Hybrid Rice Companies, Why Don’t They Sell Their Seeds By Packaging With Farmer Choices Between Chemical And Organic Fertilizers? For Much Better Business – And Much Better Climates!

Hybrid Rice (HR) is not my hot cup of coffee, but it struck me this morning, Wednesday, 27 April 2022, that HR companies could help themselves sell more of their packages of wonder seeds – and at the same time be very agriculture-friendly – 2 birds with 1 stone.

As a volunteer promoter of PH Agriculture, I am thinking of proclaiming the wonders of HR along with the wonders of regenerative organic agriculture – your hybrid rice helping the farmers bring about 2 victories: (1) rise over their own poverty and (2) simultaneously rise above climate change!

It will be historic – private interest in agriculture bringing about public interest in climate change.

I am speaking as the forward-looking originator and promoter of Communication for Village Development in the 21^st Century (CoViD21). I am a UP Los Baños graduate, BSA major in Ag Edu – an agriculturist and a teacher. My grade is nothing to sneeze at despite several 5’s: 2.36 Weighted Average. And I have been blogging in Agriculture in the last 22 years with something like 9 million words written in proper essay form.

I hereby declare that hybrid rice can be more successfully propagated among the 10 million Filipino rice farmers if it is associated with:

(1)    Defeating poverty of rice farmers, and

(2)    Defeating climate change!

How? Practicing organic farming.

Yes, Sirs, if you did not know, organic farming is regenerative farming, bringing back the:

(1) natural richness of the soil;
(2) crop of its natural goodness – from natural elements in the organic matter come the healthy nutrients in the food we eat;
(3) health of our bodies as we consume the healthy foods;
(4) Earth’s health as it contributes zero to greenhouse gases that produce climate change.

What more could we ask?!

I have a running respect for hybrid rice companies. After all, they came 20 March 2019, when PH’s 8^thNational Rice Technology Forum (NRTF) happened in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan – the above is my 06:11 AM photograph of the “Welcome to Asingan, Pangasinan” sign at the border of Asingan and Urdaneta City. The companies that participated in the NRTF included Advanta, Bayer, BioRice, Corteva, and Longpin.

Luisa Maria Jacinta C Jocson is positive about HR; she says, “Hybrid Rice Touted As Higher Yielding Despite Expense” (07 Feb 2022, BusinessWorld, businessworld.com). Yet, she says, as of 15 Jan, hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice lands remained unplanted to hybrid rice, 614,619 ha against a total of 152,000,000 ha, or only 40%.

I declare: Hybrid rice companies could sell much, much more if they packaged agricultural scientific choices along with agribusiness tips – in popular language – with their wonder seeds.

I mean, they need a copywriter who is also conversant with the technology. As a UP Los Baños graduate who has been blogging in the last 22 years about agriculture:

I am volunteering to mastermind 1 hybrid rice-organic agriculture brochure for free! First come, first served. PM me for email.@517

Can You Grow Sugarcane Solely By Organic Fertilizer? CaneCo In The Antilles Archipelago Shows The World How!

“Trash Farming” I discovered for myself in 1966 browsing the open shelves of the library of UP College of Agriculture (now UP Los Baños) and accidentally finding the 2 books of Edward H Faulkner, American farmer: Plowman’s Folly (1943) and Soil Development (1952). To me, agriculture has never been the same since. 

I am reading a very happy report by ANN published by CaneCo in its website: “Trash Farming – Simple But Effective!” (Author Not Named, 21 Dec 2020, CaneCo, caneco.gd). CaneCo is located in Grenada in the Antilles Archipelago. ANN says:

The concept of trash farming – or simply put mulching – has been around for a long time in the sugar cane industry and scientifically studied since around the 1950s. It’s only in recent decades though that sugarcane producers have really started paying attention to preserving soil fertility this way.

In the Philippines, UPLB professor Teodoro C Mendoza says rice straw is still only used as feed for cattle, not recycled in the field; for sugarcane, 36% of trash is returned to the soil (“Enhancing Crop Residues Recycling in the Philippine Landscape,” uploaded 03 May 2015, downloadable from ResearchGate, researchgate.net).

