Postharvest Losses Very Significant – Can LGUs Assist DA With Additional Budget?

Insights valuable for their own sector’s development don’t come easy to farmers – such as they don’t realize they have postharvest losses they would gladly not have if they knew how to prevent them.

The above images suggest losses: much loss, from manual vegetable harvesting (top image from the Department of Agriculture (DA)), and minimal loss (bottom, rice combine harvester, photo by Ben Briones[1]). They show the stark difference between non-mechanization and farm mechanization.

How much postharvest losses prevented are we talking about if we mechanize harvesting, drying & processing foods produced in Philippine farms? Executive Director Baldwin Jallorina of the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development & Mechanization (PhilMech) says (Christine Cudis, 01 June 2021, “LGUs Urged To Give Post-Harvest Aid Amid Solon's Ruling[2],” PNA.gov.ph):

In the Philippines, postharvest losses of commodities represent a very significant loss of 10 to 50 percent of production output… This means that 10 percent to 50 percent of all the land, inputs, and labor used to produce the commodities go to waste.

Farmers are wasting up to 50% of their output!

PhilMech is under the DA. To fully mechanize Philippine agriculture, the DA needs billions of pesos. Now comes the “Mandanas Ruling” promising billions of pesos for the local government units (LGUs) starting 2022 – thus, the DA can request additional budget from the LGUs:

The Mandanas ruling states that national taxes for inclusion in the base of the just share of LGUs shall include the national internal revenue taxes enumerated in Section 21 of the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended, collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs; Tariff and customs duties collected by the Bureau of Customs; 50 percent of the value-added taxes collected in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and 30 percent of all other national taxes collected in ARMM.

Based on computations by the Department of Finance, the ruling will increase the National Tax Allotment of LGUs in 2022 by P234,600,000,000 (P234 Billion).

Considering such, even food security advocate Asis Perez, current Convener of Tugon Kabuhayan (and former Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources Director), urged LGUs “to focus on the use of additional resources for farmers and fisherfolk to increase their production by investing more in (postharvest) facilities.” He says:

We suggest that 10 percent of the funds or (P234) billion be allocated for (those postharvest facilities) annually, especially in the countryside where most production is happening. The allocation can be adjusted once LGUs reach the desired production and (postharvest) losses targets.

Mr Perez suggests that “10 percent of the funds or P234 billion be allocated for (postharvest facilities) annually, especially in the countryside where most production is happening.” Higher production volumes plus lower production losses “will not only benefit the countryside. Done properly, metropolitan cities will share the benefit in terms of availability of fresh, nutritious food at affordable prices.”

Now then, in 2022, our farmers and fishers will depend much on the DA as well as LGUs for government postharvest expenses on their behalves.@517

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[1]https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1095792

[2]https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1142256?fbclid=IwAR3zoCwVVNr-bz1AMv5QuFnRenqWe3xA_u4vkxTcCNTBNhdi606nx8gABBw

Coronavirus, Yes. But “Let Us Not Exaggerate The Novelty Of Our Situation” – CS Lewis

Stop advertising coronavirus in your Facebook sharing! “The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together” – CS Lewis.

CS Lewis, 20^th century intellectual giant and almost-Catholic prolific author & scholar. Remember The Chronicles Of Narnia?

Joei Villarama’s Facebook sharing 01Sept2021 is from CS Lewis (1948) (in italics):

“How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of chronic pain, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

Stop sharing scary stories or items about Covid-19 in your Facebook account! You are panicking the people, including yourself!

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.

Anyway! Death has always been certain. Sir or Madam; CS Lewis says, we have already all been sentenced to death even before the atomic bomb was invented. And anyway, all of us will die.

It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

So scientists have added another chance for anyone of us to die painfully and/or prematurely – to a world that is not unaccustomed to such a death. Death has always been not a chance but a certainty!

The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things –praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about death. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

The first thing to do is pull ourselves together, gather our wits – and go on living. Let that viral bomb find us “not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about death.” Let that viral bomb find us “doing sensible and human things.” If you will: Pray, work, teach, read, listen to music, bathe the children, play tennis, chat with your friends over the Internet or play a game of chess.

“They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds!”@517

Halal & Knowledge Center – Working Together For Good Food For Stomachs & Minds!

Can a Roman Catholic (me) and a Muslim (you) build a Knowledge Bank together, cook meat, and live happily ever after? Not “Can” but “Let’s!”

I told myself, “Wow!” when I saw via Facebook sharing Leah Lyn D Domingo’s article, “Searca And UPLB Team Up For Halal S&T And One Health Knowledge Center For Southeast Asia^[1]” (09 September 2021, Searca.org). Ms Leah says:

To be hosted by the UPLB School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM) with support from Searca, the Halal S&T and One Health Knowledge Center is envisaged to be a virtual one-stop, open-access regional hub for country-to-country and cross-country government-academe-industry exchanges of knowledge and resources related to the growing Halal and One Health global ecosystems.

