William Dar’s Legacy Of Thinking Blanked By Failure Of Extension In PH Agriculture! Outstanding Example: UP Los Baños Greets Everyone At The Campus Gate With 2 Giant Digital Screens, But Never For Upgrading Agriculture!

Thursday, 30 June 2022 is the last day of William Dar as PH Secretary of Agriculture – I, UP Los Baños alumnus, am unhappy to see him go. I blame the Extension People, mostly in the state universities & colleges (SUCs), led by UPLB, whose social media efforts are aimed mostly at campus visitors & passersby – the SUCs failed to appreciate and afterwards deliver the power of Mr Dar’s unprecedented & unparalleled legacy: “The New Thinking For Agriculture” (TNT for A). The SUCs misinterpreted that dynamite power!

(top photo, cropped, taken by me 08 Sept 2018)

“I have seen the future. It’s in my browser,” says Ben Watts of Challenge Advisory (13 Sept 2018); I say, to help people nowadays, you use social media, with which people can view and learn via cellphones only. My alma mater failing in social media in the last 20 years, I am notproud of UP Los Baños!
(“Media” image from Challenge Advisory, challenge.org)

The so-called “Science Community of Los Baños” comprising of Asean Centre for Biodiversity, PCAARRD, PhilRice Los Baños, IRRI, Searca and UPLB – what knowledge works for agriculture did they do in the 2+ years that Mr Dar was Secretary of Agriculture? Nothing much for PH Agriculture that I, an inveterate web browser (human) know of. If the leader fails, the followers follow!

I have been paying attention to media releases, and I have yet to encounter any item saying UPLB has any semblance of a digital library for beginning & experienced farmers who want to proceed more intelligently with available science for growing crops or raising livestock. Earlier, I had written about this (01 June 2022, “My Proposal: Unlimited-Usable Popular-Language Bank For Advancing Agriculture (UPLB for A2) – What You See Right Now Should Be A Portent Of Things To Come!” Towards A New Eden, towardsaneweden.blogspot.com).

(I have already blamed the aggie journalists – see my essay 29 June 2022, “Journalists, Wake Up…” Towards A New Eden, towardsaneweden.blogspot.com.)

That Knowledge Bank “UPLB for A2” I suggested (above) has gone unnoticed by any UPLB campus people in the whole of this month, June, That tells me UPLB minds travel the information superhighway called the “Internet” for their unlimited personal & educational interests but limited farmer interests, not to further their knowledge in science – or that of people in agriculture that the University can and should help.

The bottom image is an accidental collage of my photographs in my Windows 10 Lenovo Flex2laptop, with the time and date 13:43 Friday, 04 May (2018): Mr Dar is on top, smiling radiantly. He has said separately on Facebook, about BBM as interim Secretary of Agriculture: “I am one of the happiest Filipinos” (June 27); “Agri will now be prioritized” (28 June).

Great! With PH President BBM on top of it, he himself will be seeing what BASF has been telling all the world: “Farming is the biggest job on earth”!@517

Journalists, Wake Up! Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ), You Have Been Slipping On The Job. Frank A Hilario, Father Of “Binhi Awards” Proposes New “Ani Awards” For You To Further Serve Science To Serve Farm Families To Bring Themselves To Prosperity!

I being the Father of “Binhi Awards,” having observed published outputs of members of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) since PRRD appointed William Dar as Secretary of Agriculture in 06 August 2019, it saddens me that PAJ largely failed to act on Mr Dar’s “The New Thinking For Agriculture” (TNT for A) in the last 3 years!

(Image source: “Binhi Awards” from DA, da.gov.ph)

For instance, I know that no member or group within the PAJ has come out clearly for farmers to cut costsby following one of the recommendations of TNT for A: “Consolidate operations.” I can explain such failure in 2 ways: (a) PAJ leadership has failed to imbibe the tenets of the “8 Paradigms” and (b) Department of Agriculture (DA) leadership itself has failed to educate PAJ members on TNT for A.
(Image source: “Time to” from CFI, corporatefinanceinstitute.com)

To correct the double failure, I thought of a new encourager for the PAJ to learn more about old and new technologies and systems that members can disseminate via media outputs – instead of the Binhi Awards, let us cultivate the “Ani Awards” – the first promises the labors of planting, the other promises the rewards of planting!

Conceived by me, the Binhi Awards had as Godfather Teodoro “Ka Doroy” Valencia, Dean of Philippine Journalism. The Binhi Awards was born 10 Oct 1976; thus, for the last 46 years, every year, PAJ member journalists have been feasting on their recognitions & prizes, as deserved. But millions of farmers have remained poor, as undeserved.

