PH Department Of Agriculture Helping Cook A Favorite Dish – The Ilocano Pinakbet!

The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) is cooking up recipes for farmer enrichment & delight all over the country, and one of the programs for the purpose is the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD).

I am Ilocano, hence the attraction of the headline shared by Jennifer Valcobero on Facebook 06 July 2021: “50 Midsayap Farmers Receive Pinakbet Seeds From SAAD[1].” Pinakbet, short for pinakebbet or cooked until shriveled, is a favorite dish of mine – and my father Lakay Disiong (bless his soul) always cooked it perfect.

Ms Jennifer omits the list of pinakbet vegetables. Panlasang Pinoy says[2] (undated, “Pinakbet Ilocano Recipe,” Panlasangpinoy.com, with editing):

Pakbet or pinakbet is a popular vegetable dish… The vegetables used on this dish are usually grown in the back yard of every villager and are available almost all-year long. Bitter melon, eggplant, okra, and string beans are just some of the vegetables that make up this delightful dish. Pakbet is cooked in a clay pot called “palayok” and anchovy sauce (bagoong isda) is used to add flavor.

Yes, this is an Ilocano dish. Yes, mostly the vegetables that go into the pinakbet are available throughout the year – whether you are Ilocano or not, that makes pinakbet a perfect dish!

No, the dishes shown above do not reflect a true pinakbet. I googled for “pinakbet” (including the double quotes), and looked at each of the 484 images displayed by Google.com – and not a single one implied the correct way of cooking pinakbet!

So, I’m challenging all the would-be-ethnic cooks in the world. I repeat: pinakbet, short for pinakebbet – caused to shrivel by cooking. All pinakbet vegetables should show little lines of mountains and valleys.

Here’s how to cook an authentic pinakbet:

(1)   Don’t slice! Never ever. No quartering, no cubing!

(2)   Cut off the ends of the eggplant, bitter melon and string beans, but only a little, so that the cut will help drain out the water inside the vegetables while cooking. This preserves the natural flavors.

(3)   It’s the method, not the attractive color. Adding squash makes it more eye-catching, but it makes it less pinakbet.

(4)   Palayok is perfect. But it must be emphasized that you cook the pinakbet slowly, and never ever open the covered pot – except once towards the end just to be sure.

(5)   Pork in first. That’s how my father did it, and his pinakbet was always perfect!

You don’t quarrel with perfect! What happens when your pinakbet is perfect? Out comes the real taste of each of the vegetables – that is the magic of pinakbet.

Back to the news. Ms Jennifer says:

The inputs include 100 bags of complete fertilizer, 100 bags of urea, 250 packs of pinakbet seeds, 50 hand trowels, and 50 shovels. The farmers are now preparing their 2,500 square meters for this purpose.

Well, if I were the pinakbet farmer, I will use instead organic fertilizer. Thereby, each of my pinakbet vegetables will sell as health food, and each time I will have a healthier pocket!@517

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[1]http://saad.da.gov.ph/2021/07/50-midsayap-farmers-receive-pinakbet-seeds-from-saad/?fbclid=IwAR2eAOGI-vu0IlOiQiI4th8gUpMLsSgldmcrY_ss-LAi2WNK0ycJn-gPGs0

[2]https://panlasangpinoy.com/pakbet/

Want Your Book, Newsletter Or Magazine Out Fast? Print-On-Demand!

After Edit-On-Demand. I am saying the best way to come out with a publication nowadays is Print-On-Demand. Unbelievably fast! You email your edited book manuscript to the printer today, you get 50 copies the next day ready for business.
(Above, original print-on-demand image[1] by designhill.com)

For your book, newsletter or magazine, you need a digital Editor-on-Demand! You need Me. In digital-editing a book, with revisions where I feel necessary, I can finish in 24 days. Ready-to-print – that is after desktop publishing (DTP), where I format texts, format columns, format sections, format & position images.

Yes, I am a one-man-band when it comes to editing and desktop publishing – even including writing in the first place.

I have been doing my version of editing-on-demand (although I did not call it that) since 1997, or 34 years almost.

