Digitizing PH Agriculture 2022 – With Central Luzon State University & Department Of Agriculture

Where is the Science of Agriculture in the Philippines leading to now? Good question!

ANN says “DA Launches First National Center For Precision And Digital Agriculture” (Author Not Named, 06 May 2022, Department of Agriculture, DA.gov.ph):

Agriculture Secretary William D Dar spearheaded the inauguration of the Precision and Digital Agriculture Center (PreDiC) facilities located in Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

In the field of precision and digital agriculture, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is starting from scratch.

During the inauguration ceremony on 06 May, Secretary Dar encouraged PreDiC officials and staff to continue bringing in the latest prediction and digital agriculture technologies and to adapt them to the Philippine setting to further improve agricultural production in the country.

In the lower image above, from DataLoop (dataloop.ai), a digitally operated drone sprays the field of what looks like corn. This is precision technology. This is an example of what I think PreDiC is aiming at. I understand Mr Dar is encouraging PreDiC experts to scout around the world and digitize the knowledge as PreDiC content.

“Digital agriculture” to me includes “stored web knowledge in agriculture aimed at being used.” I remember Mr Dar proposing in the early 2000s the “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA)” when he was Director General of ICRISAT. Mr Dar turned ICRISAT from dead last to #1, a dream agency among the 15 international research agencies under the CGIAR; unfortunately OpAPA, which was not directly guided by him, remained a dream.

For OpAPA, I was hired as a communication consultant by PhilRice. To help operationalize the concept, I wrote an entirely digital book, The Geography Of Knowledge (TGoK), 198 pages, that I submitted to Roger Barroga, my immediate supervisor, on 28 Dec 2003. I still have a digital TGoK – I created the whole thing/think out of the mud of my thoughts and knowledge, so I valued it that much. Unfortunately, there was no reaction from PhilRice.

Today I want to revise TGoK and submit to PreDIC to enhance its Digital Agriculture – I call my proposal now Popular Science (PopScience), a Knowledge Bank containing technical knowledge translated into and/or interpreted in popular language. The explanations or elucidations of English terms will be understandable by 3^rdyear high school students.

PopScience will capture & via a website will present already-existing technologies & systems and make them available electronically to schooled as well as unschooled farmers.

PopScience is designed as a digital library for all farmers, presenting:

1.     All known pieces of knowledge necessary for a specific technology, or system.

2.     Options and choices for each knowledge component, such as varieties of rice, location of farm, system of production, harvesting methods, processing of harvest, markets etc.

3.     Machines & equipment for specific purposes explained.

4.     Credit sources & terms, including banks & cooperatives.

5.     Experiences of successful farmers.

PopScience will be useful for formulating training as necessary.

PopScience will later be translated into Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisaya, Muslim etc.)

Not to forget, PopScience will be searchable even by cellphone!@517

“The Measure Of Love Is To Love Without Measure” – St Francis De Sales. The Measure Of Leni Is The Measure Of Love

I have loved Writing since Grade 5, 1951;
I have loved Agriculture since UPCA, 1959;
I have loved Organic Farming since Trash Farming, 1966;
I have loved Blogging since Blogspot.com, 2000.
Endless Loves. True Love is Endless.

(images: Leni quote from Facebook sharing of Elsie Lantican; Heart & Quote from Pinterest.com; “Red Squares & Foot” from me, 28-08-2006)

Whomever you voted as PH President, with the electoral count reporting a Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcoslandslide victory, here comes Leni Robredo with her undying love for her country, my country.

Above is a 2-sentence quote from Leni; I shall now translate it freely:

“Ang pag-ibig, nasusukat hindi lang sa pagtitiis, kundi sa kahandaang lumaban, kahit gaano kahirap, para matapos na ang pagtitiis.”

Love is measured not only in suffering, but also in readiness to fight, no matter how difficult, to end the suffering. 

“Ang nagmamahal, kailangang ipaglaban ang minamahal.”

The lover needs to fight for the loved one.

