Here’s This Teacher Teaching To The “Balay Kahayag Training & Retreat Center” In Bohol!

“Balay Kahayag Training & Retreat Center” is owned by the family of friend and classmate at UPCA, now UP Los Baños, Nestor Mn Pestelos. Above, it says, “Starting a series of references for fieldworkers on family and community development.” Below the image is this note: “What is community development?” by Australia Institute of Family Studies (AIFS).

Note that you are reading this in my blog “Communication for Development of Vibrant Villages (ComDev2). ComDev2 goes beyond “community development” as defined anywhere – my ComDev2 goes for the growth of “vibrant villages” – whatever “vibrant” means.

The AIFS website says (AIFS, aifs.gov.au):

Community development is a process where community members take collective action on issues that are important to them. … Community development is intended to empower community members and create stronger and more connected communities.

So far, so good.

Community development is a holistic approach grounded in principles of empowerment, human rights, inclusion, social justice, self-determination and collective action (Kenny & Connors 2017). … Community development has an explicit focus on the redistribution of power to address the causes of inequality and disadvantage.
(“Hearts” from vectorstock.com)

“Causes of inequality” – Now then, what are active communities doing in helping solve Farmer Poverty within their midst? “Causes of disadvantage” – I will consider here Climate Change. But I don’t remember my friend Nestor mentioning specifics of inequality and disadvantage and how to combat them in any of his many Facebook posts on/from Balay Kahayag.

I will consider here only “empowerment” and “collective action.”

Whether my friend Nestor and/or Kahayag ignores them, I cannot. So, how do you (or Kahayag) empower someone to fight in collective action? I will now use my favorite battles – against Farmer Poverty and Climate Change, whom I call the Twin Goliaths of the modern world.

Back to Community Development – my friend Nestor will have to help Balay Kahayag advance the community to learn to fight those Goliaths.

As an agriculturist and a wide reader, print and digital, I have learned that Regenerative Agriculture (RA) will help solve Farmer Poverty and simultaneously resolve Climate Change. It works this way:

Chemical Agriculture (CA), the practice of farmers today, is expensive and farmers cannot get out of poverty because of it. At the same time, CA generates greenhouse gases (GHGs) that in turn generate Climate Change. If you stop CA, you solve Farmer Poverty and simultaneously resolve Climate Change!

Now then, how will the Kahayag community manage to live not using modern methods of chemical agriculture?

The answer: Ancient & modern methods of regenerative agriculture, any/all of these:

1, Compost application
2, Cover cropping
3, Crop rotation
4, Farm crops + tree crops
5, Green manuring
6, Intercropping
7, Multiple cropping
8, No-till farming
9, Organic fertilization
10, Ratooning
11, “Three Sisters”
12, Trap cropping
13, Trash mulching.

I cannot visit Bohol and preach at Kahayag. To start, Balay Kahayag asks the farmers who are familiar with any of those 13 methods of regenerative farming and apply them in the farms. Or ask the local agriculturist. Good Pluck!@517