About trash farming in rice, I have a personal story – that happened after I discovered Faulkner’s books. That time, my father Dionisio was preparing our 1 ha of land for rice in Domanpot in our hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, and he had engaged the services of a big Howard tractor with rotavator. This was my chance to be innovative. Inspired by what I learned from Faulkner, I ordered the Howard operator to set to zero the cutting of the blades, just run them over the field, thank you very much!

Some 15 or 20 years later, my brother-in-law Enso Casasos, who was present as our farmhand and heard & saw everything during that Domanpot rotavator episode, told me in Ilocano (I’m translating freely now): “Manong, do you remember what you told the Howard operator? He was smiling in one corner of his mouth!” (“umis-isem isuna ti bangbangir!”)

Why because the tractor was only rolling along on the field, barely consuming oil, not digging the soil. What the Howard operator did not know was that the rotavator blades were actually cutting the soil andthe weeds into nice pieces and mixing them at the same time in one rotary motion – not part of learning how to drive a tractor with a rotavator, is it? This actually and effectively and automaticallylaid a layer of trash all over the field – organic matter at your prayer request!

I now call the process “Rotavator Organic WEALth – Weeds-Enriched Automatic Layer of Trash to Trigger Terrestrial Health.” (See my 16 Feb 2022 essay, “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com).

Rotavator Organic WEALth is what I can offer rice farmers and sugarcane growers, among other farmers in the Philippines and the rest of the world – and it is what I can proudly demonstrate to CaneCo in the Antilles Archipelago!@517

What Is Wrong With Our Education? It’s Not What We Teach But How We Teach That Is The Problem!

Australia-born Filipino businessman Peter Wallace reminds us today that in 2019 the Philippines ranked the lowest in Grade 4 Math and Science among 58 countries studied (25 April 2022, “Our Future At Risk,” Inquirer, Inquirer.net). That our future is at risk, I agree. What do we do now, if late?

His advice is based on the results of the American 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (Bonz Magsambol, 09 Dec 2020, “PH Lowest Among 58 Countries In Math, Science – Global Assessment,” Rappler, Rappler.com).

Mr Wallace does not suggest a specific educational initiative to improve Filipino Math and Science performances, but I will – after all, I am the teacher, a UP Los Baños BSA Ag Edu graduate, with a 1964 Civil Service Professional license.

Educational example: Should Agriculture be mostly Math and Science? Ah, I think that is where the problem lies! We teach Math and Science as logical progressions solely:

From Grade School to Grad School, teachers emphasize memorizing, not thinking!

Thus, we teach: “1 + 1” equals “2” – that is correct, but we stop there.
(upper image from PNG, png.egg.com)

“Can we teach Math and Science also outside of logic?” The thinking answer is, “Yes!”
(lower image from NewPath Learning, newpathlearning.com)

We can teach other ways how we get 2, or why, such as “7 – 5” and ”12 ÷ 6” and ”2 x 1.”

Even with basic math operations, we can teach thinking!

And therefore, since the other 57 TIMSS countries do not teach what I have just taught you, they are as poor in teaching from Grade School to Grad School as we Filipinos are!

To show how to teach thinking now then, following my chosen college field, I will now teach you Agriculture: Regenerative Agriculture (RAg) no less.

High school math lesson in RAg:

Instead of P5,000 for chemical fertilizer, you spend P1,000 to create your own organic fertilizer – did you lose or gain?

At any level, that’s intelligent teaching!

The trouble with the Philippine educational system is that we do not teach our teachers to teach thinking but to teach memorizing Math and Science!

Another RAg lesson in thinking, college level:

What happens when you add nothing but organic fertilizer for 5 years to the farm that has been fertilized with NPK for the last 50 years?

Excellent question!

Here are other intelligent RAg questions:

“What happens to your body when you consume healthy food?”
“What happens to the costs & returns of the farmer when s/he practices organic farming instead of chemical farming?”
“What happens to the contribution of greenhouse gases when the farm no longer uses chemical fertilizers?”

