India Is Optimistic About Philippine Agriculture – We Filipinos Should Learn From India!

On Facebook, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar quietly shares some good news in Philippine Agriculture: “India Vows Support For Agriculture[1]” by Eireene Jairee Gomez (27 March 2021, Manila Times):

Speaking at the General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Fisheries Inc (PCAFI) on Friday, Shambhu Kumaran, Ambassador of India to the Philippines, recognized the old connections between the two countries, which (seek) to build up people-driven and people-centered partnerships. The Indian government has vowed to strengthen (its) long-standing cooperation with the Philippines, particularly in the areas of intensifying technological transfer in the country’s agriculture and (fisheries).

Old connections – Here are a few items of note: Filipino culture has “Indian influences[2]” (Wikipedia). About 30% of the Tagalog language is loanwords from Sanskrit; the uses of brass, bronze, copper and tin in the Philippine decorative arts and metal works also have Indian origins. And an Indian-Philippine Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation was signed during the state visit of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 05 October 2007.

Modern connections– Globally, “The Philippines is the preferred destination for financial services and voice-based support[3]” (call center industry); that is according to an Indian himself, Deepak Kapoor, founding member, Business Processing Industry Association of India. I know that with our American English, we are better than the Indians with their British English; besides, American English is the preferred business language of the world.

But the Indians are ahead in technology, that is why we need them, especially for our farmers and fishers.

I say yes, “To strengthen” cooperation “particularly in the areas of intensifying technological transfer in the country’s agriculture and fisheries.” (Above, lower image[4] is from India; Analytics Insight.)

Mr Kumaran says that India has resolved the common problems of developing countries: low productivity, difficulty of accessing credit, promoting mechanization of farming, reducing postharvest losses, building more robust farm-to-market linkages, and climate change. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, India was a highly import-dependent economy. Today, however, he says, “We are one of the largest producers of food grains, in addition to feeding our 1.3 billion people, we are able to share some surplus for the export market.”

Mr Kumaran tells his audience there is a need for the Philippines to “build resilience and reliability in its agriculture supply chain and at the same time improve food safety.”

Kumaran says technology has became a “critical” multiplier and enabler for Indian agriculture. “We would like to invite you (to) a voyage of discovery of India’s agritech ecosystem,” Mr Kumaran tells PCAFI members. As to small and marginalized farmers who have difficulties accessing credit, “I think the Indian experience can be replicable in the Philippine context.”

Mr Kumaran advises Philippine agriculture officials not to lose optimism in the sector. He says:

One of the things I personally noticed about farmers is their resilience, their toughness. They’re extremely optimistic even in the most difficult times. And I believe that we need to keep that spirit of optimism.

Yes Sir, Mr Kumaran!@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/03/27/business/business-top/india-vows-support-for-agriculture/855901/

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Philippines_relations

[3]https://www.magellan-solutions.com/blog/philippines-vs-india-which-one-is-better-in-bpo-services/

[4]https://www.analyticsinsight.net/technology-can-benefit-agriculture-farmers-india/

PSAU, An Outstanding Public University In Pampanga, To Lose 310 Hectares?

310 hectares of public land in Pampanga currently under the jurisdiction of the Pampanga State Agricultural University (PSAU) are in an intellectual managerial deadlock, having to choose between 2 agrarian schemes:

üAgrarian Ownership? The Department of Agrarian Reform (the DAR) distributes the lands to new individual farmers. 

üAgrarian Stewardship? PSAU retains formal stewardship with profit sharing with countless landless farmers in such projects as: agroforestry, bamboo, coconut, coffee, genebank forestry, goat, mixed orchard, mulberry, silvipasture, and tamarind production.

I think like thatwith the news story by William L Beltran, “PSAU Appeals Retention Of CARP-Able Landholding, Offers Stewardship[1]” (26 March 2021, PIA.gov.ph). I can feel the anguish of PSAU’s President Honorio Soriano Jr. The 376 hectares of land owned and titled to PSAU have been, according to Mr Beltran, “validated by (the DAR) as coverable under the Land Reform Program of the government.”

