Marlen V Ronquillo’s Old And William Dar’s New Thinking For Agriculture

It occurs to me early this morning, 0600 hours Tuesday, 30 June 2020 in Manila, that I am not at rest yet with Marlen V Ronquillo’s Manila Times column of 28 June 2020, “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest” after I came out with my earlier essay, “Marlen V Ronquillo – I Agree With You, “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest[1]” (29 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital). I have something much more to say about Mr Ronquillo’s claim below:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is so engrossed with propaganda and image building that it totally jettisoned its legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers.

Should be written “image-building” – hyphen necessary. But that is minor. The major point is this:

Yes, Mr Ronquillo, I can tell you that the DA under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has been “so engrossed with propaganda and image-building” for Philippine agriculture!

“Propaganda,” says my favorite American Heritage Dictionary, means “The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause[2].”

Yes, Manong Willie calls it “The New Thinking For Agriculture” and I have been writing much about it (try this: “Revolutionizing PH Agriculture And How We Write About It – Manong Willie & Frank H[3]”). When he was appointed on 05 August 2019 as Secretary, Manong Willie already had with him ready “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that must emanate from considering interrelationships of the “8 Paradigms” as he called them (my listing):

(1) Modernization.
(2) Industrialization.
3) Promotion of exports.
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development.
(6) Higher budget & investment.
(7) Legislative support.
(8) Roadmap development.

Now you know why Secretary of Agriculture William Dollente Dar has been not only all over the place but all over the country!

In fact, I feel that the propaganda has barely started. It will take us up to 2022 to fully explain and exemplify what all those 8 paradigms mean and must signify!

I repeat what you said earlier in your column:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is so engrossed with propaganda and (image-building) that it totally jettisoned its legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers.

Like I said, Mr Ronquillo, you have not been reading. After all the image of those unhappy years of PH agriculture, we need a new image of farmers now smiling widely because they know that the DA is helping them with much government funds allocated for their welfare, especially during this pandemic lockdown, where everything is abnormal.

I repeat, Mr Ronquillo, how on earth can one explain in just one sitting and one place all those 8 paradigms in Manong Willie’s mind? Aside from the DA, other government agencies must know and understand all those paradigms so that they can relate to any of them properly – must also be involved are local government units and the private sector.

Must also involve? Columnists like you!@517

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[1]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/marlen-v-ronquillo-i-agree-with-you-in.html
[2]https://www.thefreedictionary.com/propaganda
[3]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/revolutionizing-ph-agriculture-and-how.html

Marlen V Ronquillo – I Agree With You, “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest”

Mr Ronquillo, I Frank A Hilario agree with the title of your 28 June 2020 Manila Times column: “In A Prostrate Sector, Vileness Does Not Rest[1]” – now guess where it’s coming from!?

You say right away:

The time of the virus is, in the ideal world, the time to end the assault on the country’s small farmers. Small farmers in the country are the country’s wretched: invisible to government, prey to repressive laws like the Rice Tariffication Law, avoided like a plague by the banking mainstream — and voiceless and cowed.

Mr Ronquillo, those first 54 words from you are in their combined sense hyperbole – exaggerated and/or without proof given. It is also a logical fallacy called argumentum ad misericordiam, or appeal to pity, not appeal to reason. I studied those in Western Thought, UP Los Baños.

We must always appeal to reason. Now, “A man always has two reasons for doing anything,” says JP Morgan, “a good reason and the real reason.” Let’s see!

You say:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is so engrossed with propaganda and image building that it totally jettisoned its legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers.

Hasty generalization. You have not been reading, Mr Ronquillo.

You know, I came to know well William Dollente Dar, now PH Secretary of Agriculture, when he was still Director General, DG, of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT; he was DG from 2000 to 2014. ICRISAT was/is based in India; if the Indians sensed anything anomalous in ICRISAT transactions in those 15 years, they could have thrown the DG out the window!

A question of money? When William Dar retired from ICRISAT, its net asset was US$ 34,500,000.

ICRISAT hugged William Dar as DG for 15 years, because the Indians knew an honest man when they saw one!

