Revolution Vs Revelation! More Funds & More Freedom To Develop PH Countryside?

“Agri Liberation” is the latest battle cry. Turns out historical & hysterical. I googled “agri liberation images” (note double quotes), and the above images happened right next to each other: How lucky can you get?! Local vs international, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) vs Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. What colorful “combination” – and neither do I agree with!

“Revolution” showing itself next to “Liberation” – Actually, the quarrel has been there at least in the last 60 years when PH activists began agitating for “Land for the Landless” and those with money began agitating for more business inside and outside the Philippines.

If you did not know, PH’s Agrarian Revolution is actually ongoing – slow but ongoing. In any case, land ownership has shown itself to be anathemato production and profit. Because of inefficiencies, ownership liberation limits production of the farmer and, therefore, of the country; and business liberation limits profit to the businessman himself. What other inefficiencies do the revolutionaries want?!

In the latest development, Madelaine B Miraflor says, “At Least 7 Industry Groups Call For Agri Liberalization[1]” (25 May 2021, Manila Bulletin). The 7 groups are “led” (verb noted) by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) and Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP). AmCham and CCAP are saying that this is for PH Agriculture to “become more open to foreign trade and investments to help keep food affordable and safe to all Filipinos” and this “will also strengthen the agriculture sector’s capability of creating jobs for the rural population.”

Not quite. If you ask me, it is not the lack of foreign trade and investments that has made food unaffordable and unsafe in the Philippines – it is the supply of unscrupulous big & small businessmen already existing who victimize their own countrymen in these difficult times.

I see that this is all because the Department of Agriculture (DA), led by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, has called for controlled entry of food imports. 

More than the above, I see that “Agri Liberalization” is targeted toward food only and, of course, the food industry stands to largely benefit.

In a development I see must be related, Belen Natividad says “CAR, Ilocos Ready To Implement Mandanas Ruling[2]” (24 May 2021, Ikot.ph). Much earlier, Anna Leah E Gonzales says, “LGUs Must Prepare For New Responsibilities – Dominguez[3]” (06 October 2020, Manila Times). Ms Anna says that once implemented, the Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court will result in “higher internal revenue allotment (IRA) (shares) of local government units (LGUs) beginning in 2022.”

Now then, I see that, on one hand the businessmen, and on the other hand the LGUs with larger IRAs, must first of all consider and cooperate with the “OneDA” approach for Philippine Agriculture already being implemented – if they don’t know that, let them google! They cannot insist on their own views without those of others, especially the ones in government authority. Ladies & gentlemen, the Philippines is our country too!@517

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[1]https://mb.com.ph/2021/05/25/at-least-7-industry-groups-call-for-agri-liberalization/?fbclid=IwAR111XXv2vS-wmkPog2PJKhUN2cTdRRhr0axmD0_dEXEALvZXBYyPlkYi5Q

[2]https://www.ikot.ph/car-ilocos-ready-to-implement-mandanas-ruling/?fbclid=IwAR2PVxgXDqYd80-06Z1Ll8jEDzwgeIwbMr0faxJcwbLvTh3CHIrYS1Z-WhU

[3]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/10/06/business/business-top/lgus-must-prepare-for-new-responsibilities-e28095-dominguez/776898

He Went After Quantity Of Rice – We Go After Quality Of Life For All!

Chinese scientist Yuan Longping is dead! Long live the hybrid rice scientist who showed the world Man could change Mother Nature if he followed her dictates!

Mr Yuan is the Father of Hybrid Rice, and for this scientific breakthrough, he won the World Food Prize in 2004. Huizhong Wu says, “China's Yuan Longping Dies; Rice Research Helped Feed World[1]” (23 May 2021, Phys.org):

It was in the 1970s when Yuan achieved the breakthroughs that would make him a household name. He developed a hybrid strain of rice that recorded an annual yield 20% higher than existing varieties – meaning it could feed an extra 70 million people a year, according to Xinhua.

