Filipino Farmers Don’t Give Credit To Credit – What’s The ACPC For?

This is both a Glad and Sad Story. Glad: The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has maintained its ISO 9001:2015 QMS Certification[1] as of October 2020. Sad: Many a poor Filipino farmer remains the loser in the credit card game played in the villages.

Well, farmers don’t realize it as credit – they just know it’s Fast Cash, no questions asked, no collateral, no waiting in line. We call it “Five-Six” – it’s really a “Borrow Now Pay Later Plan” – borrow 5 pay 6, 20% interest within 100 days, even within 24 hours. Fast cash for the borrower, fat cash for the lender. Aren’t both happy?!

Isn’t that a failure of credit consciousness in the Philippines? Isn’t that a failure of an agency to promote credit worthiness in both borrowers and lenders?

No, not so fast! Because, right now, there is no single public agency tasked to promote the use and demote the abuse of farm credit in the Philippines. The nearest body I can think of is the ACPC, but my googling tells me I’m wrong.

A little bit but necessary history: The ACPC was created in 1986 by Executive Order (EO) 113 signed by President Corazon C Aquino on 24 December 1986. Via EO 113, according to its website[2], the ACPC was mandated:

To assist the Department of Agriculture (DA) in synchronizing all credit policies and programs in support of the latter’s priority programs. It was also tasked to review and evaluate the economic soundness of all on-going and proposed agricultural credit programs, whether for domestic or foreign funding, prior to approval. Also, ACPC was tasked to undertake measures to increase its funds base and adopt other liquidity interest stabilization and risk cover mechanisms for its various financing programs.

The ACPC is mandated to: “Synchronize all credit policies and programs.” “Review and evaluate the economic soundness of credit programs.” “Increase its funds base and adopt risk cover mechanisms for its financing programs.”

Nothing said about the ACPC officially acting on non-formal credit that farmers almost always turn to, to their dis/advantage.

The ACPC became an attached agency of the DA via EO 116 in 1987: “To support priority DA programs; to review & evaluate credit programs for funding; to increase funding for various programs.” No, nothing said about helping farmers with their dis/credit relationships with moneylenders. I wonder why.

I believe the lack of a specific law is to be blamed for the continued and widespread presence of usury in the farming villages. Convenience remains the enemy of poor farmers.

In the meantime, we can only urge the ACPC to do institutionally more to promote its role in carrying out its functions expanded by Republic Act (RA) 7607, the Magna Carta of Small Farmers, to: “(1) conduct institutional capacity building programs and (3) to develop special projects to promote innovative financing schemes for small farmers.” RA 7607 did not address credit ignorance and abuse.

I believe we need a PH law passed addressing the widespread Five-Six loan arrangements, with the ACPC taking charge.@517

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[1]https://acpc.gov.ph/acpc-maintains-its-iso-90012015-qms-certification/

[2]https://acpc.gov.ph/about/#:~:text=Agricultural%20Credit%20Policy%20Council%20(ACPC,of%20the%20latter's%20priority%20programs.

8 Credit Programs Of ACPC Show Filipino Farmers Are Bankable!

Above is the front cover of a coffee-table book published by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) titled The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable. The inset logos show that the ACPC is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA). The inset text says:

With credit, the ACPC looks forward to the day millions of poor farmers and fishers, along with their households, have become as resilient as the bamboo, that is, pliant, sturdy, resistant to stress, can withstand harsh weather, and thrives even on infertile grounds.

Yes, the ACPC now knows our farmers are “Bankable!” – given the ACPC’s financial assistance andsupervision to individuals and groups. That is the lesson I personally learned in my field trips and subsequently singlehandedly digitally producing the above ACPC coffee-table book subtitled Celebrating 25 Years Of The ACPC. (I myself celebrated when that book came out.)

Late January in 2012, Executive Director of the ACPC Jovita Corpuz, from out of the blue picked me to produce a coffee-table book to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of ACPC on the coming 25 April, about 3 months away. Gathering her staff, she asked me pointblank, “Can you do it?” I said, “Yes Ma’am!”

(I did, a self-taught Digital One-Man Band: writing, editing, taking photographs, layouting, and desktop publishing – digital results 144 pages. 500 copies printed.)

