Wensilito F Gomez, The ACPC Pilot Whose Plane Is Loaded With Agripreneurs

Today, in Nueva Ecija, I’m thinking of Wensilito F Gomez thinking of piloting others on their way to becoming agripreneurs, farmers with the entrepreneurial spirit. His plane has the initials ANYO.

(“plane passengers” image[1] from Megapixl)

ANN tells Mr Gomez’ story, “From Dreaming Of Becoming A Pilot To Being A Successful Agripreneur Through The Agri-Negosyo Program[2]” (ACPC, ACPC.gov.ph). Mr Gomez is very happy with the P480,000 borrowed from the Agri-Negosyo (ANYO) Loan Program of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), an agency of the Department of Agriculture. Very happy, because an ANYO loan has zero interest; with it, his agribusiness has grown Big. Mr Gomez’ success should encourage others to cultivate their entrepreneurial spirit.

Wife Josefinasays, “Because of agribusiness, we have helped many people.” (With ANN’s Tagalog interview, I’m translating freely.) Mr Gomez says, “They are part of the business.” That’s attitude – with good attitude comes good vibes. With the ANYO loan, “With a bigger capital, we can buy more. Help more. Not only those in our barangay but other barangays.” They own the W Gomez Vegetables and Grain Trading in Kaliwanagan, San Jose City. Kaliwanagan means “illumination” – Gomez Trading has brought brightness to the marketing of farm produce in those barangays.

ANN says that before all this, Mr Gomez dreamt of becoming a pilot, but his parents, ordinary farmers, could not afford to rent an airplane at P1,000/hour for training. He was working in Manila as an aircraft maintenance technician in the Philippine Airlines and also in the warehouse of Presto Ice Cream, when “his father asked him to return home and help him in their farm.” He returned home, and then he saw the way he could help the farmers: buy their produce and bring it to Manila.

Mr Gomez says:

Farmers like me found a problem with marketing our produce at harvest time. Like now, we have a surplus of pepper, they will find it difficult to sell. Almost giving away the produce. So I thought I could help because I had some knowledge of marketing produce. I also buy palay, to help the farmers, so that the price will not fall that much. That is the business I was thinking.

He tried other business ventures, but agribusiness kept calling him. “Whatever else I did, even if I went to other businesses, agribusiness brought me back.”

So today, farmers in their area do not worry anymore about marketing their produce. “I am now the only merchant here. I do the networking to where the produce will go.”

And today, Mr Gomez is thinking of helping others set their minds in agribusiness. ANN says, “He reminds agripreneurs that they should have commitment to their business.” His advice:

What’s sweet in agribusiness, you are helping the farmers. Not only for you to make money. I teach what I have learned, that farming is a business. What’s the style? I shorten the financial gap between planting and harvesting. The farmer has money while harvesting.

Mr Gomez is helping farmers help themselves!@517

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[1]https://www.megapixl.com/airline-passengers-illustration-12979698

[2]https://acpc.gov.ph/from-dreaming-of-becoming-a-pilot-to-being-a-successful-agripreneur-through-the-agri-negosyo-program/

Rappler Should Know Better Journalism for Bongbong, Toni Gonzaga – And Farmer Juan

Differently, my personal construct is communication for development (ComDev) – read my “Media Is In The Wrong Media Class Struggle – Media Should Be A Force For Good![1]” (14 July 2021, Communication for Development, Blogspot.com).

So! About the YouTubeinterview of Bongbong Marcos by celebrity host Toni Gonzaga, "The Greatest Lesson BongBong Marcos Learned From His Father[2]," ANN writes (Author Not Named, 17 September 2021, Rappler.com):

In an open letter, the Ateneo Martial Law Museum slammed Toni for helping spread propaganda and downplaying the atrocities during the Marcos dictatorship. The group also invited Toni to interview Martial Law victims, and offered to facilitate this if she would agree.

According to its Facebook post, the Ateneo Museum “aims to be a comprehensive online learning resource that our community of educators can use to teach the values of human rights, freedom, democracy, and engaged citizenship to Filipino students.” Unfortunately, neither Ateneo Museum norRappler teaches the exercise of Thinking Journalism that my ComDev necessitates.

Above, the logo-image of Rappler with CEO Maria Ressa says, “Journalism is not a crime.” What the Ateneo Museum and Rappler are observing is the same; I will call it here Contrarian Journalism– when you don’t like someone’s journalism, you denounce it and demand what you want done instead. Isn’t that a crime against humanity?!

In contrast, Toni’s friend Bianca Gonzalez has the attitude of a good journalist (good Christian); she says:

As a friend, I choose to reach out privately and dialogue respectfully, instead of “call out” publicly. Because for me, that is what a true friend would do. Even family and friends can have different views. My friends know that my stand has always been #MarcosNotAHero, and I will continue to be vocal and share my stand.

“Reach out publicly and dialogue respectfully” – that is one thing the Ateneo Museum should have done!

ANN says:

Toni's interview with Bongbong … has drawn criticism, especially from Martial Law victims and their families. The Martial Law years under the rule of Bongbong's father is considered as the dark chapter in Philippine history, marked by atrocities and abuses.

