The Rise & Fall Of Rice In Asia – What IRRI Failed To See Beyond The Rich Ricefields

 

Today, early morning of Sunday, 06 September 2020, I see on Facebook the stark sign above, “GO” where the small sign “IRRI” is pasted. Then “GO” plays out:

Going Further.
Going Places.
Going Strong.
Going Beyond Rice.

Nice!

Actually, the last entry is not correct. IRRI has never gone beyond rice.

I know. I was Freshman at the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, in 1959; IRRI was born 1960, headquarters built within walking distance from the main campus. And from the time I graduated in 1965, I never really left UP Los Baños intellectually, only physically once in a while.

Just like UP Los Baños never left rice. And UPLB is 100 years old.

Just like IRRI never left rice. And IRRI is 60 years old.

Oh, I remember reading about rice-based farming systems being studied at IRRI. I was hopeful, because why should the future of Asians, the future of us Filipinos, be dependent on rice and mostly rice? (above image is my shot from atop the Sinapog Bridge of my hometown, Asingan, Pangasinan, 13 June 2019 at 05:51 AM)

Perhaps I would not have wondered if we were exporting rice – but we were importing! Only PH President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos seemed to care, but he went thataway.

There was this PalayamananProject – palay, rice; yaman, wealth; yamanan, source of wealth – a 1-ha model project of PhilRice. Here’s part of a report from RG Corales, LM Juliano, AOV Capistrano, HS Tobias, NV Dasalla, SD Cañete, MC Casimero and LS Sebastian (March 2005, “Palayamanan: A Rice-Based Farming Systems Model For Small-Scale Farmers[1],“ ResearchGate):

The Palayamanan model of diversified integrated rice-based farming system developed and established by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is composed of synergistically compatible farming ventures such as rice, onion, poultry, livestock, and aquaculture. The model farm has been established in six state colleges and universities and a research center in the country. The system employs practical, cost-saving and yield-enhancing management practices.

Why is no one talking about palayamanan nowadays? Where are those model farms? “Practical, cost-saving, and yield-enhancing…” Too much of a model, I would say. Too ideal.

Like I said, we Filipinos need more than rice. Must be rice-based farming systems. So, R&D people, why don’t we have thriving communities with combination of any of the following crops anywhere in the Philippines?

(1)   Beans
(2)   Bitter gourd
(3)   Cabbage
(4)   Cassava
(5)   Cauliflower
(6)   Chili
(7)   Corn
(8)   Cucumber
(9)   Eggplant
(10)  Garlic
(11)  Onion
(12)  Peanut
(13)  Potato
(14)  Squash
(15)  Sweet pepper
(16)  Sweet potato
(17)  Tomato

Special Mention – Rice-fish culture. My father used to dig a round hole at one corner of our ricefield as deep as a knee or deeper – and the fish, usually dalag, mudfish, that would grow unmolested deep in that hole and later, jumping, would land on our plates. Delicious!

In the meantime, IRRI is stuck there. Now, to where is IRRI:

Going further?
Going places?
Going strong?
Going beyond rice?@517

 

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[1]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265061838_palayamanan_a_rice-based_farming_systems_model_for_small-scale_farmers

How PH Can Produce Youth Agripreneurs In A Revolutionary Manner

Who invented college degrees?

From Bonar Laureto’s Facebook sharing, I learn, “Google Plans To Replace College Degree With 6-Month Certificates To Help People Develop Skills And Get High-Paying Jobs In Various Fields[1]!” The beautiful image of the elegant Google headquarters with rustic bicycles up front I am presenting above is from another report of the same news, this one by Steven Buchko (30 August 2020, The Money Time). (image of students chatting on lawn from MMSU online[2]).

The visual unintended Google lesson?
You can never run away from where you came from!

I mean, Google started with a new computer program, not a college degree.

Google has announced this week that they will start accepting Google Learning Certificates to replace college degrees. They are offering 6-month courses for future employees to train for jobs in a lot less time than it would take in college. Google Career Certificates will be (issued) by the company…

At that, I can see that Google is a slow learner!

Anyway, Google did notlearn from Steve Jobs. Without a college degree of any kind, he founded and made Apple Inc the most successful – wealthiest – company in the world all arising from the application of his genius. I am not saying those Google people are not geniuses, but they are afraid to use their genius – and fail.