If the DAR implements the agrarian law, in this case it will be against Education, Science, and Agrarian Development!

Education & Science, because PSAU is using those 376 ha for agricultural education, and field-based and earth science researches.

Agrarian Development, because PSAU has stewardship arrangements with the farmers; e.g., there is an ongoing stewardship agreement with 30 informal settler families within PSAU property. Mr Soriano says:

We organized them as coffee farmers under stewardship agreement. We succeeded in making them as our partners and they are happy. 70 percent of the income goes to the farmers, 30 percent goes to the university. We also gave scholarships to their children taking up agriculture, with the condition of them not returning to their old practice of producing charcoal that inflicts harm on our environment.

You provide people the opportunity to earn honest money, and at the same time prevent the destruction of the University’s forest – what more do you want?!

Not only that. Mr Beltran says:

This particular project earned for PSAU an award as one of the 10 best government practices in 2020 because of the social implication of the program.

Mr Soriano says:

This is what we are trying to replicate in other areas occupied by informal settlers, because we are partnering with the Department of Agriculture [DA] for the establishment of an agro-industrial hub, putting up nurseries and greenhouses, and we will engage the informal settlers as our partners.

From what I know of the awareness, aims, assistances and accomplishments of the DA under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, that agro-industrial hub will benefit thousands of farmer families in Pampanga and surrounding provinces. The good earth multiplies.

Meanwhile, Mr Soriano says, there is PSAU’s Land Use Development and Infrastructure Plan, a 25-year masterplan. This has been duly approved by PSAU’s Board of Regents, crafted in consonance with the Magalang Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Megalopolis Plan of Pampanga, and the Regional Development Plan. (Magalang is the town where PSAU is centrally located.)

So, it’s a choice between Agrarian Ownershipand Agrarian Stewardship – I hope PRRD will intervene and choose Stewardship. For the sake of state universities and landless families!@517

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[1]https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1070749?fbclid=IwAR0NB-F43FMaildUA6-EstCuHIbULkyqUkwYsJ26-gZ5geqTGrdJYy4ItG4

An (Inadvertent) Easter Lesson In Creative Writing For Anyone

As of Easter Sunday, 04 April 2021, as a creative writer who started publishing himself, in print in 1975, or 55 years ago, and in digital media in 2000, or 20 years ago, I have blogged digitally alone about 7,000 essays – long, up to 7,000 words; and short, exactly 517 words, including title. Extra creative!

My very last essay, which I blogged Sunday, “2 Leadership Lessons From Apayao Women – Help Yourself By Helping Others[1]” (Asa Ka Pa!), is most original and extraordinary – so far, it’s my best! But it started in my head nothing like that.

Lesson: Your best is still to come. There’s hope!

In the top image, Akin Olokun says, “People come into your life and go, but you will always have to live with yourself. Make yourself pleasant, positive, and peaceful.” The bottom image says, “The great gift of Easter is Hope” – Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, who “presided over one of the most turbulent periods of Catholicism in Britain[2].” The great British poet Alexander Popesays, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Unless of course you have forgotten to be human!

Early Sunday morning, out there in a neighboring field getting my 15-minute of fresh air, with grasses growing and trees showing, it dawned on me that while my Easter essay is a surprise lesson on Filipino women and leadership, it is also a surprise lesson in writing, whether you call it creative or not.

In my case, believe it or not, when I came across the original news-story by Kathleen Faye B Agonoy titled “Rural Women-Led Communal Gardening In Celebration Of National Women’s Month[3]” (29 March 2021, SAAD.da.gov.ph), I read it with a pleasant, positive, and peaceful mind – with extra hope that something new & wonderful will come out – and it did! If before reading I had judged it according to my high writing standards, I would not have known what I was missing: Inspiration.