(Images above: “Third-Generation Hybrid Rice Achieves High Yields In China[2],” ANN, 22 October 2019, Global Times;“Quality of Life for All” image[3] from Epr.eu)

Mr Huizhong says:
Yuan spent his life researching rice and was a household name in China, known by the nickname “Father of Hybrid Rice.” Worldwide, a fifth of all rice now comes from species created by hybrid rice following Yuan’s breakthrough discoveries, according to the website of the World Food Prize, which he won in 2004.

Mr Yuan’s hybrid rice yielding 20% more than the best rice varieties then in China – and this helped transform China from “food deficiency to food security” within 3 decades. After his World Food Prize, “Yuan and his team worked with dozens of countries around the world to address issues of food security as well as malnutrition.”

Actually, more than food security, hybrid rice has not caused farmer poverty to go away. A double increase in yield of rice does not bring about a double increase in the income of the farmer. The problem of farmer poverty goes beyond any increase in yield.

Now then, I shall now compare Hybrid Rice with Press Freedom as to what good both can be pursued further: Quality of life for all.

“World Press Freedom Day Forum, 'Is Journalism A Public Good[4]?’" was the title of the World Press Freedom Day Forum on 03 May 2021 sponsored by the Asian Center for Journalism of the Ateneo De Manila University. Thank you, Ateneo, for asking a private question aloud and making it public!

“Is journalism a public good?”
Today, I ask a parallel question:
“Is hybrid rice a public good?”
And my response to both questions is one and the same:
“Only if we make it!”

We cultivate rice; we gather news.

“Public good hybrid rice” means it is all of the below:

Technically feasible
Economically viable
Environmentally sound
Socially acceptable.

“Public good journalism” means all of the below:

True?
Helpful?
Inspiring?
Necessary?
Kind?

For hybrid rice to be a public good, we have to make it.
For journalism to be a public good, we have to make it.
There are no two ways about it! (Either.)

So, why not the United Nations sponsoring a World’s Good Prize? For individual or group, for any and all the good in the world!@517

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[1]https://phys.org/news/2021-05-china-yuan-longping-dies-rice.html#:~:text=Yuan%20spent%20his%20life%20researching,which%20he%20won%20in%202004.

[2]https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1167653.shtml

[3]https://www.epr.eu/quality-of-life-for-all-erasmus/

[4]http://ateneo.edu/ls/soss/acfj/events/world-press-freedom-day-forum-journalism-public-good

Neenah Hilario – “Dance, Dance On Little Girl!”

My daughter Neenah Bonafe Reynoso Hilario has turned out to be a dancer I never imagined (image announcement above, from her Facebook page). I memorized that song long ago, “Dance On Little Girl,” recorded by Canadian-American Paul Anka,singer & composer. He happens to be the favorite of Neenah’s mother Ampy, who is my wife.

Dance, dance on little girl
In the arms of someone new
As you dance, as you twirl
My heart dances with you.

Our daughter Neenah is getting married today, Saturday, 29 May 2021, and because of Covid restrictions, very few family and friends were invited – not that otherwise we would have had a grand wedding! Ha, ha. Know that I am an Ilocano, from Sanchez, Asingan, Pangasinan; my wife, Amparo “Ampy” Medina Reynoso, a Tagala, was born in Nueva Ecija where her mother Remedioscame from – Ampy’s father Gabrielwas from Tayabas. Neither poor nor rich.

The groom is Jerome Cajacinto, a classmate of Neenah since high school at the Cahbriba Alternative School in Los Baños, Laguna. Cahbriba was founded by Pilar Habito, wife of former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary General Cielito F Habito. The Cahbriba concept was based on Harvard psychologist professor Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) – while Mr Habito was busy earning his PhD at Harvard, Ms Pilar was busy learning her MI.

