Brains & Beauty Agriculture

Lockdown or not, what is the best strategy for agriculture? For Bangladesh, Shykh Seraj states categorically that “Farming Must Go On As Survival Strategy [1] ” (29 May 2020, The Daily Star ). Being an agriculturist, to me that is a bad policy – you must look for inspiration out of the desperation. I am Oscar Wilde’s optimist; I am thinking Beyond Survival (image from ISSUU [2] )  And for my country, the Philippines, I find that encouragement in SEARCA Policy Paper-2 titled “Agricultural Clusters Approach To Enhance Competitiveness Of Smallholder Farms In Southeast Asia” authored by Glenn B Gregorio, Rodolfo V Vicerra, Rico C Ancog, Nikka Marie P Billedo, Rebeka A Paller, Ma Christina G Corales & Imelda L Batangantang (just out, downloadable from SEARCA website). With SEARCA, I believe that my country should make it a national policy via the Department of Agriculture, DA, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, to adopt the clustering approach in helping bring PH

There has never been a Science Revolution in Language – well, I’m calling for one now! Yes, Frontiers – at https://www.frontiersin.org – shares on Facebook today, Friday, 29 May 2020, that it is “150,000 steps closer to open science” in publishing its 150,000 th open-access article, a mountain of achievement. No, Frontiers, you are not “150,000 steps closer to open science.” This is an Editor In Chief speaking from 45 years experience. In fact, Frontiers, you are 150,000 steps farther from Open Science! Frontiers, your Open Science is Elitist, and you do not realize why? To you, Frontiers, “Open Science” is “open access” but you limit access to the technical materials in your publications, accessible only to technical people – no, your “Open Science” is not understandable even by a college student, much less a high schooler. If you declare “Open Science,” science, or knowledge, must be available to all in the form and language that people can appreciate. (jargon image From The G

Right now, no country in the world is developed or developing or underdeveloped – they are all staggering under the dictatorship of a lockdown wanted by doctors. Since when did development of a country depend on medical doctors? This world is going crazy! I am looking at mass media as Social Savior of Sanity. The 2020 Media Revolution I’m thinking of is this: Media as prompter, rabble rouser, knowledge giver, teacher of learning and not teacher of Questions and Answers. I’m talking about Media and Science . Science is the modern handmaiden for families, villages, towns & cities, provinces, regions, countries. That is to say, the more science we move from Appreciation to Application, the more the Gross Domestic Prosperity, GDP 2 , should be! For too long, Prosperity has been denied from the lowest rungs of society. PH: Practical applications of the Digital Revolution with these target institutions: Department of Agriculture, DA; Department of Education, DepEd; Department of Informat

On 03 December 2019, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie was your guest speaker at the launching of your Binhi Awards 2019 co-sponsored by San Miguel Corporation, SMC. Binhi Awards has become an important yearly event in Philippine journalism.  Binhi Awards was meant to encourage and develop PH aggie journalism. I personally feel that a private company with interests in agriculture sponsoring Binhi Awards should not be something to be ashamed of by either PAJ or SMC. In fact, I want to encourage more private sponsors and much higher prizes because of the high & intricate challenges of the current crisis in Philippine agriculture lockdown or not. We need more aware, creative, dedicated aggie journalists today to help propagate Manong Willie’s “New Thinking For Agriculture”   with its thought components he calls “The 8 Paradigms” – and these are: (1) Modernization. (2) Industrialization. (3) Promotion of exports. (4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms (5) I

You gentlemen, non-teachers all: You do NOT need classrooms for learning! In its own webpage, Rappler asks: “What are your thoughts on opening classes in August?” Contrariwise, Mahar Lagmay, Executive Director of the UP Resilience Institute, advises: Cancel classes until December [1] ! Sorry, but Du30, Duque, Rappler, and Lagmay are all missing the point – because it’s inside. It’s inside their heads! And at the tip of their fingers! Right now, under lockdown, the best way to communicate is digital. So? So, the best way to continue the interrupted education of anyone is? Digital! First, we have to change the way we teach. I Civil Service Professional teacher will tell you classroom teaching in the Philippines, including US, where we got our education, is essentially the Question & Answer, Q&A, Method. Q&A? Mechanical, not Intellectual. Memorizing, not Thinking. We have to teach the teachers first! These digital times are the best way to innovate in teaching, from home to

