PH PNA, Did You Know That Your Greatest Challenge Is A Stone’s Throw Away From You? DA!

According to itself, the Philippine News Agency, PNA, is the official news agency of the Philippine government[1]. PNA celebrates March its 47^th year of founding by President Ferdinand “FM” Marcos on 01 March 1973. Severino Samonte shares on Facebook the link to the article by PNA journalist Lade Jean Kabagani 03 March 2020, “Bigger, Bolder Reforms For PNA As It Turns 47[2],” also sharing that he, Mr Samonte, “helped put into the cradle upon its birth… in one of the second floor rooms of the National Press Club of the Philippines in Intramuros, Manila.” Thanks, Mr Samonte. 

Today, as it describes itself, PNA is “a web-based newswire service of the Philippine government[3]” under the supervision of the News and Information Bureau of the Presidential Communications Office. Yes, Ms Lade says, “(PNA) has vowed to sustain reforms to ensure the delivery of timely and accurate information to the public.” She also says PNA Executive Editor Luis Morente says:

The agency will continue to improve its newswriting standards and expand its network to provide objective, balanced and relevant news to Filipinos. We want the public to read stories that matter to them, stories that are up-to-date and we will continue coming up with feature articles that inspire change for our countrymen.

As a self-styled & self-taught PH science journalist in the last 45 years, I see in those words of Mr Morente much promise.

But what Mr Morente is talking about is nota big-enough challenge. The PNA’s biggest challenge is a stone’s throw away from where he sits!

The PNA headquarters is on the 2^nd floor of the Philippine Information Agency building along Visayas Avenue in Quezon City. At the corner of Visayas Avenue and Elliptical Road sits the headquarters of the Department of Agriculture, DA, and:

Agriculture is the biggest journalist’s story in the Philippines today!

I already said that last month as much – See my earlier essay, “Agriculture Today Is The Biggest Media Challenge – How Can Journalists Cultivate Fertile Minds?[4]” (27 February 2020, The Wizard Of Os). Now then, PNA would be doing its biggest service to the nation if Executive Editor Luis Morente talked with Secretary of Agriculture/DA Chief William Dar/Manong Willie about how PNA online can help DA on the field promote Philippine agriculture so that, ultimately, Gross Domestic Prosperity, GDP², will result from vigorous national growth in farms and fields so that farmers will liberate themselves from poverty and stay out there!

Helping not simply reduce but eliminate entirely poverty among farmers would be the Biggest, Boldest Reform for PNA ever!

Prosperity must be shared by the poor, or it is not gross prosperity at all, only gross!

(I suggest PNA should now be brainstorming about all this. If they have no idea, they can invite me for a free half-day journalists’ public brainstorming session. frankahilario@gmail.com)

Yes. Then, Mr Samonte, you and I can look eagerly forward to the Golden Anniversary of the PNA on 01 March 2023!@517

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_News_Agency

[2] https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1095347?fbclid=IwAR2zHd-eDVz81Wyh1zbnGIPmF3b18cDTR4lO4W0s1YWbu4mFZechIJejQCA

[3] https://www.pna.gov.ph/

[4] https://ithewizardofos.blogspot.com/2020/02/agriculture-today-is-biggest-media.html

How Impactful Has The UP College Of Agriculture Been In Its 111 Years?

To the above Question, if you don’t have an Answer, that’s the Answer!

Shared on Facebook, the press release from the PH Department of Agriculture, DA, was titled, “Dar Calls For Impactful Researches.” Above is Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie calling on the academic staff of UPLB celebrating 111 years of the College of Agriculture, UPCA, now UP Los Baños, to:

“Deliver results, not only research outputs.”

Research outputs. On Tuesday, 03 March 2020, at the opening exercises at the Seniors Social Garden Hall celebrating the birth of UPCA, Manong Willie advised academics of UPLB – himself being an alumnus, having obtained his PhD in Horticulture in 1980 – to “change their mindset and start focusing on developing impactful researches.” I writer will note here that he was talking to an old/new College of Agriculture & Food Science, CAFS, of UPLB. Mr Dar said:

You should not only be happy with the number of researches you have published but see to it that the research will have an impact on the lives of farmers and fisherfolk.

