was just the right height to withstand strong winds." Not too tall. Actually, I as an agriculturist who also worked as an Editor in Chief in forestry publications, learned that the coconut trees also "protect" the cacao underneath – they are only performing their role as "nurse trees."
Louise noted that it took a cacao tree about 3 years to bear fruit, so her Cacao Project provided cash crops for the farmers to earn while waiting for their cacao. Good thinking, girl!
Kristine says, Louise's "dream is to make cacao farming an 'art form' that will be as attractive as wine and vineyards." Bright thinking, girl!@517
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