How Farmers Can Grow Miracle Rice II, Vendors Sell At P20/kg And Make Millions Filipinos Healthier & Farmers Happier!

"How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?” was one of the songs featured in the 1959 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, “The Sound Of Music.” When Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr was running for President, he promised a P20/kg rice. So, how do you solve a problem like a “P20/kg rice?”

(BBM with farmers from northluzon.politics.com.ph, prices from reuters.com)

Here comes columnist Segundo Eclar Romero who puts ““Two Questions For Marcos Jr” (25 Oct 2022, Inquirer,inqm.news):

Responding to gentle suggestions that he should appoint a full-time Agriculture Secretary, President Marcos Jr is adamant that he will hold on to the position, saying he is “still needed there.” … The problems in the agriculture sector are “so difficult that it will take a president to change and turn it around.”

“The problems in the agriculture sector are ‘so difficult that it will take a President to change and turn it around.” Yes! That is, if you don’t have a roadmap leading to P20/kg rice!

The President says that he will appoint a full-time Secretary when he has properly institutionalized the functions of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and he has completed the necessary structural changes.

For me an agriculturist (UP Los Baños ’65, 2.36 WA), I do not see the need for BBM to institutionalize the functions of the DA before  he comes up with a convincing Roadmap. Aha! says (aha.io):

A roadmap is a visualization of a strategic plan. … You need a bold vision for what you want to achieve and a solid plan for how you will turn your aspirations into reality.

Mr Romero says:

The President has been Agriculture Secretary for almost four months. In that period, there have been some revealing tests of his caliber as a leader and manager of the agricultural sector. His boast during the elections that he will bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo is now out of reach.

P20/kg rice is now “out of reach” – Not if you ask me! How do you solve a problem like a P20/kg rice? My answer – you don’t! First, change the question:

Instead ask, “How do you solve a problem like Farmer Poverty?”

My mathematical solution is to change all the givens: junk expensive chemical fertilizers, expensive chemical pesticides… etc.

Now then, the total cost of growing rice can be brought down to at least 57% of today’s total cost using fertilizers and pesticides. How? Instead of Chemical Agriculture (CA), our farmers practice Organic Agriculture (OA) so that the Total Cost of CA goes down to Zero –Net Savings go up to Returns! And rice becomes organic, healthier!

Yes, farmers can prepare their own organic fertilizers. (Ask me how the rotavator can be used to cultivate, create & circulate an organic mulch all over the field – a miracle!)

Farmers can then sell their rice at P15/kg farmgate and vendors can sell at P20/kg in markets. So, “How do you solve a problem like P20/kg?” is music to my ears!@517