03, The More The Merrier – PH Needs More Hogs In Manila, Less Critics!

“Pinoys absolutely love pork. Randomly enter a restaurant and there’s a fat chance you’ll sniff the rousing aroma of sizzling sisig, grilled liempo or if your host is big-time, lechon – a whole roasted pig!”

That’s what Gregg Yan says[1] (03 January 2020, Thepigsite.com). Count me in! I just love to bite into the crispy skin of a lechon and never ever think of hypertension – I’m just lean & mean.
(lower “Backyard Pig Farming” image[2] from PCARRD.dost.gov.ph)

There is some unsolicited advice about what to do with the current problematic PH supply of pork because of the African Swine Fever (ASF), comment/advice slyly directed at Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. Thank you, but you are assuming Mr Dar has no“Whole-Hog Plan” if I may call it that. You don’t know Mr Dar has been a science manager for 33 years, up to and including his incredible stint as the longest-running Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in India, for 3 terms or 15 years. (Based in Los Baños, IRRI is a sister agency of ICRISAT.)

“At the Lucena Port receiving 1,350 hogs in 13 trucks from GenSan for Metro Manila!” That is Mr Dar’s Facebook post Tuesday, 16 February 2021. My remark: “13 is a lucky number!” I’m trying to give some encouragement to those people at the port of Lucena City, as if they needed it. Mr Dar and team just came from Mindanao looking for as many hogs as Metro Manilans wished to hug.

I said “team” – from January 2000 to December 2014, Mr Dar assigned himself the task of being Team Captain to ICRISAT’s international employees, and brought ICRISAT from dead last to #1 among the 15 international aggie research centers of CGIAR, including world-famous IRRI.

If the Philippines is now Asian last in pork supply because of the ASF, Mr Dar does not need advice; rather, he needs support!

If you have an axe to grind, you will ignore Mr Dar’s long international exposure at science-and-people management and give your advice as if he does not know what he should be doing!

You have been paying attention to the digital media, or are just continuing to pursue your hidden agenda. In the news release “DA-PCIC Urges Raisers To Insure Hogs So They Can Bounce Back” –

Agriculture Secretary William Dar is urging backyard and commercial hog raisers to secure insurance packages so they can recover part of their investments, in case their farms are affected by the (ASF).

Mr Dar wants more hog raisers to raise more hogs and at the same time solicit the proper insurance package from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation. He says:

As the Department of Agriculture (DA) intensifies efforts to encourage hog raisers to get back to business and, ultimately, help pork production rebound, availing of an insurance coverage is a prudent safety net for existing raisers and for those in ASF-free areas who will venture into this business.

The PH Secretary of Agriculture means business!@517

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[1]https://www.thepigsite.com/articles/pork-remains-the-favourite-in-the-philippines

[2]http://www.pcaarrd.dost.gov.ph/home/portal/index.php/quick-information-dispatch/3338-video-on-proper-pig-management-to-encourage-backyard-pig-farming-among-the-youth

02, The More The Merrier – 1,200+ Community Farmers In PH Tourist Siargao Island Successfully Inspired By The Police!

Lower image says, “Stories That Prove Filipino Police Are Heroes[1]” (from Newsgraph). That explains my choice of photograph to illustrate my story. The news comes from Down Under by Celeste Macintosh, “Police-Led Farming Program Becomes Covid Lifeline For An Island Voted ‘Best In The World[2]’” (13 February 2021, SBS Filipino).

Ms Celeste says:

After being recognized in 2019 by the readers of Conde Nast Travel as the “best island in the world,” Siargao Island drew even more tourists and surfing enthusiasts from around the world. As tourism picked up in (this) southern Philippines island, more farmers and (fishers) “abandoned their traditional livelihoods to earn fast cash from foreign tourists,” and petty crimes flourished in the key island municipality of General Luna.

Easy come, easy go. Farming is easy if you ask this farmer’s son who is also an Agriculturist, UP '65, but fast cash is more tempting by selling something, anything. Goodbye carabao, hello tourists! Hello petty crimes.

Fortunately for Siargao, a year before the island became the toast of tourists, says Ms Celeste, Police Captain Wise Vicente Panuelos “realized that despite the steady growth in local tourism over the years, residents were still struggling to make ends meet.” What did he do?

He investigated a new idea, connecting Food with Peace.

