Exporting Mature Coconuts, PH Lazy Juans Will Make China & Malaysia Very, Very Happy!

“MinDA Chief Seeks Lifting Of Ban On Mature Coconut Exports[1]” ANN says (Author Not Named, 04 September 2020, BusinessMirror.com), Facebook sharing by Nestor V Saludo today, 22 November 2020. Mindanao Development Authority, MinDA, Chief Manny Piñol is seeking the exemption of Mindanao from the effects of PD 1106, issued by President Ferdinand Marcos, FM, in 1985, which banned the export of mature and dehusked nuts. Mr Piñol wants PD 1106 to “be lifted to immediately help coconut farmers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic” for Mindanao farmers. Actually, in November 2018 yet, Secretary of Agriculture Manny Piñol already officially requested that such a ban be lifted.

Ah, Mr Piñol, my hero FM believed in simple economic wisdom:

If you sell your raw materials, you’re selling yourself cheap!
Because you are selling your would-be several products as only one cheap product!

If you do that, the Malaysians will love you; the Chinese will love you even more so! You are not competing with them – in fact, you are helping them commercially defeat you!

The best thing to do is to diversify your product line – and you cannot diversify if you are selling the raw material itself!

From the Philippine Coconut Authority, PCA, ANN writes, “Coconut Farmer Groups, Industry Stakeholders Oppose Calls To Allow Export Of Matured Coconuts[2]” (Author Not Named, PCA.gov.ph):

Coconut farmer groups from different parts of the country expressed their opposition against allowing the export of (mature) coconuts as it would result (in) the depletion of raw materials, processed and value-added coco products, loss of jobs, and closing of small to medium businesses.

If you don’t have raw materials, you don’t have processed products; if you don’t have products, you don’t have jobs – with both happening, small to medium businesses will close. Everybody loses!

ANN says:

Piñol said unless the ban is lifted, the country’s coconut farmers, who, he said, are reeling from effects of low copra prices due to the influx of other alternative cooking oils, would not be able to take advantage of the mature coconut market.

Contrariwise, ANN says the PCA has so far received letters, resolutions and manifestos from a total of 94 Small Coconut Farmers Organizations (SCFOs) from the many regions of the country, expressing their opposition to the proposal to export whole coconuts. Let us listen to one statement. Joel Naciongayo, Provincial SCFO Chair of the Province of Zamboanga del Sur composed of 19 municipal SCFOs, says:

What the coconut farmers need is a long-term remedy that will not harm the future of the coconut industry, especially in the province of Zamboanga del Sur. The exportation of (mature) nuts will also cause the depletion of raw materials especially for the banner products of the province which are coco coir, coco sugar and virgin coconut oil (VCO).

That from a Mindanao coconut farmer-leader: If you export your raw material of coconut nuts, you will have no coconut coir, no coconut sugar, and no virgin coconut oil.

In that case, you are committing coconut suicide!@517

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[1]https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/09/04/minda-chief-seeks-lifting-of-ban-on-mature-coconut-exports/

[2]https://pca.gov.ph/index.php/10-news/325-coconut-farmer-groups-industry-stakeholders-oppose-calls-to-allow-export-of-matured-coconuts

“Mr Asian Science Leader” He Is To Me

How many lifetimes has PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar lived so far? You don’t know but as of today, Mr Dar has received 3 lifetime awards in science leadership, that is, in 2010, 2014, and 2020.

I have been following Mr Dar’s career since January 2007, when he made me a work-from-home, WFH, international consultant of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, when he was Director General, 2000-2014.

3^rd Lifetime Achievement Award
Today, from a press release of the Department of Agriculture, DA, where he is Chief, I learned that Mr Dar received yesterday, 20 November 2020, the “Lifetime Excellence Award” given by the Asia Leaders Awards, ALA. According to its website (Asia Leaders Awards.asia), the ALA is meant[1]:

To acknowledge these leaders who are making a difference not only in their respective fields but also promoting the Philippines as the premier business hub in Asia and beyond.

Mr Dar is not a businessman but in advancing PH Agriculture like never before with his call for “The New Thinking for Agriculture,” he is indeed “promoting the Philippines as a business hub in Asia and beyond.” The news from the DA says this award was “in recognition of his over four decades of dedicated servant leadership to attain food security, both in the Philippines and in other parts of the world.” He inspires.