“Binhi” is “multiplier seeds” in your Tagalog, “bin-i” in my Ilocano. Sad to say, PAJ members had not been plantingseeds to power TNT for A with which Mr Dar came in when he was appointed by PRRD on 06 August 2019. PAJ members have simply continued their old journalistic ways.

For almost 50 years, individual Binhi Awards have been given out to PAJ members writing their best in local and national media – in the meaning and manner of the Old Journalism.

What we need today is a new kind of journalism, what I shall call “Ani Journalism” (“Harvest Journalism”) – each written news or shared views always related to harvests literally and/or figuratively.

Examples of what I mean by journalistic harvests: farmers’ use of environment-healthy cultivation methods, crop care with natural means of controlling pests & diseases, harvests of healthy crops, easy access to credit, marketing with advantage, cutting costs – resulting in, most of all, poor farmers desirably rising from poverty!

Of TNT for A, PAJ as a whole has failed to be supportive! No new seeds planted, no new growth! It is as if “PAJ” is the answer to the question, “Did somebody say, ‘Just eat?’”
(Image of “Did somebody say” from Campaign Media, campaignmediaawards.com)

With the new Ani Awards, we Filipino journalists – and farmers – can harvest more with the new DA!@517

“BS Journalism!” Bullshit? No, “Bright Side Journalism!” That’s What I Am Advising Incoming PCOO Chief Trixie Cruz-Angeles To Use As Basis To Accredit Bloggers Who Can Show Adequate Proof That They Write For The Public Good, Not The Public Bad!

Yes, with the change of administration, let us change our journalism! From the Private Bad to the Public Good.

Jasmin Romerosays, “UP Professor Urges PCOO To Issue Guidelines For Bloggers Covering Malacañang” (22 June 2022, ABS-CBN News, news.abs-cbn.com). To incoming PCOO chief Trixie Cruz-Angeles, here is my advice:

Accredit those who practice “BS Journalism” – not “Bullshit Journalism” but “Bright Side Journalism”– where Bullshit Journalism is always looking for the dark side.

Meanwhile: Any PH billionaire, please fund a multi-million-peso “Noble Prize For Journalism (Peace)” juxtaposed to the “Nobel Prize For Journalism (Peace): Nobel Prize For Social Goof Vs Noble Prize For Social Good!“

The Philippines’ own Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize2021 with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov  (The Nobel Prize, nobelprize.org). Yes, s/he won for “BS Journalism, Bad Side Journalism.”

Journalism must be for the public good! Above, Guy Bergersays, “Journalism is a public good” (The Communication Initiative Network, comminit.com). I independent Filipino journalist say, “Only if journalism is designed for the public good!”

For Bright Side Journalism, here is my advice:

As a journalist, how do you handle facts, truths? On 30 Nov 2019, I began calling what I was doing “THiNK Journalism” (see my “New PH Agriculture Calling For New Journalism – You Have A Volunteer Mentor, Frank A Hilario,” THiNK Journalism, ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com). It works out like this:

True? If True,
Helpful? If Helpful,
Inspiring? If Inspiring,
Necessary? If Necessary,
Kind?
THiNK!
(Creatively enlarging Zig Ziglar’soriginal THINK advice.)

I started blogging in 2000, engaged in what I now call Communication for Village Development in the 21st Century (CoViD21). I have been blogging on the progress of “The New Thinking For Agriculture” (TNT for A) that Secretary of Agriculture William Dar brought in August 2019. Mr Dar’s 2+ years performance applying TNT for A is an enlightening study if you want to practice THiNK! Journalism.

For the public good, PCOO should go after any journalist whose journalism in parts or as a whole:

accredits, not discredits
appreciates, not deprecates
brings people up, not down
completes, not competes!
constructs, not destructs
encourages, not discourages
exults, not insults
gladdens, not saddens
instructs, not distracts
lightens, not frightens
maximizes, not minimizes
nurtures, not tortures
opens doors, not closes them
restores faith, not destroys it
shares good, not bad
shines, not shames
shows love, not hate
solves, not dissolves
strengthens, not straitens
upgrades, not downgrades
verifies, not vilifies.

BS Journalism: Always for Good!

