PH Agriculture Deliver-E – Death To The Merchants Of Venice!

 

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar says, “Online is the new byword in food security” (14 December 2020, DA press release). That is on the occasion of the launching of Deliver-E on Monday, 14 December 2020, with additional P20 million grant, on which USAID Philippines Mission Director Patrick Wesner said[1] (Catherine Talavera, “USAID Allots P20 Million For Deliver-E Expansion,” Philstar.com):

This expansion seeks to improve user interface, onboard more farmer cooperatives and institutional buyers, and integrate supply and demand analytics functions that can help inform government policies and interventions to strengthen the country’s agribusiness value chain.

Miss Catherine says:

Deliver-E is a digital platform that connects farmers to buyers through an efficient and transparent end-to-end market-based system. It operates through a sophisticated blockchain technology developed by a Filipino tech startup, Insight Supply Chain Solutions.

In Deliver-E, the user-interface is digital; the farmer cooperatives are the suppliers of farm produce that eventually reach institutional buyers via the value chain. Deliver-E insures that the food supply is available anywhere in the country.

Jun Yap says (14 December 2020, “Deliver-E: ‘Game-Changer’ For Farmers, Consumers,” Tribune.net.ph): “This initiative is all about bringing farm produce closer to consumers and cutting layers of traders.”

Essentially, Deliver-E connects electronically the demand and supply of farm produce, eliminating the middleman and, thereby ensuring that the farmer receives the fair market value of the sweat of his labors. Now then, Deliver-E enables the farmer to avoid low prices for his produce, always and ever.
(“Umiwas sa mababang presyo[2]” image from YouTube.com) – “Avoid low prices” offered by middlemen

“This initiative is all about bringing farm produce closer to consumers and cutting layers of traders. Through technology and innovation, it will be game-changing not only for our farmers but also for our consumers[3],” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said (ANN, 15 December 2020, “Deliver-E Will Be ‘Game-Changing’ For Farmers And Consumers – DTI Chief,” DailyGuardian). According to Mr Lopez, “Deliver-E is a digital platform that connects farmers to buyers through an efficient and transparent end-to-end market-based system.”

Mr Lopez also said, “This is part of our strong partnership with Agriculture Secretary William Dar as we jointly work on solutions to increase farmers’ income, provide better supply chain in agriculture and its link to industry processors or direct to marketplace, and delivering fresher products for consumers.”

Actually, the initial launch of Deliver-E was in April 2020 yet, or 7 months ago. ANN says, “Since April, this innovative platform has mobilized over 260 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables and recorded more than P7.15 million worth of transactions.”

Fresh produce, fair price, faster, even for/from far-flung areas. That’s what Deliver-E promises. Good for farmers, good for consumers – bad for the middleman who always takes advantage of the supply-sale situation.

However, there is a catch – Deliver-E rewards more the more efficient farmer than the one who does not care about costs & returns, and even borrows from a usurer for his expenses!

Deliver-E delivers death to the Merchants of Venice!
It also delivers disappointments to the inefficient farmers.
Fair enough!?@517

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/15/2063766/usaid-allots-p20-million-deliver-e-expansion

[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koxYZY0NrEk

[3]https://dailyguardian.com.ph/deliver-e-will-be-game-changing-for-farmers-and-consumers-dti-chief/

PH #58 Among 58 Countries In Math & Science – So, Where Do We Get Our Youth Entrepreneurs?!

 

Led by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, the Department of Agriculture, DA, now has the Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs, KAYA, a loan program for farming or fishery offered to eligible young borrowers between 18 and 30 years of age, male or female[1] (DA.gov.ph). Tough luck! I say. For entrepreneurship, you need some knowledge of math and science and – lo and behold! The results of the 2019 “Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study” show this: “PH Lowest Among 58 Countries In Math, Science – Global Assessment[2]” (Bonz Magsambol, 09 December 2020, Rappler.com). Those are Grade 4 pupils; when they reach Senior High School, same story. Dull in Math, Dull in Science. It’s the system, stupe!

In entrepreneurship, you need some math, some science. So, where will the DA get our promising young entrepreneurs? I teacher say we have to produce them by all intelligent means possible.
(“youth entrepreneurs” image[3] from Youthentrepreneurs.org)

I Agriculturist will not bother Department of Education, let them solve their own problems. But I will recommend to the state colleges & universities, SCUs, care of Commission on Higher Education, CHEd, that SCUs create their own youth entrepreneurship diploma courses teaching intelligent math and discerning science.