ICRISAT, sister agency of the International Rice Research Institute, was dead last, kulelat, when William Dar came in; when he exited, ICRISAT was already #1 among the 15 international agricultural research centers under the umbrella of the CGIAR. William Dar, Phenomenal Team Captain!

You say:

A resolution filed by members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives tells a heart-rending story. And the tragic thing is that the DA, the agency with the legal and moral mandate to help the small farmers, allegedly is behind a massive fertilizer overprice.

Read my lips, Makabayan Bloc, and Mr Ronquillo!

“PH Fertilizer Purchase: “We Saved P2.2 Billion” – Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar[2]”

That’s my own calculation from the data; that article I blogged 15 June 2020 (THiNK Journalism, Digital). No, gentlemen, the DA under William Dar did not engage in any fertilizer overprice deal – on the contrary, they engaged in a transaction that saved the PH Treasury some P2.2 Billion! If you gathered the facts first, you would not have written that column. William Dar knows his arithmetic even if we don’t know ours!

Look again, Mr Ronquillo – where is the vileness coming from?!@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/06/28/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/in-a-prostrate-sector-vileness-does-not-rest/736049/
[2]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/ph-fertilizer-purchase-we-saved-p22.html

Mr Corn Farmer, Have You Found Your Super Friends Yet? They’re Close To You!

“’Briefing And Consultation On FAW’ Kicks Off In The Town With Sweetest Banana In Asia[1],” the news said from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Agrarian Reform of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, BARMM (Facebook post). FAW is the fall army worm that attacks corn disastrously. There were almost 50 farmers from barangays of the town of Amai Manabilang, Lanao del Sur who attended 23-24 June 2020, in Barangay Punud. The farmers were members of either the Land Owners Producers Cooperative, Punud Bumbaran Agriculture Cooperative, or Ranao Ibaning Indigenous People’s Association. Yes Sir, Cooperative is the name of the Game! (image of 3 friends from Friends Group[2])

But ANN (Author Not Named) mixed sour corn news with sweet banana news in Amai Manabilang – and, later in the text, mentioned the farmers’ expressed request for a farm-to-market road, FMR. I see that this is really a mixed-up report that does not try to empathize with the farmers’ problems except to report them all.

Mixed signals is typical of PH journalism –
no wonder audiences suffer from astigmatism!

First, the occasion was a briefing on corn farming and the worm. The lecture included “in-depth lecture(s) on corn production technologies, land preparation, water management, integrated fertilizer and pest management, harvesting, and marketing.”

As an agriculturist, I note from all of the above that the lecture on corn production was complete. Now, why the emphasis on the FAW when its population was supposed to be controlled by pest management, never reaching the level of infestation? That suggests the lecturer somehow was in favor of chemical control of the FAW!

Second, ANN said that the proper identification of the FAW was “aimed at empowering the farmers” just in case their corn was infested by those worms. It would have been more value-adding to hear the lecturer point out what practices could be resorted to by the farmers in order to prevent the FAW from increasing its population to the level of infestation. I know that these practices include trap cropping, multiple cropping, and intercropping.

Third, what about the FMR? The farmers said they needed it because of “the difficult and costly transportation of their products.” That is like saying the FMR will solve their problems in transportation and marketing!

No Sir! Instead, the corn farmers need to be educated and
empowered to be their own entrepreneurs!

And I recommend, as I have been recommending since 2014, that trainings and assistances be carried out by a Super Coop to which farmers are members. Assisted by the Department of Agriculture, and private investors, the Super Coop will manage the affairs of the members from production to marketing, taking care of inputs, loans, tools & equipment, harvesting, drying, warehousing when necessary, up to marketing. To banish the need for 5-6 loans by farmers, the Super Coop will offer farmer-friendly loans of any amount any time for any purpose, with the expected or actual harvest as collateral.

The Super Coop is the Super Friends farmers never had!@517

 

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[1]https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=735327293960765&id=424450148381816`
[2]https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/friends-group-icon.html

Gardening For Your Food – How About UP Diliman Showing The Lazy Way!?

I am a UP alumnus, UPLB ’65, son of a farmer and I know of a lazy way to grow your own food. I’m thinking of the public campus of UP Diliman for cultivating gardens such as those above to show passers-by how easy it is to grow a garden – as long as you have a place (superimposed image, Ruth Stout’s book Gardening Without Work from Amazon[1]).