The problem in PH Agriculture is that not one of the state colleges & universities (SCUs) of the Philippines teaches organic farming, which is a form of RAg. That is to say, the SCUs are hardly teaching thinking to Agriculture students.

The hurtful truth is that from Grade School to Grad School, our teachers mostlyteach memorizing, and hardly teach thinking!@517

Climate Change, The World At Large And I As Prophet Of Boom – Regenerative Agriculture

None of the PH Presidentiables is talking about what more havoc Climate Change can bring to Agriculture, the #1 industry in the Philippines. That is not surprising, as even the #1 university of agriculture in the country, UP Los Baños, is hardly talking about this universal danger!

In next May or June, with a new President of my country, current Secretary of Agriculture William Dar may be replaced (I hope not) – but this current overall farming-related problem will not be replaced: Chemical Agriculture (CA) wreaking havoc on the environment by generating greenhouse gases (GHGs).

How large is the GHGs contribution of CA? ANN says the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says (Author Not Named, undated, “Greenhouse Gas Reduction,” iaea.org):

Agriculture is both a victim of and a contributor to climate change. On the one hand, agricultural activities contribute approximately 30 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and animal wastes.

The IAEA says 30% is what CA contributes to the total GHGs of the world – If we worry only about so much destruction brought about by modern typhoons and not about what magnifies their furies, we are deceiving ourselves.

To fight climate change, as much as we can, we must do something about our CA practices!

On Facebook, Ramon Yedra, Director of Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) of the Department Of Agriculture (DA), shares “For Young Filipinos, #Futureofwork Is Farming,” the article by Kay Calpo Lugtu (21 April 2022, Manila Times, manilatimes.net). But I say, “For Young Filipinos, #Futureofwork is Regenerative Agriculture (RAg)! And organic agriculture is RAg.”

I say the AMAS has to exuberantly encouragethe youth to go into agriculture because it is a dismal career.

Why? Because state colleges & universities (SCUs) have not been teaching the youth how to make Agriculture lucrative! And so, just as our favorite farm/folk song goes on and on, “Planting rice is never fun!”

To make agriculture attractive to Filipinos, let us make it not only well-paying but also patriotic – by educating citizens not only about costs & returns, but also about how agriculture produces GHGs that directly cause climate change.

Why not the Agricultural Credit & Policy Council (ACPC) providing very easy loans to attract farmers to practice RAg? The ACPC will then be the Godmother of Primate Change!

In the last 113 years, since the founding of UP Los Baños in 1909, our SCUs have taught farmers to be good farmers but not good businessmen! So farming remains essentially a win-or-lose job. And they never teach how CA generates GHGs, so we continue practicing CA.

The problem is not with the youth – the problem is that agriculture is not an attractively high-paying job! And that is where RAg comes in.
(“Young Filipinos” image from Rappler, Rappler.com)

Just a simple arithmetic – RAg reduces fertilizer costs to minimum while it reduces GHGs to maximum; therefore, returns from RAg is maximum even as the generation of GHGs is at minimum.

RAg should be Agriculture’s RAGE!@517

The New Agriculture – The Old Thinking!

Here come the Wait Watchers of Philippine Agriculture calling for “New Administration, New Agriculture” via Ernesto M Ordoñez, businessman columnist of the Inquirer (22 April 2022, “New Administration, New Agriculture,” business.inquirer.net). I say Mr Ordoñez, also AgriwatchChair, is 90% right in his assessment of PH Agriculture under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. That remaining 10% belongs to Vision.

Mr Ordoñez reports well on the updated National Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization & Industrial Plan (NAFMIP) for 2021-2030 presented for approval by the DA on 18 April 2022. ANN says the proposal was prepared and consolidated by the National Agriculture & Fisheries Council (NAF) – (see Author Not Named, 19 April 2022, “NAF Council Recommends Endorsement Of NAFMIP For Approval Of DA Sec,” PCAF, pcaf.da.gov.ph).

Mr Ordoñez says:

Learning from the agriculture industry’s past performances will help improve the next administration’s governance.

