Here Comes SL Agritech! Advanced In Hybrid Rice, But A Laggard In The Digital World

Now I know why SL-8H, the favorite hybrid rice of mother SL Agritech Corp, is not selling much – because the mother actually stopped openly selling the offspring 7 years ago! Maybe the mother simply forgot about her child?

It’s Christmas Day as I write this; isn’t this child a gift to the world?

Above image: In the Philippines, SL Agritech Corp wasselling the virtues of Super Hybrid Rice on the 11^th of April – and then it stopped after that single news item titled “Gov’t Welcomes Super Hybrid Rice[1].” Year missing. You know what? I googled and found that that was 7 years ago yet! 2013. What happened?

Wake up, SL Agritech! Already in 2013, you had good products: SL-12H, SL-8H, and SL-18H. Why did you discontinue your website SL Agritech Corporation at
http://sl-agritech.com/
or simply abandon it?

Me, I believe in inbred rice and hybrid rice. I guess SL Agritech abandoned its digital campaign for hybrid rice because nobody was buying online. I think that is because it did not understand the farmers’ problems with hybrid rice.

It is true, as claimed, that hybrid rice gives higher yields than other rices, especially the varieties planted by farmers. So, why then do farmers not plant hybrid rice?

The usual explanation is that hybrid rice seeds are expensive. Which is correct – but that is beside the point!

The reality with our rice farmers is that they are not entrepreneurial. So? So, if SL Agritech or any other hybrid rice company wants to guarantee strong sales of their hybrid rices, they have to help the farmers in terms of financing, such as:

(a) Consult first with the farmer and make sure he understands the requirements of hybrid rice, such as amount of seeds to sow for transplanting, age of transplants, number of seedlings per hill, distance of planting, and fertilizer(s) to apply and how much.

(b) Loan out the total amount and collect payment only after marketing.

Assistances (a) and (b) guarantee efficient production and a little peace of mind of borrower farmers. However, we have yet to consider the biggest problem of farmers.  

In the 2004 study “Socioeconomic Evaluation of Hybrid Rice Production in the Philippines[2]” in 5 major rice-producing provinces – Davao Del Norte, Davao Del Sur, Iloilo, Isabela, and Nueva Ecija, the group of PhilRice researcher Flordeliza H Bordey found that the net profits from inbred and hybrid rice farming “did not differ significantly,” meaning that the higher risk with hybrid rice was a deterrent to its adoption.

I can explain that. The net profits are comparable even with the higher yield of hybrid rice because those farmers sell to middlemen who dictate the prices. The farmers cannot demand higher prices because the middlemen are their sources of funds for farming. You cannot bite the hand that feeds you!

If we want to help the poor farmers, we have to help them (a) decrease costs of production, and (b) increase consumers who pay guaranteed premium prices – contract consumers.@517

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[1]http://sl-agritech.com/myslagri/home/govt-welcomes-super-hybrid-rice

[2]http://agronomyaustraliaproceedings.org/images/sampledata/2004/poster/4/4/723_bordey.pdf

A Different “Merry Christmas!” From PH Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar

  

“DA To Pursue Systematic, Strategic Approaches To Further ‘Grow’ Agri-Fishery Sector.” That is the title of the latest press release from the Department of Agriculture, DA. The paragraphs that follow count exactly 25 – by content, it really looks and sounds like Secretary of Agriculture William Dar is wishing every Filipino “Merry Christmas!”

I don’t think he planned it, but I find it the most significant, substantive, solid and stimulating singular statement from the DA to us Filipinos about the Promise of Agriculture & Fisheries to this archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.

The very first sentence reads like a “summary” of the DA’s Christmas Wish for the whole country:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will implement key strategies to “grow” and fuel the transformation of the Philippine agriculture and fishery sector into a modernized and industrialized economic powerhouse.

(From Depositphotos.com, the superimposed image of the glowing Christmas tree[1] is shaped like the Philippines, isn’t it?!)

“Transition into a modernized & industrialized economic powerhouse.” If we target to be Good, we might as well target to be Best!

Mr Dar tells the DA people:

We must be purpose-driven, ensuring that our programs and projects are of value, not only to recipients but more significantly to the whole society in real terms.