The Halal Knowledge Center would be an open-access for knowledge and resources. The knowledge base will be for growing crops according to halal standards.

Ms Leah quotes Searca Director Glenn B Gregorio as saying, “In Southeast Asia, regional competition has stimulated the local and global markets for halal products.” With halal products, health brings wealth.

Previously a Searca scholar, Project Leader is Yusuf A Sucol of SESAM and the UPLB Climate & Disaster Risks Studies Center.

Health-conscious (underweight), as a writer warrior, I am interested in the halal (allowed food for Muslims according to the Koran), but more interested in the Knowledge Center:

Any journalist or writer in agriculture should welcome a Knowledge Bank that can answer many if not all questions about a subject anytime.
(“Knowledge Bank” image^[2]from Facebook)

The Knowledge Center Ms Leah is talking about emphasizes “exchanges of knowledge and resources” related to the production of halal foods. Rico C Ancog, Dean of SESAM, says:

As a unique value proposition, this initiative aims to combine Halal requirements with One Health concepts to afford a more integrative lens in looking into how livestock and ecosystems could be better managed in a more sustainable way.

Ms Leah says, “The first phase of the UPLB-Searca project is to conceptualize the Halal Industry and One Health Ecosystem as an emerging innovation for growth and development.” A necessary step, since you have to know and understand the system before you can say you know what it requires in terms of knowledge.

Knowledge. As a writer, who first of all must be a knowledge seeker, I know what I want from a Knowledge Bank. Now then, as I quoted above, the Halal Knowledge Center will essentially provide “government-academe-industry exchanges of knowledge and resources” – which tells me that it is not yet the Knowledge Center I was hoping for, for writers.

In this Digital Age, the age-old libraries are now passé. I hope the Halal Knowledge Center will go on to build a knowledge base for growing halal food products, including meat products, both for the experienced and beginner.

As source of information, whether on halal or non-halal products, as a writer, I have been dreaming of a universal one-stop-shop Knowledge Bank. I hope the Searca Knowledge Center is the beginning of a dream come true!@517

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[1]https://www.searca.org/news/searca-uplb-team-up-halal-st-one-health-knowledge-center-southeast-asia

[2]https://www.facebook.com/Knowledge-Bank-112879070400418/photos/

Covid – How The Whole World Panicked Over A Disease, Why You Don’t Have To, Today!

It’s the media (and Facebook sharing). “What we certainly have is a pandemic of fear. (All Earth's media) is gripped by coronavirus” – The Conversation (Australia).

Ignacio López-Goñi gives us “Coronavirus: Ten Reasons Why You Ought Not To Panic[1]” (07 March 2020, The Conversation). Here are the first 5:

(1) “We know what it is.“
(2) “We know how to detect the virus.“
(3) "The situation is improving in China.“
(4) “80% of the cases are mild.“
(5) “People recover.“
(“Don’t Panic” image[2] from World Economic Forum)

Personally, I want to sound the alarm against the alarm about the coronavirus. Do you know how many of your rights and freedoms were taken over by your government and/or your doctors by their declaring a pandemic and also causing economic chaos?

Gigi Foster, Paul Frijters & Michael Baker have just co-authored the 408-page paperback The Great Covid Panic: What Happened, Why, And What To Do Next”[3]” (Amazon.com). Ms Gigi is from the School of Economics of the University of New South Wales, Mr Fijters from the London School of Economics, and Mr Baker from the University of Western Australia. The authors say:

How to make sense of the astonishing upheaval of Spring 2020 and following? Normal life – in which expected rights and freedoms were taken for granted – came to be replaced by a new society as managed by a medical/ruling elite that promised but failed to deliver virus mitigation, all in the name of public health.

Whole wide world went wild & wanton – waah!

“A medical/ruling elite that promised but failed to deliver virus mitigation, all in the name of public health” – and now they are blaming the public for spreading the disease!

Professor Martin Kulldorff of the Harvard Medical School says of the book:

A tour-de-force on how the pandemic response was driven by fear, crowd thinking, big business and a desire for control, rather than by sound public health principles.

Driven by fear, crowd thinking.

I want the pandemic to begin to end right now. So, what will we do now?

American Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says:

Stay home. Most people with Covid-19 have mild illness and can recover at home without medical care. Take care of yourself. Get rest and stay hydrated. Take over-the-counter medicines, such as acetaminophen, to help you feel better.

