Tublay Organic Farming Coop In Benguet Makes History – “1st Accredited Organic Certifying Body For The Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) In The Philippines”

Singularly, I am the only blogger bragging about organic farming, and now I am the first agriculturist-writer fan of Benguet’s Tublay Organic Farming Coop, the first organic farming certifying body in the country. Upland organic is tops! (Lowland organic, where are you?)

The news comes 16 May 2022 via DA-CAR Press Release 22-60 (c/o Anita Page) on the Tublay Organic Coop Facebook page:

Tublay Organic Practitioners Named The 1st Accredited PGS Organic Certifying Body In The Philippines

Today marks a historic milestone for Tublay Organic Farming Practitioners Agriculture Cooperative (TOFPA Coop) as five of its members were awarded the first accreditation certificate in the Philippines as an Organic Certifying Body (OCB) under the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS). The awarding ceremony was held at the New Conference Hall of the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) on 16 May 2022.

The five newly accredited core PGS members are Agnes F Duyao, Anita T Sinakay, Ben S Domingo, Concepcion M Sotero, and Esco C Buslay. They mainly produced upland vegetables, roots and fruit crops.
(Images from Tublay Organic Coop Facebook page, Facebook.ocm)

(Side comment: There are 3 females and 2 males among the 5 core members of the organic certifying body – that tells me ladies are more conscious & conscientious of the many benefits of organic farming!)

The accreditation signifies that the five core PGS members can now certify their farmer-members following the Philippine National Standards. This will be an alternative certification option for small organic farmers and [fisherfolk].

Note: The organic accreditation by the PGS is very much cheaper than that by 3^rdparty certification.

On the same occasion, also at the DA CAR headquarters in Guisad, Baguio City, was the awarding of 40 Certified GAP Farms in Benguet Province. (This GAP is Good – GAP is acronym for Good Agricultural Practices.)

My congratulations also to the DA-CAR and Jeff Dulay Sotero, Municipal Agriculturist of Tublay.

Up to now, 3^rd Party Certification of Organic Farming is very expensive – with this 1^st Organic Certifying Body, we will see that the cheaper the farming, the better for the soil, the crop, the farmer, and the climate!

To review our science:

Chemical agriculture (CA) with its fertilizers and pesticides robs the natural richness and health of the soil and crops, as well as generate greenhouse gases (GHGs). CA is agriculture at the expense of the farmers and food consumers, not to mention the environment!

Organic agriculture (OA), with its natural fertilizers and pesticides, regenerates the natural richness and health of the soil and crops, and does not generate GHGs. OA is food producer-friendly, food consumer-friendly, and climate friendly.

(For more, see my essay, “Every Single Day Would Be World Health Day If We Made Our Soils Healthy First, According To Frank A Hilario – The Healthy 7 Of Regenerative Organic Agriculture!” 08 April 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com.)

Tublay Organic Farming Coop, you have turned learning upside down – we lowlanders will now have to learn from you uplanders good farming!@517

Washington SyCip Thinks About PH Education, And This UP Teacher Thinks About Enriching UP System’s Academic Freedom!

The just-concluded PH national & local elections, especially the presidential voting, or what is shaping up as non/victory – among other things, has called attention to the kind of education that we Filipinos have been undergoing since the American Thomasites came in the 1900s. This is a UP System teacher speaking.

Our multi-interest & inquisitive friend Ramon Yedra has shared on Facebook a glimpse of the thinking of Washington SyCip of the smashingly successful SyCip Gorres Velayo, which Mr SyCip founded [?] March 1946 as a one-man accounting firm. Today, “SGV is currently the Philippines' largest multidisciplinary professional services firm with nine offices across the country” (sgv.ph). These include “assurance, tax, strategy and transactions, and consulting services.”

Thus, anyone can be in awe of Washington SyCip. Quoted above:

My father insisted that the whole family go to public school because public schools could compete. I went to Mapa High School and Burgos Elementary School. I could compete with any La Salle or Ateneo graduate.

Competition. Education as equalizer. I teacher am sure Mr SyCip outcompeted most, if not all of them.

Now, if you look at SGV’s big 4-5 groups of services – they are in the field of “critical thinking.”

Mr SyCip thought about education as the door to competition for the poor to get out of poverty.

Now, I public (UP) teacher ask: “Why did Washington SyCip not succeed in the field of education for conquering poverty?” One answer: “He did not discover transformative education.”

Above, the lower image is from the Facebook page of Saint Louis University (SLU) in Baguio City (Facebook.com/slu.edu.ph). On its Facebook page, SLU says:

Saint Louis University is an excellent missionary, and transformative educational institution that is zealous in developing human resources to be creative, competent, socially involved, and imbued with the Christian Spirit.

Excellent! This UP System’s teacher says. And that gives me an idea:

Why not the UP System “enlarge” its concept of Academic Freedom to include not only “Critical Thinking” but more so “Creative Thinking” – an undiscovered country in many a UP System campus!?

Public or private, education should be much more creative and less critical. At UP Los Baños, where I obtained my BSA major in Ag Edu in 1965. I was already both a creative and critical thinker that UPLB did not have to teach! And that is how I discovered myself with my open mind American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner’s organic farming technique he called “trash farming” – and which today I have seen as “regenerative farming.” (For more details, see my essay “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” 16 Feb 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com).

A creative mind is an open mind. If I were notcreative, I would simply have criticized Mr Faulkner’s idea using the UP Los Baños chemical agriculture paradigm!