So: If you have any of these: a newsletter or a journal to publish, book to write and publish – if you want the best writer or editor or layout artist or desktop publisher, call me!

If you want your lessons free, just read the essays in my blog, just browse, and I’m sure you will get lots of ideas you can use: how to think differently, how to express disagreement without being disagreeable, how to tell an old story in a new way…..

Now, read about me:

During those typewriter-writing & paper-printing press years starting 1975:

Even as I am an Agriculturist (BSA major in Ag Edu, UP '65), and with a 1964 Civil Service Professional license, officially, I began as a writer for Forestry, working from 1975 to 1981 as the founder & Editor in Chief of all 3 major publications of the Forest Research Institute (FORI): monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. How good was I? Those publications made FORI popular nationally and internationally.

During these digital writing & publishing years starting 1985:

I began learning word processing (worping, my coinage) with WordStar1 on Innocents Day, 28 December 1985. In 1987, I began learning by myself Microsoft Word 4 – and I tried all subsequent versions, and now I’m using Word 2016.

I learned to blog sometime in 2005. I have blogged at least 6,000 essays with a total of at least 6 million words. My topics are mostly agriculture, communication for development – including the application of the Internet for advancing farmer knowledge.

The books I have authored and desktop published myself include 7 books printed commercially by the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India. My latest book is Jose Rizal As First Thinking Filipino (159 pages, published 19 June 2021, available free in pdf, just email me: frankahilario@gmail.com).

In other words, whatever is your need in working with books, journals, newsletters and other kinds of publications, if you want a worry-free and fast worker for any of those, call me. You’ll be glad you did!@517

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[1]https://www.designhill.com/design-blog/what-is-print-on-demand-how-to-start-a-print-on-demand-business/

RA 11524 – Most Complete & Thereby Most Intelligent Law For PH Agriculture!

I forgot for a while, in the “Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act” (RA 11524) that PDutz signed on 26 February 2021, the lawmakers were using their coconuts and, subsequently, so have been the would-be law enforcers led by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA)!

Earlier, Eireene Jairee Gomez says, “P75B To Reboot Coco Trust Fund[1]” (26 March 2021, Manilatimes.Net):

On March 15, two weeks after the signing of RA 11525, the PCA Board met to lay out plans for a coherent and coordinated approach in implementing programs for the coconut industry.

The PCA heads are Secretary of Agriculture William Dar as Chair of the PCA Board and PCA Administrator Benjamin Madrigal Jr.

I particularly note this part of the news by Ms Eireene, that the programs under RA 11524 will focus on the following:

(1)     credit programs

(2)     crop insurance

(3)     empowerment of cooperatives

(4)     hybridization

(5)     infrastructure development

(6)     intercropping and animal integration

(7)     research

(8)     scholarships

(9)     shared facilities

(10)  training of farmers

10, magic number, wonderful! My listing; I alphabetize them and out comes “credit programs” as #1! Really, farmers need all the credit programs we can extend to them.

Against the depredation of climate change every year, farmers need crop insurance.

The one I love the most is “empowerment of cooperatives.” As a long-time member of the Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative of my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, and twice a board member, I know what a cooperative can do for any individual or group of farmers – from seed to spoon. And yes, the coop can take good care of shared equipment & facilities necessary to help produce and reproduce the nuts, provide storage when necessary, and multiply products for different markets. (The first thing a coop can do for a farmer is: escape usury.)

Yes, training of farmers – which will include intercropping and animal integration, the better to multiply the sources of income, as well as help mitigate the negative effects of harsh climates, ie, too warm or too wet.

The Philippines is the world’s second biggest producer of coconut, with a total of 3.5 million hectares planted and annual production of 15 million metric tons.

The news today, 06 June 2021, is that of the completion of the Coconut Farmers’ and Industry Roadmap (Coco-FIRM). All is well that begins well!

Among others, the PCA had sought the assistance of a team of experts from UP Los Baños in early 2020 to craft such a roadmap.