You do research for your degree, your office – but most of all you must do it for your country. Just the other week, the entire UP System was celebrating that it rose 17 ranks higher than in 2019 in the Times Higher Education, THE, list of academes in developing countries – but the THE ranking does not include a criterion on institutional impact(s) on the people’s lives in that country. (impact image from Aspire![1])

The THE ranking impacts on academic achievements, not people prosperity!

“Genius is in the idea. Impact, however, comes from action.” Simon Sinek.

“Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people.” Dave Willis.

“The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.” Tony Robbins.

In his keynote speech at the 111^th anniversary, Mr Dar announced that the DA, through its research arm the Bureau of Agricultural Research, BAR, will provide additional research funding support to UPLB amounting to P485 Million starting this year. As of late, the BAR has released P388 Million for an ongoing UPLB project; the DA did not specify it, my guess is that it’s the “University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Special Economic Zone (SEZ) – Agro-Industrial and Information Technology Park.”

More about funding: The University itself has received about P2.4 Billion (B) in research grants, in support of 700 projects, from 2000 to 2019. Now, I writer, an alumnus of UPLB myself, and a wide reader, have yet to come across a UPLB project that has impacted the lives of a thousand, if not a million Filipino farm families!

Impact, where are you?!

Specifically, Mr Dar pleaded for UPLB to help “in resolving various issues faced by the department such as the African Swine Fever, Fall Army Worm, and upscaling the coconut industry.” He also enjoined UPLB “to align their research programs with the eight paradigms of the ‘New Thinking for Agriculture’” he has been espousing since Day One of his secretaryship.

UPLB? Think!@517

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[1] https://www.aspire.org/2019/08/29/the-impact-we-have-upon-others/

Is William Dar Sleeping On The Job, Or BusinessMirror Sleeping With The Mouse?

Here is a leading question:

“What is an Editor In Chief supposed to do when he notices that the Editor In Chief of a significant national media in the Philippines states categorically in its Editorial what shouldbe done with what it perceives the Secretary of Agriculture has not done – and he knows the other is in error?”

I have been Editor In Chief of several publications in both public & private universes in the last 45 years, but I never thought I would have to remind another Editor In Chief, well, to please verify first before you vilify; please confirm with your mouse before you condemn with your mouth!

It’s in agriculture, and I am an agriculturist; it’s updating others before updating oneself, and I am always surfing the World Wide Web – mixed metaphors notwithstanding. Before you tell people to update themselves, go update yourself, yourself!

The BusinessMirrorhas just come out with The Editorial“Adding Value To PHL Farm Produce[1]” 04 March 2020, in which it says in the beginning and end of it:

BusinessMirror’s Introduction:
The Philippines continues to rely on a few commodities to boost receipts from agricultural exports. The latest data on agricultural exports from the Philippine Statistics Authority would attest to this. Of the total agro-based exports last year, bananas and coconut oil remained as major sources of receipts.

If the PSA says so, it must be so. I have no reason to doubt the data from PSA. Liars will figure, but figures don’t lie.

BusinessMirror’s Conclusion:
It is time for the government to seriously consider tapping the exports market for agro-based products if it wants to hit its target of reducing poverty rate to 14 percent by 2022. The Philippines wasted a lot of time in the past, but it is not yet too late. Recent initiatives, such as the enactment of the Innovation Act (Republic Act 11337) will help pave the way for the development of new agro-based products that the country can offer to the world.

BusinessMirror saying, “It is time for government to seriously consider…” means it knows that Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has not seriously considered “tapping the exports market for agro-based products.” That my dear Editor In Chief, is seriously wrong. That is why I reproduced above the image of “The Eight Paradigms” that enumerates the requirements for the Secretary of Agriculture’s “New Thinking for Agriculture,” that which he publicly announced at least 7 months ago yet (see tablet above), where #3 says, “Promotion of export is a necessity.”

BusinessMirror’s editorial was based on a 10-year old sort-of-manifesto titled “Solving Rural Poverty” submitted to that newspaper by Pacific Center for Food and Agri Business Executive Director Rolando T Dy, with him lately reminding people that “the Philippines continues to rely on a few commodities to boost receipts from agricultural exports.” So, following Mr Dy’s lead, BusinessMirror called the attention of government that the Philippines was not promoting agricultural exports enough.