For necessary photographs, with Allen Ducusin, an ACPC senior staff, I personally visited several projects showing success with the assistance of the ACPC, from Ilocos Norte to Nueva Ecija to Bulacan to Dumaguete City (travelled by car to near Mt Canlaon, 150 km away).

Some projects I took photographs of in place: “ACPC-Tobacco-Rice Contract Growing System” in Ilocos Sur; “Cooperative Bank Agri Lending Program” in Pamplona; “Oil-fired Palay Drier” in Villaverde, Nueva Vizcaya; “ACPC Agri-Microfinance Program” in Binangonan, Rizal – the ACPC helping small borrowers manage the risks of their enterprise. I bought a new Lumix FZ100 superzoom all-digital camera for this project. As a result of that photographic journey, all book pages had images in full color, half of the shots mine.

In summary: Under supervision of the DA, the ACPC is in charge of the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit & Financing Program (AMCFP), which is the umbrella of 8 programs (alphabetically listed):

1, Agri Microfinance Program
2, Cooperative Agri Lending Program
3, Cooperative Banks Agri Lending Program
4, Direct Market Linkage Development Program
5, Rural Household Business Financing
6, Sikat-Saka Program
7, Special Agricultural Financing Window
8, Upland Southern Mindanao Credit And Institution Building Program.

The AMCFP partners of the ACPC are the LandBank, which addresses financial requirements in agriculture; DBP, which addresses funding needs of businesses and economic sectors; and People’s Credit & Finance Corp, which addresses microcredit needs of disadvantaged people.

A good baseball team, the ACPC has all the bases covered!@517

How About PH DA Setting Up Satellite-Based Internet In The Countryside?

If the Internet were cheaper, faster and available even in remote areas in the Philippines, with knowledge-conscious Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, it would be as easy as ABC husbanding Agriculture to many thriving industries. Millions of Filipino farmers & fishers would be informed and rise from poverty. Asa ka pa! Hope for more!

Those dreams of empires may not be long in coming. Above, 2^ndDistrict of Albay Representative Joey Salceda is the principal author of the bill “Satellite Internet Liberalization Act” approved Wednesday, 24 February 2021, by the House Committee on Information & Communication Technology (Filane Mikee Cervantes, “House Panel Approves Satellite Liberalization Bill,” PNA). “A House of Representatives’ panel on Wednesday approved a (proposed) measure allowing small-town Internet service providers, schools, and civic organizations to use the country’s satellite orbital to provide internet service to the countryside.”
(top image[1] from FilipinoHotTopics.com, lower image my photograph)

In such a case, no one can stop a small town from becoming Big Town!

Internet, Agriculture. You have questions on:
crop adaptability?
cropping season?
entrepreneurship?
fertilizers?
fishing laws?
loans?
machineries?
markets?
pesticides?
prevailing prices?
raw materials?
seeds?
technologies?
weather?
(The-ask-me-anything knowledge bank.)

Conversations, documentations, questions & answers could now be lightning fast. Lecturers or technicians need not be at the location to provide expert and on-time advice and/or instructions. Businesses will grow!

Mr Salceda says the Philippines’ “months of lockdown due to the pandemic have steered the nation into the digital economy, demanding that telecommunications companies improve their Internet services.”

Now, he says:

The new jobs are digital. We will need new jobs as we recover from the coronavirus disease. We will not get those jobs without faster internet, so this is a matter of national emergency,

Mr Salceda notes that, in a recent study by Tufts University in Massachusetts and Mastercard Inc, the Philippines is running behind regional competitors Indonesia and Vietnam.

The internet is the lifeblood of the new economy. If you do not have fast Internet, you're as good as finished in the global competition. If we (have) bigger ambitions for our country, we need faster Internet.

Mr Salceda is also the principal author of the House proposal “Faster Internet Services Act” that will encourage more competition in telecommunications – for faster and better services.

The Philippines is ahead in terms of user experience. This country has some of the world’s best designers. In fact, the index ranks us 10th on that score, but the country’s infrastructure and regulations have to catch up.

