For PH Agriculture To Go Up, Chemical Agriculture Must Come Down!

Farmers in the Philippines? Consistent in their cropping ways, taught by my alma mater UP College of Agriculture (now UP Los Baños) since 1909, especially for rice applying chemical fertilizer and pesticide as much and as often as they like or think they should. Today, anywhere in these islands, Chemical Agriculture (CA) is alive and bad! And that is why PH “Growth may miss lower 2024 goal” (Ian Nicolas P Cigaral, Inquirer.net, business.inquirer.net).

I graduated from UPLB in 1965. Today, when I think of chemically laden PH Agriculture, I am reminded of American transcendental poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s line, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers and divines.”
(“Foolish” from quotefancy.com)

Chemical Agriculture is degenerative. Up to now, Dec 2023, no, UPLB does not teach alternative farming ways, any of those practices that natives know. We need the renewing kind, Regenerative Agriculture (RA).

I wrote about it again, for the nth time yesterday, Wednesday, 27 Dec 2023; see my essay “’PH Faces High Risk Of Ecological Threats’ – Sydney-Based Institute For Economics & Peace. Ignorant Agriculture Is To Blame!”, Communication for Development of Vibrant Villages, blogspot.com).

CA is to blame! An old report of Xiaowei Chuai et al says, “Agriculture accounts for 20%-35% of greenhouse gas emissions” (2021, Science Direct, sciencedirect.com). Emma Tozer says, “Food production accounts for approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions” (2016, foodtank, foodtank.com). 30-35% contributions to GHGs is significant by any calculations!

Instead of my modified RA list all of 13 practices, here I will point out singly “#5, Intelligent rotavation,” which I think is the essence of Regenerative Agriculture. And which is an invention of Frank A Hilario, yes.

Here is the little story. Sometime in the mid-1990s (I’m simply guessing the year), I was visiting my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, when my cousin Ida’s husband Enso Casasos approached me and said, in so many words:

Manong, matandaanam daydi insurom kenni Papang? (In Ilocano, “Manong” is a term of respect for an older male whether he is a relative or not. “Papang” is from “Papa,” in respect.) “Manong, do you remember what you taught Papang?”

Enso was referring to the time when we were in Domanpot, and I told the operator of the big Howard rotavator not to set any depth of the rotavator blades but simply to run over the entire field. I knew that the rotavator was heavy enough to cut into the soil and at the same cut the weeds & other plant refuse and mix them all at the same time.

I knew that that rotavator was creating automatic organic fertilizer!

Enso told me, “Umis-isem ti bangbangir daydi operator.” (The Howard operator was smiling sideways.) Because he knew that his machine was hardly using any fuel, literally just rolling along. He was right – I was right!

Enso also told me that his neighbors had been imitating what he was doing for years and years but could not equal his rice harvests. He did not tell them the secret of the rotavator!@517