But this time I am going to use the example of Google for the purpose of producing little local little geniuses in generating enterprises in agriculture. No, producing youth agripreneurs is not yet in the curricula of any of the Schools, Colleges & Universities, SCUs, in agriculture in the Philippines, and that is exactly why as a Civil Service Professional Teacher I am thinking agripreneurship among the youth sans college degree.

I’m thinking like this:

A Young Entrepreneurs In Agriculture Program, YEAP, will be formulated and funded by the Department of Agriculture, DA, for implementation in all the SCUs in the country. It is field experience-oriented, notdegree-oriented. The field exposure will be for 4 cropping seasons or 2 years. All the young trainees have to do is record what they do, see, hear and think.

The actual learning experience is a double-field exposure. Example:

SRI Hectare 1

From the technology of the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, 2 high school graduates will be assisted by an SCUs faculty in carrying out the steps of the technology package as well as recording every detail involved:

Seedbed preparation
Seed sowing
Seedling care
Transplanting at 2 weeks old
Square planting (1 seedling/hill), 25 cm x 25 cm.

The fertilizer used will be recorded: cost/unit, name, amount applied, frequency of application.

Usual Rice Hectare 2

The traditional way of planting rice will be followed, each step recorded.

That will be for the first season.

2^nd, 3^rd & 4^th Seasons.

Compute, compute, compute.

(Thus, I am sure that the introduction of SRI will revolutionize PH Agriculture!)

The young entrepreneurs of the YEAP will then be funded by the DA to become farmers on their own.@517

 

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[1]https://themoneytime.com/google-plans-to-replace-college-degree-with-6-month-certificates-to-help-people-develop-skills-and-get-high-paying-jobs-in-various-fields#:~:text=Industry%20%7C%20August%2030%2C%202020&text=Google%20has%20announced%20this%20week,it%20would%20take%20in%20college.

[2]https://www.mmsu.edu.ph/

No Longer Will The Coconut Industry Be Neglected – William Dar, Secretary Of Agriculture

 

In his latest Facebook post, Mr Dar shares 7 “R4D Strategies To Increase Farmer Productivity, Profitability And Sustainability.” He is the first Secretary of Agriculture whom I remember is worried about the lowland farmers as well as the coconut farmers. In the past many decades, hardly are the coco farmers mentioned in the news.

Here are the strategies in Mr Dar’s list:

(1)   Increase yields & productivity (on-farm and off-farm)

(2)   Reduce/optimize production costs

(3)   Reduce field losses

(4)   Reduce postharvest losses

(5)   Obtain a fair market price for his produce

(6)   Make project interventions socially acceptable

(7)   Make project interventions environmentally safe.

An actual news has been written, “Coconut Sector Interventions Set[1]” by Madeleine B Miraflor (18 February 2020, Manila Bulletin). Note that it is more than 6 months old, and Mr Dar’s Facebook sharing is only a day old. This tells me that he is reminding new Philippine Coconut Authority, PCA Administrator Benjamin R Madrigal of his (Mr Dar’s) February 2020 order “to immediately execute interventions in the coconut sector, which has been struggling from low prices and productivity over the past years.” Immediately, because the data from the United Coconut Association of the Philippines, UCAP, showed that we exported 127,049 metric tons of copra in December 2019, which was 26% lower than that in the previous year.

There are 3.5 million coconut farmers in the Philippines, with 25 million in/directly dependent on the coconut for livelihood[2] (PCA.gov.ph).

(Mr Dar) said that Madrigal must be able to lead the expansion of coconut production areas and replacement of senile and unproductive and damaged coconut trees with high-yielding varieties.

I have already written that PH coconuts are ancient, dating to the Spanish colonial times, awaiting extinction (see my essay, “PH Coconuts – The Hidden Enemy Is Not The Oil Palm But Extinction![3],“ 27 August 2020, BraveNewWorld.PH). All our coconut plantations need replanting.

This, according to (Mr Dar), could be done through the Accelerated Coconut Planting and Replanting through (the) Coconut Hybridization Project; the enhancement of farmers’ access to quality planting materials through the Seed Farm Development Project; and the formation of cooperative business units or enterprises to enable a higher level of coconut processing plants.