2 books for the price of none!

Now, here’s Book 2 with many and much little works to do:

Above image, Facebook sharing: Lindsay Sheehan’s little red book of ideas[2], published, 26 January 2020, Natural Living Ideas). Here are the titles of her little free notes:

41 Cheats To Garden For (Almost) Free

  1. Assess Soil Texture For Free
  2. Assess Soil PH For Free
  3. Humus
  4. Grass Clippings
  5. Leaf Mold
  6. Seed Saving
  7. Seed Swaps
  8. Seed Library
  9. Plant Cuttings
10. Division
11. Regrow Your Food
12. Perennial Plants
13. Foliage Plants From Scraps
14. Smother The Site
15. Borrow It
16. Freebies
17. Get A Good Deal
18. Seed Starter Pots
19. Potting Soil
20. Containers
21. Reclaimed Wood
22. Scavenged Branches
23. Plant Supports
24. Irrigation
25. Coffee Grounds
26. Tea Leaves
27. Banana Peels
28. Epsom Salts
29. Eggshells
30. Wood Ash
31. Vinegar
32. Aquarium Water
33. Fertilizer Teas
34. Garlic
35. Hot Peppers
36. Insecticidal Soap
37. Epsom Salts
38. Baking Soda
39. Cinnamon
40. Beneficial Insects
41. Companion Planting

Well, Ms Lindsay’s cheating little red book is not well-edited – like, all 41 entries should have a verb just like the first 2 entries have – and they should be given stepwise, sequentially. Never mind!

Now here’s Book 1:

Above, when my wife Ampy saw the Facebook sharing by Jovita Datuin, she said, “You’re assuming we have space for a garden.” And I said, “We don’t even have a square foot of soil to plant a seed. Flower pots – you will put pots in our small rooms?”

In 1963, Ruth Stout came out with her book Gardening Without Work with the subtitle. Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent (New York, published by the Devin-Adair Company). I read Ms Ruth’s book sometime in 1965, but I have never had any chance to apply her ideas. Today, with Ms Jovita’s challenge:

Hereby, I am challenging UP Diliman to allow me to garden along Commonwealth Avenue 1 ha for the public to see. I will put up there so many 1 m x 10 m gardens that interested people can take care of – alongside 10 such gardens of mine.

I will do little preparatory “work” as a gardener. First, I will have the whole area rotavated, and then it’s ready for gardening – anyone can claim 20 sq m on which to plant and take care of a favorite flower, fruit, or vegetable. I will then watch your garden for you.

So there! In UP Diliman will grow the laziest gardens of them all!@517

 

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[1]https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Without-Work-Aging-Indolent-ebook/dp/B01D06KKDW
[2]https://www.naturallivingideas.com/garden-for-free/?fbclid=IwAR3aXgSBAJjLKh_MmJiWu2JnvaFZNFGES1HIGpeqMxOvIPiV_2uK5t92hsw

PH Dreaming Of A Digital DA – The Cellphone As The New Revolution, New Revelation!

Yes, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, it’s time for the Department of Agriculture, DA, to revolutionize its way of handling science, especially now that we have seen how the lockdown has turned things topsy-turvy. A digital DA – digital knowledge – would be a desirable new normal because it could be anywhere everywhere anytime. Ready to serve. Like the cellphone. Via the cellphone. (main image my Windows 10 accidental collage; cellphone image from Vecteezy[1])

The main image shows parts of the town plaza of my hometown Asingan in Pangasinan, where the building in the middle is the headquarters of our Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Coop. Looking at Nagkaisa now, I see any coop building as the location for the training following my reinvention of the Farmer Field School, FFS into the Farmer Filled School, FFS² (see my essay, “Farmer Filled School, FFS² – My Reinvention Of The FFS Of 1987[2],” 13 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital).

I see FFS² as the area of responsibility of the new DA. I see also the DA transforming all of Agriculture into digital format, stored in hard disks at DA Main, as well as its Regional Offices, the science reachable and readable by cellphone anytime anywhere.

Thinking of the new digital agriculture, New DA. Science accessible now, accessible after the lockdown. Instantly, intelligently.