If one YouTube interview with Bongbong can draw such negativity from the Ateneo Museum and Rappler: It may be that we use our journalism to spread bigotry. We may even betray much hate. So, our journalism not only ruffles feathers but ruptures hearts.

What about the 5 million Farmer Juans; what kind of journalism do they deserve from Rappler & the rest of Philippine media?

I already told you: ComDev. That considering all the approaches to development journalism enumerated by Yvonne T Chua in her article “Development Journalism[3]” (Oxford Research Encyclopedias):

The approaches range from development journalists as willing partners of government (statist) to watchdogs (investigative), and from interventionist (participatory or emancipatory) to guardians of transparency.

For Farmer Juan, for continuing and sustainable development not only of his family but of his entire village, my journalism has been and will be always statist, never investigative, always guardian, and always & ever interventionist!@517

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[1]https://communicationfordevelopmentphcomdev.blogspot.com/2021/07/media-is-in-wrong-media-class-struggle.html

[2]https://www.rappler.com/entertainment/celebrities/bianca-gonzalez-response-toni-gonzaga-bongbong-marcos-interview?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1oYwYXqyiQVpzG3WTBb4u3y4BVDngY6GAD2OuoSAzF5tLLsXlPwxdLE3c#Echobox=1631939374

[3]https://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-799

Web Trainings & Seminars – Too Much ICT In India & The Philippines!?

Morning, noon and evening, we have all kinds of information & communication technology (ICT) activities, seminars & trainings; this is all the exciting agricultural extension we need! Isn’t it?

Many and exciting, yes, but not anywhere the complete Extension we need in Agriculture – they are essentially come-ons, patikims (feed-ons), indicators of what people can learn if the extension of knowledge happened by training– necessarily with (a) subsequent refreshing and (b) augmenting the knowledge gained by experience.

After any training, you cannot expect Mastery! Graduating, we only have a novice, a beginner.

Yes, further training must happen after the initial training!
Training makes one somewhat knowledgeable, not fully.

There are several public and private training institutions (and individuals in groups) in agriculture, and they all behave like that – after every training, they act as if they are completely done. And look for other people to train.

No wonder that, for instance, we have extensive monocultures of rice – we train farmers to plant a new, high-yielding rice variety – and nothing more!

What about rice plus fish in the same farm? (Don’t tell me it will be expensive and take a long time: you can produce a training video and simply replay it in subsequent trainings. Or upload it.)

I’m reading the essay of Indian aggie extensionist A Suresh titled “Blog 158 – Streamlining Public Agricultural Extension In India: Indicators Beyond Revenue Expenditure Considerations[1]” (30 August 2021, Agricultural Extension in South Asia, Aesanetwork.org). Mr Suresh is worried that Indian extension is being reduced in personnel because of the very visible “penetration of modern information and communication technologies.”
(top image from Indian website)

India is complaining of too much ICT in agriculture!?

“Calls for reducing staff strength in public agricultural extension services (are) increasingly visible in policy circles, mainly due to revenue expenditure commitments and penetration of modern information and communication technologies.”

What kind of penetration? I am a Filipino extension man, teacher with a BS Agriculture major in Ag Edu from the #1 state college in the Philippines, UP Los Baños, a self-taught digital worker and warrior, now armed with his own theory of Communication for Development (ComDev). Web trainings and webinars are only the beginnings of extension; extension people must continue the actual distribution of bits & pieces of knowledge that a genuine Extension System with a proper Knowledge Bank would present to the public.

Among other things, Mr Suresh points to “the importance of a personal farm-specific advisory appropriate to the specific strengths and opportunities at the farm level.” That, I would say, summarizes the need of farmers for elementary and continuing extension. With ComDev.

(Mr Suresh mentions some regular duties of extension people: “supply of agricultural inputs including seeds and fertilizers, quality checking and certification, disbursal of subsidies and other financial support, crop loss estimates.”)

Webinars and trainings are available to all, but each one is only the beginning of extension, not the end of it! Otherwise, the effect will be the same if you simply distribute a farming manual in the local dialect!@517

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[1]https://www.aesanetwork.org/blog-158-streamlining-public-agricultural-extension-in-india-indicators-beyond-revenue-expenditure-considerations/?fbclid=IwAR2hBwOhgzu7LJwHlk13Au1ADrrG24Kpm0hoZb3gJwdX_Sd7as4BuaVjK4E

The Future Of Us & The Future Of Agriculture

Yesterday, 17 September 2021, was my birthday; now 81 – what is The Future Of Me? I pray to God I will live forever! At least up to 100. What is The Future Of Man? Let’s see!

“What is the Future of Agriculture & Farming Techniques?[1]” ANN asks (Author Not Named, 31 July 2021, Scynce LED, Scynceled.com; upper image from this website). The givens are:

Agriculture is the backbone of societies across the world… With the global population expected to peak at 9.7 billion by 2050, experts predict worldwide production must increase by 70% within the next 30 years.