That is a demanding task, but it has to be done. CHEd should able to come up with a youth entrepreneurship diploma or something.

Teaching math: The teaching must go beyond letters, numbers, calculations. Don’t teach Addition, Subtraction, Division and Multiplication – for those 4 operations, teach the use of the calculator instead! Or the laptop. Me, I use Word 2016: plus, minus, multiply, divide.

Rather, teach to think. Like, how do you get 2? 1 plus 1. 3 minus 1. 4 minus 2. 5 minus 3. And so on. Teaching series.

Thinking Math, from Prodigy[4]:

Adrianna needs to cut a pan of brownies into pieces. She cuts 6 even columns and 3 even rows into the pan. How many brownies does she have?

My answer: 28.
Your answer: 18.

When you cut 6 columns intothe pan, it becomes 7 columns; when you cut 3 rows into the pan, it becomes 4 rows. 28!

The answer is different if you say:

Adrianna needs to cut a pan of brownies into pieces. She cuts 6 even columns and 3 even rows out of the pan. How many brownies does she have?

My answer is the same as yours: 18.

What did I say? Teach thinking! (The problem is from Prodigy; the thinking is from Frank A Hilario.)

Clue: Check out the precise language of the 2 similar/dissimilar problems.

Thinking Science, from ResearchGate[5]:

(With AI), the first time in human history, we aren't the smartest creatures on the planet Earth

Answers:

Yes, if you consider speed of solving and complexity of problem being solved.

No, if you consider that it was man who invented AI in the first place!

In teaching youth entrepreneurs in agriculture or in any other related field, think about that:

Teach Thinking!@517

 

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[1]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-offers-youth-agripreneurs-affordable-start-up-loans/

[2]https://www.rappler.com/nation/filipino-students-lagging-behind-math-science-timms-international-results-2019?utm_source=Rappler+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6061f7d869-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_12_09_09_07_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d18b1557b8-6061f7d869-96270969&mc_cid=6061f7d869&mc_eid=c524af51e9

[3]https://www.youthentrepreneurs.org/about/media-resource/logo-gallery

[4]https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/math-word-problems/#addition

[5]https://www.researchgate.net/topic/Education-Science

Climate Change – Bad Agriculture Is More Guilty Than Bad Forestry!

It’s the perspective, folks. With Covid-19, you are mistaking the cause of the disease with the disease itself!

From Indonesia, Rizki Fachriansyah writes “Scientists Call For Integrated One Health Approach To Climate, Disease Mitigation[1]” (09 December 2020, climatechange.searca.org):

Recent studies show that the increased transmission of zoonotic diseases – diseases that spread from animals to humans – is largely caused by man-made disturbances to natural ecosystems, including human encroachment of the natural habitats of wild animals.

No Sir! The perspective is erroneous– the coronavirus that spreads from some wild thing to humans is not the disease; rather, with favorable conditions obtaining, the virus causes the Covid-19 disease to develop within the human body.

Note: It is the prior health condition of your body that enables or disables the virus to cause the disease. When it comes to human health, it is not the health of the forest that it is dependent on.

And upon what is your health condition dependent? Largely upon the food that you eat, which essentially comes from the farm, not the forest.

Ergo: Your health depends on the environment of your food source, not the environment of the deforested mountain in your city or locality.

Ergo: You must practice healthy agriculture. No man-made, un-natural foods for your crops or livestock. No inorganic fertilizers, no weedicides, no insecticides, no fungicides, no antibiotics, no growth hormones.

Mr Fachriansyah says:

Environmental health scientists are calling for an integrated approach to prevent future outbreaks of disease as well as to mitigate the climate crisis.

Integrated Approach. Okay, let us talk about environmental health. We must consider both environments: the forest and the farm.

In the Philippines alone, there are 13.4 million hectares of farm[2] (Statista.com), and 5.7 million hectares of forest[3] (FAO.org). In terms of climate change, do you know what that means? I don’t think so, because I am the only one thinking like this:

From the cultivated farms come nitrous oxide and methane; from those farms go back by reflection the most heat to the atmosphere. We have to mind the deforested mountains too, but the fact is that it is the active farms that cause much of climate change, not mountains that lack forests!

So, if we want to resolve the occurrence of pandemics – and the climate crisis – we have to convert our farming methods from unnatural to natural.

Conservation biology professor Jatna Supriatna of the University of Indonesia claim that “the virus that causes COVID-19 – Zika and avian flu (are) examples of zoonotic outbreaks that had direct links to deforestation.”

