Organic Matter Now Green, Brown, Dark, Dead, Black – Then, Good Earth!

Above, the dead leaves that spread well to cover the field amidst the growing crop is Good Friday, which precedes a resurrection on Easter Sunday – on this field, the resurrected soil will produce a crop that is Heaven on Earth, just as Jesus the Christ resurrected and brought us Heaven on High!
(trash farming image[1] from Quora.com)

Above the above, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar and Aida Page share a Facebook post with this legend: “Make soil richer with leaves;” the image supplied that accompanies the article I myself have written (03 October 2019, “Appreciating Organic Farming[2],” Agriculture.com.ph).

The lower image is perfect, soil covered 100% – if you are going after mulching, as the dried leaves protect the soil from drying up and slowly enrich it with the nutrients from their deteriorating bodies.

But surface mulching, as you can imagine, is a tedious way of practicing organic farming. I know of an excellent way that I have been plugging/blogging about since 10 years ago.

On page 49 of my 124-page book titled ICRISAT Innovations Shape The Future Of Drylands[3] published 2011, with Mr Dar still Director General of ICRISAT, I wrote:

By rotary tiller, the organic matter (OM) is first shredded in 1 or 2 passes of the tiller, and then on the 3rd pass incorporated shallowly – an inch or so – into the top soil. No deep plowing of any kind. Slowly, the OM is transformed into humus, the richest single source of soil nutrients you can find on Earth…

When you rotavate the field with weeds still growing along with the crop refuse still standing, you make the soil richer with leaves plus stems plus branches plus flowers that are shredded and create a soil-vegetation surface mulch with bits & pieces already mixed up and on their way to deterioration. The easiest & most natural mulch and the richest in the world already in place!

To be sure, we can call that field mulch farming.

On Facebook is shared: “IFDC's Strategy: To Feed The Soil Is To Feed The World” I agree with that. At the same time, you will feed the world with the richest food if you do my field mulch farming. The best way to improve soil health is to supply it with the best organic matter.

Cane-Co[4] says:

Mulching improves the soil’s capacity for moisture retention and prevents up to 70% of water loss from surface evaporation. During the dry season mulched soils are more drought-resistant. During the rainy season, the extra layer of substrate slows down water flow across the fields, which increases absorption and keeps the fields from eroding, especially when battered by heavy tropical downpours.

What I now refer to as field mulch farming is essentially trash farming as described and explained more than 70 years ago by gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner in his 2 books, The Plowman’s Folly (published 1945) and Soil Development (1952).

Field vegetation is organic matter that is always there, ready to apply, no need to buy!@517

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[1]https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-method-of-soil-conservation-in-arid-and-semiarid-regions

[2]https://www.agriculture.com.ph/2019/10/03/appreciating-organic-farming/

[3]http://oar.icrisat.org/1933/1/ICRISAT_innovations_shape_the_future_of_drylands.pdf

[4]https://caneco.gd/trash-farming-simple-but-effective/

PhilRice Wakes Up & May Be Into Becoming World Class Again!

Reading the digital PhilRice Magazine Jan-Mar 2021 issue, from this many-faceted digital Editor In Chief’s point of view, the issue is early. Edited by Ronan G Zagado, I say the issue is superb. I see PhilRice again institutionally invigorated. Congratulations, PhilRice!

With founding Executive Director Santiago R Obien (SRO) starting mid-1980s, PhilRice became world-class, both in intellectual and physical attributes. After SRO retired in 2000, I have not seen any mighty show of institutional force until today, in PhilRice’s pursuit of farm clustering. I see it as a modern form of French writer’s Alexandre Dumas’ 1845 masterpiece The Three Musketeer’s battle cry, “All for one, one for all. United we stand, divided we fall.”

To continue to be a tireless blogger, I have to read very widely, and this is the first time that I come across any of those many agencies and offices under and attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA) talking about those “8 Paradigms” being pursued by the DA under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar.

The magazine’s theme is “Moving In Together” – that is all about clustering farms in quest of man-made miracles. With this issue, I see PhilRice Magazine itself pursuing journalistic greatness in development. Even as it shows that PhilRice is pursuing, once again, achievements in the name of the Filipino rice farmers.