Yes Sir, but the DA must not stop after studying the past PH Agriculture performance. Indeed, this DA did not stop. In fact, even before Mr Dar became Secretary of Agriculture, he already had in mind and in digital media his quite original “The New Thinking For Agriculture” that appeared in his column of 20 June 2019 in The Manila Times (manilatimes.net). Already on PH Agriculture, years before now Mr Dar was already thinking – and doing – ahead of all of us! What did the Bible say again? James 1:22 (NRSV): “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
(“New Agriculture” image from Executive Yuan, English.ey.gov.tw)

Happily, Mr Ordoñez reports on the “guiding stars” of the New Agriculture Plan:

The first is “raising profitability and total incomes.”
The second guiding star is “promoting health and nutrition.”
The third guiding star is “environmental sustainability and resilience.”

If I may mention my own thinking on those 3 topics, I already have translated that Vision into 5 “Happy” issues (see my essay, “’For A Happy Philippines!’ Me Thinking Of PH Presidentiable’s Leadership & Ed Garcia Tinkering With The Qualifications Of BBM As Candidate For President. But First Of All, I Ask: ‘How Do We Make Agriculture Happy?’” 11 Feb 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com):

1. Happy Soils
2. Happy Foods
3. Happy Air
4. Happy Environment
5. Happy Economics.

All that via? Organic Agriculture!

Mr Ordoñez then ends his column saying:

Though needing further adjustments, the improved [National Agriculture & Fisheries Modernization & Industrial Plan] should guide the new administration in birthing a new agriculture.

“In birthing a New Agriculture” sounds like the past 3 years with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has been laboring helplessly with the Old Agriculture!

That is not fair. On 05 August 2019, when PRRD appointed him Secretary, Mr Dar already had “The New Thinking For Agriculture” as I mentioned earlier, with the following 8 supporting pillars/paradigms:

(1) Modernization
(2) Industrialization
(3) Promotion of exports
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development
(6) Higher budget & investment
(7) Legislative support
(8) Roadmap development.

Mr Dar is a visionary. When Mr Ordoñez calls for a “New Agriculture,” he is 3 years late!@517

“The Glad State Of Filipino Farmers” – In Dealing With The Climate Crisis, With The Powers We Have In Our Minds & Hands, With Current Science & Technology, How Do We Make Our Farmers Happy Male Or Female?

In the field of Agriculture, people worry: the knowledgeable about Climate Crisis, farmers about destruction by typhoons of crops & dwellings, and scientists about declining yields. How do you resolve all that?

Last Thursday, I blogged my essay titled “’Copy Our Neighbors’ – Advice From Former NEDA Chief Cielito F Habito. My Advice: A Bigger DA Budget With Additional P50 Billion For Barangay-Based Organic Options” (21 April 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com).

Among other things, I proposed an organic agriculture program I called “Barangay-Based Agriculture Revitalized with Organic Options Advancing Basic Intelligence In Living Intimately with Nature (BARO A BILIN) – Ilocano to English: “New Instructions.” I proposed an additional budget for the Department Of Agriculture (DA) of P50 Billion for BARO A BILIN alone.

On Facebook, 3 commented and 2 did not approve of the idea. How un/lucky can you get! Anyway, let’s hear from them:

Retired UPLB professor Teodoro “Ted” Mendozacommented:

Not that quick Frank. Soil OM [organic matter] has declined from.40 to 60%. Return all OM or crop residues is not enough. There is a need to add more to avoid yield drop.

Ted Mendoza is saying that all soil OM must be returned, or suffer the predictable yield decline.

Former PhilRice Executive Director Santiago R Obien (SRO), also UPLB alumnus, commented:

Agriculture – we balance the science and technology – the universe of plants and animals cannot be simplified into just one factor like Organics. We go step by step – it’s not elimination but balancing!

Perhaps SRO was overwhelmed by my proposed P50,000,000,000 budget for organic agriculture, so he failed to notice that BARO A BILIN is an additionalprogram, not designed to replace all programs of the DA. Neither did I say we eliminate chemical agriculture (CA) at once!  