All for one, one for all!

How does the DA plan on delivering those services?

At the core of this strategy is farm clustering and consolidation, dubbed as “Bayanihan Agri Cluster” or BAC that aims to converge and integrate government interventions such as provision of loans, farm mechanization, free seeds and fertilizers, and market support.

“Such as” makes it an incomplete list, but we can see already how they will greatly affect the farmers who produce our food:

Loans – 
These are easy loans from government, not from usurers, not 5-6. Farmers now have all the reasons for doing good farming because they have enough funds.

Farm mechanization – 
The DA is not going to wait for the Filipino farmer to mechanize his farming – the DA is mechanizing it now! Financing him to either hire or buy.

Free seeds and fertilizers – 
No farmer will have the misfortune of using bad seeds because the free seeds from the DA are guaranteed. Fertilizers will be free, so that there is no excuse for not applying.

Market support – 
The singularly crucial support of the public & private sectors in the matter of bringing food from the farm to the market to the consumer will continue to be carried out efficiently.

I must reiterate that the DA’s Christmas Wish List has “farm clustering and consolidation” – Bayanihan Agri Cluster or BAC – as the core of the overall strategy. “We must empower our farmers and fishers through collective action so they will have the opportunity to partner with the different actors in the industry.”

More and more, the DA will develop farming and fishing in terms not of individuals but associations, cooperatives, groups. The DA will “vigorously implement systematic, inclusive approaches (from below).” Inclusive partnering for inclusive development. All for one, one for all!@517

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[1]https://depositphotos.com/292366196/stock-illustration-merry-christmas-greetings-happy-new.html

With 2020 Out & Agriculture Secretary William Dar In, We Can Go After Self-Sufficiency In Rice In 2021!

The Department of Agriculture, DA, has just issued a press release, “Phl Agri Sector’s Resilience Paves Way To All-Time Palay Yield Of 19.44 MMT In 2020.”

That is despite the loss of about 419,500 metric tons of palay to a series of typhoons in this growing season. Above, Mr Dar says:

We owe this year’s all-time palay production (record) to the resilience and hard work of our country’s farmers, and strong support of our local government units and the private sector, who altogether contributed to attaining such remarkable feat.

Not content, I look at the achievement as not simply an astounding record of harvests but as a challenge to up the ante and:

Let’s go after rice self-sufficiency for PH within 2021!

The same way we achieved 19.44 MMT of palay this year, I can see what I will call here the Rice Self-Sufficiency Squad – with the
DA’s enlightened leadership;
farmers’ hard work;
local government units’ strong support;
private sector’s robust assistance  –
PH will produce enough rice for Filipinos in the next 365 days!

When it comes to the rice itself, Oryza sativa, I can imagine that with funds and facilitation, the DA will encourage farmers to plant their own choice varieties, others to:

(1) Plant More Green Super Rice.

Green Super Rice, GSR, can yield up to 230 cavans per hectare[1] (IRRI.org), which can translate into US$400 or P20,000. In another report, the yield is 11 tons per hectare, 2.75 times the average of 4 tons – and it tastes good, according to the farmers of Leyte[2] (Paula Bianca Ferrer, 09 February 2016, “Growing hope with Green Super Rice,” IRRI.org). Some 5 years ago, I already called GSR “The Greener Green Revolution[3]” (22 June 2015, Creative Thinkering).

(2) Plant More Hybrid Rice.

Last year, it was observed that “Only A Minority Of Farmers Prefer Hybrid Rice Seed[4]” (Reicelene Joy N Ignacio, 28 January 2019, BusinessWorld.com). That was despite the knowledge that hybrid rice varieties gave higher yields. The given reason for the hesitance in planting hybrid rice was the cost of the seeds – farmers have to buy new hybrid rice seeds every time they plant, because the hybrid vigor is lost after the first cropping, no more high yields.

To attract more rice hybrid planters, in January 2020, SL Agritech offered a P1,200 hybrid rice seed aid to farmers in Bulacan, Ilocos, and Tarlac (ANN, 14 January 2020, “Farmers in big rice producing provinces to receive P1,200 per 20-kilo hybrid rice seed discount this rainy season[5],” Business Diary PH). The potential difference in yield is 1 MT or 20 cavans per hectare compared to inbred rice.