PhilRice Executive Director John C De Leon writes the introduction, “Force Of Collectivity,” which this Editor In Chief says is unusually powerful. Mr De Leon says:

Beginning in January 2021, the Department of Agriculture (DA) rolled out the “One DA” holistic approach to accelerate the transformation of agriculture and fisheries toward modernization, industrialization, consolidation, and professionalization.

“One DA” lays out 12 key strategies to be pursued by the DA’s banner programs and concerned bureaus, attached agencies, regions, and other implementing entities...

… DA Undersecretary Rodolfo V Vicerraexpounds on the rudiments of farm clustering (p 10), which gives integrated assistance on agricultural production, storage, processing of value-added products, marketing, and other relevant activities of community-based producer groups. 

Yes, PhilRice is going great again!

Mary Grace M Nidoy quotes Mr Vicerra as saying (“Clasping The Clusters”):

When Secretary Dar came into DA in 2019, he brought in the New Thinking for Agriculture, with farm consolidation and clustering as one of the strategic thrusts. During that time, it was challenging for us to imagine how this would be implemented since “consolidation” seems to contradict the national policy of agrarian reform.

After thoroughly studying the matter within the DA, Mr Vicerra says, “We found that what we should really be consolidating and clustering should not be focusing on lands, but more importantly, their production value chain.” Clustering is not literal, but the benefits are real and multidimensional.

Also an agriculturist, my brother Emilio lives in Asingan, Pangasinan, where we were born. With his car, he can easily drive the two of us to the Special Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, where PhilRice was born. I imagine us making good time there. Meanwhile, PhilRice is making good time with history!@517

How To Bring Food Prizes Down? Start At The Farm, Not The Market!

Yes, when it comes to food, you can have everything today, despite the lockdown. That promise we get from government action, as reported by ANN – “DA-ACPC Expands Agri-Negosyo (ANYO) Loan Program To Help Strengthen Food Supply Chain[1]” (Author Not Named, 10 April 2021, ACPC.gov.ph).

Above, Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) Executive Director Jocelyn Alma R Badiola talks to marketers, part of a series of consultations to enable the ACPC to develop a food-supply-chain-financing program to directly link farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) as suppliers, to market vendors’ associations (MVAs) in Metro Manila as sellers. FCAs will produce what MVAs will sell in a smooth, continuous supply chain.

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, ex-officio head of the Department of Agriculture (DA), to which the ACPC is attached, says:

We are initiating this financing program to institutionalize mutual partnership between the farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) and market vendors, and create a “win-win” situation benefiting producers, retailers and consumers.

To complement the price cap declared 08 February 2021 via Executive Order 124 of President Rodrigo Duterte, the ACPC will implement a zero-interest non-collateral loan program offering working capital, not exceeding P5 million, to farmers’ and fishers’ cooperatives & associations (FCAs). Also on that date, Ms Jocelyn, along with ACPC Program Development & Management Division Director Cristina Lopez, and other ACPC officers and staff, joined DA Assistant Secretary for Agribusiness & Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) Kristine Evangelista, in a dialogue with market vendors at the Commonwealth Market in Quezon City. On 10 February, Miss Jocelyn and ACPC officers joined DA Undersecretary for Fisheries & Agri-Industrialization Cheryl Marie Caballero in a meeting with Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte. All the consultations were meant to finalize the terms and implementing guidelines for the program, which will be launched this month.

Under the financing program, the ACPC will engage their partner lending conduits such as the Agri Negosyo Loan Program and KAYA Loan Program to extend working capital loans – that is, revolving funds – to FCAs for them to purchase agriculture and/or fishery produce from member farmers/fishers. With the loans, the DA Regional Field Offices (RFOs) and AMAS will assist the FCAs into entering into a marketing agreement with individual market vendors who will pre-order the goods through an Ordering System. To pre-qualify, the vendors have to be individually endorsed by their MVAs. It is hoped that the Ordering System will reduce wastage of goods as the vendors will be dealing directly with suppliers.