Do I practice what I preach? I’m not always perfect, but I always try! Looking at my blog, from Jan 2020 to June 2022, I blogged 949 essays (including this one), each in words numbering 517 (Frank A Hilario), most of them about PH Agriculture and the salutary words & works of the Secretary of Agriculture. Bright Side, not Bullshit Side. You can check out my blog now, “Towards A New Eden, towardsaneweden.blogspot.com.@517

“AGBIAG KA!” Long Live! BBM Sir. As President & Interim Agriculture Secretary, You Can Recreate The Department Of Agriculture (DA) To Be Adaptable, Cooperative & Efficient (ACE): ACE Addressing Needs Of Farmers And Public To March Into Prosperity!

Finally, I old UPLB alumnus see the light! The problem is the Department of Agriculture (DA), not the Secretary of Agriculture, currently William Dar, who anticipates: “The DA becomes the topmost priority.” My greeting-advice to BBM is “AGBIAG KA!” acronym for “All-Around Generic Breakup Before Buildup of Institutions in Agriculture Allowing A1 Governance with Knowledge Keen & Administrative Acuity!”

(top image, Facebook sharing of William Dar, facebook.com;

How do you solve a problem like DA? Look: The DA is a multi-headed hydra! Here are the lists from Wikipedia[“Department of Agriculture” (Philippines), en.wikipedia.org], with my alphabetization –

8 regular agencies:
Agricultural Training Institute (ATI),
Bureau of Agricultural & Fisheries Engineering (BAFE).
Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR)
Bureau of Agriculture & Fisheries Standards (BAFS)
Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI)
Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (BFAR)
Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI)
Bureau of Soils & Water Management (BSWM).

19 attached agencies:
Agricultural Credit & Policy Council (ACPC)
Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA)
National Dairy Authority (NDA)
National Fisheries Research & Development Institute (NFRDI)
National Food Authority (NFA)
National Irrigation Administration (NIA)
National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS)
National Tobacco Administration (NTA)
Philippine Carabao Center (PCC)
Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech)[11]
Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA)
Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fishery (PCAF)
Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC)
Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFIDA)
Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA)
Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)
Quedan Rural Credit and Guarantee Corporation (QUEDANCOR)
Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC)
Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).

The DA is a multi-headed hydra! Those 27 separate offices must be reorganized to become Adaptable, Cooperative & Efficient (ACE).

Even with what I call the DA’s Bible, “The New Thinking For Agriculture” that Mr Dar brought with him upon assumption to office as Secretary of Agriculture on 06 Aug 2019, those 27 pairs of eyes are not on the same page any time!

At this point, what is priorly pertinent is how former Director General of the National Economic & Development Authority (NEDA) Cielito F Habito looked at the whole DA (14 June 2022, “Seven Deadly Sins,” Inquirer.net, opinion.inquirer.net); my selection:

Having studied the sector for decades, I had concluded long ago that what Philippine agriculture most critically needs is fundamental bureaucratic and institutional reform...

(3) inordinately focused on farm production and neglected the rest of the agricultural value chain for a holistic systems perspective; (4)… largely structured and organized according to commodities rather than according to key central functions it must fulfill…

NEDA say more? In the matter of improving PH Agriculture by first necessarily overhauling the DA and its 27 separate bodies to become an ACE multi-body body – My head says, “3 heads are better than 1!” BBM, CFH, WDD. Gentlemen, what we need is a newer new thinking about PH Agriculture. I repeat: “Agbiag ka!” Long live, BBM Sir!@517
(“Long Live” image from Fire Shop, firerecords.com)

“Agriculture Is Key” – World Bank. Why President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr As Interim Agriculture Secretary Should Encourage PH Media To Encourage Filipinos In Farming

“Philippines: Agriculture is key to faster recovery and poverty reduction” – World Bank (09 Sept 2020, worldbank.org). Inspired, here is my unsolicited advice to BBM: “Encourage PH mass media to mediate for Agriculture for the country’s progress!”

Bad news. It takes a financial company in the City of Makati to remind us to be busily engaged “in nation building & making the Philippine economy competitive and resilient.” Our own mass media shun such news and views!
(“Social media” image from iNigerian, inigerian.com)

About 8 AM Saturday, 25 June 2022, I browsed Facebook thoroughly for links to PH mass media in pursuit of progress. I found only 3 media posting, and niggardly on national development:

Esquire Money
Quoting Benigno S Aquino III:
“All I can say is at the end of the day, when I go home and I’m about to sleep, if I look at myself in the mirror, I can honestly say that I did my all on that particular day. And each and every day, that is the mantra.”

(I hope my ascendant President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr can likewise behave.)

