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