Thus, for the New DA, I am now thinking of the cellphone as “the last mile” for delivering modern knowledge to the remotest places in the Philippines.

The New DA will be propagated by moving images and even moving texts – thus moving hearts, moving hands.

Farmers can then access knowledge in their language anywhere anytime. If in training, they can also interrupt themselves as they wish. Of course, they can ask any question they want, in the manner that they know how, and be respectfully responded to, if remotely.

We must, we can now bring the digital revolution to the farmers!

Regional DA offices will now be the regional centers of the New DA, as they can directly deal with the farmers in their locations if farmers have to visit them.

In my mind, for the New DA, the ideal grouping of farmers is what I refer to as the Super Coop, which becomes their common business manager. The idea of the “Super Coop” I first wrote about 7 years ago (“The Super Coops of 2014[3],” 30 October 2013, Nagkaisa). (Nagkaisa I already mentioned above.)

The new DA will assist each Super Coop obtain resources from government as well as the private sector in matters of common business interests. Through the Super Coop, farmer members will learn to become entrepreneurs and not simply cultivators of the soil and sellers of harvests.

The DA will extend all kinds of assistances to the Super Coops. Among other things, the headquarters, HQ, of a Super Coop will need any number of personal computers with WiFi connections. HQ will also maintain an active link with the municipal and provincial agricultural offices.

Digital: The All-New DA!@517

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[1]https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/448830-a-realistic-cellphone-with-a-colorful-background-vector-illustration 
[2]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/farmer-filled-school-ffs-my-reinvention.html
[3]http://nagkaisa.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-super-coops-of-2014.html

PH Media & Farmer Leaders Have Kept Pinoy Farmers Poor For 100 Years – We Should All Protest!

Pinoy farmers, arise! 

You have nothing to lose but your chains to
your beloved but misLed farmer leaders and
your popular but misGuided farm magazines & online media!

Those are the shocking truths, and it took me 13 years to see them and say them. Finally, the ugly aggie truths will set us free! (superimposed protest images from Vector State[1])

When I became international consulting writer for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, under the leadership of Director General William Dar/Manong Willie, who is now PH Secretary of Agriculture, I began to know about farmers not being able to escape the poverty trap, and I started to realize:

How our mass media kept our farmers ignorant, actually.
How our farmer leaders kept their farmers ignorant about the same things.

How? They were all ignorant of the same things!

We have to pity our farmers who have remained quite poor despite quite rich sciences, technologies and systems.

You if you do not help the farmers escape the 5-6 Trap;
if you do not help them escape the Marketing Trap –
then you as farmer leader are not a friend.
You are not leading them to:

Entrepreneurship.

I will repeat it because it is all-important:

Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship!

Your farmer leader never teaches and helps and guides and inspires you the farmer to become business-minded from seed to spoon, so you will never rise from poverty – your leader is not your friend.

Your favorite media will not tell you about cultivating entrepreneurship – the media is not your friend either! As in the above image, Business Diary Philippineswill not tell farmers how to cultivate not only their cashew crop and nottell farmers how to cultivate their entrepreneurship, so that they can rise from poverty and stay up there!

I say, farmers arise and demand that PH media be truly business-minded so that you can rescue yourselves from poverty!

I say, farmers arise and demand that the farm leaders learn entrepreneurship in order to teach the farmers in their groups so that they can escape from being the victims of usurers and merchants!

In the meantime, Pinoy farmers, I know the DA, under Manong Willie, will listen to your entrepreneurial requests. Ask and the DA will help each one of you become business-minded, income-oriented – providing you all kinds of assistances from acquiring good seeds to arranging mutually beneficial marketing arrangements with consumer groups or institutions.

The DA can work through what I call Super Coop. In 2014, I submitted a proposal to the Senate office of Cynthia Villar to file a bill to set up Super Coops all over the Philippines. A Super Coop is your multi-purpose coop fully assisted by the public and private sectors to help farmer members to mind their own businesses so that they can rise from poverty – and sustain themselves.

I say, it’s time for Pinoy farmers to picket the Senate to legislate for Super Coops now!@517

WHO Teaching About “7 Biggest Brain Damaging Habits” – Where The WHO Is The Enemy!

You know the WHO now, don’t you? They are the ones who made a mess of the world by missing out on the coronavirus.