I love you, Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo; Ma'am: You wring out the best in me!

For this essay, I was looking for quotations of love, and I found via Google Chrome that of “Francis De Sale” – “The measure of love is to love without measure.” When I checked with my favorite quote webpage Goodreads, I found that the correct name of the source is “Francis De Sales,” the saint. And next to that, I found this quote in the title of the book by Ryan Holiday: The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art Of Turning Trials Into Triumph.

The obstacle to Leni’s presidency? Negative election results reported – ah, Ma’am, that is the Obstacle that is the Way.

Obstacles do not get in the way – they are the way!

The Obstacle in my writing is Chemical Agriculture, since 1966, when I accidentally discovered Edward H Faulkner’s “Trash Farming.”

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals & happiness” – Thomas Jefferson, philosopher & American President.

I will now revise Jefferson to say, “Regenerative Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to good wealth, good health, good morals & happiness.”

Back to my lesson from Leni – Now then, to end the sufferings of soils being abused, of food growers not earning much, of fields denied their biodiversity, of human consumers denied healthy foods, and all of us suffering from climate change also because of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from farms big & small:

We must practice Regenerative Agriculture, one method of which is the preparation of organic materials to apply to our farms and/or gardens.

Yes, Ma'am! Yes Sir! Organic farming is natural love bestowed on the land – natural richness, goodness, health. If you apply organic materials to the soil, you feed the invisible organisms such as bacteria, and visible organisms such as bugs & earthworms – they all contribute to making the soil healthy, wealthy and weather-wise!

Regenerative Agriculture is fighting the enemies with 100% Natural Love!@517

For Youths All Over The Philippines, I Say, “The #Futureofwork Is Farming With Your Mind First.” For “The Young Farmers Challenge,” Please Include Regenerative Agriculture!

You have to make farming exciting, challenging. I’m not young anymore; I’m 81 and you may be 18, but if I had a piece of land and some funds, I would attempt farming my way – Minimum Tillage with Maximum Rewards. That would be exciting!

Above, in his intro, Ramon Yedra encourages more of the Filipino youth aged 18-30 to go into agribusiness. Mr Yedra is Director of the Agribusiness & Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) of the Department Of Agriculture (DA); the AMAS is pursuing the program called Young Farmers Challenge (YFC), also referred to as Kabataang Agribiz.

There, Mr Yedra shares link to Kay Calpo Lugtu’s article, “For Young Filipinos, #Futureofwork Is Farming” (21 April 2022, Manila Times, manilatimes.net). Ms Kay says:

… The pandemic's silver lining was that people started thinking about alternatives to working and earning a living. There's a lot of dialogue about how digital technology has changed the way we work but there should be more stories about how lessons from the pandemic changed the way we think and dream about how to live.

Liza Agoot says in a related story (25 April 2022, “DA ‘Challenges’ Cordilleran Youth To Join Agri Tilt” (Philippine News Agency, PNA.gov.ph), that the YFC is a competition of youth aged 18-30 who must submit “brief business proposals” that they will implement if they get selected at any of the competitive 3 stages-levels: provincial, regional, and national. For provincial winners, the prize is P50,000 each for 1,276 winners; for regional winners, P100,000 each for 48 winners; and P300,000 each for 6 national winners. That is to say, a participant who wins all the way to the national level receives a total of P450,000 towards implementing her/his business proposal.

My recommendation here is for the YFC people to encourage contestants to submit Agribiz proposals on RegenerativeAgriculture (RAg).

This digital 81-year old wishes to entice the digital 18-year olds female & male to explore the world of knowledge of RAg, priorly noting what a great many believers of Organic Agriculture (OA) do not realize – that OA is RAg. This assertion is based on both practical experience mixed with book knowledge accumulated since 56 years ago.

Above, the topmost image is my Windows 10 accidental collage (photo taken 25 April 2018). I choose it to insinuate that via the digital world, while you are standing on Philippine soil, you can travel The Information Superhighway! And yes, OA must be explored much more. I am a dedicated preacher of it because not only that it enriches farmers, but it also enriches our foods and impoverishes climate change!

