The best is yet to come!
The best is yet to come?
Santiago
R Obien (SRO)
is the Father of the Philippine Rice
Research Institute (PhilRice), whose creation was signed into law by PH
President Ferdinand Marcos (FM) 05
Nov 1985. On June 1987, SRO became PhilRice Executive
Director, appointed by Pres Corazon
Aquino.
The above images,
photos by yours truly, are both dated 24 Jan 2019 taken off the rice fields and
inside the auditorium of my
hometown Asingan, Pangasinan at
the Francisco Sapigao Memorial Sports
Center during the “8th National
Rice Technology Forum (NRTF)” sponsored by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and participated in by hybrid
rice companies Bayer, BioRice,
Corteva, Longpin, SeedWorks, and SL
Agritech. The NRTF continues to this day.
Notably, with the
leadership and inspiration of SRO, based in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, PhilRice became
a leading rice research institute in Asia, given the awesome presence of the International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI), which was/is based in Los Baños, Laguna.
Some 4 years ago, I wrote, “SRO Is Legendary Winner Over Rice. Next
Challenge – Rice-Based Farming Systems!” (30 Nov 2020, Healthy Farms For Healthy Foods, blogspot.com). By that time,
SRO was out of PhilRice; it remained for the next PhilRice Director to face
that challenge – I have not been following the developments in this regard.
Sir, Santiago R Obien, SRO – you are 89 years old, and you have
been a weed scientist since your PhD in Soil Science with
specialization in Weed Science and Herbicide Degradation in Soils in 1970 at
the University of Hawaii. The old
world has a new challenge for you:
Look at weeds as friends of
crops, not enemies! Degraded into
organic matter, weeds enrich the soil and eventually enrich the lives of millions
of farmers, whoever they are!
That in a nutshell, I must say, is the essence of Regenerative Agriculture (RA), which
came out from the American Rodale Institute
in the 1980s, with its 13 practices as follows (my list):
1, Cover Cropping
2, Crop Rotation
3, Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry)
4, Green Manuring
5, “Highly Ecological Rotavation” (HERo, FAH’s invention)
6, Intercropping
7, Multiple Cropping
8, No-Till Farming
9, Organic Fertilization
10, Ratooning
11, “Three Sisters” Planting
12, Trap Cropping
13, Trash Mulching.
Sorry, but Chemical Agriculture
(CA), which you are familiar with, is now the obvious enemy of farmers, as
chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides generate greenhouse gases (GHGs);
in turn, the GHGs have made quite destructive “El Niño” and “La Niña.”
There is more, Sir! Farmer enemies: Climate Change is new; Farmer
Poverty is old. Poverty arises despite the industriousness of farmers because
of the high total cost of chemical agriculture. With Regenerative Agriculture,
the total cost goes down and net returns go up! Regenerative Agriculture
enriches the soil, enriches the harvests, enriches the food with natural elements,
and enriches the farmer.
SRO, Sir!?@517
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