“In 2018, defying convention, he decided to train the police in community organizing and address local food insecurity in pursuit of peace and order.” He thought, “If people have hungry stomachs, they might have angry minds.” He was thinking of more crimes.

So, Chief Panuelos sought the assistance of community-conscious businesses and individuals and started “Hardin ng Pagbabago” (Garden of Change). This was community farming. Ms Celeste says, “The innovative program was quick to get local backing within its first year.” There were an initial 12 community farms in San Isidro.

There is a white stranger in this story. Ms Celeste says:

Siargao-based, ex-military Brett Johnson of the Australian Special Forces is one of the pioneer supporters of the (Garden of Change) program. Mr Johnson and Captain Panuelos met almost three years ago when Mr Johnson moved to the Philippines straight out of retirement from the military.

Different peoples and different perspectives, yet they blended. Mr Johnson said, ““I became good friends with him (Captain Panuelos), as my background and (his) being (Police Chief were) a good mix and we could understand each other and relate.” Law and Order of a different kind!

Mr Johnson came from a farming background in Western Australia where his family had grown wheat and raised sheep. “When Captain Panuelos decided that the program was ready for a full-scale approach, he asked Mr Johnson to be a sponsor, and he adopted 3 farms.” He was a farmer first, police next, farmer last.

Once a farmer, always a farmer. Apart from providing financial support for local farms; Mr Johnson also trained the farmers on soil rehabilitation, a Very Important Point (VIP) – I will write on this VIP another time.@517

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[1]https://www.newsgra.ph/1856/stories-that-prove-filipino-police-are-heroes/

[2]https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/police-led-farming-program-becomes-covid-lifeline-for-an-island-voted-best-in-the-world?fbclid=IwAR3gJ8VtErYpOsHo0keLXjGitrGBjlG_1FwF1DgBWUpaH0oUxFEZVfxuQgc

David Osborne’s “Brainstorming” Gives Way To Frank A Hilario’s “Brainscaping”

David Osborne invented brainstorming (Lila MacLellan, “The Man Who Gave Us Brainstorming Meetings Did His Best Thinking Alone[1],” 06 August 2019, Quartz At Work). Come to think of it, I do my best brainstorming thinking alone myself!

Not to rob the credit from Mr Osborne, I Frank A Hilario am right now announcing to the creative world that I have just reinvented Brainstorminginto Brainscaping, meaning you create your own intellectual landscapes when trying to come up with something else, or some things new, out of the chaos of materials you have gathered or thought of. Hence this new blog of mine:

Brainscapes (https://braincapes.blogspot.com).
(the landscape image[2] above is from Dryicons.com)

In thinking brainscape, think landscape. Landscape is: “all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal” – Oxford Dictionary; “everything you can see when you look across an area of land, including hills, rivers, buildings, trees, and plants” – Collins Dictionary.

Now then, as a creative mind, your brainscape includes anything and everything you can think of in relation to what you are working on right now.

Brainstorming is very aptly named from 2 words: brain and storm. It’s always stormy weather. Whether you are alone brainstorming or with a group, the storm of thoughts come and they usually fight it out, or simply fade out, until a “bright idea” comes in and that’s it.

Brainscaping is calm; there is no storm at all. You first blankly look at the landscape of the idea or groups of ideas (look at the image again). We can say brainscaping is mapping out the territory with a shared feature, or related features.

Yes, I’m introducing brainscaping as a new way of thinking out new ideas, concepts, relations whatever. In brainstorming, you come out with a distinct if not superior idea or concept; in brainscaping, you come out first with distinct features that are tidied up with a single idea; or you come out first with a single idea that you can use to identify the features in the mental landscape that are connected by that singular idea.

The fact is I did not start with the concept of brainscaping first – I started with the idea of “The More The Merrier (TM²),” hence the title of the first essay in this blog: “01, The More The Merrier – 156 Lipa City Families Succeed With Community ‘Stables And Greens’ Gardens.” (Thus, this essay is not numbered TM² because it's not TM.) TM² is my newly discovered formula for writing a series of success stories of plurality of farmers, that is, successful groups – not successful individuals, which is the usual story in aggie magazines and newspapers. If you ask me, group success is social; singular success is anti-social.