2^ndLifetime Achievement Award
Mr Dar’s 2^nd Lifetime Achievement Award was from the “7^thAgriculture Leadership Summit” held in India 27 September 2014 (“ICRISAT DG gets Lifetime Achievement Award At Agriculture Leadership Summit[2],” Ruralmarketing.in). It was he who brought ICRISAT from dead last to #1 among the 15 CGIAR international centers being its Team Captain & Servant Leader.

1^stLifetime Achievement Award
Mr Dar’s 1^st leadership award was the “PSAI Lifetime Achievement Award” from the PCARRD Scholars Association Inc, PSAI, given 09 November 2010[3] (ICRISAT Happenings, Icrisat.org). Mr Dar had been an innovative Executive Director of Philippine Council for Agriculture & Resources Research & Development, PCARRD.

More on the 3^rd Lifetime Achievement Award, more properly called “Lifetime Excellence Award” – According to the DA source, this was “in recognition of his over four decades of dedicated servant leadership.” I say that includes being Director of the Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Research, 1987-1994; Executive Director of PCARRD, 1994-1998; and earlier PH Secretary of Agriculture 1998-1999.

As head of ICRISAT, Mr Dar worked with this slogan: “Science with a human face.” His science leadership was dedicated to the poor from the start, as he comes from a poor family in Ilocos Sur. He is the epitome of a poor boy who made good in his country as well as abroad.

In his acceptance speech of the Asia Leaders Awards 2020, Mr Dar emphasized:

I’m very thankful for recognizing my efforts — and the collective achievements of the Department of Agriculture (DA) — thus far.

For all that, this WFH is saying, Mr Dar deserves the title “Mr Asian Science Leader.” There’s more to expect where it’s all coming from!@517

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[1]https://asialeadersawards.asia/about

[2]https://ruralmarketing.in/stories/icrisat-dg-gets-lifetime-achievement-award-at-agriculture-leadership-summit/

[3]http://www.icrisat.org/newsroom/latest-news/happenings/happenings1440.htm#9

Beautiful To Contemplate, Healthful To Consummate!

Question: Above, more than the flowers, what makes the scene beautiful? 
Answer: The clean, good-looking cabbage heads.

That is from a Facebook sharing of William Dar, PH Secretary of Agriculture. Get it?

That method of planting is what farmers and gardeners call interplanting, planting in-between rows. I’m an Agriculturist, but I’m not familiar with the flowers, so I cannot tell you the name – but I can tell you that the flowering plant is grown for a double purpose: one, for the passersby to admire; two, for the insects to appreciate, approach and eat! Cabbage heads safe.

That Facebook sharing is itself a Facebook sharing of Asuncion Soriano-Garcia titled, ““Pesticide-Free, No Cabbage Worms.”

Question: Why don’t we see perfect cabbage heads all the time?!
Answer: Our cabbage growers’ heads are not perfect!

They do not apply the science that is already there: Intercropping and/or Multiple Cropping. Instead of just one farm produce, two or more. And not only do you get more food from the same piece of land – you get healthier foods, and you get healthier incomes, because the people who know about pesticide residues will patronize your cabbage – your price!

In 1979, or 41 years ago, Lucio B Victor of UP Los Baños studied intercropping and succession cropping at UP Los Baños campus in Laguna, and at the Mountain State Agricultural College, MSAC in Benguet in both dry and wet seasons[1](Scinet.dost.gov.ph); it was his thesis. The thesis, “Multiple Cropping Compatibility Of Cabbage, Tomato, Bush Bean And Green Onion Grown In Two Locations And Seasons,” was conducted on combinations of the following crops grown in the same field: bush bean, cabbage, green onion, and tomato; and in both dry and wet seasons. The results of the research showed that the best combination was tomato plus cabbage, which yielded more than the other crop combinations, with peso values significant at 0.01 level of probability compared to either cabbage plus bush bean or cabbage plus green onion. Actually, you are already a winner if you don’t use any pesticide to defeat the worms!

In another and much later study[2], conducted in Ghana in 2007, E Asare-Bediako, AA Addo-Quaye & A Mohammed found that the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) of cabbage can be controlled, without pesticides, by intercropping with onion, pepper, and tomato. No spraying with chlorpyrifos!

The planting technique is also referred to as “trap cropping” whereby another crop is planted with the main crop to “protect” it from a certain pest or several pests (ANN, undated, “Trap Cropping[3],” Pan Germany, Oisat.org).