Thus, the PCA is the first of the bureaus and agencies attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to have completed a commodity industry roadmap, as required by RA 11524, a copy of which was submitted to Mr Dar during the 48^th PCA anniversary on Wednesday, 30 June 2021. RA 11524, says Mr Dar, “we consider a game-changer that will help transform the lives of 2.5 million coconut farmers and their families by (reversing) low productivity into higher gains.”

I can now see the Philippine coconut being transformed into “The Tree of Better Lives!”@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/03/26/news/national/p75b-to-reboot-coco-trust-fund/855581/?fbclid=IwAR3SEQml7PXt-_pBwVVMnbY_25zbhb_33hgOzFfFCmSCVDvz4UOTi6dgyPg

Knowledge Management – Here’s Microsoft Office Mastered By A Filipino Journalist

Microsoft should be giving me an international award or something. I am a self-made millionaire! when it comes to publishing online – I have so far blogged 6 million+ words from 6 thousand+ essays since 2005 using MS Word. Some subjects: agriculture, forestry, extension, leadership, creativity, blogging.

How can I identify journalists anywhere in the world who have yet to master their app like Word 2016? Easy, as they do not blog – master of your worp (my shortcut for word processor), you want to blog to reach more readers more often, not encumbered by newspaper or magazine media.

I have always been a writer since I discovered my talent for writing, in senior high school yet, in 1959. Taking my BSA at UP Los Baños 1959-1965, I wrote in the student paper Aggie Green & Gold. From 1975 to 1981, I was writer, founder and Editor In Chief of the 3 publications of the Forest Research Institute (FORI): monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly popular magazine Habitat. With dinosaurs (large typewriters), I made FORI internationally known & respected.

My digital world started with WordStar 1 on Innocents Day, 28 December 1985. Since then, my constant companion in writing, editing, layouting, desktop publishing and blogging has been Microsoft’s worp.

I first used Microsoft Word in 1987, version 4, and I never left. That means I have been a Microsoft faithful for 34 years: Word 5, Word 97, Word XP… Word 2013, today Word 2016. I have been using Office 2016since about 3 years ago, and found this app very, very apt in my blogging.
(above, Word 2016 image[1] from My Choice Software)

My son Jomar graciously purchased for me a software license to use Office 365; the problem is I find it confusing, because it presents an entirely uncharted territory! This is a modern app that makes an old hand feel obsolete.
(above, Office 365 image[2] from Computerworld)

Microsoft, what you done to Microsoft Office!?

Going back 1987: Word 97 I used in my first desktop publishing work, a book by a friend, OK Bautistatitled Introduction To Horticulture. No, that version of Word is notdedicated to desktop publishing, but I could already format texts, columns and sections with it.

From 2003 to 2008, I used Word 2002 solely for editing and desktop publishing (DTP) the quarterly Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS). I learned all my DTP studying my worp how to do columns, sections, image positions etcetera. I did not use any DTP software like Aldus PageMaker or Microsoft Publisher – and was happy with the results, and yes, PJCS was happier, being finally accepted in the international elite list called “ISI” after being non-ISI for 25 years since its birth!

I have already desktop published about 20 books using from Word 1997 to Word 2016 in the last 14 years. My next stop? Word2019. Oh yes, at 80+ years of age, I’m as excited as any smart teenager about to receive a smartphone eager to learn to use it!@517

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[1]https://www.mychoicesoftware.com/blogs/news/10-things-for-beginners-to-know-using-word-2016

[2]https://www.computerworld.com/article/3445216/word-for-office-365-cheat-sheet.html

With Social Media, Rappler Spends On Truth 100% – Zero On PH Agriculture!

“When truth is under attack,” says the Rappler image on Facebook above, “what you do today will define our future.”

Note that Rappler’s corporate statement is not directly accusing PDutz’s administration; it does not say, “In the Philippines, Truth is under attack.”

Showing Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa behind bars should have been excellent instead of the image above, a young lady whose mouth is cruelly “sealed” with a chain rounded twice around her head and padlocked. As I am about to show you using its own Facebook page entries, Rappler needs an idealistic, strict, all-knowing, digital-savvy Editor In Chief. (No, I’m not interested, even if they offered me $1 million for 100 days initiating-idealizing Rappler’s corporate media package: positioning, programs, policies and protocols – there! I have already spelled out what Rappler needs to do.)