Enough! Error happens when you’re not looking enough.@517

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[1] https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/03/04/adding-value-to-phl-farm-produce/?fbclid=IwAR0vvEKXDhE1zD1mFiE9Qy1cL4Ug6OI1YSh-8Le97gyjGbNc1dYWSvCs3MU

For PH SCUs To Teach Youth Sustainability In Agriculture, Teach Entrepreneurship Like So!

I Asian teacher am a little bit bewildered by the would-be sustainability lesson from Brajesh Panth, Chief of the ADB Education Sector Group, titled “3 Ways Asia Can Inspire Learning Through Skills, Tech[1],” link shared on Facebook 24 February 2020 by Shahia Salah. Although this is a 1-year old article and problematic, its content is relevant today – we need more inspiration and instructions for PH youth in Agriculture. 

So, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has eyes on Schools, Colleges & Universities, SCUs, teaching the youth entrepreneurship in agriculture. So, the SCUs must improve their education systems like Mr Panth is talking about:

Education Systems should focus on preparing human resources that are resilient, enduring, and continuously trainable, anchored on a mindset of entrepreneurship, innovativeness, creativity and sustainability.

Impressive. But, Mr Panth, that is much too much to ask!

Mr Panth, you mention entrepreneurship, innovativeness, creativity and sustainability in one breath as mind goals for graduates, and I cannot swallow that hook, line & sinker. In fishing, we have to be careful with our baits.

You’re talking essentially about education for college students, and you want their curriculums, whatever their fields, to instill in those heads the single mindset that equals:

A complex being who thinks like a businessman who at the same time thinks like an artist who at the same time thinks like an inventor who at the same time thinks like a manager intent on sustainability!

We are in The Digital Age, a magical age, but I do not believe that Big Minds working on Big Data can churn out a robot resembling a graduate with such complex of thinking!

Instead, let me restate and simplify your paragraph list:

Education systems should cultivate any of these learners’ attributes: Entrepreneurship (being business-minded), Innovativeness (being original), Creativity (solving problems or discovering potentials) – always on top of Sustainability of Resources.

As much as possible. To be an entrepreneur, you need to be innovative and creative, given that whatever you come up with must be sustainable, that is: technically feasible, economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable. No Sir, modern entrepreneurship is not that simple.

Mr Panth, yes:

Countries in the region can benefit tremendously from leveraging technology to inform education and job training.

So much technologies for teaching! But how to teach via online and offline is the crux of the matter.

Now, as a teacher and a self-styled digital science writer, editor, desktop publisher and proselytizer, I hereby say I do not see this that you see:

The technological revolution has brought tremendous opportunities, but also fears in the developing world that it will displace human workers with automation and artificial intelligence (AI).

Mr Panth, you have been reading too much commentaries! My argument against AI taking over the world borrows from you:

Robots can never be programmed to learn, much less master, entrepreneurship, innovativeness, creativity and sustainability.

Forget the robots, but not sustainability. In agriculture & related fields, it is in the youth that our SCUs must cultivate our hopes!@517

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[1] https://blogs.adb.org/blog/3-ways-asia-can-inspire-learning-through-skills-tech?fbclid=IwAR2NDd1izraWEpLA-g-vvdnBrGZxjd16GpulqOJq3jfThrTN1pttJz9HzNQ

UP Ranks #70 In Latest THE University Rankings – Shame On UP Beloved!

This is an alumnus speaking, 1965. 

On Facebook, above, Buhay Students has an ad congratulating UP Beloved because the “University of the Philippines moves 17 notches in 2020 Emerging Economic University Rankings,” from #87 in 2019 to #70 in 2020.

Ha ha.

Not so fast! The ranker is the London-based publication, Times Higher Education, THE. If you read the 19 February 2020 Manila Bulletin article on the topic[1], by Noreen Jazul, down to the last 2 paragraphs, you will unhappily note that THE lists 4 Asian universities in the Top 4, and they are all in Mainland China! The Chinese are better at teaching in the university than the Filipinos – and in English at that?! Shame on us Filipinos!

