Marcos’ Wish On His 67th Birthday 13 Sept 2024, “Improved Lives Of Filipino Farmers” – Hilario’s Wish, “Raising Farmers From Poverty To Prosperity” As An Ilocano Son Of A Farmer

To each his own? I can imagine Zacarian Sarao happily writing his report “Marcos’ Wish On His Birthday: Improved Lives Of Filipino Farmers” (13 Sept 2024, Inquirer.Net, newsinfo.inquirer.net), on the launching of the “Agri Puhunan at Pantawid” (APP) program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Nueva Ecija. Pres Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr was 67 years old that Friday that he launched the APP.

BBM said, as translated by Mr Sarao: “(For) the entire agricultural system, my birthday wish, is to develop the agricultural sector so that the lives of every farmer, (his) family, and every Filipino can be better.”

“Can be better” – I note that.

Mr Sarao says:

“The APP program aims to assist rice farmer-members of agricultural cooperatives tilling 1.2 million hectares of land nationwide.

“One of its goals is to raise farmers’ productivity and income by providing low-cost credit, financial assistance, and a ready market for their harvests as it offers credit facilities to rice farmers and cooperatives for 50,000 hectares of land during the dry cropping season from 2024 to 2025.”

I note the emphasis on coops for extending farmer assistances under the APP: (1) low-cost credit, (2) financial assistance, (3) ready market for the produce of rice farmers and cooperatives for 50,000 ha during the dry cropping season from 2024 to 2025.

Specifically, a farmer planting rice on 1 ha will receive a net allowance of PhP58,000 – which includes a subsistence allowance of PhP 32,000 distributed over 4 months.

Now then, congratulations BBM on the DA’s program “Agri Puhunan at Pantawid” (Agri Capital & Sustenance – my translation).

However: “Pantawid” is meant only for survival, and is not meant to help the poor rice farmers rise from poverty to prosperity! To improve their lives from poor to rich, they will need to do 2 things simultaneously:

(1)   reduce their total cost of production

(2)   multiply their harvests and therefore their returns.

And they cannot do any of the two, no matter how hard they try, if they continue using expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Our Filipino farmers must graduate to Regenerative Agriculture (RA), that which requires Low Costs and rewards the farmer with High Returns.

Is RA a foreign idea? Surely the name, but our farmers are familiar with RA practices (my numbering and alphabetization): 1, Cover Cropping; 2, Crop Rotation; 3, Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry); 4, Green Manuring; 5, Intercropping; 6, Multiple Cropping; 7, No-Till Farming; 8, Organic Fertilization; 9, Ratooning; 10, Rotational Grazing; 11, “Three Sisters” Planting; 12, Trap Cropping; and 13, Trash Mulching.

Regenerative Agriculture practices are not really hard to comprehend. The application of those RA practices would revitalize agriculture all over the Philippines arising from their very low costs that result in very high returns – and zero damage to the environment.

RA is my strong “Pampasigla (Revival) Program” vs the weak DA Pantawid (Survival) Program – and we can see the un/happy results in only 1 cropping season!@517