To be competitive with the rest of the world in coconut terms, the Philippines must hurry up its coconut planting and replanting. And this revival will be done by the Seed Farm Development Project distributing high-quality seed nuts to farmers as soon as possible. As I pointed out above, our coconuts are already centenarians, near extinction!

Mr Dar also mentions the “formation of cooperative business units or enterprises to enable a higher level of coconut processing plants.” Such as in producing high-quality desiccated coconut, as well as world-class virgin coconut oil, especially with its much-touted health benefits.

Before or in-between any coconut processing activity, with the coco coop in place, the farmers can be assisted in cash cropping to add much to their limited incomes.

No longer will the coconut be a poor man’s crop!@517

 

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[1]https://mb.com.ph/2020/02/18/coconut-sector-interventions-set/
[2]https://pca.gov.ph/index.php/10-news/234-coconut-major-export-crop-of-filipino-farmers
[3]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2020/08/ph-coconuts-hidden-enemy-is-not-oil.html

How PH Youths Can Become Literally & Figuratively The Hopes Of The Fatherland

Executive Director Cinderella Filipina Benitez-Jaro of the Commission on Higher Education, CHEd, has appointed SEARCA Director Glenn B Gregorio as Chair of the CHEd Technical Panel for Agriculture, TPA (Leander C Domingo, 20 August 2020, “CHEd Picks SEARCA Head For HEIs Agri Curriculum Reforms,” The Manila Times).

This is going to be Educational Reform from the Top.
And it is not going to be easy.

I’m very much interested because I am also an educator, and I can see that there is much that needs to be changed to improve higher education instruction – to meet the demands of the times.

As to the members of the TPA, the academe is represented by Candida Adalla and Domingo Angeles, 2 former Deans of the College of Agriculture, UPLB; and Danilo Abayon, former President of Aklan State University. The industry is represented by Nikole Ma Nimfa Alicer, farmer and founder of Kalipayan Farms. Aimee Lyn Dupo, Professor at the UPLB Institute of Biological Sciences, is technical evaluator.

Mr Gregorio (says) he welcomes the challenge to lead efforts in reforming the agriculture (curricula) in the country’s higher education institutions (HEIs) to make (each part) more relevant to the present and future job markets in the Philippines and abroad. (With a little editing)

Mr Gregorio elaborates:

As agriculture remains a major engine of economic development in most Southeast Asian countries, HEIs are in a strategic position to pursue projects and initiatives related to food and nutrition security and their agility in designing their curricular and extension programs to produce professionals who can actively (assist) in achieving food and nutrition security goals.

The speaker introduces a new term there: “extension programs.” In reforming the curricula of the HEIs, the Education Program must be reformed along with the Extension Program. Personally, what I have observed in my alma mater the University of the Philippines Los Baños, UPLB, is that there are hardly any extension programs – when in fact, UPLB is supposed to have a triad of functions:

Instruction,
Research, and
Extension.

Mr Gregorio’s appointment may be surprising to many, as SEARCA is Southeast Asia-wide while CHEd is only Philippine-wide – but that is exactly the beauty of it, as Mr Gregorio will look at Philippine education in terms of Southeast Asia. He has worked with IRRI and outside the Philippines; his perspective is wider and should be enriching.

The CHEd said it has appointed new technical panel members in the fields of public administration and agriculture to carry out the mandate of the Commission to harness the equal representation of the academe, government and industry in curriculum reform and ensure that academic programs produce the… manpower for local and international needs.

I note: “To harness the equal representation of the academe, government and industry” – this indicates to me that the new CHEd graduates may be valuable to the HEIs themselves, the government, or the industry. I therefore imagine the graduates to have a mindset of entrepreneurship. The way I see it is this:

The entrepreneurial youth are the hopes of the Fatherland!@517

 

Gentlemen & Ladies Of Congress, From Agriculture Come The Best Lives Of PH Farmers!

 

A crusading blogger for PH Agriculture 12 years before William Dar became Secretary of Agriculture last year, in this time of the pandemic, I have been saddened to read what Karl R Ocampo has written about the budget of the Department of Agriculture, DA, for 2021:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) saw its budget for 2021 slashed by 17 percent from the level this year despite calls from the President and select lawmakers to increase the funding for the sector, noting the significant role it could play in the economy’s recovery.