Inquirer.net
15 sharings and only one entry (6) is for local development. (11) is American news, (15) is Japanese!

(1) South Korean company will produce tapioca starch in the Philippines…
(2) Philippine peso flirted [a] 55:$1 level…
(3) Palace fires a commissioner of CHEd …
(4) Truckers have asked their clients to pay an additional fixed cost of P5,000 per trip...
(5) “A simple, honest, self-effacing decent Filipino” … [Benigno Aquino III]
(6) DA's initiative to promote urban gardening …
(7) Filipino social customs and traditions...
(9) Today is 13th death anniversary of Michael Jackson…
(10) ING’s announcement… it was leaving retail banking …
(11) Project Rebound’s latest webinar…
(12) ING announced today it will leave….
(13) Supreme Court [affirms] decision upholding constitutionality of the law [on] party list groups.
(14) Playing minus two starters, Magnolia routs Phoenix
(15) City hopes that it will raise awareness [on] the forest…

ABS-CBN News
8 sharings and like the Inquirer is zero on improving communities!

(1) End of an era for the Philippine Stock Exchange…
(2) Pang-4 ang Pilipinas sa Southeast Asia na may pinakamataas na early birth rates…
(3) US Supreme Court [decides] to end the right to abortion…
(4) Sixteen-year-old Beaver Magtalas is making his acting debut…”
(5) Bago pa man ang nangyaring sunog sa M/V Mercraft 2…
(6) Ayon sa pulisya, maghahain sila ng arrest warrant…
(7) After about 8 hours or more grueling hours at work, commuters…
(8) “I just hope that Bongbong Marcos will be better than his father. Let’s wait and see,” pag-aasam ng isang Pinoy sa Ireland.

But all is not hopeless. Here is that Facebook image-post by DFNN (above):

DFNN will be a partner in nation-building and support the government in realizing its programs aimed at making the Philippine economy competitive and resilient.

“Agriculture is key.” BBM Sir, Jesus says, “Let those who have ears listen!”@517

BBM Sir, About The Negative Media, If You Want It Done Right, You Have To Do It Yourself! This Ilocano Recommends Setting Up A Media Group Called “Bloggers for Building Minds Media (BBM Media) – THiNK! Journalism For National Development

All over Facebook, the #1 website of Filipinos, media posts from the North (Ilocano) to lower Luzon (Bicolano) to the Visayas (Bisaya) to the South (Muslim), the news and views are mostly negative. I call it “Stink Journalism.” Mine is “THiNK! Journalism” – and here I volunteer from Asingan, Pangasinan, to help you, Sir Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr, to think development & act positively!

(Image sources: “CNN Live,” Yahoo!News, ph.news.yahoo.com); “Positive News,” Favpng, favpng.com)

My advice is to fund a new media group whose outputs will soar above Stink Journalism – I call it “THiNK! Journalism,” the concept & term which I invented myself blogging about it almost 5 years ago, on 24 Oct 2017 (“THiNK! Journalism: Calling For Nobler Kinds Of People In Media,” Creative Thinkering, creativethinkering.blogspot.com).

Now then, BBM Sir, I urge you not simply to call for nobler kinds of people in media but to form a media group yourself, bloggers et al, with strict instructions to be always creative and to always practice THiNK! Journalism. Which works like this:

True is it? If True,
Helpful is it? If Helpful,
Inspiring is it? If Inspiring,
Necessary is it? If Necessary,
Kind is it?
THiNK! Then go ahead with Your Journalism. expressing Your Patriotism.

I am calling your to-be-set-up group
“Bloggers for Building Minds” Media (BBM Media).

I am ready, willing and able to extend my skills in creative writing, editing, layouting, desktop publishing, up to the creation of the portable-document-format (pdf) pages – all digital. After me, you are ready to:

1.     Upload your text + visual output to the website, say, bbmmedia.com.

2.     Print commercial copies. All you need is a commercial printer, and BBM Media will purchase a print-on-demand printer, for instant hard copies in 5 minutes or so!

For BBM Media:
“The sky’s the limit – and your imagination is the sky!”
That quote is my original, 13 years old (see 07 April 2009, “BrainShopping. Now, You Can Forget About BrainStorming!” Frank A Hilario, frankahilario.blogspot.com).

With me as all-digital Editor In Chief for BBM Media, nobody will run out of new ideas; new stories! Unparalleled Creativity – How else could I, writer from home (WFH) have bloggedeveryday in the last 3 years, am now 81+?!