What the world needs now is an education, public or private, that teaches critical as well as creative thinking. This layman teacher salutes you, Saint Louis University, Baguio City!@517

“We Must Triple The Budget For Agriculture” – William Dar. “We Must Put A Servant Leader As Next Secretary Of Agriculture” – Frank A Hilario, Agriculturist & Servant Blogger

Dr Henry Lim, President of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, says Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has been doing a good job – but hampered by budgetary constraints.

My wife Ampy Medina Reynoso was listening Sunday, 15 May 2022, to Dr Lim being interviewed over SuperRadyo DZBB. She says Dr Lim mentioned the much bigger shares than PH derived from each country’s Gross Domestic Product and allocated to Agriculture in Thailand and Vietnam, which help explain those countries’ huger successes in that field.

In the 11 May webinar “Spiraling Commodity Prices: Game Plan To Survive Shocks” sponsored by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines, ANN says (Author Not Named, 12 May 2022, DA.gov.ph) that Mr Dar said:

“Triple the budget to at least P250 B a year. Absent that, I cannot propose better solutions.”

ANN says Mr Dar “relayed [that] as his foremost policy recommendation.” In short (see above image): “Pour money on Agriculture.” Also:

To aid the succeeding administration in its agricultural decisions, the Department, with Secretary Dar at the helm, created the National Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization and Industrialization Plan (NAFMIP) – a strategic guidebook for agricultural development [for] 2021-2030.

Mr Dar says about the NAFMIP:

It establishes and words our vision for the next ten years, assuming hefty budgetary prioritization of the sector as a national policy. And we adamantly say, this prioritization must come to pass, else, the food crisis could threaten national security.

Where will the P250 B budget go? “Sufficient to implement a long-term vision of commodity industry development, significant agricultural infrastructure development including our agri-industrial business corridors, among others…”

Personally, along with the DA’s historical emphasis on Chemical Agriculture (CA), I see a concern that the DA has not had the budget to tackle with. I say that with a big budget like that, the Philippines can now vigorously pursue a parallel program of Organic Agriculture (OA), as OA will:

1.     Hugely reduce fertilizer expenses. The DA can even help farmers prepare their own organic fertilizer concoctions.

(Additional note: If farmers follow my personal formula, which I call “Rotavator Organic WEALth,” the cost of fertilization will go down to almost zero – for more on WEALth, see my essay, “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” 16 February 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com.)

2.     Farmers will grow healthy foods once they discontinue spraying chemicals. Weedicides, insecticides and fungicides are all verboten in the practice of OA. Why because the organic fertilizers will ensure that the crops will grow healthy and as a consequence are not attractive to pests and/or disease organisms.

3.     Farmers will earn much, much more than they do today because of much, much lesser fertilizer expenses, no chemicals to buy & spray – and consumers will love their healthy farm produce.

As I have been writing in the last 22 years, Mr Dar is a Servant Leader – we need him as the next Secretary of Agriculture!@517

Ukraine On My Mind Disrupting Global Food Chain – How Do You Supply Fertilizers To PH Farms Without Problems?

What can the Philippines do when it cannot import enough fertilizers for her farmers? Secretary of Agriculture William Dar sees it as a question of importation given local production.

(“Fertilizer on hand” image from News24, news24.com)

ANN says, “DA Execs Review Plans To Avert PH Food Shortage Amid Crises” (Author Not Named, 31 March 2022, Facebook post, Facebook.com):

Members of the Department of Agriculture (DA) national management committee assessed [how to improve] the agency’s immediate responses and [sustainability] plans anchored on the OneDA Reform Agenda, to prevent further agricultural economic slowdown and [cushion] threats of food insecurity caused by the ongoing pandemic and [conflict] between Russia and Ukraine, during a meeting held on March 28-30 in Iloilo City.

I take it that the committee members (unidentified) agreed on what ANN’s report is saying, as follows:

1.     fertilizer subsidy

2.     funding for urban and peri-urban areas

3.     research on aquaculture & mariculture

4.     feed formulation, and

5.     enhancing the food delivery & marketing systems.

As an agriculturist with firsthand experience in farming, I will mention and comment only on #1: fertilizer subsidy. ANN says:

In response to the high prices of fertilizer, [Secretary Dar] calls for the adoption of a balanced fertilization strategy to lower production costs while improving technology efficiency levels. According to him, DA is now mass-producing the biostimulant “Bio-N” through the University of the Philippines Los Baños, [the supply of] which will be ready for distribution to farmers by the wet planting season.

June starts the planting season. Now, while wishing UP Los Baños pluck in producing Bio-N, an organic fertilizer, for many farmers:

I am advising that the DA consider other local organic fertilizer formulations by scientists such as (a) indigenous microorganisms – ask UPLB prof Ted Mendoza for his practical formula, and (b) “EPP Technology” – ask UPLB scientist Eduardo P Paningbatan.

I am also advising Mr Dar for DA to try my own 56-year-old organic farming procedure I call “Rotavator Organic WEALth” (Weeds-Enriched Automatic Layer of Trash Triggering Terrestrial Health),where the rotavator cultivates the soil, along with any vegetation, to create a layer of trash all over the field instantaneously. To help farmers produce their own WEALth, I advise the DA to provide each group of 17 farmers free a hand tractor equipped with rotavator/rototiller blades, those in a counterpoised L & J assembly. I will personally demonstrate how to operate the hand tractor with rotavator so that the desired results will be achieved: an automatic mix of soil & weeds (& crop refuse if any) is created all over the field.

The process is similar to green manuring, which is plowing a standing legume crop into the soil with the disc (or moldboard) plow. The difference is that in green manuring, the field is plowed and the legume crop such as mungbean is coveredby soil clods – while in WEALth, soil & plant materials are beautifully mixedinto a mulch, no additional labor necessary!

We need all the organic fertilizers we can make locally!@517

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