“Noting the significant role (agriculture) could play in the economy’s recovery.” In fact, it is more than Significant – it is Indispensable!

I say the above as a student of development. In history, it was agriculture in all its forms that created and cultivated communities that converted into civilizations. (Image of successful farmer from Tanibox[1])

Which came first: the Chicken or the Egg? The Egg – in this case, the Egg is Agriculture. The Hen is Economic Development.

Here is a sharing by Pragyandeep (“Role Of Agriculture In The Economic Development Of A Country[2],” Economics Discussion, undated):

The history of England is clear evidence that (the) Agricultural Revolution preceded the Industrial Revolution there. In (the USA) and Japan, also agricultural development has helped to a greater extent in the process of their industrialization. Similarly, various under-developed countries of the world engaged in the process of economic development have by now learnt the limitations of putting over-emphasis on industrialization as a means to attain higher per capita real income. “Thus industrial and agricultural developments are not alternatives but are complementary and are mutually supporting with respect to both inputs and outputs.

“The Agricultural Revolution preceded the Industrial Revolution” – food first before extra energy. Likewise in the USA and Japan. In other countries, they gave their industries more value than their agriculture – they failed in development. And why is that? From above, I quote Pragyandeep again:

Industrial and agricultural developments are not alternatives but are complementary and are mutually supporting with respect to both inputs and outputs.

Gentlemen and ladies of PH Congress, you have to equally support Industry and Agriculture – not one to the neglect of the other!

Circumstances change, but the need for billions more in the DA budget remains. Already, 4 years ago, on 11 April 2016, Mr Dar went on record as saying, “DA Budget Should Be Hiked To P300 B[3].”

This 2020, in a phone interview, Mr Dar said “they would continue to appeal to Congress for (an increase in) the agency’s budget allocation under the proposed national expenditure program.” DA’s budget proposal for 2021 is P240 billion.

Gentlemen & ladies of Congress, if you slash the Agriculture Budget by 17%, I say it is like slashing countryside development by 17% percent. You are going after Gross Domestic Product, GDP, the usual economic crap, instead of going after Gross Domestic Prosperity, GDP², the unusual development goal – the growth that even the poor farmers will enjoy!@517

 

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[1]https://www.tanibox.com/about/
[2]https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/economic-development/role-of-agriculture-in-the-economic-development-of-a-country/4652
[3]https://inanglupa.weebly.com/da-budget-should-be-hiked-to-p300-b-ndash-dar.html

Baguio Cabbage – The Market Must Come First Before Supply

My Story Begins where the Rappler Story Ends.

Benguet farmers have been reeling from low vegetable prices since January. The situation was worsened by lockdowns imposed amid the pandemic, giving rise to various initiatives to help the farmers.

That is Cordilleran journalist Frank Cimatu writing 22 August 2020 from Baguio City via Rappler.com– “New Marketing Strategy Needed? Cabbage Farmers In Benguet Reel From Low Prices[1].”

Mr Cimatu – When you already have the supply, it is too late to think of a marketing strategy! (image from pressfarm[2]).

“Low vegetable prices since January” – and it is now 8 months since. Cabbage can be grown from 3-4 months; that means that many more Benguet or nearby farmers planted much more cabbage seeds since January in the hope that they will benefit from the good prices from the cabbage heads that will form. The farmers were thinking plain and simple Grade School Arithmetic.

“Benguet farmers have been forced to sell their cabbage for as low as P3 per kilo because of a glut in supply.” Everyone had been thinking of the continuing demand and forgotten the supply that keeps adding and keeps driving out the demand. Farming is more than addition and subtraction.

If you have a bad business sense, that is what happens to your cabbage farming! It’s not the market that is bad – it’s the production!

(University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños – today, if late, why don’t UPLB professors teach supply & demand to farmers via webinars? Time and opportunities are no longer valid excuses for failing to do so.)

“New Marketing Strategy Needed?” asks Mr Cimatu. Too late the hero but yes.

And I see it right there, in the report of Mr Cimatu, although nobody at the Department of Agriculture, DA, has taken official action on it. Mr Cimatu suggests:

Marketing as “superfood”? Maybe the DA could change its tack and market cabbage by highlighting its health benefits amid personal safety concerns raised by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Cabbage as anti-covid.”
Yes, Mr Cimatu, I agree 100%!