Now I’m reading this WHO intelligence-related advice (Facebook sharing):

7 Biggest Brain Damaging Habits

     1.     Missing breakfast.
2.     Sleeping late.
3.     High sugar consumption.
4.     More sleeping specially at morning.
5.     Eating meal while watching TV or computer.
6.     Wearing cap/scarf or socks while sleeping.
7.     Habit of blocking/stoping urine.

Look at that! The WHO is not very good in grammar. (1) It should read, “brain-damaging habits” – hyphen necessary. (2) It should read, “stopping,” not “stoping;” “urination,” not “urine.”

You can say I violate all those 7 brain-damaging habits – except the 7^th. I have no such habit.

So I miss breakfast. When that happens, it becomes brunch, breakfast and lunch at the same time.

I sleep late, sometimes very late.

I drink coffee every so often, and it’s not black – it’s Nescafe Brown. I just love the taste: strong, sweet.

I sleep when I am sleepy.

I eat anything while I’m “working” using the personal computer, PC – it’s not work if you love what you’re doing!

Lately I have been wearing a cap at night to sleep because it’s cold, very cold.

So, WHO, what else is new?!

I am the world’s most published – blogged – writer online, non-fiction.

That 6-year old claim has not been challenged (bannered in my blog Creative Thinkering[1]):

World’s creative genius online, most prolific writer of non-fiction – Frank A Hilario.

In that blog alone, I have 1,000 plus essays of a minimum 1,000 words each, published in the span of 5,144 days, from 24 July 2005 to 24 August 2019. Which means I uploaded an essay of a minimum 1,000 words every 5 days.

So, where are your rules, WHO?

So, WHO among you is a prolific writer who follows all those 7 rules WHO has enumerated above?! I’d like to know.

Instead, the WHO should have come out with something like “Thinking-Enhancing Habits”;

     1.     Snacking between meals.
2.     Taking a nap anytime.
3.     Eating while working with the computer.
4.     Surfing the Web for anything and everything.
5.     Having coffee anytime and every time.
6.     Learning to stop at a draft, or revising.
7.     Learning to love the enemy, haha.

If you don’t learn #7, you will never be the best that you can be!

My first blog’s name was Worper, in Blogger.com. Worp is shortcut for word processor, which is essentially the tool for blogging, about 95% of it.

At 79, I still think writing is inventing. Not the field of WHO!

Today, I am more aggressive intellectually in what I write about – Agriculture and how one can contribute to PH inclusive growth.

Since 01 January 2020, I have been blogging every single day, but my essays are shorter, each 517 words (from Frank A Hilario). Now, I am more cohesive, more in control of what I say – and more biting!

From this Senior Science Blogger, WHO take that, and that!@517

 

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[1]http://creativethinkering.blogspot.com

PH Urban Agriculture – What Good! Also, How Good?

For the first time in my 79 years, this month I became aware of how much urban agriculture can contribute to PH’s national growth along with rural agriculture. Nobody is too old to learn. The source: Early this June had come out the 8-page SEARCA Policy Paper 2020-3 authored by Rico C Ancog et al. titled “Policy Imperatives To Promote Urban Agriculture In Response To Covid-19 Pandemic Among Local Government Units In The Philippines.”

Urban agriculture, or urban farming, or urban gardening. It is the practice of producing food in and around city areas; it can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry, beekeeping, and horticulture (Wikipedia[1]).

On Monday, 22 June, according to ANN[2], at the main office of the Department of Agriculture, DA, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar and SEARCA Director Glenn B Gregorio signed a Memorandum of Agreement, formalizing a partnership in establishing urban gardens under the Urban Agriculture Program, UAP, being implemented by the Bureau of Plant Industry, BPI, which is under the DA (Author Not Named, 23 June, PIA). Secretary Dar said the UAP is “one of the modalities (rendering) safe food available, accessible and affordable, while providing additional income to households and communities in urban areas.” He also said:

During this pandemic, we have to really secure every space and see to it that we turn this challenge into an opportunity for agriculture and food. I would like to thank SEARCA under the leadership of Glenn Gregorio for this opportunity to partner with them in promoting and pursuing urban agriculture in a big way.