I have just finished browsing the posts Rappler presents on Facebook early today, Sunday, 04 July 2021, and now I have a list of 77 items; not complete but I stopped when I reached that magic number; here is what Angel Numbers says it means[1]:

Angel Number 77 indicates that you have listened to Divine guidance and are now putting that wisdom to work in your day-to-day life... You are helping and teaching others by being a positive example for others to follow.

Ha, ha! What Rappler is doing with her investigative journalism is a product of a negative, nota positive attitude to life, notinspiring, not uplifting.

Let us now examine Rappler’s Facebook posts of Sunday, my numbering:

#1. “Dark phreatomagmatic plume from Taal Volcano.”
#2. “What can you do to uphold human rights?”
Not bad.

But: “Pacquiao accuses DSWD of corruption over missing P10.4-billion ‘Ayuda’” is posted 3x! And “Robredo to Marcos in VP case appeal: ‘no one to blame but you’” is posted 2x.

Thus, Rappler is squandering the power of social media. “Social media is a very, very powerful tool[2],” says Chris Young (BrainyQuote). “It also gives power to tools.” Rappler could learn from Mr Young, an American country singer/songwriter.

Rappler’s “Search for Truth” is worn-out, old-fashioned journalism. I say now that Rappler has yet to see that the power of social media, which it wields tremendously, is best spent not for Truth Journalism but what I call iTHINK Journalism.

The world’s Truth Journalism is investigative, for digging the facts of the case, for the worse and worst.

My iTHINK Journalism is also investigative, but differently: You dig for the good, better, best! You ask sequentially:

True? If True, investigate if
Helpful? If Helpful, investigate if
Inspiring? If Inspiring, investigate if
Necessary? If Necessary, investigate if
Kind?!

Now, something shocking: In my list of Rappler 77, there is nothing about Agriculture! Rappler is neglecting the welfare of 30% of PH population, or 5 million farmers. If you assign 6 members to a farm family, that totals 30 million people whose poor lives are being ignored by the most active social media in the Philippines.

Rappler, stop being contrarian and start being proletarian!@517

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[1]http://sacredscribesangelnumbers.blogspot.com/2011/07/angel-number-77.html

[2]https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/media-quotes

With Liza Battad & More R&D, The Beast Should Become The Best Of Burden!

In the Philippines, we have a scientist newly assigned to take more intelligent care of the carabao: Liza Battad, newly appointed Executive Director of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar; she took her oath of office Friday, 09 June.

Her appointment follows the retirement of Arnel Del Barrio, who headed PCC for more than 6 years (Ma Cecilia C Irang, 01 July 2021, “Dr Liza Battad Named New Executive Director Of DA-PCC[1],” Facebook page, Department of Agriculture-Philippine Carabao Center).

The PCC is not new to Ms Liza. She has been PCC Chief Administrative Officer and Planning Officer. The carabao is not new to UP Los Baños either; above, I put the image of the Carabao Plaza to remind everyone that UPLB has had a special place for the carabao as beast of burden, but UPLB has not seen fit to relegate the farmer with his plow and carabao to the Museum of Natural History, given modern times!

I cannot blame UPLB for not acknowledging technology as replacing the carabao in working the farmer’s field; UPLB’s carabao program was taken over when the PCC was created and placed outside the University’s jurisdiction.

Nonetheless, every time I visit the UPLB campus, it looks to me like it is still idolizing the plowman & his animal – the images are out there for campus visitors tonot miss. For goodness sake! In the animal’s place, the hand tractor was invented in 1910, or 91 years ago[2]! (Wikipedia).
(image of Carabao Plaza[3] from “University Library, UP Diliman,” Facebook.com)

It is not the carabao that is wrong in PH Agriculture. As an agriculturist who reads and reads, I have come to know it is the plowitself:

The moldboard plow destroys the soil structure. We are insane not to see that the moldboard, now the disc plow, destroys what nature has created to best grow vegetation!

(If you want more details of the above assertion of mine, read my 26 March 2018 essay, “Organic Farming & The Lesson Of The Rotavator: How To Feed The World[4],” Organic Country, Blogspot.com).