Compared to #1 Tsinghua University, #2 Peking University, #3 Zhejiang University, and #4 University of Science and Technology of China, my alma mater UP Beloved has been teaching in English more than 100 years; I am sure we are much, much better handlers of English than the Chinese – when we put our hearts to it. But we don’t! And so English essentially becomes the enemy of the Filipino people.

We are proud that UP Beloved ranks 66 universities awayfrom the Top 4?! Shame on us!

The rankings were based on 5 criteria: “Teaching (the learning environment); Research (volume, income and reputation); Citations (research influence); International outlook (staff, students and research); and Industry income (knowledge transfer).”

Which tells me UP Beloved is average in teaching, medium in research, hohum in paper citations, also-ran in “international outlook,” and mediocre in knowledge transfer.

I cannot accept such ranking! But I can explain it.

You see, UP Beloved is supposed to teach in English, but what happens in the classroom is teaching in Tagalog mixed with English, Taglish – the teachers are happy, the students are happy because they are showing that they are nationalistic. But the:

Learning suffers.
Research suffers.
Writing of technical papers suffers.
Publishing suffers.
Knowledge transfer suffers.

Nationalism is proper – but not when we equate it with speaking the national language so-called Filipino, which is essentially Tagalog. I am an Ilocano; my wife is a Tagala; I have nothing against Tagalog, but don’t use it to teach non-Filipino subjects, for God’s sake!

Years ago, I was looking for my daughter Graciela and I found her attending a class in Humanities. And the language being used was? Taglish!

Your Learning Environment is Taglish – what do you expect students to learn? When you teach a language in another language, your own trains of thoughts and those of your students become chaotic. You are intelligent but teaching confusion!

Your Research depends on Nationalism, not people's needs in terms of Development. People can neither eat Nationalism nor escape poverty by it.

Your Citations depends on publications based on Research. Nationalism cannot help write technical papers from research. Neither can Nationalism desktop-publish technical journals.

Your International Outlook suffers. Your Knowledge Transfer suffers. And yet you rejoice that UP Beloved is #70 in the University rankings!

Wake up, UP Beloved!@517

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[1] https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/02/19/up-moves-17-notches-in-2020-emerging-economic-university-rankings/?fbclid=IwAR2qC4olRJZsEAs5hXlpIVE-O3cxYhk2yFpswJxjbdq3ZDGbQ3eO1GSDX8M

Tony’s Complaint & Frank H’s Salve – DevCom Special!

For the new PH Agriculture, where is DevCom when you need it most!?

Here is Antonio G Moran’s Complaint:

I wonder why no one inspired by Nora C Quebral and Juan F Jamias in the 70s seems to care.

Me, I have not seen much DevCom writing since Miss Nora invented Development Communication, DevCom, at UP Los Baños in the early 70s; Mr Jamias was a pioneer in agricultural journalism[1], which was reinvented into DevCom. Both have largely been forgotten, as far as I know, and I have been in and out of UP Los Baños since I was Freshman in 1959. I commiserate with Antonio G Moran!

In 1969, Portnoy’s Complaint was a public demonstration of repressed sexuality as Philip Roth dared write it[2]; in 2020, Tony’s Complaint above is a public confession of unexpressed textuality in DevCom – nobody is using DevCom to advance village development at the very least!

I’m not surprised. The problem with DevCom is DevCom!

As designed, DevCom is pro-choice.
You want Communication? Choose X.
You want Development? Choose Y.

No, the founders & followers of DevCom did not realize that it was pro-choice – just like Women’s Lib. “Do you want your Freedom?  Choose your Body. Do you want your Family? Choose your Baby. – Let Go or Let Live!” You are free to choose! (image of superimposed X and “Y” from Adobe Stock[3])

Unfortunately, in the almost 50 years of DevCom, the choice has always been the Body, X, not the Baby, Y. ComDev has essentially been Communication over Development.

Why? Sinless, DevCom founders chose to support much Communication, and less Development – without realizing it.

I know. I was in and out of UP Los Baños in the early 1970s when DevCom was aborning. Innocently, DevComers chose the Body; frankly, I chose the Baby.