On his part, Director Gregorio said:

SEARCA sees the importance of promoting urban agriculture to improve the stability of food supply, alleviate poverty, foster social integration among communities, and protect the environment through innovative and eco-friendly gardening methods.

Because of the pandemic, people realized the importance and the source of our food or the food system and (started) to appreciate how fragile it is and how important food security is. With this partnership, I think we will all the more link the academe, the industry and the government. With these three linked together, I think we will have a more sustainable implementation of the urban agriculture program. I think we can have a big impact at the community and the city (levels).

Earlier, I know that under Director Gregorio, SEARCA took the initiative of forging institutional ties with PH Department of Education, DepEd, to establish school gardens.

Among other things, the above SEARCA Policy Paper says:

Overall, it is necessary that people appreciate the multidimensionality of food as its value must not only be about its contribution to their overall physiological well-being, but also in terms of cultural inclusivity and environmental sustainability.

“Cultural inclusivity” – here, the Policy Paper implies we Filipinos are many tribes, so our foods are as varied. I love that it also mentions environmental sustainability – I take that to mean that when we grow our food, we should take care not to cause problems with the soil and the surroundings. I love you, SEARCA!@517

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_agriculture

[2]https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1045587?fbclid=IwAR3lGpsNhGqBcR9Nrx7ufcT5CDuBpcbsRI1GMnsDYXe4OE73vETyXcAKaLc

High School Reinvented, Agriculture Re-Presented

Every once in a while, on Facebook, somebody asks, seriously:

Should Agriculture be made part of the high school curriculum?

My repeated reaction to that often-asked question had been: “Boring.” Now, let me tell you that I am an Agriculturist, a graduate of UP Los Baños, with a BSA major in Ag Ed, so I should be one of the last ones to not welcome Agriculture in High School.

(Images: Facebook sharing by Antonio D Torres; electric bulbs from Brand Reinvention[1], which I posterized; class scene from Brookings[2])

Today? Yes!

Now, how to offer agriculture in high school without boring the boys & girls? I reinvent High School. Reinvention means “the act or an instance of replacing a product, etc with an entirely new version” (Collins English Dictionary). The fluorescent light is a reinvention of the bulb, the rotavator a reinvention of the plow; and the Internet a reinvention of the library.

So now I have reinvented Agriculture in High School! AHS should now be the source of many Ohs and Ahs from high schoolers.

The most exciting news since the classroom was invented! Now, with AHS, the classroom is not a classroom (clash-room) but a plus-room, because suddenly the classroom becomes an exciting place for learning!

It should be fun, not work like digging the ground to make a garden. I am thinking of the Agriculture subjects in each year:

1^st Year – Vegetables
2^nd Year – Flowers
3^rd Year – Fruits
4^th Year – Landscape Gardening

The list is boring, right? Right! To make each class meeting exciting, here are some rules:

    (1) No structure to each class meeting

Volunteers will present materials for class discussion, that’s all. In any manner, shape or form. Wouldn’t that be exciting!

For instance: Teacher announces that tomorrow s/he will bring into class 3 roses (flowers). Why announce? So that if someone is curious enough, s/he will surf the Web about roses and bring to class the next day Questions (and Answers) – a student making the class exciting not only for oneself. If somebody asks, “What are those roses for, Teacher?” Teacher will ask the class who wants to answer the question. Ain’t that fun! And of course, anybody can ask, “What are the parts of a flower?”

(2) No exams.

Just the discussions, questions and answers, including attempts for answers – if funny, let the students laugh. The teacher should not ask any question to any student or answer any question from anyone.

(3) No failures.

Everyone will be given a good grade at the end of the school year.

(4) Specimens

Anyone can bring a part or a whole of plant. It’s the exchanges where everyone will learn something, the questions and answers (including attempts to answer) that teach thinking.

(5) Books and/or compilations

Not necessary to buy, just borrow from some library or somebody.

(6) Photographs welcome.

(7) Videos too if available.

It should be exciting, like visiting a flower pot daily and watching what has happened overnight. Like, watching a video and debating afterwards! It would make high school enjoyable too!@517

 

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[1]https://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/brand-reinvention/
[2]https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2020/03/26/the-covid-19-crisis-and-reflections-on-systems-transformation/

Corn & Pesticides – In These Modern Times, We Should Be Thinking Olden Times!