Here are Gardner’s intelligences, 9 in all (earlier, I wrote about them, "The House Of Smarts. 1, Here's Inventing The iSchool Of Smarts!" 03 September 2018, House of Smarts, blogspot.com):

 ArtSmarts (Visual-Spatial Intelligence)
 BodySmarts (Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence)
 LifeSmarts (Existential Intelligence)
 MusicSmarts (Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence)
 NatureSmarts (Naturalistic Intelligence)
 NumberSmarts (Logical-Mathematical Intelligence)
 PeopleSmarts (Interpersonal Intelligence)
 SelfSmarts (Intrapersonal Intelligence)
 WordSmarts (Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence).

Mine is Word Smarts,#9. Neenah and Jerome are into teaching others their own Body Smarts, coaching others to dance, make all those movements. I can see that they are happy.

Multiple intelligences is what people have, not just 1 simple IQ. So I will not be surprised if Neenah’s and Jerome’s children will develop talents that differ from each other just as their parents learned in high school.

Know that Ampy and I have had 13 children (I have the list elsewhere so I don’t forget!)

So, what legacy or inheritance can be expected from a father like me? Not wealth – I own neither a car nor mansion – I don’t even have half a million in the bank or elsewhere. Nonetheless, today, I know I am a happy WFH, blogging every single day, in agriculture, inspiring leaders and farmers and journalists.

I confess that my married life has not been ideal mostly because I had not been paying much attention to the duties of a husband and father, mostly to my duties as writer and editor and book publisher. I love my work – but that has been at the expense of my family life, although I never noticed it. I hope Jerome and Neenah will behave more lovingly to each other, and to the members of their eventual family!@517

Agriculture PH Needs To Increase Investment In Public Goods

“Increase investment in public goods” – With me as Filipino agriculturist who happens to be a communicator for development, those 5 words of advice opened my eyes wide to the package of reforms that my country needs to bring PH Agriculture to prosperity.

The advice comes from Vice Chair V Bruce J Tolentino of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), who is also a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monetary Board Member, speaking during the first day of PH’s “National Food Security Summit” (Author Not Named, 24 May 2021). Mr Tolentino was “giving emphasis on the need to boost investments” in the agriculture & fisheries sector, as well as the need to implement the proposed amendments to the Agri Agra Law (RA 10000).

We Filipinos do not associate more government funds and wider management with much-more improved PH Agriculture – well, it’s time we did!

In those 21 words above, based on the Facebook sharing by ANN (top image), that’s my summary of the presentation of Mr Tolentino.

Pointing out that “poverty among farmers and fishers remain the highest among basic sectors,” Mr Tolentino said, “What we need are major solutions for these issues.” He laid out actually 3 major policy recommendations, but I’m interested only in the first, because that’s where my fields and interests lie:

“Increase investment in public goods that increase agri-fishery productivity, including science & technology, effective extension, efficient irrigation, and marketing infrastructure.”

Extension is my field. Let me grant that there is “Effective extension” in agriculture, but it is quite inadequate in form, content & intent. Like, we are still relying on radio! We refuse to learn the new digital language so powerful it can express anything and everything without the audience moving from location to location and day to day!

Yes, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) has digital courses, but they number only 18! (See my earlier essay, “On Extension, PH’s Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Is Good – Could Be Much Better[1].”) Only 18 courses to serve 10 million farmers from Aparri to Jolo! If budget is the excuse, now Mr Tolentino has spoken up for the ATI, no more excuses.

More than ATI’s e-courses, no matter the number, I see the urgent need to build a digital Knowledge Bank on PH Agriculture – designed for tapping by communicators for development like me, the ATI, as well as advanced farmers.

With the Knowledge Bank, I’m thinking of the whole Department of Agriculture (DA) working with cooperatives around the country. The lower image above is my photo of a meeting of the board members of our Asingan, Pangasinan’s Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative (at a hotel in Subic 08 October 2016), because I believe that cooperatives are the best conduits for extension efforts for PH Agriculture, from planting to cultivation to care to harvesting to processing to storage to marketing. In all those steps, the indispensable role of credit must be allowed to be played out. Our farmers are notorious for borrowing from usurers who, unfailingly, threaten to draw Shylock blood from their failing borrowers all the time!@517

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[1]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2021/05/on-extension-phs-agricultural-training.html

“Saving The Endangered Tawilis” – So, Where Is The Tawilis?