SL Agritech Chair Henry Lim Bon Liong says:

They say hybrid rice is not good for the wet season. But farmers that continue to use SL-8 during the wet season harvest higher than inbred… (SL-8) will yield 120 to 150, so that’s still better than 60 to 80 cavans.

From hybrid rice, that’s a revelation!@517

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[1]http://news.irri.org/2019/04/green-super-rice-varieties-are-boosting.html

[2]https://ricetoday.irri.org/growing-hope-with-green-super-rice/

[3]https://creativethinkering.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-greener-green-revolution.html

[4]https://www.bworldonline.com/only-a-minority-of-farmers-prefer-hybrid-rice-seed/

[5]https://businessdiary.com.ph/5488/farmers-in-big-rice-producing-provinces-to-receive-p1200-per-20-kilo-hybrid-rice-seed-discount-this-rainy-season/

UP Researchers – How Can You Serve The People When You Are Digitally Naïve!?

Agriculture needs new or improved science, technologies and systems in order to increase food produced for the country and indirectly increase the benefits to farmers. Now, this science requires that first it be published as technical papers by researchers so that it can be popularized by extensionists to share with the farmers. Now, these technical papers cannot be found: UP researchers are hardly publishing! In the almost 10 months since the pandemic lockdown in March in these islands, what have researchers of the UP System done in the matter of publishing technical papers based on completed or promising ongoing research studies? None. Before the lockdown? Hardly. It’s the technology, desktop publishing, DTP – they don’t know.

How do I know? I have been in and out and around UP Los Baños since 1975 when I became the Editor In Chief of 3 regular publications of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, now ERDB, in the upper campus of UP Los Baños: the monthly newsletter Canopy, the quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop¸ and the quarterly color magazine Habitat. The years were 1975-1981. Non-digitalpublishing.

Digital. From 2001 to 2008, I was Editor In Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, and I was the one who made the PJCS world-class or included in the international elite list popularly called ISI, now Web of Science. And you know what? The desktop publishing, DTP, work for all the issues of the PJCS was from beginning to end 100% digital – by yours truly.

UP researchers do not want to do that themselves. They simply rely on layout artists who work with Aldus PageMaker or InDesign. But those gentlemen can only do so much! And they don’t have the mentality of Science Serving Society.

UP researchers just have to master their software – publishing technical journals. I always demand the utmost from my software, so I taught myself to do it: editing, formatting text, creating columns, layouting sections and pages. To show you that I have mastered my software, I am now going to tell you that I use ONLY Word 2016 in working with photographs, pages, papers, books, blogs.

Even with so much time in their hands, why are the researchers in the entire UP System largely ignoring the wonders of digital publishing? UP researchers are not dumb – they are just naïve! Or worst: Uncaring.

Let us take up my alma mater UP Los Baños.

How can the results of research in agriculture reach the farmers eventually when the researchers do not begin the process of publishing them?!

First, the results of researches need to be published as technical papers. Second, the technical language need to be transformed into the popular tongue. Third, the new and improved science need to be extended to the people. To begin that process, the only intelligent way to deal with unpublished technical reports is to publish them!

That’s how important technical publishing of science in agriculture or any other field is. So, UP Los Baños itself should be strongly behind researchers needing to publish!@517

Candaba Wetlands – The Visiting Birds Are Dwindling. So Are The Resident Fish!

“Agricultural Wetlands And Migratory Birds Living In Harmony” was the theme of the “World Migratory Bird Day 2020” celebration in the Philippines via a webinar held on 09 October 2020 sponsored by the Society for the Conservation of Philippine Wetlands, SCPW. 
(webinar image[1] from Eaaflyway.net)

The webinar was in partnership with the Biodiversity Management Bureau, BMB, of the Department of Environment & Natural Resources, DENR; Ecosystem Research & Development Bureau, DENR; DENR Region 3; and Pampanga State Agricultural University. The outcome, as reported by ANN, was a recommendation to formulate a management policy and establish a multi-stakeholder body to manage the Candaba Wetlands.