Also, the RFO and AMAS will assist in transporting produce to the designated Bagsakan (sheltered & capacious drop point with restroom). After that, the vendors will receive the produce and sell to consumers at prices lower than or equal to the suggested retail prices. Thus, both the farmer and consumer groups are protected from vendors who otherwise would change the prices to the latter’s own delight.

Not only the production but also marketing system should be in order, for the sake of both food producers and consumers, who have always been on the losing ends.@517

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[1]https://acpc.gov.ph/da-acpc-expands-agri-negosyo-anyo-loan-program-to-help-strengthen-food-supply-chain/

“ACPC Financial Services?” – Good! “Farmers’ “Financial Management?” – Bad!

 

If you know what you need to do, you will keep doing it.

On page 119 of the coffee-table book The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable, the volume I produced for the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) to celebrate its Silver Anniversary on 25 April 2012, can be found these entries:

Vision
The ACPC is the institution on agri credit policy and program development that promotes sustainable and effective delivery of financial services in the countryside.

Mission
To develop and advocate agri credit policies and orchestrate programs that would promote farmers’ and fishers’ access to sustained financial services.

9 years later, on the ACPC website, ACPC.gov.ph, word-for-word the exact same Vision and Mission Statements[1] appear. What does that signify?

To me, it shows that the ACPC, after clearly defining its role in the nationwide development of PH Agriculture as an agency of the Department of Agriculture(DA), has remained steadfast in its institutional commitments. I find that unusual for any DA agency – and I must congratulate the ACPC for institutional clarity, commitment, and concretization!

Note that ACPC’s Vision is two-pronged: (a) development of sustainable policies & programs on agri credit, and (b) effective delivery of financial services to the countryside.

Other agencies may mention the word “sustainable” in their public statements and in the news reports emanating from them, but “sustainability” is seldom mentioned and even more seldom measured in their activities. 

I am referring to the sustainability of the enterprise of the small farmer. The Filipino farmers are historically non-viable or non-economically sound, and it will take a long time for the DA, even with the outstanding Team Captainship of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, to help their business become economically viable, not to mention their farming environmentally sound.

“Your credit is good, but we need cash” is a sign in many a Pinoy variety store. The great majority of Pinoy farmers are always in need of cash because they do not manage their financial resources, relying on the Fast Cash of the moneylender, notwithstanding the charge of 20% for any loan. Always on Fast Cash, the farmer pays over-the-counter for his seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides – and these are his major expenses.

What to do? All farmer trainings, actual or virtual, have to be overhauled and designed with financial management inputted from beginning to end.

Here are instances for farmers to practice financial management:

Loans – Be a member of a cooperative; you will enjoy affordable loans.
Seeds – (1) Buy the variety appropriate to the season and field, with recorded high yield. (2) Sow only 20 kg of expensive hybrid seeds to grow seedlings for transplanting, not 40-50 kg.
Fertilizers – Do not over-fertilize.
Pesticides – Do not over-spray. Better, practice multiple cropping or trap cropping, zero pesticides.
Marketing – Your cooperative will sell your produce when the price is right!

The ACPC is for Financial Services and can only do so much. The farmer himself must be taught Financial Management, and this is the duty of those public & private trainers of farmers.

Now then, business-minded farmers, may their tribe increase!@517

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[1]http://210.5.72.214/acpc/about/vision-mission/

Start Economic Recovery, Start Public & Private Partnership – End The Lockdown Now!

Is the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) ready to fulfill its own nationwide agricultural responsibilities once all kinds of quarantines are down? Yes, under the leadership and planning-ahead head of Secretary William Dar.

Never. In my 20 years of blogging, after thousands upon thousands of short & long essays published online, I never wrote in favor of an advertisement – until now. I am looking at the Facebook ad of CitizenWatch Philippineswith the headline, “Public And Private Partnership Is The Key Towards Sustainable Development” (upper image above). And the lock to open it today is to end the lockdown!

CitizenWatch is saying:

We call on the government to work with the private sector in creating sustainable initiatives that will fortify a future-proofed Philippines beyond this pandemic.

"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country[1]" – Charles E Weller. Today, we must love our country, all of it! Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country under lockdown!