Very strange. A Facebookpost and a Manila Bulletin both claim that “the world’s only freshwater sardine… has been successfully reared alive… from its natural location,” which is the Taal Volcano. But not a single fish is shown!

(Manila Bulletin image above)

I say, as a communicator for development in Agriculture and related fields, a news report like that shows any or both of the following:

(1)  That journalism itself is being endangered!

(2)  That fish research itself is in question!

I take this to be a sad instance of science journalism making an unprecedented claim but not providing proof of its authenticity.

This is from the Facebook post of UPLB Office of Alumni Relations I saw 06 March 2021:

The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) has announced that the world’s only freshwater sardine (that) can only be found in Taal Lake has been successfully reared off site or away from its natural location. DoST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T De La Peña said it was the Limnological Station of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB-LS), headed by Dr Ma Vivian C Camacho, that achieved (this) major breakthrough in tawilis research last 23 Feb 2021.

Also on 06 March 2021 and on the same science study, the Manila Bulletin publishes Charissa Luci-Atienza’s news story, “Saving The Endangered Tawilis[1].” Ms Charissa announces “Good news for lovers of crispy tawilis” and says Mr De La Peña has declared:

The team has successfully kept Sardinella tawilis, locally known as tawilis, alive for several weeks in captivity at UPLB-LS in Los Baños, Laguna, away from Taal Lake, where it is known to be endemic.

Unfortunately – Neither report shows any fish either swimming in water or lying on the table. Neither a single photograph nor video. You report success without evidence – that is an empty boast, especially that this is breakthrough science, if true!

For me, a self-styled journalist in the last 45 years, these two incidents of unsubstantiated journalism dealing with the same news source are unforgivable. I blame neither the UPLB Office of Alumni Relations (OAR) nor the Manila Bulletin; instead, I blame the journalists themselves, the ones who wrote the Facebook item for the OAR and Ms Charissa:

Claiming without showing evidence is unintended but this is an intellectual insult to the readers!

Whether you are a scientist or not, science should neither be taken lightly, nor incompletely reported.

With journalistic consciousness actively at work, in this case, a Facebook message or an email would have generated the missing fishes (pun intended) – and science would have been served right! (If not the precious, delicious, tawilis.)

Mr De La Peña said the research was “to save tawilis from possible extinction should there be a massive eruption.” He explained:

This fish is found only in Taal Lake and nowhere else in the world and (was) declared as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in January 2019.

And I journalist say journalism is an endangered species itself if journalists do not support their news claims!@517

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[1]https://mb.com.ph/2021/03/06/saving-the-endangered-tawilis/

Steve Jobs’ Single Lesson On Creativity That Made Apple The Biggest Company Ever

I love to write. To write to show my genius in concocting stories or fiction? No, to write so that I help people think better, think of winning ways. That is to say:

Many Things,
Many Thinks,
Winning Ways!

And you? Maybe not write but think of better ways, even brilliant ways out of something or other. If you don’t know it yet, you can learn to do it. We have a simple lesson from Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs was/is my idol of idols – creative, unrelenting, undefeated. Loved the digital world and what he could do to bring out its wonders: Applepersonal computer (PC), music on call at the push of a button (iPod), handy PC-in-1 (iPad), Macintosh– all business with pleasure.

To him, it was pleasure first, business second.

This morning, Tuesday, 25 May 2021 in Manila, I saw the Facebook sharing of VP Alfie (top image): “The only way to do great work is to love what you do – Steve Jobs.” (That’s how he and his great friend Steve Wozniakinvented the PC as we know it: body, monitor, mouse, keyboard, hard disk, floppy disk (now replaced with hard disk & flash drive).