Special note: Frank A Hilario has a BS Agriculture degree from UP Los Baños, 1965. I have the sole distinction of being honored as “Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing” (2011), the first and the only one so far in the 100-year-plus history of UPLB.

BBM Media – Personally, you could initially fund it with P5 million: Central office, people, print-on-demand printer; journalists in digital offices (mostly WFH) – with personal computers, extension monitors, printers, supplies of ink and paper – including Internet setups.

BBM Media will come up with Positive News; it will “Change the news for good.” THiNK! Journalism will go for development of the islands from North to South. Let’s begin today!@517

BBM Sir, Considering Your P20/kg Rice – “The President Being The DA Chief Must Create A More Comprehensive Set Of Interventions” – Bonar Laureto, Consultant Deloitte PH. “First, Have A National Plan Before Those Interventions” – Frank A Hilario, Writer From Home (WFH)

Given “The Marcos Formula” as reproduced above by Inquirer.net accurately states what BBM Sir you want done, in fact, you are dictating the process, not working the magic out!

Bonar Laureto, a consultant of Deloitte PH for Sustainability and Enterprise Risk Management, among other things (linkedin.com), on Facebook 23 June 2022 writes on “The Marcos Formula” thus:

The pricing and local sourcing rates that we are seeing are outcomes of a confluence of factors in a complex system dynamics. Solutions must therefore be structural beyond what [are] currently identified by our President and DA chief.

“Confluence of factors in a complex system” – it’s not easy being a solver of national problems! To that I say, if you want to lower prices, do not look at prices only!

Local consumers prefer imported rice because of 1. Quality issues of local rice and 2. [Local rice] is more expensive.

Mr Laureto is talking about quality of local rice being sold in the market, not the rice being harvested. Millers and sellers “tend to mix high-quality, high-price with low-quality, cheaper rice to [minimize] the price and maximize their margin….”

BBM Sir, please don’t overlook the merchants’ desire to sell more and gain more, even at the expense of the rice eaters!

“This is why I think the President being the DA chief must create a more comprehensive set of interventions, not just what is written [above].”

Sir, there is more to consider, says this agriculturist & writer from home (WFH)!

As PH President, you can simply dictate the price of rice, but you cannot simply dictate on the factors of production – and for that, I say you have to produce a “National BBM Plan For Rice” – “BBM” being “Broad, Budgeted Billions-Big, Managed Methodically.”

Thinking all that reminds me that current Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has a 3-year old national Bible for PH Agriculture – he came in with what he called “The New Thinking For Agriculture” (TNT for A) when he assumed the position of Secretary on 06 August 2019. In TNT for A, 8 crucial factors (Mr Dar called them “Paradigms”) are necessary to be considered:

(1) Modernization
(2) Industrialization
(3) Promotion of exports
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development
(6) Higher budget & investment
(7) Legislative support
(8) Roadmap development.

Considering all that TNT for A must consider, BBM Sir, to prolong the life of your P20/kg rice, the Department of Agriculture with all the agencies and offices under & attached to it – “One DA” – must modernize itself by restructuring nationally for PH Agriculture (and Fisheries) before further promoting industrialization and exports, consolidating small- and medium-sized farmers, developing infrastructure, receiving higher budgets and investments, supported by legislation, and building value-chain roadmaps. Whew!

Your P20/kg rice is difficult, but this WFH says it can be done, and maintained – with a dictatorial overhaul of One DA!@517

BBM Sir, As Interim Secretary Of Agriculture, You Could Learn From Abroad... President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Of Sri Lanka Miscalculated On His National Policy Of Imposing 100% Organic Agriculture And 0% Chemical Agriculture – Today, Sri Lanka Is A Total Disaster!

Bad news about organic farming? The New York Times said last December: “Sri Lanka’s Plunge Into Organic Farming Brings Disaster” (Aanya Wipulasena & Mujib Mashal, 07 Dec 2021, nytimes.com). National disaster!

Ted Nordhaus & Saloni Shah say, “In Sri Lanka, Organic Farming Went Catastrophically Wrong” (05 March 2022, Foreign Policy, foreignpolicy.com):

Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka called off an ill-conceived national experiment in organic agriculture this winter. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election campaign to transition the country’s farmers to organic agriculture… Last April, Rajapaksa’s government made good on that promise, imposing a nationwide ban on the importation and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and ordering the country’s 2 million farmers to go organic.

April 2021, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa declared the national policy of 0% chemical agriculture (CA) and 100% organic agriculture (OA). 1 year later, there is a national catastrophe!