Here is CitizenWatch Philippines telling us:

More than a year into the pandemic, the Philippines has yet to revive its ailing economy. In spite of this, the government maintains its stringent mobility restrictions, which hamper business operations throughout the country, especially in the National Capital Region.  Despite branding the current restrictions as a “bubble,” no differences can separate it from being a lockdown wherein businesses are only allowed to operate in limited capacities. This in turn will result into further economic slump…

Michael Beltransays, “The global crisis is first and foremost a public health issue[2]” (12 May 2020, “The Duterte Administration’s Covid-19 Response Marries Incompetence With Militarism,” The Diplomat). No. But continued lockdown has made it an economic crisis where everyone is losing! It is bad for everyone, but more so the unemployed and the poor. 

Without the lockdown, private sector to the rescue!

It is clear that after a year, no significant progress has been achieved… The most recent data from Pulse Asia survey (reveal)… Among the Most Urgent National Concerns are controlling inflation (43%), increasing the pay of workers (34%), providing assistance or subsidy to those who lost their livelihood and jobs because of Covid-19 pandemic (28%), reducing poverty (26%) and creating more jobs (26%).

And for private-public partnership, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is ready with its 12 Key Strategies for inclusive development, specifically #8 being “Mobilization & Empowerment Of Partners To Attain Scale” (undated, “The One DA Holistic Approach: Twelve (12) Key Strategies[3].” DA.gov.ph).

CitizenWatch also reports:

Pulse Asia also showed the Most Urgent Personal Concerns for Filipinos. First on the list is “to stay healthy and avoid illnesses” (74%); second is “at least to be able to have enough to eat every day” (47%); and third is “(to) have a secure/ well-paying job or source of income” (47%).

Please do not simply pray and pray for us Filipinos – end the lockdown so that we all can do something concrete for everyone!@517

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[1]https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/now_is_the_time_for_all_good_men_to_come_to_the_aid_of_their_country.html

[2]https://thediplomat.com/2020/05/the-philippines-pandemic-response-a-tragedy-of-errors/

[3]https://www.da.gov.ph/the-one-da-holistic-approach-twelve-12-key-strategies/

Historical PH 1st Holy Mass: Mazaua Or Limasawa? Fr Amalla Vs Maria Serena Diokno Vs Ambeth Ocampo – And The Priest Is Right!

We Filipinos celebrate 500 years of Christianity today Wednesday, 31 March 2021, Christianity brought to pagans by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing the seas for Spain. The historical question is: Where was the first Holy Mass celebrated: “Limasawa” (in Leyte) or “Mazaua” (in Butuan)?

Catholic priest Fr Joesilo C Amalla has just published the book (above), An Island They Called Mazaua, that argues the island of “Mazaua” in Butuan is the “true site of first Holy Mass in the Philippines[1]” and not “Limasawa” in Leyte (ANN, 07 January 2021, Manila Times). The declaration and discussion are made by Butuan-based Fr Amalla in his 644-page book. Among other things, he writes:

The truth is that the prevailing state- and church-affirmation and multiple reaffirmations of the island of Limasawa as the site of that first Holy Mass have no factual, historical and geographic (bases) whatsoever nor any shred of evidentiary support from cartographic studies, navigational information, and maritime history.

Limasawa is bogus! We Filipinos are celebrating 31 March 2021 as the quincentennial day of the very first Easter Sunday mass, in 1521, in the Philippines – we have a problem there: Fr Amalla is debunking the claim of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) that it occurred in Limasawa.

In reply, the NHCP said:

We reject the recently published book An Island They Called Mazaua (The Truth About The Site Of The First Holy Mass In The Philippines), 2021, as substantially misleading and methodologically erroneous. As historians and scholars, we therefore consider its findings and conclusions unacceptable.

Ah, but as a Roman Catholic myself and a creative writer who must deal with logic and ill-logic, I agree with Fr Amalla’s historical analysis – it is the NHCP’s history that is misleading and erroneous!

