PH Secretary William Dar Calls For Greater FAO Country Cooperation On Production, Nutrition, And Environment – Where We Are Inefficient, Exclusive, Unscientific!

We humans always have a choice – today, to use either the power of weapon or the power of reason to solve problems or resolve conflicts. We have a choice of conquering other peoples by force or combatting our country’s predicaments by science and sense of the socially upright.

With a war on in unfortunate Ukraine, FAO countries held the “36th FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific” in Dhaka, Bangladesh 8-11 March 2022. "War is Hell," American Civil War General William Sherman said in 1879 – certainly if you wage war only by private demands, not public dictates.

On 10 March 2022, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar spoke during the Ministerial Session, emphasizing: “Our immediate objective is to modernize our agriculture and fisheries systems, making them more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.”

Mr Dar noted FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031 with the themes of Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment. He said:

For Better Production, let’s prioritize “Green Innovation.” We need to continue creating sustainable crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry production systems – supported by green technologies and better policies.

“Green Innovation” I understand to mean non-destructive of natural resources like soil, water and forests. “Sustainable” means you can proceed producing more even as you allow the environment to replenish itself.

For Better Nutrition, we have to ensure safe food for everyone. We need to continue improving our food safety regulations, integrating sanitary and phytosanitary control measures and policies throughout the food value chain.

Mr Dar is talking about food safety, and he should be. I want more. A warrior writer, I am more interested in food naturalness, foods produced by systems without using farm chemicals. Concentrating on Organic agriculture now, I have this new blog – Farms Advancing Home, Health & Habitat (Blogspot.com).
(“In/Organic Farming” image from iconfinder.com)

For a Better Environment, we need to continue embarking on a massive program to protect our environment, ADAPT to the current and future effects of climate change and mitigate its impacts…

I sincerely believe that if we practice organic agriculture, we would be creating a “Better Environment” not only in our villages but also in our cities, because there would be no more greenhouse gases emitted from the fields to exacerbate climate change!

For a Better Life and (to) reduce poverty, it is imperative to increase public and private investments in our food systems. We also need support in our farm consolidation and clustering strategy to increase efficiency and viability.

There, Mr Dar mentions “farm consolidation and clustering strategy” – as far as I know, Mr Dar is the only Secretary of Agriculture who recognizes the primary role of cooperation in farmers’ and fishers’ efforts to produce better and improve their lives more.

We are helping entrepreneurs create jobs… driven by education, digital technology, sustainable energy, innovation, and infrastructure.

We need more: entrepreneurs, education, science, innovation, public support for private initiatives.

Yes, we always have a choice. In agriculture, mychoice to produce more is not 50% but 100% organic!@517