Militant Farmers Need To Fertilize Their Minds, Not Their Fields!

I’m a farmer’s son, a graduate of UP Los Baños, and a wide reader – the last because I want to be a wiser writer. So, I have been reading about the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) – the historic peasant movement of the Philippines. Let’s see now. Have our peasants learned from history yet? Or from agriculture?

MADELAINE B MIRAFLOR says, “Farmers Seek Senate Probe On Rising Cost Of Fertilizer” (10 August 2021, Manila Bulletin):

Farmers are seeking a Senate probe on the rising cost of fertilizer despite the supposed government interventions to bring down farm inputs in the country through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

(KMP) urged lawmakers to probe the steadily rising fertilizer prices burdening rice farmers.

Furthermore, KMP Leader RAFAEL MARIANO said the Department of Agriculture (DA) should explain to Congress where the P10-billion RCEF is going and why it is not helping bring down the cost of farm inputs in the country.

KMP was founded sometime in 1986  (Wikipedia); in the last 35 years, it has not changed its militant tactics – the peasants are still complaining against the actions of public officials and not acting for their private good!

At the top of the page where you’re reading this, is the title of my blog: TIT for TAT. The militants are practicing negative TIT for TAT, not Thinking Inspired Thoughts while forcing Thinking Analytical Traps, as is their historical habit.

Why are KMP peasants not thinking about and/or not practicing farming without chemical fertilizers?! 
(upper image, of a ricefield at sunset , from Businessinquirer.net;
lower image, of soil amendment , from Jobescompany.com)

If they don’t know, let me inform KMP members that farming sans the use of chemical fertilizers has several versions practiced all over the world beginning I don’t know:

biodynamic farming,
natural farming,
organic farming,
regenerative farming,

I call mine, which is simpler than any and all of the above 4, “Green Agriculture Solution,” an adaptation of field-surface mulching – the mulch provides the natural fertilizer at all times as well as the necessary soil moisture for the crops to grow. (See also my essay, “Green Agriculture Solution ,” 08 August 2021, TIT for TAT.)

If KMP farmers don’t know, they have not been thinking that what they know is not enough!

Thus, KMP is complaining about the rising prices of fertilizers and the government not doing much about it – while they do not see themselves in the mirror as not having helped themselves where they can!

Chemical farming is expensive, everybody knows that. It also produces unhealthy foods. Truthfully, non-chemical farming can bring down much the cost of farming.

KMP people demand that the government bring down the cost of chemical fertilizers, but they do not demand that their farmers bring down the cost of their chemical farming!

Instead of merely criticizing government. KMP should come up with its own program to self-empower its members in agripreneurship and environmental conservation, being stewards of their farming, lands, and bank accounts. Of course, they can also partner with government.@517