“Direct links to deforestation” – 45 years ago, I started working as Chief Information Officer (not the title) of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, and in FORI we knew that the deforestation in the Philippines was already heavy. Yet, there was no outbreak of “zoonotic disease.” And in villages surrounding deforested hillsides, no “zoonotic disease” outbreaks have been reported since.

Climate change gases nitrous oxide and methane mostly come from farms using nitrogenous fertilizers for crops. Natural is better. Nature knows best!@517

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[1]https://climatechange.searca.org/news/harvested/indonesia/scientists-call-for-integrated-one-health-approach-to-climate-disease-mitigation?fbclid=IwAR2Gim-eVBu8J2xzKZC7PQLJcsEOOrvnWNrGRCp8lZLfkT29_U6OpeCP2Q4

[2]https://www.statista.com/statistics/1045556/land-area-used-for-agricultural-crop-cultivation-philippines/#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20the%20total%20land,was%20around%2013.5%20million%20hectares.

[3]http://www.fao.org/3/w7730e/w7730e0b.htm#:~:text=The%20forest%20area%20of%20the,very%20steep%20and%20inaccessible%20areas).

Sustainable Livelihoods In Agriculture – For Dreams Must Live!

The 2 words that attracted my attention to the news link-shared on Facebook by Christine Nabor Ferrer were “Sustainable Livelihoods.”

Written by Nathan P Felix 15 December 2020, the news is “SEARCA Signs MOU With Tarlac Agricultural University[1]”(Searca.org). The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, was virtual between SEARCA Director Glenn B Gregorio and TAU President Max P Guillermo, as witnessed by Joselito G Florendo, SEARCA Deputy Director for Administration, and Christina N Ferrer, TAU External Linkages & International Affairs Director. Mr Felix says that in elaborating on the MOU between SEARCA and TAU:

Dr Gregorio emphasized the importance of collaboration and partnership to realize its mission to elevate the quality of life of agricultural families through sustainable livelihoods and access to modern networks and innovative markets in this time of pandemic.

SEARCA is the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study & Research in Agriculture based in Los Baños, Laguna, and TAU is the Tarlac Agricultural University based in Camiling, Tarlac. So this MOU brings together Southeast Asian and Philippine perspectives.

SEARCA I know sponsors graduate studies and research in agriculture in Southeast Asia; TAU belongs to a list of PH state colleges & universities engaged in education and research in agriculture. As I understand it, in the long term, the collaboration & partnership aims to help improve the standards of living of farm families by 2 general ways: (1) help generate sustainable livelihoods, and (2) help access markets by innovating.

As early as 15 years ago, in 2005, the need for “sustainable livelihoods” of farmers was already being discussed among research, extension and field agencies of PH government, and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, with now-Secretary of Agriculture William Dar as Director General of ICRISAT, based in India. Ma Lizbeth J Baroña reported those in attendance included then-Secretary of Agriculture Domingo Panganiban, Mr Dar and Bureau of Soil & Water Management Director Roger Concepcion, Bureau of Agricultural Research Director Nicomedes Eleazar, and Federation of Free Farmers President Leonardo Montemayor attending the inauguration of the “Community-Based Watershed Management Approach In Improving Livelihood Opportunities Project” implemented in barangay Sapang Bulak, Doña Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan (20 July 2005, “Collaborative Watershed Management Project Inaugurated[2],” BAR.gov.ph).

If you ask me, who am an old agriculturist already teaching trash farming at Xavier University College of Agriculture in Cagayan De Oro in 1968, the realization of any “sustainable livelihood” is not easy, so I must congratulate SEARCA and TAU for going after this ideal for the sake of our farming families.
(“Sustainable people” image[3] from Change.org)

Indeed, “sustainable livelihood” must possess the following attributes: (1) technically feasible, (2) economically viable, (3) environmentally sound, and (4) socially acceptable. Technology should not be a problem. Innovative marketing would generate sustainable incomes (“economically viable”), I don’t know about “environmentally sound” agriculture. I have my own ideas.

So, I am volunteering my idea of trash farming, which is working with the natural resources in the field to enrich it – among other things, you save BIG on fertilizer, weedicide & pesticide.@517

 

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[1]https://www.searca.org/news/searca-signs-mou-tarlac-agricultural-university?fbclid=IwAR11CBWdwI6MZ0Cqt7H_EiVQacE2q4U4frHmxjtwJVhrLDwO34s9xfPF18Q

[2]https://bar.gov.ph/index.php/test-archive/379-july-2005-issue/2707-collaborative-watershed-management-project-inaugurated

[3]https://www.change.org/p/central-government-help-people-find-sustainable-livelihood-for-their-dignity-security-right-for-livelihood

Filipino Fictionists Fixated On Foreign Formulas – Why Not True Tribal Tragedies & Triumphs?