Personally, the Internet is in my blood now. I started travelling the information highway some 23 years ago. I began blogging in 2005 and, for many years now, I have stood as the world’s most creative writer nonfiction online, having blogged at least 5,000 long essays at least 1,000 words each.

Today, at 80, I am a work-from-home (WFH) Ilocano at ease with American English, earning frankly more than I have ever experienced since I graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1965. Thank God for WFH via the Internet!@517

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[1]https://filipinohottopics.com/rep-salceda-inumungkahi-na-gamitin-ang-satellite-technology-para-mapalakas-ang-internet-connection-sa-mga-malalayong-lugar/

Learning From People Power 1986, Leaning To Science Power 2021!

I did not go during the first days of the 1986 show of force called EDSA People Power Revolution. A million bodies gathered at points along Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue (EDSA) after Jaime Cardinal Sin via Radio Veritas called for people to show up in support of the rebel leaders, Vice Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, who were already holed up at Camp Aguinaldo after declaring their withdrawal of support of President Ferdinand “FM” Marcos, their co-Ilocano.

On Tuesday, 25 February 1986. I showed up at EDSA, and that was when FM and his family decided to fly to Hawaii, in defeat. That is why my private joke is that when FM heard this Ilocano coming, he decided to leave Malacañang!

Differently, I believe the “EDSA Revolution” or “People Power Revolution” was in fact the “People Leaders’ Revolution” – we saw the strength of numbers, not appreciated the power of the leaders to draw such numbers.

Today, I believe we should be harnessing Science Power 2021. At the forefront should be leaders of millions of Filipino farmers who work Philippine soils. Example: The lower image is titled by its source thus: “Empowering Filipino Farmers Using the SARAI Training Toolkit for Rice and Corn[1]” (dated 2017, UPLB.edu.ph). Project SARAI, or Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines, is a project funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) with UP Los Baños’ School of Environmental Science and Management (UPLB SESAM) as the implementing body.

2021 versus 1986, we Filipinos should all be wiser.

Today, in farmers’ fields, armed with Science, the undeclared but more massive Science Power 2021 is being led by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. He has his New Thinking for Agriculture that is accompanied by “8 Paradigms” as follows:

(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.

And under the OneDA Approach, here are the 12 key strategies being invoked at the moment:
1. Farm Clustering/Bayanihan;
2. Province-Led Agriculture And Fisheries Extension System (PAFES);
3. Agri-Industrial Business Corridors (ABCs);
4. Infrastructure Investments;
5. Post-Harvest, Processing Logistics & Marketing Support;
6. Digital Agriculture;
7. Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Measures;
8. Mobilization & Empowerment Of Partners To Attain Scale;
9. Global Trade, Export Development & Promotion;
10. Food Safety & Regulations;
11. Ease Of Doing Business & Transport Procurement; and
12. Strategic Communication Support.

We have more than enough agricultural revolution to wage to the end of the decade!

I go back to UPLB SESAM, which developed the following technologies and systems for the farmers initially in Mindoro:

(1)   Automatic Weather Station,

(2)   Unmanned Aerial Vehicle/Drone,

(3)   SARAI Enhanced Agricultural Monitoring System, and

(4)   SARAI Knowledge Portal.

We should all be smarter. As knowledge revolutionaries, with a Science Power 2021 Portal, farmer progress should multiply social benefits!@517

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[1]https://sesam.uplb.edu.ph/news/empowering-filipino-farmers-using-the-sarai-training-toolkit-for-rice-and-corn/

02, Less Is More – SCUs Or Not, Students Will Learn More If They Were Taught Less!

This is a teacher speaking – one with an open mind and open notes of knowledge gathered from googling. I’m saying after observing education via secondhand news, from Argentina to England to the Philippines, in schools or in homes, in private schools or SCUs: Students are taughtfacts – which is unmindful teaching!

Facebook sharing: In the Philippines, Mila Concepcion (not her real name) is saying, “I have declined to teach in 3 universities where I (taught) before the pandemic, because I am not sure I will be as effective as in the traditional face-to-face-interaction in class.” Ms Concepcion typifies teachers who think teaching is imparting knowledge 100%. Ms Concepcion, hindi ka nag-iisa. You are not alone; there are millions and millions of you.