From 1975 to 1981, as Chief Information Officer of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, based at the campus of UP Los Baños, I fathered FORI’s 3 publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly popular color magazine Habitat. Those 3 made FORI locally & internationally popular. I with my Communication went after Development.

I wrote and published a technical paper in Sylvatrop propounding my theory of Communication forDevelopment, ComDev. Deliberately ComDev vs DevCom. Yes, ComDev emphasizes Development; DevCom emphasizes Communication – in DevCom, Communication support for Development is deliberately a choice, not commandment.

Tony’s Lament above can be explained by Communication being relatively easy with Development being relatively hard. You choose between Expression and Exertion – you have to exert extra efforts dedicated to Development of any dimension in order to write. No, they did not teach you that in college.

Here is another of Tony’s Facebook sharing:

Tom Wolfe: "You can't come home again." Why? Because those places have changed, I have changed, and there are a thousand points of friendly lights elsewhere.

To help cultivate the new PH Agriculture, what DevComers can do is come up with DevCom Special – show everybody a thousand points of friendly lights of development everywhere!@517

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[1] http://commmedia.aijc.com.ph/comm_media/media_museum/comm_educ_jamias.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portnoy%27s_Complaint

[3] https://stock.adobe.com/ph/images/yes-and-no-vector-set-square-frames-isolated-grunge-graffiti-check-quizz-voting-symbol-design-ink-rejection-and-acceptance-query-choice-icons-yes-and-no-tick-and-cross-symbolic-marks/182189057

Farmer’s Choice: Not Robots, We Must Train Farmers To Think For Themselves!

Time to revolutionize PH Rice Cultivation! Starting with the planting.

Actually, already in 2015, or 5 years ago, with UPLB Professor Rene Rafael C Espino as Project Leader, our Los Baños graduates group revolutionized the growing of rice by lecturing to agrarian farmers in Pangasinan and La Union who were under the supervision of the Department of Agrarian Reform, via the project Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity & Economic Support Services, ARCCESS – reflected in the above paradigm-changing technoguide.This was outside the ageing formula of farmer education by either the Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice, or the International Rice Research Institute, IRRI. Neither PhilRice nor IRRI had an analogous technoguide, nor today. Our group was under UMIC International based in Pasig City; everyone in our consultants' team contributed to the volume. It was my idea, and I composed it, desktop-published it into a printable portable document format, pdf, or soft copy, a total of 74 single-spaced pages 8.5 in X 10 in, trim size. Not complete by all means, but you get the idea.

Unassuming, the image above is the title page, with part of the ricefield shown in the lower half. (The photograph is probably mine, shot in San Fernando City, La Union.)

The radical idea was Farmer's Choice – as you can catch a glimpse in the image below that is part of the Table of Contents. It is revolutionary, entirely new – not found in the available literature, technical or popular. You start a revolution with an idea.

Obviously, today the farmer has a choice between planting a hybrid and an inbred rice variety. But does he know why, and not simply that it was decided for him by a technician? You must assume farmers are intelligent and can make informed choices.

Thus: In land preparation, our ARCCESS guidebook points out a choice between minimum and maximum tillage, which he is familiar with. Minimum tillage is nottheoretical because direct seeding is a form of minimum tillage, and some farmers practice it. Also, direct seeding, which is getting popular, is used in the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, which Iloilo farmers have practiced in the last 6 years and found sustainable.

Even in transplanting, the farmer has options. For instance, SRI calls for 2-week old seedlings to be transplanted. The usual age of transplanted rice seedlings in the Philippines is 30 days, with full roots, which suffer transplanting shock – we do not make farmers realize that!

There is also the option of transplanting in squares say 20 cm by 20 cm, or by guesswork –seedlings stuck into soil come what may, in zigzag lines, which prevents maximum growth of the hill of rice. There is also the fact that in each hill, transplanters press in 2 or more seedlings, which then compete against each other for nutrients.

(About the language used, that’s another story!)

With our UMIC technoguide in mind, farmers should thank us UPLB agriculture graduates for teaching them that they have options on how to begin to grow their rice better than before!@517