So, the carabao is the worst for plowing!

If Ms Liza is listening, my advice is that the carabao is best for meat and milk – if we raise the animal with forage and silage grown via organic or natural farming.

Ms Liza has a PhD in Community Development and an MS in Agribusiness Management, both from UPLB. Hereby, I encourage her to encourage the PCC people to encourage farmer cooperatives much more than individualist farmers – power to encourage by number!

Millions of us Filipinos, not to mention the world’s waiting mouths, need millions of bottles of healthy carabao’s milk and millions of kilos of healthy carabeef – if that is not agribusiness, I don’t know what is.

With more coops raising more carabaos, the better for our children in school, for adults everywhere, not to mention us seniors.

And thereby the Beast of Burden becomes the Best of Burden!@517

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[1]https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=dr%20liza%20battad%20named%20new%20executive%20director%20of%20da-pcc

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-wheel_tractor

[3]https://www.facebook.com/UPDLibrary/posts/trivia-time-shout-out-to-uplb-i-wish-the-chocomilk-from-dtri-is-available-here-i/10152873042328323/

[4]http://organiccountry.blogspot.com/2018/03/organic-farming-lesson-of-rotavator-how.html

PH Agriculture: Are We Now Listening To The Youth Who Have No/Little Experience?

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar was the first one I think who thought of harnessing the talents of young Filipinos into advancing PH agriculture. Searca Director Glenn B Gregorio is the latest believer I see.  

Why? The youth are the hopes of the fatherland, Jose Rizal knew studying at the Ateneo, and certainly are full of ideas!

Leander C Domingo says (“Searca Youth Camp Deals (With) Agri-Food System Challenges, Best Practices[1]” 01 July 2021, Manila Times, manilatimes.net):

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) conducted the first virtual youth camp to convene young professionals, agripreneurs, public servants and students who lead projects and advocate for Philippine agriculture.

Why virtual youth camp? Wide safety & coverage. The youth have factual talents that could be harnessed for their mother country. Mr Domingo says:

Searca organized the youth camp to gather youth perspectives on challenges and solutions in the agri-food system, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first virtual youth camp was organized by the members of the Searca Young Ambassadors Platform or Sayap under the Young Forces for Agricultural Innovation or #Y4Agri, Searca's banner youth initiative until 2025.

Image above shows Mr Gregorio (right) and Jean Rebecca Labios (left), member of Sayap, setting the tone of the youth camp during the “campfire session.”

The youth camp was organized by 15 young staff of Searca, all members of the Sayap. (Sayap is under the Young Forces for Agricultural Innovation or #Y4Agri, launched last year.) The camp was held 19 June 2021, significantly the birth of our National Hero Jose Rizal. I say that’s hero workship!

During the camp, Myka Fragata, a young farmer already, said:

As millennials, youth are naturally tech-savvy. Incorporating innovative agri-technology in learning about agri-food system principles can encourage youths to venture into the field of agriculture.

How important is agriculture to the youth? During the youth camp, Mr Gregorio said:

In agriculture, you can directly feed your family, your community and the world. The youth can contribute (to) transforming traditional ways in agri-food systems through technology and innovation.

Cherrie Atilano, Food Security Ambassador of the Department of Agriculture, said, “Food is our umbilical cord to Mother Earth. It is something that all of us, especially young people, should think about."

In the Youth Camp, this was noted:

There were challenges in engaging the youth in the agri-food system identified, which include knowledge gaps in agriculture, disconnect between agri-curriculum and realities, poor internet connectivity, mobility issues and lack of data, and fragmented or delayed interventions.

The youth camp also noted:

The use of social media as a primary communications channel to the youth, capacity-building, community immersions, peer-to-peer learning and the establishment of a young farmers community were their consensus on the best practices among the youth.

"The conversations don't stop here because we need to act on what we have discussed here; we need to take these into actionable solutions in our respective sectors," Searca youth leader Sonny Pasiona said.

Amen to all that!@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/07/01/campus-press/searca-youth-camp-deals-on-agri-food-system-challenges-best-practices/1805283