Here’s news for everyone! “Educators Around World Seek To Take Axe To Exam-Based Learning[1],” says Bethan Staton (23 January 2021, Financial Times). Her lead sentence is:

“Covid era prompts push to ditch one-size-fits-all approach in favor of skills and independent thinking.”

Goodbye standardized exams! Ms Bethan says, Bill Lucas, Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning at UK’s Winchester University, “believes traditional assessments unfairly (standardize) children of different abilities, fail to capture essential skills and put young people off through (their) rote-learning, one-size-fits-all approach.”

The teacher gives the exact same exam to students in a class, and the next class, and the next. Historically, the school has been a factory of learners since classes began! (That may be Roman Catholic in origin, as during “the Early Middle Ages, the monasteries of the Roman Catholic Church were the centers of education and literacy[2].”)

“Survey after survey says creativity, critical-thinking and communications are what we need. Exams don’t assess those things,” Mr Lucas said.

I will now call those The 3 Cs of Teaching. Whatever you are thinking, from Agriculture to Virology, you have to be intelligent and/or inventive. Creative, Agriculture – To fight pests naturally, plant beautiful flowers that attract those pesky insects instead of feasting on your crop! Critical, Law: There are how many ways of looking at this case? Communicative, Math – Ms Bethan says, in Newfoundland, “one (math) assessment, for example, involved younger children putting knowledge into practice with a recipe.” Everyone enjoyed, everyone learned!

Here’s more. Ms Bethan says:

The project-based curriculum of Animas High School in Colorado offers another alternative. Instead of end-of-year tests, students publish “digital portfolio” websites that showcase their work, goals and interests. Older pupils choose a topic and explore it through a 15-20 page research project, a talk and an initiative in the local community.

There is no end to enjoyable learning if there is freedom in both teaching and learning!

Ms Bethan says:

In the US, some schools and districts have adopted “graduate profiles” setting out competencies or skills such as compassion, determination or creativity. Shelby County, in Kentucky, expects students to be responsible collaborators, life-long learners and critical thinkers, which are necessary requirements in a “knowledge-based economy that emphasizes ideas and innovations.”

All educators must be re-educated!@517

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[1]https://www.ft.com/content/9d64e479-182c-4dbd-96fe-0c26272a5875?fbclid=IwAR3Q7AhrciTYLL558piE9p2NeK0GBerkhMXaPFWFvKWUzjTwVpsK_cT7igk

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education

Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture

Here’s re-inventing the Tagalog expression “Asa aka pa!” from the negative, “Don’t bother, don’t hope!” to the positive, “Hope for more!” As acronym, ASA KA PA!: “Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture!”

While this blog is not to disparage other religious beliefs, I must confess from the start that I am a Roman Catholic. I just created this blog today, ASA KA PA! and I just found out that on this date, the 24^th of February, St Francis “received his vocation” in Portiuncula, Italy – in other words, it dawned on him that his life’s role was as a preacher. (image of St Francis[2] from On This Day) And yes, I was born on another important St Francis date: September 17, which today is celebrated by Catholics as “The Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi.” Stigmata: St Francis was the first person recorded “who bore the marks of the crucified Christ (on) his hands, his feet, and (on) his side[1]” (Sacred Heart Catholic Church). 

As a digital preacher for the development of PH Agriculture, the name of my new blog, “ASA KA PA!” has 3 meanings: (1) “More hope for you!” (2) “Hope for more!” and:

Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate,
Knowledge-Aligned,
Pinoy Agriculture!

That is because I am an Agriculturist, a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, a full-pledged University in itself in the UP System. I graduated in 1965, passed the very first Teacher’s Exam the year before, Professional Level. I have been engaged in what I myself invented: Communication for Development, ComDev, since 1975, when I started working for the Forest Research Institute (FORI), based at UP Los Baños. My FORI years, 1975 to 1981, are descriptive of my ComDev desires for my country – I founded and became the Editor In Chief of 3 FORI publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. Those 3 publications made FORI well known in the Philippines and abroad.