Now, why am I writing this explanatory essay when I should have began this new series with it, with a title something like this: “01, The More The Merrier – Working With Ideas, How Plurality Leads To Singularity”? Yes, but that’s exactly how brainscaping works: It leads you forward, and backward: that's the part that's landscape.@517

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[1]https://qz.com/work/1675944/brainstormings-inventor-did-his-creative-thinking-alone/#:~:text=The%20thing%20is%2C%20brainstorming%20is,New%20York%20ad%20agency%20BBDO).

[2]https://dryicons.com/free-icons/landscape

01, The More The Merrier – 156 Lipa City Families Succeed With Community “Stables And Greens” Gardens

When families think big, think village, they can succeed where singular others fail. So we have this news from the Department of Agriculture (DA): “Lipa City Families Showcase Successful Community ‘Stables & Greens’ Gardens” dated 12 February 2021.

The complete name of the DA project is: “Stables & Greens: Agri-Livestock Integrated Support to Covid-19-Prone Areas” (ALIS-Covid Project). The aim of “Stables & Greens” is “to mitigate the effects of the pandemic by promoting agri-livestock household production for consumption and the use of various technologies for meat, egg, and vegetable production.” Actually gardens & farms.

Not just 1 family but we are talking here of 156 families in the village of San Benito in Lipa City, some 55 km away from Manila. Even as their Stables & Greens project started only last year, they have already completed 3 harvests from their 1,500 sqm community garden, or from only 15% of 1 ha.

I say: The many have succeeded with a few!

This is a collaborative project among the DA-Agricultural Training Institute (ATI)-International Training Center on Pig Husbandry (ITCPH), East-West Seed Company, and the Lipa City local government unit (LGU). Quintin Piol, Barangay Chair of San Benito, says the participating families “are very active in maintaining their garden with the help of the ITCPH and East-West Seed.” ITCPH is piggery, and East Weed is vegetables – the news release did not mention any livestock involved.

Actually, the DA project is aimed at assisting not only the village of San Benito but 5 other villages of Lipa City: Pinagtong-olan, Marawoy, Lodlod, Tambo, and Banaybanay. If those villages want the project to benefit them, they have to be very active as San Benito.

The DA is trying to help them – still they have to help themselves!

Mr Piol says the harvests go directly to the families’ dining tables, while they sell the rest to “earn extra income and contribute to the group’s revolving fund.”

“The group’s revolving fund” – That’s the (community) spirit!

The upper image shows Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who is ex-officio DA Chief, visiting the project site in San Benito. He said the garden should be sustainable even after the project ends in 2022. That to me explains the raising of the group’s revolving fund. (Also from San Benito, the lower image[1] is from Agriculture.com.ph.)

Later, Mr Dar instructed the DA Regional Field Office in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal & Quezon) to introduce off-season planting of crops and other technologies to increase the yields and incomes of Calabarzon families. He said the target Stables & Greens communities should also be included in the “Food Basket for Metro Manila Project” by which provinces nearby would produce and supply raw materials for food for the national capital region.

The DA is all-out supporting farmers especially during this Covid19 lockdown. Lipa City Mayor Eric Africa thanked Mr Dar and the DA for the many projects such as animal dispersal, seed distribution, and farm-to-market roads, aimed at benefitting disadvantaged families. The DA at your service.@517

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[1]https://www.agriculture.com.ph/2020/09/13/stables-and-greens-gardens-bring-food-and-hope-to-communities-in-batangas/

How PH’s Hybrid Rice Companies Can Increase Their Sales – But Do Farmers Have To Spray All Those Pesticides!?

First, let me be clear: I am in favor of hybrid rice as a good part of the solution for the Philippines to attain rice self-sufficiency – I hope this year, 2021. I have already written about it; try “How Good Are Hybrid Rices In The Philippines^[1]?” (06 January 2021, BraveNewWorld@PH)

Today, Sunday, 10 January 2021, browsing on Facebook, I notice that the hybrid rice companies in my country are not minding their own business! I mean, they are not actively assisting the farmers taking care of their plantings. I found that out when on Facebook, I scanned the page “Usapang Hybrid Rice” (Talking Hybrid Rice), “Group by Tatang Juan” (above, top image).

At this Facebook page, I read the entries and noticed that the farmers’ questions, answers and comments seemed innocent – but they were not. It has something to do with this:

The hybrid rice companies in the Philippines are not providing adequate advice and information to farmers. And that is not good – it may even be dangerous.