A third reader and another UPLB alumnus, Reynaldo Mendoza commented:

For rice alone, it may be difficult to give some "straight/blanket" OM figures. As of 1998 (if I remember right), PSB/PH Seed Board has 220 Different Rice cultivars/ecotype recommendations. C4 is still around😀😀!! (Source: DA/ATI/BAR).Cheers!!

At least I can cheer somewhat. I’m glad Rey Mendoza points out that there are a great number of rice varieties/cultivars to choose from if you were worried about yields.

Whatever. I must emphasize that the last worry should be crop yieldwhen resorting to organic agriculture – the first worry should be farmer income!

Even assuming that the yield of the crop decreases, the total cost of organic agriculture is much lower than the total cost of chemical agriculture!

Gentlemen, never forget costs & returns. Therefore, with organic fertilizers much cheaper than chemical fertilizers, the farmer’s net income goes up even if his yield goes down!

Organic agriculture rewards the farmers, enriches our bodies with healthy foods – and impoverishes the climate of its greenhouse gases. With OA, aren’t we glad we are thrice winners?!@517
(Images: “Sad State of…” YouTube.com, “Happy farmer” Freepik.com)

My Celebration Of “Earth Day” April 22 Comprises A Cerebration Of Natural Agriculture: “PH Has 165,000 Organic Farms!” – William Dar

In New Delhi, India on Wednesday-Thursday, 20-21 April, they held the “BioAg Asia 2022” conference with delegates from many Asian countries. I write & think, “How can BioAg be a celebration of Earth Day, which is Friday, 22 April 2022?”

I googled for “biological agriculture” and found zero source; I think the term was invented for the conference.

What about “natural agriculture”? ANN says PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar gave the opening remarks (Author Not Named, 21 April 2022, “Phl Agri Chief Supports Bio-Agriculture As Key Strategy For Food Sustainability,’ DA.gov.ph) – actually, Mr Dar supported and enlarged the scope of BioAg 2022:

[He] encouraged more than 100 delegates from dozens of Asian countries to promote and implement natural and biological solutions to produce more with less, particularly in the judicious and balanced use of organic and inorganic farm inputs to enhance crop yields, ensure quality of produce, and subsequently increase farmers’ incomes.

The conference is on “biological agriculture” – the application of biological science & technology (S&T) on food production; nonetheless, Mr Dar intelligently interjected “natural… solutions to produce more with less.”

I am sure the BioAg delegates expected Mr Dar to talk only about “biological solutions” as the conference was so dedicated, but he has always been a bold mind and an original. When he was the Director General of ICRISAT, based in India, he came up with the intellectually enervating Vision – “Science with a human face.” With that as Guiding Star, from 2000 to 2014, Mr Dar’s outstanding servant leadership brought ICRISAT from dead last to #1 among 15 international agricultural research centers under the CGIAR, including the world-famous IRRI.

During the BioAg, he discussed what the PH DA has been doing in terms of utilizing S&T “to promote and implement biological and natural solutions to produce more with less, particularly in the judicious and balanced use of organic and inorganic farm inputs to enhance crop yields, ensure quality of produce, and subsequently increase farmers’ incomes.”

For Earth Day’s sake, I am more interested in organic farming. On this topic, Mr Dar said:

We have doubled our efforts in promoting organic farming through our National Organic Agriculture Program, and have posted the highest growing numbers of organic vegetable producers in the world with more than 165,000 organic farms.

The Philippines now has 165,000 organic farms, the world’s highest growing number! As a blogger Towards A New Eden, that’s heavenly music to my Filipino ears.
(towardsaneweden.blogspot.com)

ANN says also about BioAg 2022:

As the world faces the dilemma of dwindling yield and unproductive lands due to overuse of chemical inputs, key players in bio-agriculture in Asia have joined forces to discuss policy measures and come up with expeditious initiatives toward global food sustainability, with emphasis on environmental protection and biodiversity.

“Toward global food sustainability, with emphasis on environmental protection and biodiversity” – I think these are achievable with organic agriculture, to make possible:

Every single day Earth Day!@517
(“Make every day Earth Day” image from iStock, istockphoto.com)