Above, this Facebook sharing of Philmaize Kamais, PK, tells me that the PK people have not learned their lesson in history: They are living in modern times but are ignoring the living past.

The sharing says:

Pesticides guide for corn farmer. Beware FAW (fall army worm). Let’s keep our vigilance in our corn fields. May God bless our farmers, our country.

What follows is PK’s long list of chemicals to fight the FAW.

But why does PK begin the advice with Modern Control and not with Historic Natural Pest Management, NPM? Why make the Chemical your first choice when you have the Natural?

Now then, with the long list of chemicals to fight the FAW, I have superimposed the image of a trap crop (from Agripedia[1]) – all PK and/or any of those corn farmers has to do is look for a crop that attracts the armyworm more than the corn, and you have your savior of a plant – no chemicals involved. That’s NPM.

Why is PK happy to resolve the problem of the FAW but not unhappy with the unhealthy corn it is selling to people for their tables or their poultry or livestock – which of course are for people’s tables eventually? Chemical agriculture is for the chemical companies, not for the consumers!

Where you plant your corn, you should also welcome the birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees. Planet Natural Research Center says that birds love those worms; also, there are beneficial insects[2].

Armyworms, or caterpillars, also attack rice[3](IRRI, Rice Knowledge Bank). This webpage says, “Flooding seedbeds is the best defense against armyworms.” Ah, but I don’t think so, even if that is a natural, non-chemical method. This website also says, “Avoid killing natural enemies of armyworms such as wasps and spiders.” Now then, if you plant crops that attract wasps and spiders, you have trap crops and do not need to use chemicals to fight the armyworms!

In the Ilocos Region, they intercrop rice with onion or garlic[4], and they are successful farmers, as reported by Rene Rafael C Espino and Cenon S Atienza (July 2000, “Crop Diversification In The Philippines,” FAO). The authors say:

The (Department of Agriculture) has adopted crop diversification as a strategy to promote and hasten agricultural development. As such, this paper presents crop diversification in two perspectives. One aspect is planting a cash crop after the main crop and the other is planting intercrops (permanent or cash crops) in-between the main crop, usually a permanent crop. This strategy helps attain the (goals) of the Department in increasing productivity and farm income, (not to mention) environmental conservation.

When they say “environmental conservation,” they mean not introducing foreign materials like insecticides and pesticides.

In growing commercial corn, why does Philmaize Kamais think of Chemical Methods to fight armyworms and not Natural Methods? The Chemical is at the expense of the worms; the Natural results in the loss of the worms and the gain in health of the people!@517

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[1]http://www.agripedia.co.in/Bestpractices/detail/5880aabc871f1
[2]https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/garden-pests/armyworm-control/
[3]http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/training/fact-sheets/pest-management/insects/item/armyworms
[4]http://www.fao.org/3/x6906e/x6906e0a.htm

Wanted: Workshops For Journalists To Understand Technical Language So They Can Write About Science More And Intelligently!

We need Italians to tell us what we Filipinos need!?

Above: A foreign journal has just published the results of a study with Manila respondents, “Challenges Of Communicating Science: Perspectives From The Philippines[1]” (Journal Of Science Communication, vol 19, issue 01, 2020, 21 pages), published by MediaLab of Italy. The authors, Kamila Navarro and Merryn McKinnon, conducted an online survey and semi-structured, investigative interviews, “to examine the challenges faced by local scientists and science communicators when publicly communicating science in the Philippines.”

And there, right at the conceptual stage of the study, lies the problem!

In case you did not notice, I repeat… “scientists and science communicators when publicly communicating science in the Philippines.” Those scientists and communicators are in the academic and research institutions – they are notmedia people. They are communicating hard science – they are not popularizing it!  ( (superimposed image from me)

We need to popularize science.

Since I am both a science writer and science editor, I’m interested in transforming technical language into popular language, so that the layman can understand and maybe apply what scientists have found in studies. This is notthe subject of the study reported, so the results are not relevant to me.

Even the University of the Philippines Los Baños where we find the College of Development Communication, DevCom, has not been conducting studies on how hard science, in the jargon of scientists, can be made attractive reading matter for the general public. I don’t know what DevCom has been doing all these years in terms of communicating science to the people, aside from conducting their own studies.