Thank you, Steves! I am now 80+, thank God. Now, let me tell you how, since January 2020, I have been writing and blogging every single day! Including holidays of obligation. (And yes I do everything from blank screen to blog: Google for data & information, type the many drafts onscreen; edit; tighten; revise; and finalize into a short essay of exactly 517 words[1]including title, excluding name of author.)

Above, lower image is my Werk From Home (WFH) Kingdom. Werk, not Work because I love what I’m doing!

My way of creative thinking is from the “Po Technique” of another intellectual genius, Edward De Bono.

In the Po Technique, there are no negatives. Everything has positives, even a negative. (Try it sometime!)

Po explains how since about the year 2005, I have blogged about 5,000 long essays (1,000+ words each), and 1,000 short essays (517 words each, such as this one); that is to say: I have written and blogged thousands of essays, some of them similar or of the same topics, without plagiarizing myself!

I think the best way you can learn from me is notfor me to teach you directly how to think or how to come up with your stories, their twists and turns, but for you to read me and see for yourself those twists and turns!

I love to write, yes – not because I love to brag about how good I am at writing but to show you how good you yourself can be as teacher, persuader, initiator, motivator, follow-upper, cheerer.

Especially when it comes to Philippine Agriculture, which needs all the cheerers it can get!

I want to inspire you to do good, or to do better in what you’re doing, as long as it needs some thinking!@517

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[1]“517” being the number of letters in my byline: Frank A Hilario.

On Extension, PH’s Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Is Good – How To Make Better!

The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) prides itself as “Home of E-Extension” as far as the Philippine government is concerned (upper image[1], ATI.gov.ph), which it is – except that you have a double limitation: number of courses offered, 18; ergo, number of experts engaged by ATI!

No, neither do you have unlimited subjects nor can you ask that the training be a perfect fit for you, your farm and location. Sorry. Farmers cannot be choosers! If like me you want to choose more than 1 crop or more than 1 location (lower image)? No can do.

As of now, ATI limits you to this list of 18 “e-Learning Technokits” posted by Marianne Antonioon 25 July 2019 at the institute’s website – not alphabetized, not numbered, not updated, not edited:

Cacao Techno Kit
Highland Vegetable Production Kit
Organic Fertilizer Production Kit
Durian Production Kit
Lowland Vegetable Production Kit
Cashew Production Kit
The Philippine Cattle Industry
Broiler Production
Bangus Techno Kit
Hog Finishing Production Information Kit
Meat Processing TechnoKit
Coffee Production Kit
Corn TechnoKit
Citrus Production Kit
Mango 1: Mango Processing Information Guide
Mango 2: A Guide to Mango Production
Total Quality and Productivity for Rice
Banana Production Guide.

As extension stands today, with ATI you have to rely only on the expert. The problem is: What you’re going to be told is what you’re going to be told – you have no choice! Your trainor knows everything and you hardly know anything.

Your favorite crop may already be in the list – but how will your training fit your location, soil, water supply, not to mention market? How will you deal with alternative techniques of growing, like chemical vs organic?

The ATI is not ready to deal with a farmer like you who must deal with local realities. The problem is not the expert but the fact that the ATI has no Knowledge Bank.

With a full-blown Knowledge Bank, the ATI  could adapt an existing e-course for you, or even fashion a new one according to your needs.

Today, what the ATI expert knows is what s/he knows, that’s all.

I cannot point to you an example of a Knowledge Bank existing here or abroad. The ATI Knowledge Bank should contain much of the science and experiences with all the Philippine farm crops, livestock and fisheries you could think of, in order to cater to anyone. Science must be open, not simply possessed by experts with whom you are forced to be trained.

And yes: Science must be democratic – if the farmer doesn’t like your science, such as crop, produce or method, you cannot force it on that poor fellow!

More importantly, the Knowledge Bank must show the farmer how to be a good entrepreneur.

(The Knowledge Bank must be also for those who do not wish to be trained but are interested in learning by themselves so much agriculture or so much fisheries.)

The customer is always right! That goes with farmers too if you want to train them well.@517

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[1]https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-main/director/09022019-1714/e-learning-technokits