Here are some questions I selected from the unending list in Usapang Hybrid Rice (Taglish already translated):

(1)   What’s the best herbicide?

(2)   Please share the protocol for NK 5017 !!!

(3)   What can I spray after the first application of fertilizer?

(4)   I just wanted to share my experience.

(5)   Can I mix Bayluscide with Sofit? Please advice. Thanks.

(6)   How many days before I broadcast 0-0-60?

(7)   How many days before I fertilize after planting? And how many kilos of hybrid per hectare?

(8)   What’s a good fertilizer for first application?

(9)   What pesticide is good against black bugs?

(10)  What chemical do I use to encourage tillering?

(11)  What to spray after the first application of fertilizer?

(12)  Have you tried LongPing?

(13)  Can I use Fenale, and can I mix it with 2,4-D?

So many questions and so varied I just know that PH hybrid companies are not providing enough data and information to farmers to whom they sell their beloved rices.

(Can PhilRice be The Knowledge Provider? Asking for a friend.)

In the meantime, via Usapang Hybrid Rice, farmers can share experiences and/or ask questions – what about those who have no access to the Internet?

The hybrid companies are neglecting their consumers, and it’s their business!

This is the short list I have gathered of hybrid rices companies available in the Philippines: Advanta, Bayer, BioSeed, Corteva, LongPing, Monsanto, Pioneer, SeedWorks, SL Agritech, and Syngenta. If they continue to ignore the knowledge needs of their clients, should I simply dismiss it as, “It’s their own lookout. It’s their business!”

No Sir! It’s my business as a consumer – and communicator – to know, for instance, if my rice has pesticide residues in it. I thought 2,4-D was already banned in the Philippines? Bayluscide, Fenale, Sofit – what other chemicals may I find in my grain of hybrid rice?
(farmer spraying image[2] from Canstockphoto.com)

Hybrid or inbred, I don’t want any pesticide residue in the rice I eat.@517

 

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[1]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2021/01/how-good-are-hybrid-rices-in-philippines.html

[2]https://www.canstockphoto.com/farmers-spraying-pesticides-in-rice-28803066.html

Balls: Stephen Curry Reinvents Warriors To Winners, Frank Hilario Reinvents Conservation To Sustainable Agriculture!

The Golden State Warriors were losing, then Stephen Curry exploded, the final scores being 115-105 Warriors vs LA Clippers Friday, 08 January 2020[1] (Monte Poole, NBCSports.com). The Warriors were behind 85-63 with 3:15 remaining in the 3^rd Q, but a true warrior finds his way to victory. Curry contributed 38 points. Mr Poole says the lesson is: “Do not accept premature burial, no matter the skill of those wielding the shovels.” The Clippers were shocked.

In an entirely different world, I am not quitting, but here is my personal shock:
Today, I realize that Conservation Agriculture/Farming has been losing all the time – the resources may be/are being conserved, but the poor farmers are not!

Saturday, I saw this Facebook sharing, “Solving South Asia’s Sustainability Issues Will Require A Systems Approach To Crop Management[2]” by Alison Doody (17 December 2020, CIMMYT.org). Miss Alison writes:

New research by an international team of scientists, including scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), (overall) shows that adopting a portfolio of conservation agriculture and crop diversification practices is more profitable and better for the environment than conventional agriculture.

“Systems approach to crop management” but not “systems approach to farmer management.” Miss Alison, you are separating “conservation agriculture” from “crop diversification practices” when the very image you are using (below), says “diversified crop rotation” is 1 of 3 principles of conservation agriculture! One is part of the other and cannot be separated.

There are 2 main reasons why I’m writing this essay:

(1) Agriculture: Those 3 are components, not principles of.
(2) Conservation Agriculture should give way to Sustainable Agriculture.

Why Sustainable Agriculture, not Conservation Agriculture?

The concept of “conservation” focuses on the resources – soil, crops, livestock, systems, while the concept of “sustainable” includes people.

Sustainable Everything: Beyond conservation, you need to make agriculture sustainable: technically feasible, economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable.