[The lower image that says, “Dear Young People: (1) Never give up” is from my personal collection (17 May 2017; sorry, I forgot to source it).]

To help Philippine agriculture regenerate the healthy soils, biodiversity, foods, pockets and climate, to the 18-30 year-old daughters and sons of Filipino families, I say:
Help!
Dear young people:
(1) Never give up!”@517

Wanted For PH: “Policies For Prosperity” – Adopting Raul Manglapus’ “Christian Social Movement” Plus Applying “Regenerative Agriculture”

Certainly, we Filipinos will have a new President along with the old political system – decidedly, we need to liberate the people from the all-consuming desires of vested political interests, plural. For the proper prosperity of all of us, why not pursue Raul Manglapus’ 1967 “Christian Social Movement”?

(Upper image, “Principles of Ethics/Poverty,” from oecd.org)

And: You Filipino farmers still have the old agriculture system while climate change haunts food production and therefore all food consumption – you need to liberate your farms from your all-consuming habits based on Chemical Agriculture, and regenerate the soil. For the country, please adopt Regenerative Agriculture now!
(lower image, off my ViewSonic monitor, an accidental Windows 10 collage dated 21 April 2018)

Whoever wins as the next President of the Philippines:

We still have a government for the rich and the poor – no Christian sharing.

We still have an agriculture dictated by business – the environment suffers, the majority of farmers suffer. And the whole country suffers climate changes mainly because of our systemic sins in agriculture.

We people are not smart in 2 national ways:
In politics, we are not Primate-Smart.
In agriculture, we are not Climate-Smart.

Being an agriculturist, my questions are:
“Will our New President be Primate-Smart?”
“Will our Old Agriculture become Climate-Smart?”

Does s/he have in her/his mind the decision to re/appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who understands what role is God and/or Mother Nature plays to what happens to Agriculture?

Climate Change is a scientific consensus – or, at least, accepted by the United Nations as a body, of which PH is a part.

Filipinos, get smart! Here is news from the US of A, a message from the Center for Regenerative Agriculture of the University of Missouri: “USDA To Invest $1 Billion In Climate Smart Commodities, Expanding Markets, Strengthening Rural America” (10 May 2022, cra.missouri.edu).

Nationally, our politics must be based on social realities; our agriculture must be based on climate realities.

On 19 Oct 1967, Raul Manglapus spoke to members of the Manila Rotary Club and launched the “Christian Social Movement.” He spoke of the “Need For Ideology” –

Two years ago, I came to this rostrum and explained to you why this ideological vacuum exists. I said:

“Our two-party system is artificial because it is imposed, not evolved; it is protected by inspectors, not by the solidity of programs. I will say more. It is in fact a system of one party with two factions that are assured of perpetual alternation of power.

“Because of this assurance, the factions find no need to develop their own political philosophies, no need to behave, to perform for the people, in order to stay in power.

“Because of this assurance, there is improvisation instead of vision, a merry-go-round instead of a forward march to progress.

“Where there is no Vision, the people perish!” Proverbs 29:18 (NRSV)

Where there is no Vision, Mr Manglapus says, there is only Improvisation.

Now then, if slowly, we must:

Change PH Politics to Christian Socialism.
Change Farming to Regenerative Agriculture.@517

“The Burning Berries” With Coffee Growers In Amadeo, Cavite, PH, And “The Burning Bush” On Mt Horeb With Prophet Moses In Egypt

Coffee is my cup of tea, hehe. I’m a creative writer, and it helps me think this way and that, keeps me alert to think of other possibilities or positions or points to ponder. I’m beginning to write this essay without my companion cup of conducive coffee – how good/bad is that?!

My Nescafé Original cup is almost empty. My favorite was Nescafé Brown, no white sugar, but the supply went zero. Once a coffee addict, always a coffee addict! Now, where is that coffee?!

That is to say, the exacting market is always there – but where’s the exact product?