In the above image, the news from Yahoo.com is that “White rice spikes blood sugar levels and 'has almost the same effect as eating pure table sugar,' according to Harvard Medical School [1] .” That’s terrible news to me, a Filipino who has been eating white rice in all my 79 years! Still, Ms Shaena quotes Elizabeth Ryan, researcher at the Colorado State University, as saying, “Eating whole grains is always going to be important." She means brown rice. For one, she says her research shows that brown rice can protect against colorectal cancer. Ms Elizabeth explains that white rice is less nutritious because brown rice has the most nutrient-dense parts of rice: the bran and germ. I like it that she says with brown rice, you get calcium (for teeth and bone health), unsaturated fat (for cardiovascular health), phosphorus (with calcium, you have stronger bones and teeth), vitamins B1 (thiamine) and B3 (niacin), good for your nervous system; protein (for building muscles), and m

This is a full-blooded Ilocano writer speaking, with Hilario roots from Rosario, La Union:  Bad, FM was Bad; Good, FM was The Best! (image of Imee & her father FM from Wikipedia[1]) Now the business at hand. According to authors Miguel Paolo P Reyes, Joel F Ariate Jr & Larah Vinda Del Mundo of the article “‘Success’ Of Masagana 99 All In Imee’s Head – UP Researchers[2]” (24 May 2020, Vera Files ), the authors being themselves the UP researchers: Masagana 99 did not succeed. I ask, in what: (1)  Producing PH rice for export?  (2)   Growing 99 cavans per hectare? (3)   Providing a proper technology package? (4)   Fashioning out a rice credit program? (5)   Managing the disbursement of funds? The UP researchers themselves say in their report: A thorough look at the much-hyped Masagana 99 showed that for a brief time after it was launched, the Philippines did become a rice-exporting country – or barely that. But data and studies show that this point of pride for the Marcoses and t

The current lockdown of the world’s governments as common response to the perceived threat of the coronavirus or Covid-19, has dramatized the urgent need for good food, which can come only from good farm produce, and which in turn can come only from good agricultural practice – which includes organic farming. The Department of Agriculture, DA, Region 4A, Calabarzon, covers Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, and has its regional office at the RMIC Bldg in the BPI Compound along Visayas Avenue in Quezon City. From the Region 4A image, below is the statement from Alicia Valdoria, who is an organic farmer in Tayabas City in Quezon Province: Walang sayang sa organic. ‘Yong nakukuha namin sa kapaligiran ay ibinabalik din namin sa kalikasan… Kung hindi natin papalaganapin ang pag-o-organic, balewala rin ang five percent na nag-o-organic. Dapat naintihand talaga ng mga tao ito. Here is my free translation of Ms Alicia’s sharing: Nothing is wasted in organic farming. Those we can gathe

I was reading the text to the link to the Facebook sharing of Bona Laureto above, and I was first thinking of me, then school children, then high schoolers, then State Colleges & Universities, SCUs, then teachers – and then the farmers.  We are all learners at one time or another! This is a teacher speaking, PH Professional Level. “Yeap! Finland Will Become The First Country In The World To Get Rid Of All School Subjects” was written by   Elizabeth Williams ( Curious Mind Magazine ). Curiously, it is undated; not even the URL gives a clue on the year – I found it elsewhere, in another undated learning article, in Twig Education , where it says: Phenomena-based learning… has been in the spotlight recently. First popularized due to Finland’s decision to revolutionize their curriculum in 2016, this buzzword is back on everyone’s lips again. So, it has been at least 4 years since Finland decided to revolutionize education and this Teacher Professional who is also a wide reader who is a