7 years ago, Vicente Calibo de Jesus published a petition addressed to Maria Serena I Diokno, then NHCP head, titled “Stop Peddling The Limasawa ‘First Mass’ Hoax,” saying among other things:

The first recorded Christian mass was held on Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521 at a little island-port named Mazaua. Two identical accounts report this event, by eyewitness Antonio Pigafetta (1523) and Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1601). "Masawa" is a word found only in Butuanon and its scion, Tausog, out of 181 Philippine languages. It means “brilliant light and crystal clear.”

Earlier, Fr Amalla says that in 2008, he could not convince National Historical Institute (now NHCP) head Ambeth Ocampoof the validity of Mazaua over Limasawa. He further says:

This is urgent. Hundreds of millions of pesos are being earmarked and already being spent by government, eg, Department of Tourism, the local government of Southern Leyte, etc, in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the "first mass" in 2021. We're not even putting in what the Catholic Church will spend. This is money from our poor people. Let it not be squandered honoring a ghost event at Limasawa.

In the Philippines, the first Holy Mass was held in Mazaua, period.@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/01/07/campus-press/new-book-asserts-mazaua-island-in-butuan-true-site-of-first-holy-mass-in-the-philippines/823943/

Science Is On The Top Of A UPLB Professor’s Mind. So, It Asks: “Is The Continued Quarantine Justified?”

Belated “Happy Birthday,” Mr President! (28 March 2021). Sorry to spoil your birthday, but the World Bank has spoken: “PHL Reliance On Prolonged Lockdowns Caused Economic Deterioration – WB[1]” (Louise Maureen Simeon, 27 March 2021, The Philippine Star). Carolina Figueroa-Geron, who shared that on Facebook; I read somewhere someone's wishes, “May our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten our darkness! God bless us!”

Miss Louise quotes the World Bank as saying:

The Philippines relied more on prolonged restrictions on mobility rather than an effective test-based strategy. Countries with greater quarterly growth contraction in 2020 had higher infection rates, imposed more stringent mobility restrictions, had more highly indebted governments and were more dependent on earnings from tourism.

Because of mass testing, mobility restrictions were not as severe, resulting in gross domestic product growth for Vietnam (2.9 percent), China (2.3 percent) and Laos (0.4 percent) in 2020. Cambodia’s GDP also contracted, but only by 3.1 percent, and Malaysia by 5.6 percent. The Philippine economy, on the other hand, shrank 9.5 percent, its worst in several decades and the sharpest drop in the region.

Yet, as a science writer, I am more interested in logic than statistics, so I leave the World Bank news to you, and I concentrate on what retired UPLB chemistry professor Carlito “Charlie” Barril (inset image above) says on Facebook on the lockdown. A UPLB alumnus, I agree with him.

Mr Barril says, “DoH data show there is actually no Covid pandemic in RP,” giving 5 proofs (facts), which I edit a little:

Fact #1. DoH data show that more than 98% of reported cases were non-Covid, being mild and asymptomatic. The remaining 2%? Mostly pneumonia, influenza, asthma, etc.

Fact #2. Every Sunday, a big number of recoveries is reported from the ranks of mild and asymptomatic. Today, 28 March 2021, DoH reported total recoveries of 22,000. The highest total recoveries of 40,392 was reported 16 August 2020.

Fact #3. After one year, the number of deaths reported is just 13,170. Even if all these deaths were attributed to Covid, THIS IS VERY LOW compared to the annual deaths of more than 60,000 (2016 data) for flu and pneumonia. Yet we do not lockdown the people due to these diseases.

Fact #4. Total number for RP of 5,705 cases/M is way below the level considered epidemic or pandemic. RP is just 6.3% of that of the USA with 90,853 cases/M. If the mild and asymptomatic cases were removed, the value for RP becomes even lower at 0.13% of that of the USA. This comparison becomes even more significant considering that RP’s population density is much higher than that of the USA.

Fact #5. Another indicator that the Covid situation in RP is just hysteria is the percentage of recovery, which is as high as 93% for RP compared to 64% for the USA and 70% for the world.

Based on the above facts, it is clear that there is actually no Covid pandemic in RP and the continued quarantine is therefore not justified!@517

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/03/27/2087356/philippines-reliance-prolonged-lockdowns-caused-economic-deterioration-wb