Mayo Clinic[4] says:

Most people who become sick with Covid-19 will only experience mild illness and can recover at home. Symptoms might last a few days, and people who have the virus might feel better in about a week. Treatment… includes rest, fluid intake and pain relievers.

American Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says: “Stay home except to get medical care[5] (CDC.gov):

Most people have mild illness and are able to recover at home.

I say, if you have a fever and cough and other symptoms, try first the Filipino suob! Read my earlier essay, “Nobody Should Die Of Covid-19[6]” (30 August 2021, Communication for Development, Blogspot.com).@517

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[1]https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-ten-reasons-why-you-ought-not-to-panic-132941
[2]https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/covid19-coronavirus-mental-health-panic-stress-anxiety/
[3]https://www.amazon.com/Great-Covid-Panic-What-Happened/dp/1630692778
[4]https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/treating-covid-19-at-home/art-20483273
[5]https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html
[6]https://communicationfordevelopmentphcomdev.blogspot.com/2021/08/nobody-should-die-of-covid-19.html

2 Disasters In 1 – Indian Journalism & Sri Lankan Ban On Chemical Fertilizers

As a journalist, you have to be extra careful with your reporting. As President of your country, you have to be extra careful you’re your exercise of power, like banning 100% of an imported item.

From Filipino Mark Nas’ Facebook sharing of Friday, 10 September 2021, today I Filipino give you an example of modern hyperbole in media, which is always modern bad journalism. While India’s online paper ThePrint has a brilliant slogan – “Substance of print, Reach of digital” – its journalist Samyak Pandey has written a dark, dreadful story, “How Sri Lanka’s Overnight Flip To Total Organic Farming Has Led To An Economic Disaster[1]” (10 September 2021, Theprint.in). The actual story is not dreadful, but reasoning and telling are quite alarming!

The main source of Mr Pandey’s report is a topic I have become a disciple of for the last 55 years: organic farming. I have read thoroughly Mr Pandey’s story of 932 words, including title, and I can see that he fails to report the bigger part of the story, which I may state thus:

The utter failure of the government of Sri Lanka under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to fully prepare for the 100% shift to organic farming by the whole country.

It is not the unprecedented 100 shift to organic farming itself, as the journalist of India would like readers to believe, but the unprepared inorganic farmers that caused the economic bubble of Sri Lanka to burst.

Not mentioning that President Rajapaksa failed to prepare his country to the organic shift from the inorganic, the implication of Mr Pandey’s Sri Lanka report is that organic fertilizers are bad for farming!

I am neither a seller of organic fertilizers nor an organic farmer; while I believe that organic agriculture is good for your health, including your own country, I a journalist have the obligation to try to convince you, but not force you, to shift to organic fertilizers. I should know my agriculture because I have a BS Agriculture degree major in Agricultural Education from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, UP '65; I should know my journalism, even as a self-taught journalist – and so I do study my subject matter very thoroughly.

A careful reading of the Indian ThePrint scary story on Sri Lanka’s “Journey to the Land of Promise by Organic Farming” has brought out the teacher in me!

Mr Pandey says:

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to impose an economic emergency on 31 August (2021) to contain soaring food inflation, and currency devaluation and forex reserves crisis. … According to the Sri Lankan government, two primary reasons have driven the inflation – crashing tourism due to the pandemic, and hoarding of food items.

It’s clear to me that Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaksa did not see his own mistake in notpreparing his country to the shift to organic farming! Being President, you cannot force a good thing without preparing your people to accept it! Being a journalist, neither can you right a wrong by reporting badly about it!@517

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[1]https://theprint.in/world/how-sri-lankas-overnight-flip-to-total-organic-farming-has-led-to-an-economic-disaster/728414/?fbclid=IwAR0WflzFnZnxVLOW8msPJ30lP9I6Kg115toTwE82zE6R111qzveEtH183K0

“Awan Mangabak” – Ferdinand “FM” Marcos As The Best PH President Ever!

Yes, I am a full-blooded Ilocano (FBI), birthplace Asingan, Pangasinan; Ferdinand “FM” Marcos was an FBI himself, birthplace Sarrat, Ilocos Norte. Yes, I do declare: As President of the Philippines, “Ni FM, awan mangabak” – FM was unbeatable, matchless, supreme.

He didn’t know me from Adam, although he hid from the Japanese once in our hometown during World War 2, as one of his relatives, Angela Valdez got married to one of Asingan’s distinguished gentlemen, Narcisco Ramos, who protected him from the Japanese and/or secret enemies.

Nevertheless, I owe FM much – I owe him my lifetime career as a science writer and an Editor In Chief!