Mr Cimatu says that in July, “European researchers made it to the headlines by comparing the coronavirus death rates and vegetable consumption preferences of European countries.”

According to the European study, cabbage and cucumber “reached statistical significance with the Covid-19 death rate per country.” In other words, the results were reliable:

For each g/day increase in consumption of head cabbage, the mortality risk for Covid-19 decreases by 13.6%. For each g/day increase in consumption of cucumber, the mortality risk decreases by 15.7%.

Father, Mother, eat your cabbage, your cucumber –
vegetables are good for you!

“Cabbage is known to be rich in Vitamin C, fiber, folate, potassium, magnesium, vitamins A and K. It also has antioxidants that help reduce inflammation.”

If they don’t want to be losers, in Benguet or anywhere else, marketing strategists should study their markets thoroughly and completely before telling farmers to produce something from their farms. In this case, the local government units should be able to help their constituents.@517

 

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[1]https://rappler.com/business/new-marketing-strategy-help-benguet-farmers-low-cabbage-price?
tm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0e-lCAiRXhIPmQmkPnVNsidbHNt20-7HQp0pRtbt7-8ApGYTcmRcOqKEY#Echobox=1598080823
[2]https://press.farm/most-effective-digital-marketing-strategies-for-startups/

For PH, UPLB – All You Need To Start A One-Man Digital Revolution, And I Already Showed You The Way, 17 Years Ago!

 

UPLB students want their new Chancellor to be student-issues relevant but not digitally relevant: What?!

See my essays in my blog BraveNewWorld.PH :
“Who Will Be The Chancellor Of The Brave New World Of UPLB[1]?”(08 August 2020)
“UPLB Students Living In The Past, Not In The Current Digital Present[2]!” (30 August 2020)

I know UPLB students are not bloggers; nobody has taught them blogging. Now the World’s #1 Blogger is telling them:

Blogging is the most powerful mass medium in the world today!

UPLB professors do not appreciate the power of the digital, so they have not taught their students anything digital. Well, I like to regard myself as an Ilocano original aboriginal, so I started teaching myself on Innocents Day 1985; why can’t other innocents teach themselves?

So the whole university is not digital, except in records. Which explains why UPLB students are barbarians when it comes to digital expressions, much less journalism.

Now, how do you explain the fact that an Ilocano from Asingan, Pangasinan, who graduated from UPLB in 1965, became the Editor in Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, in 2003, 38 years later – and brought its overall publication quality up to world standards in 2007; thus, the PJCS was accepted into the elite international journal list called ISI (now World of Science)?

I made that journal ISI within 3 years when I began and it was already late 3 years! Which means I worked double-time: I produced 6 issues a year when I was only supposed to produce 3 issues. That’s called Dedication – not to mention Dispatch.

I must tell you that the whole PJCS publishing work was a one-man job; I was all these:
Secretary
Copyreader/Proofreader
Desktop Publisher (format, layout etc)
Editor In Chief  

And it was all-digital!

The PJCS is owned by the Crop Science Society of the Philippines, Publisher, based at UPLB. The journal was already late by 3 years (9 issues) when I took over.

From 2001 to 2007, I was a One-Man Revolution in Technical Journal Publishing in the Philippines.

I made the PJCS up-to-date in 3 years, 2003-2006, then world-class (“ISI”) the next year, 2007. That must have been a world record. I was already 66 at that time. Where there is a will, there is a way!

How did I do it? I had taught myself. I began teaching myself digital in December 1985, Innocents Day. Then desktop publishing.

So, look at me now!

This is my challenge today to UPLB students:

Learn digital yourself.
Challenge yourself.
Be the best you can be!

Meanwhile, select your next Chancellor as the one who is digital: Patrick Alain T Azanza. Because today, if you want UP Los Baños to serve the people all over the Philippines equally and instantly, not to mention the students, you have to be digital.

My dear alma mater UP Los Baños, if you don’t go digital, why not? If not now, when?@517

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[1]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2020/08/who-will-be-chancellor-of-brave-new.html
[2]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2020/08/uplb-students-living-in-past-not-in.html