So, what is the lesson from Sri Lanka?
Sudden Policy = Sudden Death!

Dhinesh Kallungalsays, “Lessons From Sri Lanka On Shift To Organic Farming” (The Hindu,thehindu.com): “… The ill-advised policy of switching to [100%] organic farming, shunning chemical fertilizers, has led to a steep fall in agricultural production and export earnings from tea in Sri Lanka.”

It’s not organic farming – it’s national policy declared without study!
(Milton Friedman quote from Pinterest, pinterest.ph)

Omair Ahmad says, “Sri Lanka’s Problems Are Anything But Organic” (22 April 2022, Science: The Wire, science.thewire.in):

The collapse of Sri Lanka’s economy had little to do with organic farming per se, and much more to do with the disastrous handling of its economy. … The banning of inorganic fertilizers, the reasons… and the way it was done [compose] a cautionary tale of how not to embark on a green transition.

So, BBM Sir, the Sri Lanka tragedy is a lesson from the very top! It is lack of study – be careful to declare any national policy in agriculture just like that!

Notwithstanding the bad news, while I respect current Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s“Balanced Fertilization” policy for Philippine farms, I am 0% CA and 100% OA – because organic agriculture is designed to solve at least 3 problems nationally:

1.     Food crisis

2.     Farmer poverty

3.     Climate change

(1)   Food crisis – You can grow any food crop using any OA method in any field, includingand especially bad soils, so there should be enough food for everyone.

(2)   Farmer poverty – Costs of OA are very much lower than CA, so returns are very much higher. Also, foods grown with OA are more healthy, and attract more buyers. Healthier foods, healthier returns.

(3)   Climate change – You will help solve climate change with OA because nogreenhouse gases are produced.

BBM Sir! With organic agriculture adopted with cautionary policy nationally, the Philippines will soon be The World Model on the Best Practices in Agriculture!@517

BBM Sir, As Interim Agriculture Secretary, I Hope You Will See That, Among Other Things, PH Agriculture Needs A Digital Library That Encourages Learning About Intelligent Farming To Fight Poverty Alongside Climate Change!

I am confident these wide-awake dreams will come true: (1) “P20/kg rice” and (2) “Ang Bagong BBM” (Ang Bagong Balangkas na Bibliya para sa Magsasaka”), or “The BBM Digital Library,” a cellphone-ready knowledge source for highschoolers to visit and draw inspiration and instructions from science publications.

Thank you Evelyn P Antonio for sharing this quote from an American hero of sociology, history, civil rights activism, and writing (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org): WEB Du Bois; I identify with his determination to fight for the “Prosperity Of A Nation,” even for his race, the American Black:

We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.

BBM Sir, as a BSA graduate major in Agricultural Education from UP Los Baños (1965), I am with you in agriculture even as I have been writing and fighting for our race, the Filipino people, blogging since 2000. I want you to know also that I am a self-taught blogger.

In 1975, non-digitally I began this fight when I was employed by the Forest Research Institute (FORI) – now the Ecosystems Research & Development Bureau (ERDB) – where I would become Founder & Editor in Chief of the 3 FORI publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat that I patterned after the American National Geographic.

In January 2000, I was engaged as WFH (Writer From Home) by the India-based International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT) that was then headed by now-PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. From Mr Dar, the hopeful slogan of ICRISAT was “Science with a human face.”

Along with Mr Dar, my desire is that, with science applied, the poor we shall not always have with us!

In 2011, I received from UPLB Alumni Association (UPLBAA) the “Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing.” I was the first to receive such award, and the only one up to now. I cannot thank Elpidio “Pids” L Rosario as UPLBAA head enough! Already, at that time, ICRISAT had published 3 of my science books; I cannot thank ICRISAT enough!

Why am I telling you all this? To help the Secretary of Agriculture fight poverty as well as climate change. Via an Agriculture Digital Library that needs to be set up. BBM, Sir, you could easily assign a multi-billion-peso budget to it!

“Ang Bagong BBM” is that new digital library, my suggestion to you, BBM Sir – but I must acknowledge an intellectual debt from the former Director General of ICRISAT, Mr Dar. He called the digital library “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture” (OpAPA); I borrowed from OpAPA, which I now call “Ang Bagong BBM” – to which everyone can share their intellectualizations.

So, BBM, Sir? When do we start building this new cellphone-ready knowledge library? Ready when you are!@517

BBM Sir: As Interim Agriculture Secretary, You Will Gain Inside Insights Who Should Be Your Trusted Head Of DA. He Would Be “The ACE” To Solve Farmer & Fisher Poverty & Fight Climate Change Based On Administrative & Collaborative Experiences (ACE Again) Here & Abroad!

