Brains & Beauty Agriculture

“Agri Liberation” is the latest battle cry. Turns out historical & hysterical. I googled “agri liberation images” (note double quotes), and the above images happened right next to each other: How lucky can you get?! Local vs international, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) vs Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. What colorful “combination” – and neither do I agree with! “Revolution” showing itself next to “Liberation” – Actually, the quarrel has been there at least in the last 60 years when PH activists began agitating for “Land for the Landless” and those with money began agitating for more business inside and outside the Philippines. If you did not know, PH’s Agrarian Revolution is actually ongoing – slow but ongoing. In any case, land ownership has shown itself to be anathema to production and profit. Because of inefficiencies, ownership liberation limits production of the farmer and, therefore, of the country; and business liberation limits

Chinese scientist Yuan Longping is dead! Long live the hybrid rice scientist who showed the world Man could change Mother Nature if he followed her dictates! Mr Yuan is the Father of Hybrid Rice, and for this scientific breakthrough, he won the World Food Prize in 2004. Huizhong Wu says, “China's Yuan Longping Dies; Rice Research Helped Feed Worl d [1] ”  (23 May 2021, Phys.org ): It was in the 1970s when Yuan achieved the breakthroughs that would make him a household name. He developed a hybrid strain of rice that recorded an annual yield 20% higher than existing varieties – meaning it could feed an extra 70 million people a year, according to Xinhua. (Images above: “Third-Generation Hybrid Rice Achieves High Yields In China [2] , ” ANN, 22 October 2019, Global Times; “Quality of Life for All” image [3]  from Epr.eu ) Mr Huizhong says: Yuan spent his life researching rice and was a household name in China, known by the nickname “Father of Hybrid Rice.” Worldwide, a fifth of a

My daughter Neenah Bonafe Reynoso Hilario has turned out to be a dancer I never imagined (image announcement above, from her Facebook page). I memorized that song long ago, “Dance On Little Girl,” recorded by Canadian-American Paul Anka, singer & composer. He happens to be the favorite of Neenah’s mother Ampy , who is my wife. Dance, dance on little girl In the arms of someone new As you dance, as you twirl My heart dances with you. Our daughter Neenah is getting married today, Saturday, 29 May 2021, and because of Covid restrictions, very few family and friends were invited – not that otherwise we would have had a grand wedding! Ha, ha. Know that I am an Ilocano, from Sanchez, Asingan, Pangasinan; my wife, Amparo “Ampy” Medina Reynoso , a Tagala, was born in Nueva Ecija where her mother Remedios came from – Ampy’s father Gabriel was from Tayabas. Neither poor nor rich. The groom is Jerome Cajacinto , a classmate of Neenah since high school at the Cahbriba Alternative School in

“ Increase investment in public goods” – With me as Filipino agriculturist who happens to be a communicator for development, those 5 words of advice opened my eyes wide to the package of reforms that my country needs to bring PH Agriculture to prosperity. The advice comes from Vice Chair V Bruce J Tolentino of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), who is also a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monetary Board Member, speaking during the first day of PH’s “National Food Security Summit” (Author Not Named, 24 May 2021). Mr Tolentino was “giving emphasis on the need to boost investments” in the agriculture & fisheries sector, as well as the need to implement the proposed amendments to the Agri Agra Law (RA 10000). We Filipinos do not associate more government funds and wider management with much-more improved PH Agriculture – well, it’s time we did! In those 21 words above, based on the Facebook sharing by ANN (top image), that’s my summary of the presentation of Mr Tolentino. Poi

Very strange. A Facebook post and a Manila Bulletin both claim that “the world’s only freshwater sardine… has been successfully reared alive… from its natural location,” which is the Taal Volcano. But not a single fish is shown! (Manila Bulletin image above) I say, as a communicator for development in Agriculture and related fields, a news report like that shows any or both of the following: (1)   That journalism itself is being endangered! (2)   That fish research itself is in question! I take this to be a sad instance of science journalism making an unprecedented claim but not providing proof of its authenticity. This is from the Facebook post of UPLB Office of Alumni Relations I saw 06 March 2021: The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) has announced that the world’s only freshwater sardine (that) can only be found in Taal Lake has been successfully reared off site or away from its natural location. DoST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T De La Peña said it was the Limnologi