No, he did not know me from Adam, but he created the Forest Research Institute (FORI) out of the research arm of the Bureau of Forest Development (BFD), 19 December 1974 and 4 months later, FORI hired me 16 April 1975, later to become Chief Information Officer (CIO),

I could not have entered the world of science and communication if FM did not create FORI by presidential decree!

Among other things: FM united and masterminded the Asean. He started the Philippines into the geothermal energy circuit. He created our country’s august bodies of science, including the Department of Science & Technology (DoST), and Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquaculture & Natural Resources Research & Development (PCAARRD). Today, DoST & PCAARRD dominate research universe.

In FORI began to blossom my communication career – awan mangabak! As CIO, I fathered and edited the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. How good was I as writer, editor and publisher? I never missed a deadline – and this was in the Age of Dinosaurs (giant typewriters), with commercial printing presses needing 1 week to print a newsletter. Those publications earned for FORI people a reputation for being scholarly and/or knowledgeable, as well as foresters and agriculturists who cared for the forests and the people.

From 1975 to 1981, I grew in reach and results in Communication for Development (ComDev), the theory of which I fashioned inside FORI and published in the 2^ndissue of Habitat, December 1980. I presented ComDev as entirely different from the Theory of Development Communication as expounded by UP College of Agriculture (UPCA) professor Nora C Quebral of the UPCA DevCom Department.

I am a BS Agriculture graduate, major in Ag Edu, Civil Service Professional 1964, graduate of UP '65. I am a self-taught writer, editor and photographer – today, digitally armed to the teeth. And yes, my communication career all began when FM created FORI and FORI took me in, via Technical Services Division Chief Pete Bueno. Salamuch!

FM also created among other bodies UP Los Baños (UPLB) from UP College of Agriculture, and the many first state colleges & universities (SCUs), among others Mindanao State University (1968), Bicol University (1969), Mariano Marcos State University (1978), and Pangasinan State University (1979).

Meanwhile, the many SCUs in the Philippines, awan mangabak – if they wake up from their slumber, they will benefit much from ComDev, including #1 UP Los Baños!@517

 

In PH, Christmas Begins In September – And Now It’s Time To Choose To Give!

Filipinos, let us celebrate Christmas this year much, much more than we ever did before! And let us give the gift of a million thanks to Ronald Mascariñas and his Chooks-to-Goflock for being the most gift-giving people especially to our athletes in 2021. The Filipino athlete has never been so honored as by a chicken!

In the Philippines, the Christmas season began Wednesday, 01 September 2021. How Christmasy can you get? It’s time to be giving gifts!

Not The Hilarios, that is, our parents (Dionisio Hilario and Sixta Agapito) and we three children (Emilio, Frank and Brillita) who lived in the rural village of Sanchez in Asingan, Pangasinan, northern Luzon, Philippines. We were neither poor nor rich. The most luxurious item we ever bought was a crankable phonograph player, a Victrola if I’m not mistaken. I’m talking of the 1950s, from elementary grades to high school. We did not even have a transistor radio.

And we never exchanged gifts! My father always made sure we had a “Christmas Tree” – which was always the top of a pine tree coming from Baguio City, where he had a family friend I have forgotten the family name of. (My brother Emilio was a family guest and he finished high school in Baguio City; he worked his way by helping in the family machine shop & repair business.)

Every year we had the proper branch of a pine tree, Pinus kesiya, native of the Philippines, a “Christmas tree,” that’s what we called it, but we never had any exchange of gifts. But we children could go around the neighborhood, sing Christmas songs, English and Tagalog and Ilocano, and receive some cash, and be happy in sharing the coins.

But where were those Christmas gifts?

In the above image[1], a merchant arranges his wares – star-shaped lanterns most Filipinos call “parol.” At home in Asingan, we spoke of the English name “star” that comes with “Christmas” and the “Christmas tree.” At home, I took care of the signs “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year.” Full-blooded Ilocanos, no, we did not practice exchanging of gifts.

It was enough for us to remember that Someone was born on Christmas Day, or some such day, the Son of God, who rules the Earth and our lives. We have to follow his Ten Commandments, whether we exchange gifts at Christmas time or not.

This year, the  Philippines has much to be thankful for, if you didn’t realize it. One of the most dramatic examples of Christian love has come from Chooks-to-Go. Mr Mascariñas did not have to show it, but he did, sharing his fortune with the little-honored Filipino athletes, especially in the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics 2020 (postponed from last year because of the pandemic lockdowns).

Now then, by way of giving back thanks, why not gift our loved ones, friends and neighbors with a million bites, halves & wholes of Chooks-to-Go chickens from now until the end of the year? Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone!@517

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[1]https://www.ctpublic.org/2018-12-24/love-the-holidays-the-philippines-celebrates-4-months-of-christmas-mania