There are 2 types of trap cropping according to ANN: perimeter trap cropping (planted completely around the main crop), and row intercropping (the one you see above). If you are not yet convinced of the wisdom, remember the advantages of trap cropping include (a) preserving natural enemies of pests, (b) improving quality of produce, and (c) helping conserve soil and environment.

Did you notice: The trap crop is the one that actually fools the worms? Lesson in life: Some attractions may be traps in disguise!@517

 

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[1]http://scinet.dost.gov.ph/union/ShowSearchResult.php?s=2&f=&p=&x=&page=&sid=1&id=Multiple+cropping+compatibility+of+cabbage%2C+tomato%2C+bush+bean+and+green+onion+grown+in+two+locations+and+seasons.&Mtype=THESES

[2]https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ajft.2010.269.274

[3]http://www.oisat.org/control_methods/cultural__practices/trap_cropping.html

Here’s Rice Growing With Trees On Top Of Climate Change. I Have An Even Sweeter Idea!

Lower image: Flooding is so widespread and deep there are no signs of life. Dreadful!

From a Facebook sharing by PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, “Climate Change Bigger Threat Than Covid-19 – Red Cross[1]” (AFP, 18 November 2020, Manila Times), here is what Red Cross is saying:

The world should react with the same urgency to climate change as to the coronavirus crisis, the Red Cross said on Tuesday, warning that global warming poses a greater threat than the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Publicly, relief operations are underway; privately, donations in cash or kind are being sought for the residents of the provinces of Cagayan & Isabela in Northern Luzon.

From a Facebook sharing by Nestor V Saludo, I noted “Reforestation Thru Agroforestry” presented in a webinar on 24 October 2020 by Forester Romana Atienza Mauricio of the Ecosystem Research & Development Bureau, ERDB, which is under the Department of Environment & Natural Resources, DENR. So, thinking of ERDB & DENR and devastating floods from typhoons during the wet season, my recommendation is

Agriculture Thru Agroforestry!
Rice growing with trees.

Trees as companion, as protection from gusts of winds in a storm. Farmers will be harvesting rice and fruits.

I thought I Filipino was the first to think of rice growing in an agroforest setting but not so. Already, the FAO has published Agroforestry In Rice-Production Landscapes In Southeast Asia: A Practical Manual[2] (downloadable as pdf from FAO.org). It was published in 2004 by the World Agroforestry Centre, 106 pages.
(upper image of trees & rice from FAO manual)

There is still another beautiful option:
Instead of raising rice, raise canes!
Instead of rice & trees, plant sweet sorghum.

Why, you ask. Because, I say: Sugar is sweet – sweet sorghum is sweeter!

In fact, I wrote about this crop some 13 years ago; see my “ICRISAT & The Profits Of Boom. Sorgo: A Rich Man’s Choice Of A Poor Man’s Crop,” (05 May 2007, iCRiSAT Watch, Blogspot.com). ­­There I wrote about the:

(1)Environmental profits – Sweet sorghum thrives even on poor soil.

(2)Financial profits – Farmers can grow sweet sorghum well without fertilizer and pesticide.

(3)Employment profits – For farm hands and landowner if there is a distillery to buy the canes for biofuel.

(4)Multiplier profits – Earnings from sweet sorghum grains, jaggery (unrefined sugar), canes for cattle, syrup.

I visited Antonio Arcangel, head of Bapamin Farmer’s Cooperative, in March 2012 in his farm in Batac, Ilocos Norte and saw that they were already producing 10 products from sweet sorghum: cookies, flour, juice, liniment, shower gel, soap, sweetener, syrup, vinegar, and wine. How good are the products? Example: My Ilocano taste of the vinegar said, “Excellent!”

Why sweet sorghum vs climate change? It’s flood tolerant. Mr Arcangel said the stalks would set themselves upright after a flood, which rice cannot hope to execute!

But if you insist on rice agroforestry, at least it’s 2 birds with 1 stone: Adapting to climate change, as well as mitigating its ill-effects.@517

 

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/11/18/news/top-stories/climate-change-bigger-threat-than-covid-19-red-cross/797996/

[2]http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7137e.pdf

Genius Mind-Play. The ABZ Of Creative Thinking

Childish, right? Playful. Exactly! That’s why it’s the best way to think of something new, or think out of something bothering you! For good.