Being hopeful, pleasant, positive and peaceful in reading Miss Kathleen’s news surprised me and told me, if quietly, that there were some untold lessons in leadership in there that needed to be told, and I was the one to tell them. (You have to read my essay and that of Miss Kathleen’s to fully appreciate what I’m saying here.)

So, if you are a columnist, journalist, preacher, speaker, student, or teacher, the lesson for you to come up with some original thoughts that will surprise even you is to assume a hopeful, pleasant, positive, and peaceful attitude when reading anything, whether intended as your source material or not. You never know what will come out of that!

No, I was not thinking of learning or giving leadership lessons when I was reading Miss Kathleen's story, even if the title suggested it: “Rural Women-Led Communal Gardening…..”

But that’s exactly the point: When you leave your mind open to all possibilities, creativity creeps in! You just have to have some experience to recognize your own genius when it shows up in your thoughts!@517

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[1]https://asakaparin.blogspot.com/2021/04/2-leadership-lessons-from-apayao-women.html

[2]https://biography.yourdictionary.com/basil-hume

[3]http://saad.da.gov.ph/2021/03/rural-women-led-communal-gardening-in-celebration-of-national-womens-month/?fbclid=IwAR3S2wSH-q7IJFlKBziZsbJcfid6QsPbknFD2sHDW4p-61-of1-Vbriq6Ok

2 Leadership Lessons From Apayao Women – Help Yourself By Helping Others

In the 820-word story by Kathleen Faye B Agonoy of SAAD Apayao titled “Rural Women-Led Communal Gardening In Celebration Of National Women’s Month[1]” (29 March 2021, SAAD.da.gov.ph), I see 2 lessons in leadership.

I see them, after reading 5 times, what with the original Ilocano words included, and as an Ilocano myself I had to check the accuracy of the translation. And the leadership lessons are:

(1) Self-help: Look for leadership in someone who wants to help herself first of all (“tao nga kayat na metlang nga tulungan iti bagi na”).

(2) Communal interest: That chosen leader can then convince others to join in a community project with this assurance: “You help yourself by helping others!”

The Apayao communal gardens are in Poblacion, Imelda, Alem, San Luis (PIAS), owned by the PIAS Farmers Association (PIAS FA). I note with interest that the association is registered at the Department of Labor & Employment as a cooperative. Personally I believe in the power of cooperatives to collectively change members’ lives much for the better.

The slogan for all cooperatives should be, borrowing from the Three Musketeers of Alexandre Dumas: “All for one, one for all!”

As of March, there are 198 members of PIAS – 121 women and 77 men. The communal gardens are about 100 sqm each barangay.

Group member Leonora Lucero has a leadership take on PIAS. Interviewed by Miss Kathleen, “She stated that the program was a mentoring ground for women who want to take lead in shaping the future of agriculture.” Thank you, Miss Leonora, for this leadership lesson!

The Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program supports PIAS FA. For vegetable production, PIAS received in June 2019 from the SAAD Program rain shelters costing each P159,150. Barangay Imelda received 3 rain shelters, 5 knapsack sprayers, 8 shovels, and 18 seedling trays. Smaller Barangay Alem received 2 shelters, 4 sprayers, 5 shovels, and 13 trays.

Miss Kathleen quotes Miss Leonora as saying:

Idi awan pay tuy rain shelter, sakam lang makamula nu tay dry season ta nu pinatagtutudu metten ket agnanayun nga maperdi tuy mula mi ta malungsot da gapo iti tudu. (Before there was this rain shelter, we could plant only during the dry season, because during the rainy season, our plantings were always destroyed, rotten by the rains. – My translation)

Miss Leonora is happy. She says:

Idi ada tuy project’n, han min masapul nga gumatang iti nateng nga agserbi pamilya mi ta da meten idi continues nga pagmulaan mi kin pag harvest’an mi. (When the project arrived, we no longer needed to buy vegetables for our families because we already had a place to raise and harvest them. – My translation)

PIAS FA President Mercedes Pechon says they also supply vegetables for free to the families of 2 malnourished children.