I did not realize that marshlands are important absorbers of carbon, sequestering more than virgin forests area by area. Director Crisanta Marlene Rodriguez of the BMB says (Jonathan L Mayuga, 11 January 2020, “Saving Candaba Swamp,” BusinessMirror.com.ph): “Peatlands, mangrove swamps and seagrass beds, in particular, are the world’s most effective carbon sinks.”

Candaba Wetlands or Marsh is 60 km north of Manila and covers 32,000 ha, roughly the size of Antipolo City (Gregg Yan, 22 April 2020, “Groups, Gov’t Partners Tap Farmers To Save Candaba Wetlands[2],” Inquirer.net). It serves 3 purposes:

1, For Bird Watching

“Candaba Marsh once hosted hundreds of thousands of birds,” says Mike Lu, founding President of Wild Bird Club ot the Philippines. In 1982, there were 7,000 birds recorded; this year, only 2,188 birds belonging to 16 species were observed. The main reason is that Candaba Wetlands  is slowly being converted for purposes of agriculture or industry.

2, For fishing

Fish “come” with the rains. Farmer Gaudencio De Leon says, “When the rains come in June, we become fisherfolk. We use nets to catch tilapia, marteniko, gourami, even janitor fish.”

3, For preventing floods

As if a giant sponge, Candaba Marsh has long been absorbing excess rainwater, which eases flooding of the area. However, possibly because of continued land conversion, the Pampanga river basin was flooded 43 times from 1994 to 2006.

For all those reasons above, to (1) augment the income of farmers, (2) conserve the wetlands of Candaba, and (3) save the birds, the SCPW and its partners, particularly the Ramsar Regional Center-East Asia, the Department of Tourism, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Environment & Natural Resources are developing a community-based initiative.

When the above is realized, farmer De Leon says, “We can earn extra while ensuring that more Filipinos will keep enjoying the sights and sounds of Candaba.”

Development can be the enemy of conservation if not regulated.

Mr Yan says that recently, a conservation group and some government agencies came up with a community-based initiative “to transform a portion of the marsh into a bird-watching haven, with farmers trained as guides.”

“In terms of management, our underrated wetlands have enjoyed limited conservation priority,” says Miss Crisanta. “They provide habitats for many creatures while generating food and water for millions of people. In many ways, wetlands are the earth’s kidneys, filtering and purifying water.”

We have to conserve the Candaba Wetlands!@517

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[1]https://www.eaaflyway.net/wmbd-2020-oct-scpw-philippines/
[2]https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1109041/groups-govt-partners-tap-farmers-to-save-candaba-wetlands

“Procrastination Is The Thief Of Time” – Edward Young, British Poet & Dramatist. “Procrastination Is The Chef Of Thoughts!” – Frank A Hilario, Filipino Blogger For Agriculture

British Poet Mr Young warns you not to procrastinate.
Filipino Blogger Mr Hilario wants you to procrastinate!

To procrastinateis “to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness[1]” (thefreedictionary.com). Above, look at the map/island of Procrastination in the Facebook post of Bruce Tolentino(graphic by Gemma Correll, Evernote.)

I am the world’s fastest blogger and the most prolific in Agriculture. A “River of Excuses” runs through Procrastination Island. I love it! It is the secret of my creativity.

Procrastination is postponing an act. As a creative writer, I always do that – I do not write continuously. Along the way, many Procrastination moments I make. A Procrastination moment pays in terms of a creative idea or two.

Procrastination is searching for more materials even if you are not in doubt. You need the thoughts of others if you want to be more creative than you already are.

Yes, Procrastination is doing something else other than writing. Like washing a pair of socks. Then you return with fresh ideas.

Yes, Procrastination is watching TV, or Facebook, when you should be writing. When you go back to your writing, your thinking is different.  

Yes, Procrastination is playing games on TV or the computer. When it’s Game Over, your mind is fresh to continue your Game of Writing!

Yes, Procrastination is the Thief of Time. Precisely! That is the Idea! Let it steal your time. When it’s over, you’re more energized!

Yes, Procrastination is distracting yourself by any means necessary. When you recover your sense of purpose, your mind is now ready and rich with other ideas.

Yes, Procrastination is coffee breaks. I love coffee breaks! My favorite is steaming hot coffee – ouch! Too hot. (Nescafe Brown.)