The genius behind? American psychologist Carol Dweck, popularized in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. “In recent years, many schools and educators have started using Dweck's theories to inform how they teach students” (ANN, 29 August 2013, “Growth Mindset[1],” Great Schools Partnership).

Ah, but the moment I saw the Facebook sharing by Lina Concepcion Luna Ilag today, Wednesday, 18 November 2020, immediately, to teach everyone I reinvented the name to this:

Genius Mind-Play: The ABZ Of Creative Thinking.

Now then, whoever you are, simply browse the ABZ entries first and you will profit just by reading!

Attitude & effort determine how much I learn.
I can Be Brave & step out of my comfort zone.
Challenges help me grow.
I’ll try a Different strategy.
Effort makes me stronger.
I can welcome Feedback.
Getting better takes time.
How can I build on my strengths?
I can choose a growth mindset.
Learning is a Journey.
I can Keep an open mind.
Learning is my goal … not perfection.
Mistakes help me improve.
New things are opportunities for me to learn.
It’s Ok to not know something.
Plan B might work.
When I ask Questions, I learn.
It’s okay to take Risks.
Success of others inspires me.
I can choose to Try again.
Unsuccessful attempts are part of the process.
Valuable information can be found in every failure.
What can I learn from this?
XYZ didn’t work. I’ll try ABC.
I don’t know how to do this… Yet!
Zany ideas can lead to amazing things.

Me, as a creative writer, non-fiction, when I reached and read the last entry, Z, this was my immediate Facebook comment:

“Zany ideas can lead to amazing things" = if you are looking for only one, that's the secret of my creative writing. (yes, i am the most creative blogger you can find – i have thousands upon thousands of essays of at least 1,000 words each published in my blogs: just google "Frank A Hilario" including the double quotes.)

If you’re not a teacher or writer? Think Genius Mind-Play anyway:

When you have a problem,
When something is bothering you,
When you seem to be at the end of your rope,
When you need something else badly,
When you feel useless,
When you cannot continue something  you have begun,
When you feel frustrated,
When you are about to make an important decision,
When you are looking for a solution that doesn’t seem to exist!

Am now 80, continuing to blog everyday. Before this, I have been using Edward De Bono’s Po Technique for creative thinking – Po is work & play, but Genius Mind-Play is better!

You are talking to yourself alone. Whether you are still a teenager in high school or a senior like me out of school:

Using Genius Mind-Play to help you in your thinking makes you a genius: productive, creative, happy. This is a happy genius writing!@517

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[1]https://www.edglossary.org/growth-mindset/#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20a%20growth,inform%20how%20they%20teach%20students.

Proclaiming The Gospel, Proclaiming “The New Thinking For Agriculture”

“We Don’t Need Nice Homilies[1]” is one of the latest preachings of Roman Catholic laity proselytizer Scott Hahn. From Ohio, he is urging priests to preach boldly, especially considering these lockdown times, imploring them:

There is a need today for strong proclamation of the Gospel – and nowhere is this more true than in the need for strong preaching and teaching. But priests today are pressured to make homilies light, short, and uncontroversial.

And I find myself, a “convert” from “safe” or non-controversial journalism in agriculture to boldly proclaiming a “new gospel” as it were, which Secretary of Agriculture William Dar calls “The New Thinking for Agriculture” with its accompanying “8 Paradigms” that are contributory to its execution. The paradigms are: (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, and (8) Roadmap development.

Even without so much explanation, the “8 Paradigms” for “The New Thinking for Agriculture” are not that difficult to discern. Lazy Juans, Philippine journalists and columnists in agriculture have not picked them up and explained to their readers whether they agree with them or not.

Even Jesus Christ needed disciples to win the people over to the side of The Good!

As intimated by the image above, in both Religion and Agriculture, what is called for today is Critical Thinking – in Agriculture about Sustainability and in Catholicism about being true to the gospel for the Good, Better, Best!

And I equate sustainability of PH Agriculture with farmer sustainability – his earning a decent income according to his labors, and his poverty not taken advantage of by loan sharks and greedy merchants.

“The Road To Emmaus” is Mr Hahn’s continuing broadcasts to the Catholic faithful; the title tells of the first appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his Resurrection – I think we Catholics/Christians should all be travelling to Emmaus and Christ will surely meet us there! We need Christ’s disciples to show us the way!

Meanwhile, the Filipino farmer is the Lazy Juan not thinking about uneconomic farming: borrowing cash from a usurer, over-applying fertilizers and farm chemicals, and selling to merchants who cheat him. Farmers need economic advisers to show him the way!