About my blog-advice to PH Department of Agriculture (DA) to target your dream P20/kg rice via formulating the “Masagana 300” rice program targeting 300 cavans/ha using hybrid varieties, someone suggested the number 299 instead; I checked, and It does look more enticing!

A creative mind doesn’t simply reject a weird idea, and this is what I got (sunsigns.org):

Angel number 299 is a sign from the angels that represents adaptability and cooperation. … a message encouraging you to be more helpful and embrace your surroundings…

BBM Sir, in any case, let me introduce to you outgoing Secretary of Agriculture William Dar; I have known him since Jan 2000 when as a writer from home (WFH) I was engaged by the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) of which he was Director General (DG) up to Dec 2014; he is the kind of “ACE” we are looking for.

BBM Sir, for your P20/kg rice for the Filipinos, Mr Dar would have delivered! He is adaptable, cooperative and efficient (another ACE).
(Image source: top, “BBM” dailypedia, dailypedia.net; middle, “ACE” 123RF, 123rf.com; bottom, William Dar uplb.edu.ph)

Adaptability – Mr Dar graduated from Benguet State University, worked there and rose to Vice President; was founding Director of Bureau of Agricultural Research; Executive Director of PCARRD; Agriculture Secretary of President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, and DG of ICRISAT – if you are very rich in experience, you must be very adaptable to organizational complexities!

Cooperation – Mr Dar has been cultivating the virtues of clustering, consolidation & cooperativism among PH farmers. This is all part of his “The New Thinking For Agriculture,” the Bible for his secretaryship.

Efficiency – Mr Dar has been Founding Director of the BAR, Executive Director of PCARRD, DG of ICRISAT, Secretary of Agriculture 2x – we would have been insane to appoint him 5 times to different offices here and abroad had Mr Dar not been or not learned to be efficient!

Sir BBM, I say William Dar would be The ACE to convert to reality the dream of P20/kg rice! And I say, let it be via the new program of Masagana 299.

The target of 299 cavans/ha is quite attainable. (Curiously: You add the digits 2, 9 & 9, you get “20” – your magic number!)

Further: To bring about Masagana 299, I’m recommending organic agriculture (OA). OA is rich in Adaptability, Conspiration and Efficiency (another ACE):

Adaptability – OA is excellent for any soil, especially “bad” or “bad-behaving” soils –enriching them naturally.

Conspiration – OA brings about the conspiracy of dudes – microorganisms, macroorganisms, weeds, and a mixture of otherwise-to-be-disposed-of fallen leaves and all kinds of rotting matter.

Efficiency – OA gathers any number of disparate dead matters and actively attract living field micro- & macro-organisms to process matters into little mounds of big fertility!

Yes Sir, BBM, organic agriculture is The ACE for Our ACE!@517

“Star Treatment” Of William Dar, Secretary Of Agriculture: How Do I Rate Mr Dar’s Performance As “Father Of One DA” With Its Complicated Family Membership & Long History Of Starless Performance?

oday, Monday, 20 June 2022, I publicly announce my “Star Treatment” of the accomplishments, or lack thereof, of the complex Department of Agriculture (DA) & agencies under & attached to it (dubbed “One DA”) with the headship of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. Yesterday, “Father’s Day,” I was thinking of Mr Dar as “Father of One DA” – so, shall we love him or leave him!?

This essay is literally for star-gazing at the accomplishments of the complex of the agencies under PH DA under Mr Dar. The guide for my ratings:

1 Star – Running Along
2 Stars – Some Improvements Seen
3 Stars – Great Visibility
4 Stars – Beautiful Sights
5 Stars – Glory Be To The Father!
(Images: “One DA” from da.gov.ph; “5 Stars” from Alamy, alamy.com; 18 numbered images from da.gov.ph,

One DA’s star-way to heaven – or hell. From 1 Star to 5 Stars, how do I rate the performance of One DA in the last 35 months, from 05 August 2019, under Mr Dar?

What is initially much encouraging here is that with Mr Dar, the DA has designed previously what anybody can use to congratulate and/or criticize this bureaucratic behemoth – as I see it today, we can measure the performance of One DA using what Mr Dar brought in when he was appointed by PRRD as Secretary of Agriculture, what he called:

The New Thinking For Agriculture, with 8 Paradigms that contribute to it:

1.     Modernization

2.     Industrialization

3.     Promotion of export

4.     Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms

5.     Infrastructure development

6.     Higher budget & investment

7.     Legislative support

8.     Roadmap development

With that package, we can see that The New Thinking (TNT) is very broad, difficult to measure!