What are Filipino English writers doing? Nobody writes in support of farm families, and there are millions of them!

To borrow from Shakespeare, I write not to bury Caesar but to praise him.

People, did you know we have 6 National Writers Workshops? At least the ones I can count:

1)  Ateneo National Writers Workshop (Loyola Heights, QC)

2)  Iligan National Writers Workshop (Iligan City)

3)  IYAS La Salle National Writers Workshop (Bacolod City)

4)  Silliman University National Writers Workshop (Dumaguete City)

5)  UP National Writers Workshop (Diliman, QC)

6)  UST National Writers Workshop (Baguio City)

That means we Filipinos are encouraging our writers in English in the fields of fiction. Now then, let us listen to National Artist for Literature F Sionil Jose delivering his keynote in the 27^thIligan National Writers Workshop[1] held 30 November to 05 December 2020 at the University of San Carlos, at the MSU Iligan Institute of Technology, speaking 01 December 2020, reported without title in the 07 December 2020 issue of PhilStar.com. F Sionil said:

(The Workshop) has so much to contribute to our national culture – not just the indigenous literatures on this big island, but so many facets of its culture, the folk arts, the dances and the history of its courageous and enterprising people about whom we know so little.

So, all those national writers workshops have been focusing on the PH local arts, cultures and indigenous literatures.

I hope that this workshop will also have discussions on history, politics and philosophy, that it enlarges its focus to include nationhood, that it nurtures the bonding of writers and that it imbues them with a higher purpose that will make them more human, more compassionate.

F Sionil is encouraging Filipino writers to engage in history, politics, philosophy – and nationhood, “to make (writers) more human, more compassionate.”

Ha, ha! I have just the right attitude for a proselytizer for Filipino writings in, as my title suggests, “tribal tragedies & triumphs.” As a creative writer for agriculture, I am of course referring to tribal lands and technologies. I dream of Filipino creatives becoming nonfiction writers – supporting PH Agriculture.

And here is relevant news: “World Bank invests P629 million in Mindanao[2]” (Louise Maureen Simeon, 14 December 2020, PhilStar.com). This is through the Philippine Rural Development Project of the DA, for Mindanao alone. That comprises some 108 sub-projects. There are a total of 24,000 beneficiaries for 54 sub-projects. The report is not complete, but 24,000 people alone should be worth at least 24,000 little & big stories in agriculture!

This is where we need non-fictionists badly. Not only hundreds but thousands of stories of Filipino farmers await to be told.

There are 116 state colleges & universities, SCUs, in the Philippines – if only 50 of those SCUs nurtured each 2 non-fiction writers, that is, writers of and for PH Agriculture, we have 100 active journalists supportive.

And they should be enjoying Freedom of the Impress because they are public, not private bodies. Inexpensive too, via freeblogs.@517

 

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/12/07/2061962/keynote-speech-delivered-iligan

[2]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/14/2063553/world-bank-invests-p629-million-mindanao?fbclid=IwAR3W0BvlaEggTwGxUFEyQTZOUtuOYNJCdaBLkHUk-F10TufkKAhkVyCW9Fc&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Autofeed

You Are Pro-Farmer, I Am Pro-Agriculture – There Is A HUGE Difference!

I know someone who is always looking for the Negative in the developing story of PH Agriculture, even before Covid-19. Me? I’m an Ilocano, original aboriginal. I blog Positive for my country’s Agriculture, not simply Farmers. In Oscar Wilde’s language, I see the Doughnut while the other fellow sees the Hole!

So, I want to encourage people to blog for Agriculture. I’m 80 – if I can blog, why can’t you? 

I’m a thought-provoker in Agriculture, mind you – and now, mind that the name of this blog of mine is: Brave New World@PH. It now has 659 short essays of 517 words each – yes, I’m always counting. For 2020 alone, I have been blogging every single day since New Year’s Day.

“This Love Of Mine” is a song sung by my favorite Frank Sinatra. I love it because I can sing it sounding like him, and of course he’s my namesake. “You have gone” – You there is Freedom of Movement. But as a creative thinker, I don’t really mind. What I mind is that I seem to be the only blogger positive for PH Agriculture. (I also want to be a blogger for bloggers.)

Above, I look exactly like that blogger myself, with big ears, long hair, beard, mustache… except that I use an external keyboard, A4Tech, and a 2^nd20-inch monitor, ViewSonic.