Our PH Messiah in this case is personified by the Secretary of Agriculture, who has so far shown that his gospel, as it were, is for a richer agriculture for Every Juan.

All things considered, the most “advanced” municipality in farming in the Philippines right now is the town of Mina in Iloilo. And so, “The majority of the farmers in Mina (have been) able to access various interventions from the (DA), ranging from certified and hybrid seeds to fertilizer, machinery, extension services, and market linkages” (see my essay, “MMFFA Showing Good Way To Farmer Association – It Could Be Better[2]!” 14 November 2020, BraveNewWorld@PH).

All 22 barangay associations in Mina are united. That is how you contribute to the realization of the new PH Agriculture: Link to start; then think together.@517

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[1]https://stpaulcenter.com/audio/the-road-to-emmaus/bonus-episode-we-dont-need-nice-homilies/

[2]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2020/11/mmffa-showing-good-way-to-farmer.html

“Rice. It Takes 5,000 Liters Of Water To Produce A Kilo Of Rice. Every Grain Counts.” Every Drop Counts!

On Facebook, above, I was horrified to read: “Rice. It takes 5,000 liters of water to produce a kilo of rice. Every grain counts.”

My reaction was: Isn’t that insane!? My God! Woefully, we are wasting water! Every drop counts!
(“Creative ways to save water[1]” image from Ecolife)

Is that piece of pinoyrice.com data wrong? I googled, and IRRI says that in India and the Philippines, the average is about 3,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of rice[2] (Knowledge Bank, IRRI.org). Not 5,000. So, that rice data is 40% wrong!

Actually, IRRI contradicts itself; elsewhere but in the same website, Rice Knowledge Bank, it says, “It takes 1,432 liters of water to produce 1 kg of rice[3].” So that rice data is 71% wrong!

Still, I question the 1,432 liters. I am an Agriculturist, a farmer’s son, and I went to the fields with my farmer father a few times, including harvesting rice with scythe. (Unfortunately, I sliced my left thumb, end of learning!)

I know that irrigation water in rice is used to flood the field, for several reasons:

(1) Control weed growth – Weed seeds cannot germinate.

(2) Control pest population – Insects & other organisms cannot thrive.

(3) Control disease occurrence – Soil-borne disease-causing organisms are killed.

What about methane and nitrous oxide emissions from flooded rice fields[4], as pointed out by BO Sander, KM Samson & RJ Buresh (Climate & Clean Air Coalition)? I never liked flooded ricefields since the first time I saw them!

We can avoidflooded ricefields. The creative cultivation technique?

Rotavate the field in such a way that you create an automatic organic matter layer all over the field!

This is an original technique I came up with many years ago. This results in the following:

(1)No weed growth because the weeds & their seeds are mechanically & biologically destroyed once and for all!

(2)Soil-borne disease-causing organisms are killed 100% along with the weeds.

(3)The soil all over the field is enriched with natural organic matter. 

(4)The soil is moist throughout the growing season because of the organic matter that has been laid on the surface of the whole field, trapping enough water from the rain as well as from capillary water rising from underground.

Sounds too good to be true? In fact, my brother-in-law Lorenzo Casasus has been practicing my rotavation technique with rice in the last 45 years in our hometown Asingan in Pangasinan – and has been consistently outyielding much his neighbor farmers! That technique came from me, from my wide reading and musings. I told him not to teach the technique, selfish me.

In any case, I personally challenge PhilRice for me to demonstrate what I have just described, either in Batac, Ilocos Norte; PhilRice Maligaya headquarters; or UP Los Baños PhilRice Station. Since I’m a poor man, all expenses must be shouldered by PhilRice.

No time/water to lose! A World-Wide Revolution in Rice Agriculture coming up!@517

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[1]https://www.ecolifeconservation.org/updates/creative-ways-to-save-water/

[2]http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/ericeproduction/III.1_Water_usage_in_rice.htm

[3]http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/step-by-step-production/growth/water-management#:~:text=Continuous%20flooding%20helps%20ensure%20sufficient%20water%20and%20control%20weeds.&text=On%20average%2C%20it%20takes%201%2C432,an%20irrigated%20lowland%20production%20system.

[4]https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/resources/methane-and-nitrous-oxide-emissions-flooded-rice-fields-affected-water-and-straw