Being smarter at school or being smarter at farming is not what life is all about.
As the image says, if you are a schooler, "Be the kid who can get along" with the other kids in school, and "Be the kid who is happy for others."
And I say, "If you are a farmer, be the guy who can get along with the other farmers – and be happy to know and show how they too can be happy, that is to say, not simply to be financially successful with a crop but to rise from poverty and stay up there – and to show how other farmers can do the same!"
Importantly, aggie journalists should write for the non-smart farmers!
Unfortunately, with their stories, most journalists write only about smart farmers, as if to say that all farmers should be as smart.
Anyway: Smart is not smart enough!
Here is Ian Ocampo Flora's 02 January 2020 SunStar Pampanga article, "Lowly Sweet Potato Gets Boost As Next Big Crop[1]:"
Remember the classic retort when somebody tells you to "go home and plant camote (sweet potato)"? Well it's high time that you... give this root crop another look. ¶ Because the truth is, sweet potato has a growing demand in the Philippine domestic market for its vital food and industrial uses. (chips image from Healthline[2])
Not retortbut insult. Usually, the teacher says that after a pupil keeps "exposing" his lack of knowledge. Why camote? It is believed that even a brainless one can grow sweet potato.
No! You need brains to be a farmer and rise from poverty and stay up there! That is what our aggie journalists are not writing for.
Mr Flora says the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development, PCAARRD, has allotted a P25 million budget to "improve quality and production" of sweet potato. That is good – but not good enough! You also need R&D on how the improved camote products will result in farmers being liberated from poverty according to their talents and toils – not making the rich merchants richer still!
Yes, "Sweet potato has industrial uses such as a raw material for the production of gluten-free flour and for animal as well as aqua feed." No, market is notthe problem. The big problem of PH farmers right now is the lack of business-mindedness. They do not think in terms of costs and returns – and so they remain poor.
The smarter journalist would take note of that! One robin doesn't mean a summer; one big crop doesn't catapult a poor farmer from poverty to prosperity.
Merchants dictate prices. Pagdating sa bentahan, ang nagtanim ng kamote ang siyang nangangamote! (When it comes to marketing, it is the camote planter himself who is doing poorly!)
It is the merchants who are smarter than everyone of us, especially the farmers! What to do? It is the duty of journalists to find out if they really want to serve the people!@517
[1] https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1838334?fbclid=IwAR08eNfUA-Z5M5I3f_2MjMZxQa7JZi9_Enr4uhE2cGJ3OOExWXmbmbhU4gI
[2] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ube-purple-yam
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