“UPLB is set to
celebrate its 112th Foundation Day anniversary on March 6. With the theme of ‘Future-Proof
UPLB: Responding to the Challenges of the Times,’ UPLB will be commemorating
this year’s anniversary with a series of programs and events.”
(Sorry! Actually,
UPCA, now UPLB, was founded in 1908, which is 117 years ago; “112th”
is wrong.)
I began writing
this early evening of March 06, Thursday. If invited, I could have been there
to help celebrate, because I am an alumnus and I have an urgent message for my
alma mater.
To “Future-Proof
UPLB: Responding To The Challenges Of The Times” – so, what are the challenges
of the times?
If you ask me, the
2 greatest challenges of the times in countries at peace are:
(1) Primate Change – our farmers must learn farming that enriches
the earth even as they enrich themselves!
(2) Climate Change – Chemical fertilizers and pesticides
produce greenhouse gases that produce the so-called “Greenhouse Effect” that produces Climate Change!
So, how can we
improve directly the weather as well as the lives of poor farmers
simultaneously? Via “Regenerative
Agriculture” (RA). There are 13 RA practices that I know:
(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.
Choose your pick!
Each of the 13 RA practices is low cost and high returns – remember, no
expensive fertilizers and expensive pesticides, so that the farmer can save at
least PH 10,000 each farming season! 10K only covers the savings – how about
the farm products that are healthy beyond reasonable doubt? Consumers would be
competing to buy them!
Our American
teachers in agriculture led by Edward
Bingham Copeland were good, but they did not know or study the
repercussions of applying farming chemicals on the environment as well as the
health of the consumers. If you neglect
the health of your consumers, you are merely a greedy farmer!
With proper
documentation and computerized video aids for farmers (local languages) as well
as for farmer cooperatives (both in English and local languages), the Filipino farmer
anywhere can be taught according to the speed of his/her learning, no problem. And
no memorization necessary – the video and printed materials will always be
there for consultation by anyone anytime.
Necessarily, we
will need financial assistance from the PH government as well as foreign
funding agencies or banks. Note: I referred to the aid of farmer cooperatives –
farmers can always consult with any of the officers of their cooperatives
anytime day or night easily via the ubiquitous cellphone, which everybody seems
to have these days.
At the same time,
with the cellphone and the Internet, contact between me and UPLB at anytime is not
a problem – this time, it is the student teaching the teacher what to teach!@517
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