I now find it has been a slow but sure death. Some 6 months ago, Justin Paolo Interno was already saying, “Farmers in the coffee capital [Amadeo, Cavite] may be fighting an enemy they never knew” (14 Oct 2021, “Eleventh Hour: Amadeo Coffee Farmers Fighting A Lesser-Known Enemy,” Manila Bulletin, MB.com.ph). “The coffee is dying, the industry is dying” – my words, but they reflect the reality.

Why is the coffee industry in Cavite dying? The clue is in the name of the entity Mr Interno is writing for: “Climate Reality Project Philippines.”

The culprit is Climate Change!

Amadeo farmers used to be very proud of their harvest and boast about producing great quality coffee beans back in the ’90s. In recent years though, coffee farmers were frustrated and helpless as their cropping patterns were almost always disrupted by sudden bursts in temperature. In fact, one season, upon celebrating their trees finally reproducing, the temperature spiked, leaving the flowers burnt! A year’s worth of harvest, gone, just like that.

I now imagine God speaking to “Amadeo” (“lover of God”) via “The Burning Berries.” In Mt Horeb, “The Burning Bush” was God speaking to Moses, revealing His power available to Man if he believes. In Cavite, The Burning Berries was God revealing Man’s sin to his crop, and all he needed to do was open his eyes. To what? To Climate Change!
(“The Burning Bush” image from oxford.anglican.org)

World Future Councilsays, “Agriculture is directly responsible for 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions [GHGs]” (21 Oct 2012, “How Does Agriculture Contribute To Climate Change?”  worldfuturecouncil.org). Chemical fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides are major generators of GHGs.

What to do? Instead of Chemical Agriculture (CA), coffee growers, change to Organic Agriculture (OA)!

No, the complete use of organic fertilizers in coffee agriculture would not now drive away those sudden bursts of high temperature that would destroy the berries –

But those coffee plants would grow healthy, very healthy, and would be able to fight hidden enemies as well as bursts of high temperature!

ANN says (Author Not Named, undated, “Healthy Soils Increase Resilience,” Organic Farming Research Foundation, ofrf.org):

Healthy soils have good structure (tilth), which allows them to absorb and hold moisture, drain well, maintain adequate aeration, and foster deep, healthy crop root systems. Such soils sustain crops through dry spells.

I’ll drink to that! Another hot cup of coffee, please!@517

Monday, 09 May 2022, Voting Today In Manila For The Good Of The Many Filipinos I Love Many Times Over, Even If They Don’t Know That I Do!

In the past month, I came to know exactly whom to vote for as President of my country, the Philippines. It’s the Vision that made me decide, not anything else – that I connected with the farmers. (See my essay, “Choosing A President By A Candidate’s Vision…” 08 May 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com.)

My love affair with the millions of poor farmers on the hills and fields officially began on 16 April 1975 Manila time when I started as an Information Editor of the Forest Research Institute (FORI), now the Ecosystems Research Development Bureau(ERDB) but still based on the campus of UP Los Baños.

How happy I was in my FORI journalism for the lowland and upland people? Here’s an in/direct measure:
(“Shadows & Field” image by me, 24 Jan 2019)

Between 1975 and 1980, I became the Founder & Editor in Chief of 3 FORI publications: Canopy, monthly newsletter; Sylvatrop, quarterly technical journal in forestry; and Habitat, quarterly popular magazine.

I say now writing is my first love – and last. There are no writers in the history of the Hilarios (and Agapitos, my mother’s lineage); writing just came naturally. As a student of Rizal Junior College (HS Dept) in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, I was encouraged in my reading with the school’s relatively rich library, especially by Reader's Digest. And I Ilocano won over a native Tagalog speaker to become the highly unusual Tagalog Editor of our school organ!

 At UP Los Baños, I wrote for the Aggie Green & Gold, the student newsletter.

When I was hired by Director Elpidio L Rosario as an Extension Specialist for the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute (FSSRI) of UPLB, I edited the proceedings of an FSSRI seminar, and with my own typing and retyping, I produced the book Focus On The Small Farmer – the title was mine.