I am glad One DA has come up with what it now calls “One DA Reform Agenda” with “18 Key Strategies,” as follows (Department of Agriculture, da.gov.ph):

1.     Bayanihan Clusters

2.     Collective Action/Cooperatives Development

3.     Province-Led Agriculture & Fisheries Extension System

4.     Mobilization & Empowerment Of Partners

5.     Diversification

6.     Credit Support

7.     Technology & Innovation Including Digital Agriculture

8.     Farm Mechanization & Infrastructure Investments

9.     Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Measures

10. Food Safety & Regulations

11. Agri-Industrial Business Corridors

12. Global Trade, Export Development & Promotion

13. Post-Harvest, Processing, Logistics & Marketing Support

14. Agriculture Career System

15. Education & Training: Agribusiness Management

16. Youth && Women Engagement

17. Ease Of Doing Business & Transparent Procurement

18. Strategic Communications

Above, the 8 Paradigms are very broad, the 18 Strategies are more specific, which is one intelligent way to look at the DA if you want to rate it and not simply criticize DA with a single item or factor that you dislike!

Even as I have been reading about DA’ aims and accomplishments, I will use gut feel today for my Star Treatment of One DA!

My personal rating of One DA with Father William? 3&½ stars: “Great Visibility, A Few Beautiful Sights!”@517

 

2 Surprises For The Day: 1st, “Happy Father’s Day! Jose Rizal, Father Of PH Agribusiness” (1892). 2nd, “Happy Father’s Day! William Dar, Father of The New Thinking For Agriculture” (2019)

Today, Sunday, 19 June 2022, I greet our National Hero: “Happy Father’s Day, Jose Rizal!” I see him as the “Father of PH Agribusiness” – doing excellent farming & business in Mindanao 130 years ago.

Rizal was exiled to Dapitan in July 1892 (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org). Rohaiza Vejano says (15 Feb 2019, “Jose Rizal As A Businessman, Prezl, prezi.com):

Rizal engaged in business. In partnership with Ramon Carreon, a Dapitan merchant, he made profitable business ventures in fishing, copra, and hemp industries. He invited his relatives to come to Mindanao, for there “is vast and ample field of business” in the island. He particularly told Saturnina that in Dapitan she could profitably engage in the textile, jewelry, and hemp business.

Rizal wrote to his Austrian friend Ferdinand Blumentritt about his life in Dapitan; here is from a letter quoted by Gerardo P Sicat (23 June 2021, “Rizal’s Entrepreneurial Life As Exile In Dapitan,” PhilStar Global, philstar.com):

To… help the local people here a little, I have turned merchant. I buy hemp and ship it to Manila. I was lucky this month; I made $200 at one blow….

This same Father’s Day, I also greet the current PH Secretary of Agriculture: “Happy Father’s Day! William Dar, Father of ‘The New Thinking For Agriculture’ of the Philippines.”

Never in the history of the Philippines did any Secretary of Agriculture come up with such a believing, thinking & acting Bible as Mr Dar. The New Thinking (TNT) was packaged with “8 paradigms” – Explosive! A paradigm is “a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline” (American Heritage Dictionary, thefreedictionary.com); “a standard, perspective, or set of ideas” (Vocabulary.com, vocabulary.com).

On 13 June 2019, in his Manila Times column (manilatimes.net), where he first announced TNT, he said (with my paragraphing for emphasis):

I have conceptualized eight paradigms to level up the country’s agriculture sector:
modernization must continue;
industrialization of agriculture is key;
promotion of exports is a necessity;
consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms;
roadmap development would be crucial;
infrastructure development would be critical;
higher budget and investment for Philippine agriculture (are required); and
legislative support is needed.

I say: “Mr Dar’s TNT was/is intellectual dynamite!”

But it was/is dynamite only to those minds who were/are paying intellectual attention as to how to bring PH Agriculture from Z to A, from dead last (kulelat) to #1.

To Mr Dar, it was/is going to help him repeat what he had masterminded years earlier: as Director General, he brought the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) fromdead last to #1 among 15 international agricultural research agencies in the CGIAR group, which include/d IRRI.

Except that one man and one mind cannot do it alone. This TNT must be shared in belief, thought and action in order to bring the Philippines from Zapped to A1!@517