Sustainable Everyone:You target the lives of people. Now, look at my image above again; it says “4 Components of Sustainable Agriculture.” It shows only 3: (1) Minimum Tillage; (2) Permanent Soil Cover; (3) Crop Mix & Rotation. Because I am hiding the 4^thcomponent, the human, at the top of the image, my logo: “Brave New World.” Most of all, in agriculture, you need to make farmers’ lives sustainable – with lives improving more and continuously. Which requires that you look at the village, not simply the individual farmers. It takes a sustainable village to nurture a sustainable farmer.

Another way of putting that is this:
It is not enough that farmers keep on earning higher and higher incomes – are they in fact escaping from poverty?

Yes, Miss Alison, as Andrew McDonald, your systems agronomist at Cornell University, puts it: “Tackling these challenges requires strong collaborative efforts from researchers, policymakers, development partners and farmers.” I’m coming from Development.

The sooner we graduate from Conservation Agriculture to Sustainable Agriculture, the better!@517

 

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[1]https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/steph-currys-38-point-performance-vs-clippers-ignites-nba-twitter?fbclid=IwAR0r2VT_9WeKeY9fJFYXj5OZ9EDCA52MwsT0bZ3qrOOpu4P8mlTB6OpxMo4

[2]https://www.cimmyt.org/news/solving-south-asias-sustainability-issues-will-require-a-systems-approach-to-crop-management/

PH’s Department Of Agriculture Has A SAAD Program, Happy Is How It Looks!

It’s called “The SAAD Program,” Special Area for Agricultural Development, and it has been in existence since 2017. Above, happy farmer faces show SAAD progress and promise.

(Above, “Happiness” image from the book, Perspectives, subtitled SAAD’s Capacity To View Things On Agriculture And Fishery In Their Relations And Relative Importance, 2020.)

The word “saad" means “promise” in Visayan and “commitment” in Masbate. Program Director Myer G Mula says, SAAD “aims to help marginalized farmers and fishers of the 30 poorest of the poor provinces move out of poverty.” Mr Mula also says:

The strategy of the program is to increase food production and the establishment of community enterprises by providing the appropriate technology, marketing, and other support services for animals (livestock and poultry), crops (food and industrial), and fisheries (capture, aqua, and pond culture) to individuals, households and organized farmers and fisherfolk…

It looks like SAAD has every enterprise covered: crops, fish, livestock, and poultry. The support services it provides desirous individuals, families and organized folks are complete in themselves.

Here is a list of SAAD Enterprises, each with project amount of SAAD Intervention:

P1,200,000 – Swine Raising (United Farmers Association of Pangi), Libagon, Southern Leyte

P550,000 – Capture Fishing (San Rafael Farmers and Fisherfolk Association), San Rafael, Donsol, Sorsogon

P518,512 – Cassava Chip (Suchan Vegetable Farmers Association), Sucban, Bagamanoc, Catanduanes

P480,000 – Vegetables: (Cansoso Livelihood Association of Workers), Matag-ob, Leyte; vegetable production

P101,500 – Processed Meat (Lydia M Flores, individual), Lampuyang Pio V Corpus, Masbate.

That’s a total of P2,850,000.

Mr Mula says in the 2019 SAAD Annual Report:

With the (SAAD) program’s major component, which is to develop agricultural enterprises for communities, associations, and individuals, there are successful groups who are now registered (with) and accredited by the Department of Labor & Employment (DoLE), and DA. They are earning and sustaining the livelihood provided them. Thanks to former SAAD Director Bernadette San Juan, these exceptional farmers were recognized in a one-day knowledge management event and trade exhibit called the SAAD Saga 2019.

I note that SAAD is designed to develop aggie enterprises for groups and individuals as we have already seen in the list above. Mr Mula reiterates that the SAAD participants are now “earning and sustaining the livelihood provided them.” I myself must emphasize that the enterprises are now registered and accredited by the DoLE, as well as the DA.

The SAAD Program has this Vision:

By 2022, SAAD will be the leading agricultural development program and resource mobilization service of the Department of Agriculture, undertaking intensified social venture initiatives to increase food production and alleviate identified farmers and fisherfolk from poverty.

SAAD’s objective is to “complement with the DA regular programs in terms of beneficiaries and interventions.” What sets the SAAD supported enterprises apart is that they are targeted at the 30 priority provinces of the Philippines with high incidences of poverty.

I note that SAAD support services are full, from financing to training to technology to marketing. I believe this is how DA support services already are transforming themselves with “regular” projects with farmers.@517