Agriculturists – “Be Changemakers, Innovators, Trailblazers, Influencers, And Future Leaders Of Philippine Agriculture” – SEARCA Director Glenn Gregorio

We need new kinds of leaders in Agriculture, says SEARCA Director Glenn Gregorio, Guest of Honor and Speaker at the “Oathtaking Ceremony of New Agriculturists” at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) on Monday, 20 January 2025. Not  easy, Sir! But we need them all!

In Zara Mae Estareja’s 28 Jan 2025 story, Mr Gregorio challenged-described the new graduates thus (“SEARCA, searca.org):

"Today, you, the Beta Generation of Agriculturists, are not just licensed professionals; you are changemakers, innovators, trailblazers, influencers, and future leaders of Philippine agriculture.” indirectly, Mr Gregorio is saying that the Alpha Generation of Agriculturists (AGA), before them, had hardly been changemakers, innovators, trailblazers, influencers and leaders – the AGA are late bloomers!

Mr Gregorio “highlighted the unique situation of the newly licensed agriculturists – being caught in an unprecedented time with pressing challenges, such as climate change and food insecurity while being presented with opportunities to address these issues through technological innovations like artificial intelligence, drones, and big data.”

“In this context, Dr Gregorio introduced Carbon-WISE Agriculture: Winnable Innovative Solutions for the Environment, SEARCA's 12th Five-Year Development Plan strategy on producing better and bigger outputs while utilizing fewer resources.”

Let’s note the focus of SEARCA’s Carbon-WISE Agriculture: “reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserv(ing) soil, and protect(ing) biodiversity while ensuring food security for future generations.” Note that SEARCA has 11 countries supporting it: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. If the agriculture graduates of those 11 countries behaved as leaders in carbon-wise agriculture, they would be helping SEARCA-member governments in reducing Climate Change at the very least in such a very wide territory in such a short while!

Mr Gregorio tells the new graduates:

"Today, you, the Beta Generation of Agriculturists, are not just licensed professionals; you are changemakers, innovators, trailblazers, influencers, and future leaders of Philippine agriculture."

He is challenging them to be the “Beta Generation of Agriculturists,” to be changemakers. We need all the changemakers we can get in modern agriculture, where chemicals are the norm, not natural means of growing food.

“{Mr Gregorio) highlighted the unique situation of the newly licensed agriculturists – being caught in an unprecedented time with pressing challenges, such as climate change and food insecurity while being presented with opportunities to address these issues through technological innovations like artificial intelligence, drones, and big data.”

I leave those would-be innovations-solutions to the young and techno-savvy, the Beta Generation of Agriculturists. Instead I, as an old Agriculturist (Ag Ed, UP Los Baños ’65), having continued my learning by being an Internet hound, among others, I recommend the practice of any or all of these listed under the so-called package of “Regenerative Agriculture” – 13  of them (alphabetically arranged):

(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.

13 to go Safe & Sound Agriculture: Wise enough!?@517

Netherlands Is #2 World Food Exporter And Uses Zero (0) Pesticides – At Least, Why Cannot We Filipinos Learn From The Dutch Healthier Agriculture!? IRRI, How About “The Great Grain Green Revolution” Now?

Above combined image and text is from a Facebook sharing (Sustainability, 7 Jan 2025):

A country smaller than Maryland feeds much of Europe. The Netherlands became the world’s #2 food exporter in 2023, earning @$133 billion through advanced farming that uses 90% less water and no pesticides.

Pity the Philippines as a food producing country! The Netherlands, smaller than Maryland, USA, which is 12 times smaller than the Philippines – “feeds much of Europe” (Facebook sharing above). The much smaller country feeds the much bigger country.

We Filipinos cannot even feed ourselves! As of today, the Philippines is the world’s #1 importer of rice, the Filipinos’ own staple food. And to think that the Green Revolution was born in the Philippines, via IRRI, in the 1960s yet! It is time to wake up IRRI also?

I repeat from the “Sustainability” report:

A country smaller than Maryland feeds much of Europe. The Netherlands became the world’s #2 food exporter in 2023, earning $133 billion through advanced farming that uses 90% less water and no pesticides.

In terms of crop protection, the Dutch do more with less:

In 2020, Dutch farmers used 5 million kilograms of crop protection products, representing a decrease of more than 11% on 2016. The quantity used per hectare decreased by 13.4% as of 2016, while the cultivation area treated with such products increased by nearly 15,000 hectares.

The above is saying the Dutch farmers used 11% less CPP (crop protection products) in 2020 than 2016, but the cultivation area increased by 15,000 ha. Less for more. The Dutch farmers have shown that with less CPP use, it is not only possible to increase yield in more lands but also to “save” on the destruction of pests & diseases!

Maryland, USA is 12 times smaller than the Philippines, and so if we follow the Maryland example, we Filipinos can easily feed 12 times more people than Maryland. Sad to say, we cannot even feed ourselves!

In 2023 yet, the European declaration was this: “The Netherlands: No More Delaying With Less Pesticides In EU Agriculture” (Anonymous, 25 June 2023, IEDE News, iede.news):

Agriculture Minister Piet Adema says that next week the Netherlands will plead in the EU Agriculture Council for a quick settlement of the proposal for fewer pesticides in agriculture (SUR). The Netherlands is part of a group of six EU countries that have supported the proposal from the start.

It’s time for another agricultural revolution! I’ll call this one The Great Grain Green Revolution. Less insecticides, more grains.

Why not IRRI coming out with a 21^th century IR8² – where the rice grains are even healthier with zero pesticides?

Or, I say: We Filipinos just have to learn to be wiser with our bactericides and insecticides. How? Junk them all! In favor of Regenerative Agriculture (RA). If you don’t know anything about RA, time to learn about RA. This is an Ilocano agriculturist speaking.@