The wealth of vegetables comprise eggplant, okra, chili, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, sponge gourd, tohya beans, dasheen, pechay, and tomato – a minimum of 10 kg each planting produced each week from May to June.

These Apayao women prove:
Where there’s unity, there’s wealth!@517

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[1]http://saad.da.gov.ph/2021/03/rural-women-led-communal-gardening-in-celebration-of-national-womens-month/?fbclid=IwAR3S2wSH-q7IJFlKBziZsbJcfid6QsPbknFD2sHDW4p-61-of1-Vbriq6Ok

Truly, Time To Transform Thy Teaching To Thinking!

I am a certified Civil Service Professional teacher. Teachers anywhere in the world, public or private, we have been educated wrong & wrongly!

In the Philippines, the wrong teaching happens, from the most expensive private school International School Manila (ISM), $16,160 per year[1] (Moneymax), to the inexpensive University of the Philippines System (UP System) where mega-blogger Frank A Hilario graduated (UP Los Baños). Teachers teach us to memorize, and then memorize, and finally memorize!

Our teachers do not teach us to think, and how to think!

German American Gundula Bosch says we must “Train PhD Students To Be Thinkers Not Just Specialists[2]” (14 February 2018, Nature.com):

(Today, microbiology) students are taught every detail of a microbe’s life cycle but little about the life scientific. They need to be taught to recognize how errors can occur. Trainees should evaluate case studies derived from flawed real research, or use interdisciplinary detective games to find logical fallacies in the literature. Above all, students must be shown the scientific process as it is – with its limitations and potential pitfalls as well as its fun side, such as serendipitous discoveries and hilarious blunders.

Learning should both be fun and mentally rewarding. Miss Bosch is referring both to critical thinking (“scientific process”) and creative thinking (as in “serendipitous discoveries”). Science should be both mechanical and mental.

Since early 2015, Miss Bosch and Arturo Casadevall have been “(impressing) the need to put the philosophy back into the doctorate of philosophy; that is, pushing the ‘Ph’ back into the ‘PhD.’” She says:

We call our program R3, which means that our students learn to apply Rigor to their design and conduct of experiments; view their work through the lens of social Responsibility; and to think critically, communicate better, and thus improve Reproducibility.

You have to Think Out Science:

Our offerings are different from others at the graduate level. We have critical-thinking assignments in which students analyze errors in reasoning in a New York Timesopinion piece about "Big Sugar", and the ethical implications of the arguments made in a New Yorker piece by surgeon Atul Gawande entitled "The Mistrust of Science."

In R3 Science, you learn how to think of theory – also how to think of methods and results. Critical thinking plus creative thinking. Revolutionary!

Miss Bosch is not finished. She says:

So far, we have built 5 new courses from scratch and have enrolled 85 students from nearly a dozen departments and divisions. The courses cover the anatomy of errors and misconduct in scientific practice and teach students how to dissect the scientific literature. An interdisciplinary discussion series encourages broad and critical thinking about science. Our students learn to consider societal consequences of research advances, such as the ability to genetically alter sperm and eggs.

In the Philippines’ ISM, high school students can learn robotics and food technology – it’s all mechanical thinking, memory work or students simply reciting what they have been instructed to memorize. None of it mental calisthenics.

No, not thinkingly, our teachers are teaching us only to think like them!@517

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[1]https://ph.news.yahoo.com/schools-highest-tuition-metro-manila-020058943.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sLmZhY2Vib29rLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFlqoJ30NFSXe_vSm1deUDFeRz9KRoY4OhjtwyA8bAMkDrT_JAhzeasO0DU1u2zWxwHy7FWvFR95TLz9ilekRvs-2PEZN_OCcAl8i_tqPYhwdfKSMTK2JUBVRosC3DmuzvhIaGPxxxNjhrZTVoyKbijf-T1QFTKjTC-aScA7G_Kx

[2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01853-1

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