At FORI, I was only beginning to show what I could do as a communicator for development. In those years, the Typewriter was King – except that I did experience the use of the IBM Selectric typewriter with its interchangeable keys: nice touch! I have always typed my own articles. I also learned photography by asking questions with the FORI photographer, who was under me.

On Innocents Day, 28 December 1985, I saw the need for me to learn word and image processing. I never looked back. I learned more digital skills over the years from 1997 (I’m guessing) when we had the Internet installed at home.

Today, I blog my own, and have something like 41 GB of collected photographs in my hard disk, 99% of them shot with my own hands. My latest camera is a Lumix FZ100 digital zoom, with AI capabilities: Just point and shoot! (See image above.)

Now then, I am re-dedicating my life to the development of Philippine agriculture via communication for development with a new slogan: “ASA KA PA!”@517

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[1]https://sacredheartfla.org/about-us/being-franciscan/fraciscan-feast-days/the-feast-of-the-stigmata-of-st-francis-of-assisi/

[2]https://www.onthisday.com/events/february/24

09, The More The Merrier – 1-Ha Garden For 17,000 Households? It’s Faith!

Roman Catholic faith works! From Faithfuls to Farmers: “Tondo Parish Turns Soccer Field Into Vegetable Farm[1]” (Karl R Ocampo, 17 February 2021, Inquirer.net). Above is the soccer field at St John Bosco Parish in Tondo, Manila, all of 1 ha transformed into a giant garden, all vegetables. Now serving the 17,000 households in 17 barangays in that parish. Last January, P17,000 worth of vegetables were sold.
(“FaithWorks” image[2] from FaithWorks.org)

Now, the number “17” has a special meaning to me: I was born September 17. In numerology, “17 represents compassion, self-confidence, spiritual consciousness, and strength[3]” (Numerology Nation). That describes that Tondo parish in their gardening project!

Yes, it was started by the priests of St John Bosco. Parish head Fr Gaudencio Carandang says:

It all started with suffering. We were giving consistent relief to members of our community during the lockdown. They would knock on the parish’s doors and ask for food, and we could not turn them away. But as the pandemic stretched on, donations became fewer, and so did the relief (foods) that we could give. We had to think of something to feed them.

The Church serving the Church.

When the government imposed the lockdown, most of the parish residents, that is, the drivers and street peddlers, eventually lost their sources of income. Thinking about it some more, the parish priests decided to turn the idle soccer field into a busy vegetables field. Through the intercession of Fr Anton Pascual, Executive Director of Caritas Manila and President of Radio Veritas, a vegetable partnership was formed with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). The die was cast.

The DAR provided the inputs: vegetable seeds, fertilizers, basic gardening tools. The parish residents provided the workputs, all volunteer labor. Mr Ocampo says, “Farmer-scientists from Cavite visited the site a few times a week to teach the residents how to properly till the soil and what implements to use on each crop.”

Scene: Volunteers, gardeners, masked and gloved men and women, young and old, enjoying themselves; housewife Sally Funtanares tending the bottlegourd (upo), Barangay Councilman Jun Valdez the chayote, and parish cook Len Molina the cabbage patch.

The soccer field is being used for free. The harvests are sold to the parish residents at low prices; after that, the profit is equally divided among the volunteer gardeners.

Last January, the parish community celebrated its “Pick, Harvest & Pay” festival co-organized with the DAR. Fr Carandang says, “The turnout was overwhelming. It was a success.“ Mr Ocampo says:

Booths lined one side of the field and residents presented recipes showcasing their crop. Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, who attended the festival, said Tondo residents had inspired other local government units in Metro Manila to replicate garden (projects) in their respective areas.

With their own garden projects, Quezon City followed, and Caloocan, and Pasig.

I’m a Roman Catholic; I believe the DAR could save more stomachs, not to mention earn more indulgences, if it helped more parishioners like those in St John Bosco.@

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[1]https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1396854/tondo-parish-turns-soccer-field-into-vegetable-farm?fbclid=IwAR1f1P3P8kSksIjGLnASLmnzFU5s6HQn5Qkodp9bOvkmBqHJJK8WwvcZUzA#ixzz6mmiJOoKK

[2]http://www.faith-works.org/

[3]https://numerologynation.com/angel-number-17/