Thinking about it now, I can say that the title of that book describes my writing since 1975. 47 years later, with the addition of my blogging skills, I’m still writing for small farmers!

I am the son of a farmer in our hometown in Eastern Pangasinan, with 1 or 2 ha as property. My father Dionisio reached Grade 3; my mother Sixta reached only the Cartilla.

Early on, I understood and sympathized with the unschooled and unskilled farmers. We had a bangkag, upland farm, on which we grew some corn, some tomatoes, and much more eggplants. My mother would bring the eggplants in big baskets to Divisoria (Manila), along with other merchants, on a delivery truck whose owner I never cared to know – I just know my mother made some honest money and made the family happy as well as proud.

Not rich, I must say. Farmers plant, harvest and sell – I never heard of a farmer who became rich out of his farming in our hometown Asingan.

Why not? Which is why I write and continue to write.@517

Choosing A President By A Candidate’s Vision – “Unity” For Bongbong Marcos Vs “Angat Buhay Lahat” (Unity In Diversity) For Leni Robredo

Tomorrow, Monday, 09 May 2022, we Filipinos are going to elect a new President. This is much more than selecting a leader female vs male. To choose, I say you must investigate not your feelings but her/his Vision.

(Leni & Bongbong image from Rappler, Rappler.com, Steve Jobs quote from Canva, quotemaster.org)

Bongbong Marcos’(BBM’s) Vision is “Unity.” Dennis Gutierrez says Bongbong chose Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and their senatorial candidates under UniTeam “because they share a common desire to see people come together and face the challenges ahead with single-mindedness” (06 May 2022, “Bongbong Marcos Urges Pinoys: Vote For Unity, Country’s Future On Monday,” Inquirer, newsinfo.inquirer.net).

Kristine Joy Patag quotes Bongbong as saying in a rally (09 Feb 2022, “It's 'Unity, Unity, Unity' For UniTeam's Presidential Bet Marcos,” PhilStar Global, philstar.com):

“Ang pagkakaisa ay naging adhikain ko dahil sa aking aapat na paniniwala na ng pagkakaisa ay ang unang hakbang upang tayo ay makaraos na sa gitna ng krisis na nasan tayo,” he said.

(Unity has become my advocacy because of my sincere belief that unity is the first step for us to recover from the crisis that we are in.)

Beautiful!

In contrast, as I see it, Leni Robredo’s Vision is “Unity In Diversity” (my restatement of the actual slogan “Angat Buhay Lahat” (Improved Lives For All). Leni is looking to lead the mass of millions, united in their desire to improve their lives, if differently.

Why Unity? Because we are not united as a people: democracy-loving citizens versus believers in Communism, Christians vs Muslims, businessmen vs natives in resource-rich highlands etc. We must first be united to be able to proceed to prosperity.

Why Unity In Diversity? Because millions of Filipinos lead lives at the poverty line, or below. No matter how you cut it, many people are poor. Leni looks at the followers first before she looks at the leaders, the needs of the people first before the wants of their leaders.

As I see it, Leni’s Vision is clearer and appeals to a great many more people, I would say.

As I am an agriculturist and a proselytizer of Communication for Village Development in the 21^stCentury (CoViD21), let me take the case of the tens of millions of farmers – the great majority of them would welcome and support any national program to improve their lives and bring them higher to the level of prosperity, up from their age-old level of poverty!

“Unity In Diversity” – From Poverty to Prosperity, the different Filipino millions deserve to enjoy the same improved lives as long as they practice their industry. Steve Jobs, a great modern mind, tells us that Vision pulls everyone. With the President’s Vision, we Filipinos will rise above poverty!

To restate the political positioning more cogently:

Under Unity (Bongbong), the Leaders are the Masters of the People. The Masses are simply Followers.

Under Unity In Diversity (Leni), the People are the Masters of the Leaders. The Leaders must “Serve the People!”@517