The researchers say, “Early records of science and technology stories in Philippine print and broadcast media are scarce.” Even now, I can tell you that they are scarce – probably all technical papers published in technical journals are not transformed into popular articles the public can appreciate and apply.

Their (respondents’) answers revealed issues which have been echoed in other international studies. However, challenges of accessibility and local attitudes to science were magnified within the Philippine context.

“Magnified within the Philippine context”? I doubt it. Scientific papers are the same throughout the world – very hard to bite into by ordinary molars (mortals)!

The problem in the Philippines, as well as in other countries,  is that there are no courses or even workshops that help communicators and journalists understand technical language so that they can intelligently write about what they read.

Yes, as the authors observe, PH media maintain science sections like Health or Technology, but these appear only once or twice a week.

Even Agriculture Monthly[2], a dedicated magazine published by Manila Bulletin, does not follow up findings in aggie research to translate into popular language. No, there is no PH publication reporting on the latest science for people to appreciate and apply in their lives.

Hmmm. I can be the one-man band writer, editor & layout artist of a science magazine if anyone has publishing funds. Email me: frankahilario@gmail.com@517

 

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[1]https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/19/01/JCOM_1901_2020_A03?fbclid=IwAR07iCsClh1MrtJBhBe83Q7GF5AEq-zO8Kok-6JV8bR2jFMele8MNmFxS3QArticle

[2]https://www.agriculture.com.ph/

“Happy Father’s Day!” The BlogFather

This is a reverse salutation – I The BlogFather am greeting you, “Happy Father’s Day.” Thanks be to God! Because right now I am the one to point out to you the gifts I already have, given by me to myself slowly over the last 45 years:

Any of which I can help you gift yourself, if you want hard enough!

Starting on Innocents Day 1985, when I began to be taught by a lady at the office of Director Elpidio L Rosario of the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute, FSSRI, of UP Los Baños. Thanks, FSSRI!

Dig my digital gifts:

(1)   Writing. I didn’t know I had this gift until I was a Senior in high school at the Rizal Junior College, RJC (HS Dept), in Asingan, Pangasinan, when I joined the contest to select the TagalogEditor for our would-be RJC newsletter. I won! Over someone who was a Tagalog, a relative of the owner of RJC – and so I told myself, “This is my hidden talent. I am going to make myself the best of myself as a writer.” I was already then a voracious reader of English literature (RJC Library), and Tagalog magazines, komiks (I bought).

(2)   Editing, Popular. Freshman 1959. Nestor Mn Pestelos won the contest for Editor In Chief of the Aggie Green & Gold, AGG, of the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños – and he appointed me the Tagalog Editor! He knew I was Ilocano, but he could also see I knew Tagalog well, and so I became the First Ilocano Tagalog Editor you have ever known. 16 years later, when I joined the Forest Research Institute, FORI, I fathered the 3 FORI publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop on tropical forestry, and quarterly popular color magazine Habitat.

(3)   Editing, Technical. Continuing from the note above, I started editing technical papers when I was Chief Information Officer, CIO, of FORI. Including theses for Bachelor, MS and PhD degrees.

(4)   Desktop Publishing. I use Microsoft Office for this purpose – you will be surprised if you knew which application, app, I use for my DTP work!

(5)   Photography. I am an amateur photographer, starting 1968, when our first child Cristina Marie was born Yes, my photography is digital – I have a Lumix Fz100 superzoom camera with an Intelligent Auto, iA, feature.

(6)   Mentoring. You may not know, but I am a teacher. My course from UPCA is a BSA major in Ag Edu. I passed the very first Teacher’s Exam in 1964, Professional. Now I’m digital.

(7)   Blogging. I began blogging in 2005. I haven’t stopped since then. I have blogged more than 5,000 essays each at least 1,000 words long. Today, I’m blogging shorter ones, 517words each – the digits represent Frank A Hilario. (Ikaw na ang maging ako. Sikan a ti siak.) The beauty of blogging is you can publish yourself anytime and as often as you like.

 (If you have read this far, I am offering you a free one-time consultation with any of the above digital skills. frankahilario@gmail.com)@517