Procrastination is visiting your clothes cabinet and trying to find out where did you put your facemask last? Your frustration will pay for itself in distracting you from writing – when you go back to it, you have other ideas in mind. That’s creativity.

Yes, Procrastination is daydreaming.

Yes, Procrastination is online shopping.

Yes, Procrastination is thinking of the good things you want to do. And not do it. Yet.

Yes, Procrastination is being afraid of monsters. The ones your mind is able to concoct without any reason at all.

Yes, Procrastination is being afraid of the unknown.

Yes, Procrastination is napping. Just lying down and doing nothing is good for the body – you look at the ceiling and you will see something else. Good for thinking!

Yes, Procrastination is visiting the social media forest. I visit my Gmail quickly and then browse for long on Facebook, reading and reading and reading – until a thought strikes me. That’s me urging Serendipity to appear, and it almost always does.

For Unbelievable Creativity, try Procrastination sometimes! Procrastination is the Thief of Time. Exactly! Chef of Thoughts. Believe me. Frank A Hilario is the world’s most creative blogger alive, and he speaks from His Experience of Procrastination!@517

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[1]https://www.thefreedictionary.com/procrastination

IRRI & PhilRice – Leading The Great Rice Revolution?

 

I’m looking at IRRI anew, at its second life, this time leading The Great Rice Revolution. With PhilRice. The image above is just the beginning.

At this point in time, you have to admit it – IRRI is in the Twilight Zone. Or is it Purgatory? But there’s bright hope I see, with the news & photograph above shared on Facebook that “Green Super Rice Variety Surpasses 4.4 Ton Max Yield, Nets 8.3 Tons/Hectare In PhilRice Field Day[1].” The post is dated 03 October 2020 and is found in the official FB account of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) of the Department of Agriculture, DA. The planting of this variety of Green Super Rice called NSIC Rc 480 almost doubled its guaranteed maximum yield per hectare, at 8.3 tons (125 sacks of rice at 66 kg each), shown in above photo during the PalaysikatanField Day of PhilRice in Santo Tomas in Davao Del Norte. More than 30 farmers took part.

The DA says The Green Super Rice Project is a collaboration of IRRI, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The techno demo comprised rice varieties, technologies, methods and machinery in rice cultivation. The DA said, “It was an eye-opening sight for the farmers, demonstrating to them that rice yields can be dramatically increased through modern crop management.”

I’m not surprised about the 8.3 tons/ha yield, but I’m surprised that IRRI did not do a Muhammad Ali, beat his breast and say, “I am the greatest!” Green Super Rice, GSR, was officially launched in 2018 yet, the golden anniversary of the release of IR8, the revolutionary rice variety.

Yes, Green Super Rice is more than the 2^ndMiracle Rice – GSR can resurrect IRRI to its glory days if IRRI knows what to do next. And what is that?

IRRI should now launch a program called Green Super Rice-Based Farming Systems. Because man cannot live on rice alone!

Actually, I wrote about the Green Super Rice of IRRI 5 years ago yet – “The Greener Green Revolution[2]” (22 June 2015, Creative Thinkering). The GSR yields high and needs lower inputs: lower fertilizer, lower pesticides. It grows without irrigation, under wet or saline conditions. It is resistant to pests and diseases. What more do you want out of your rice?!

Rice-based farming system can be any of the following:
rice + corn, or
rice + fish, or
rice + poultry, or
rice + red onions, or
rice + vegetables, or some other combinations.

Even without waiting for IRRI, PhilRice should now launch its own version of The Great Rice Revolution – Because Man cannot live on Rice alone!

The rice-based farming system can also be an agroforestry affair, where you have trees and your crops. And please do not limit the area to only 1 hectare per farmer. And what about if a group of farmers or a cooperative engage in a rice-based farming system?

A multi-crop system means multiple sources of income – Filipino farmers should welcome a source of multiple incomes!@517

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[1]http://news.irri.org/2020/12/green-super-rice-variety-surpasses-44.html?fbclid=IwAR0YwDD_IWhjemsZW9JqcZIi1lzCppEeIcWPpoFUxWH5b31hZT5Gz1lsHMg#more

[2]https://creativethinkering.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-greener-green-revolution.html