Contrariwise, the pertinent lessons I have learned as a warrior writer – no, not a worrier writer– in the last 57 years counting when I graduated from UP Los Baños, are these givens:

1.     Nature: It must be understood.

2.     Agriculture: It must be changed.

3.     Population: It must be positioned.

4.     Production: It must be qualified.

Nature to be understood

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin was a Catholic priest, philosopher and scientist. Of him, Mareike Christin Dornhege says (“The Role Of Nature For The Future Of Man[2],” website source of lower image above):

De Chardin reminds us that (we) humans, albeit the highest point of organization and consciousness in evolution, must not forget (our) roots. And our roots are in this world, to which we are deeply connected… Hence, it is within our best interest… (to) increase our “scope for action” and preserve God’s creation, including plants, animals and ourselves.

Conservation is a mandate of the Divine!

Agriculture to be changed

I say agriculture should be producing healthy foods. There are many organic ways of growing crops and livestock, but they are not being explored extensively because chemical methods provide faster, wider and higher incomes.

Population to be positioned

The “rampant” increase in population continues to be the whipping horse of the United Nations and its agencies. The real problem is economic astigmatism! Thus: The local approachable moneylenders rob the farmers blind even if they are related in blood or in law.

Production increase to be qualified

Production efficiencyis the hugher problem, not increase. Example: Most Filipino farmers do not observe the proper age of transplanting rice – they transplant when these are a month old, when the root system easily breaks, delaying recovery, wasting growing time. They also do not observe the proper & equal distancing of seedlings, to allow adequate and healthy growth. Unknowingly, they also transplant too many seedlings!

The Scynce LED Solution: Forget Outdoor Farming!

Instead of helping solve the problems it enumerated above and which I dissected, the Scynce LED solution is indoor farming – that is to say, leave the outdoor farmers alone to worry about their problems!

ANN says:

At Scynce LED, we are firm believers that farming in the future will predominantly occur within an indoor environment. Technology has reached a point where indoor future farming techniques can quickly overthrow traditional soil farming.

No, ladies & gentlemen, I do not favor the idea that man can “overthrow traditional soil farming”!@517

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[1]https://scynceled.com/blog/future-of-agriculture/?fbclid=IwAR0DDGU7iNWAai3Yr-IdJjS_PrqfjSWMg1aWliTGXOJRj1lDbGRgZtUXl-s

[2]http://www.st.sophia.ac.jp/chardin/pdf/15_dornhege.pdf

17 September 2021 – Inviting You To Celebrate A Life, PH Agriculture & American English!

Today, Friday, 17 September 2021, sans party, with my birthday book “81 For 81” let us celebrate the village life, PH Agriculture, and American English!

Why read “81 For 81”? It’s Original! It’s Instructional! It’s Inspirational! A one-of-a-kind thing like me! It’s Agriculture but not boring! It’s journalism but not jarring!

Today I am 81 years old, and my book has 81 chapters. I produced this book on communication in agriculture to Inspire, Inform, Instruct, Inquire and Invigorate – I’m Ilocano and I love American English!

With my book, you as:

Journalist? Be inspired on how to tackle issues – positively.
Writer? Be inspired on how to write.
Executive? Be inspired yourself.
Student? Read for ideas on what & how to write.
Parent? Read and discuss ideals with the children.
Teacher? Read and inspire your students.
Speaker? Read and see how to develop topics.
Simple Reader? Read and simply enjoy!

The above image is from the book cover. Can you guess where I took my own portrait? Inside a bus. I used my Lumix FZ100 digital camera with AI (iA) capabilities – just point and shoot!

There is a 3^rd “81” – You pay only P81 a copy for a book of 517 pages – “517” is “Frank A Hilario.”

Since it’s digital, you are generous if you share your copy with your family and friends so that nobody else has to pay P81 for a copy – but that means you are selfish because you do not want to share an original copy for only P81 with your family or friend?!

Yes, this is my birthday gift to the world, a book thick with theory & practice on communication for development (ComDev) aimed at servants public & private working to help the poor farmers & fishers in the villages rise from poverty – and stay up there!

Yes, this is my birthday gift to you & me – For every P100 you send to me, you get 1 copy – and I credit P19 as your birthday gift to me in cash. No return, no exchange! I’m not ambitious. If 500 of you sent each P100 for a copy, that would be a total of P50,000 in book orders, wouldn’t it? Not bad!

My book is ready to read on your computer, in portable document format (pdf), so you can read it almost anywhere.

17 September 2021. Thank you, Lord! I’m 81 exactly. I’m not rich; I’m not poor – isn’t life itself a blessing?!

Today, instead of a party, I celebrate with a new book, a collection of essays selected from 5,000+ of my blogposts written since 2007. All from my blogging, meaning published online, with my writing in the manner & matter of ComDev.

Did you know? I am a graduate of BS Agriculture, major in Ag Edu, UP '65, teacher with Civil Service eligibility, ’64, Professional Level. I taught myself digital skills, to be all of these: Writer, Editor, Desktop Publisher, Blogger, and Photographer. Am I perfect? No, but I must be good. Read and be the judge!

Email:frankahilario@gmail.com@517

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