Why shouldn’t I enjoy my blogging!? With an ergonomic keyboard and a big, beautiful, bright monitor.
(image of blogger[1] from Yoast.com)

And what do I write about? Any subject or topic in or related to Agriculture – and related fields like
Communication,
Cooperative,
Extension,
Green Manuring,
Inclusive Development,
Intercropping,
Monocropping,
Natural Farming,
Organic Farming,
Policy,
Publication,
Research,
Seminar,
Systems,
Technology,
Training,
Weeds,
Workshop.
Youth.

I cry my heart out, it's bound to break
Since nothing matters, let it break
I ask the sun and the moon, the stars that shine
What's to become of it, this blog of mine?

I’m dedicating this essay to workers with words in Agriculture in the Philippines – especially those working out Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that is fed by unending streams of thoughts he calls “8 paradigms” – Modernization, Industrialization, Promotion Of Exports, Consolidation Of Small- And Medium-Sized Farms, Infrastructure Development, Higher Budget & Investment, Legislative Support, and Roadmap Development.

If you haven’t noticed it, my blog is titled “Brave New World@PH” published at Blogspot.com (free). This blog of mine goes on and on… subject, style, sequence, start & stop. That’s how I write.

And the software? Word 2016. Did you say, “Old”? You haven’t used it!

Since today is a lucky number, 13 December 2020, I am offering absolutely free writer’s advice to anyone who emails me – to show that you are serious about writing, send me a complete draft, 500 to 600 words, not longer. It doesn’t matter how bad it looks to you – as your Author’s Editor, I will give you complete advice, free!

Note: This offer of free Author’s Editor advice is good up to midnight of 31 December 2020.(frankahilario@gmail.com)@517

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[1]https://yoast.com/using-images-in-your-blog-post/

What Can SCUs Learn From Remote Teaching In Favor Of Their Students? First, They Have To Think!

 

If you are meeting your class online somehow, you are receiving your remuneration but you are wasting everyone’s time, including your own! Chances are, there is no learning at all.

If you are a mentor, teacher, instructor, or tutor in any subject, science or specialty, and you are using textual, visual or video materials, chances are you are unaware that you are not educating people at all – you are either entertaining them when you should not, or you are throwing bits & pieces of knowledge into the brains that you think are bottomless!

Today, Saturday, 12 December 2020, a Facebook post tells me “Remote Learning Isn’t Working[1]” (ANN, Patriotpost.us). ANN says:

Earlier this year, fears over the coronavirus shuttered classrooms across the country as school systems opted for makeshift online learning. At the time, the stopgap measure seemed like the only way to keep our kids both safe and engaged with their schooling.

That’s the US – but it’s true for the Philippines too. So, teachers and students have been forced to teach and learn in front of computers. How good has the learning been? The discovery: “Months later… the evidence now shows many children are failing their online classes.” Actually, the adults are failing too.

ANN says, “Remote education may be fine for some adults, but most kids need to be in schools with their teachers and classmates.” That is, back to the teacher’s direct control: “Do this, do that.” Whether in grade school, high school, or college: Teaching/learning in the classroom is essentially memory work. And that is what teachers are insisting even in online education.

What all teachers need to do is teach how to think.
What all learners need to do is learn how to think!

Since I studied to be a teacher in agriculture, UP Los Baños '65, I’m thinking of the state colleges & universities, SCUs, and how they are teaching their students agriculture. And of course teachers are teaching students like they had been taught:

Class, your assignment on Wednesday is the composition of the soil. We will discuss the details. And – be ready for a quick quiz.

On Wednesday, the class will recite on the nutrients that crops absorb from the soil for growth, and why at a certain point in time, there is a need for some fertilizer to be applied. The professor talks about  a total of 16 essential nutrients that plants need in order to grow well. But he does not explain why there are only a few kinds of commercial fertilizers available: such as supplying only nitrogen, only phosphorus, only potassium, and all of those 3, NPK, called “complete fertilizer.”

Think about it. The lesson does not include how the soil has naturally built up its own composition, and how the nutrients found in it are replenished naturally – or how the farmer may induce the natural replenishment of the richness of that soil. Via “natural farming,” say.

SCUs, think about it. Teaching is teaching how to think!@517

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[1]https://patriotpost.us/articles/76389-remote-learning-isnt-working-2020-12-11?fbclid=IwAR2u4CDLgQQ3vNyNGiUrjPB1QnLDpcSZstKN7CP_ziMp4TOjbtFp7JlK2rg