I love to write. To write to show my genius in concocting stories or fiction? No, to write so that I help people think better, think of winning ways. That is to say: Many Things, Many Thinks, Winning Ways! And you? Maybe not write but think of better ways, even brilliant ways out of something or other. If you don’t know it yet, you can learn to do it. We have a simple lesson from Steve Jobs . Steve Jobs was/is my idol of idols – creative, unrelenting, undefeated. Loved the digital world and what he could do to bring out its wonders: Apple personal computer (PC), music on call at the push of a button ( iPod ), handy PC-in-1 ( iPad ), Macintosh – all business with pleasure. To him, it was pleasure first, business second. This morning, Tuesday, 25 May 2021 in Manila, I saw the Facebook sharing of VP Alfie (top image): “The only way to do great work is to love what you do – Steve Jobs.” (That’s how he and his great friend Steve Wozniak invented the PC as we know it: body, monitor, mo

The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) prides itself as “Home of E-Extension” as far as the Philippine government is concerned (upper image [1] , ATI.gov.ph ), which it is – except that you have a double limitation: number of courses offered, 18; ergo, number of experts engaged by ATI! No, neither do you have unlimited subjects nor can you ask that the training be a perfect fit for you, your farm and location. Sorry. Farmers cannot be choosers! If like me you want to choose more than 1 crop or more than 1 location (lower image)? No can do. As of now, ATI limits you to this list of 18 “e-Learning Technokits” posted by Marianne Antonio on 25 July 2019 at the institute’s website – not alphabetized, not numbered, not updated, not edited: Cacao Techno Kit Highland Vegetable Production Kit Organic Fertilizer Production Kit Durian Production Kit Lowland Vegetable Production Kit Cashew Production Kit The Philippine Cattle Industry Broiler Production

A not-so-poor farmer’s son from Sanchez, Asingan, Pangasinan, I am an agriculture graduate of the premier agricultural university in the Philippines, UP Los Baños, 1965, BSA major in Ag Edu – I should know much about the growing of rice, right? Well, I don’t! Right now, I’m thinking of how PH Agriculture with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar can serve the information needs of the 10 million Filipino farmers [1] ,  as counted-reported by Zoilo “Bingo” Dejaresco III (12 September 2019, “The Tragedy Of The Filipino Rice Farmers,” Businessmirror.ph ). Our farmers cannot grow enough rice, so we have to import – and the traders take advantage of all of us! We have to help our own farmers grow more rice. If half of them planted only rice, that would give us 5 million farmers. To do right for everyone, we have to make sure that for those 5 million, their costs are minimum, their harvests are maximum, and their returns optimum. Are we teaching them well? I will now check not by asking t

J Prospero De Vera III , Chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), is educating all of us, Children of the Lesser Digital God. This is the beginning of a new awakening in the consciousness of all would-be teachers who are now in a new world we hardly understand ourselves! Including educators of farmers. The process of learning must change, so must the process of teaching. And it concerns all learners. Pertinently, here is the latest official pronouncement on college education. On Friday, 21 May 2021, during a webinar (top image, Facebook sharing) entitled “Educating Our Children In The New Normal,” Mr De Vera said: From now on, Flexible Learning will be the norm. There is no going back to the traditional, full-packed face-to-face classrooms. That decision of CHEd is for outright implementation. Mr De Vera said Flexible Learning will “continue in school year 2021 and thereafter” for two reasons, that if we go back to the traditional face-to-face classroom: (1)    “We run

  PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar knows what he should be doing with or without the lockdown, with several plant and animal diseases attacking farmer crops and livestock – with all that the DA has to offer. And that is? With his Servant Leadership leading The DA Team. Mr Dar is no stranger to national-international institutional challenges. He has 15 years experience being the Servant Leader of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India. From 2000 to 2014, he brought ICRISAT, among 15 international agricultural research centers of the CGIAR, which include IRRI, from kulelat (dead last) to #1. Unprecedented! This January, ANN says, the DA said it was “strengthening its laboratory network system in its continuing fight against infectious diseases such as African Swine Fever (ASF) in hogs, avian influenza (AI) in poultry, foot and mouth disease (FMD) in livestock, Panama disease in banana, and fall armyworm (FAW) in corn and on

  On 26 April 2021, based at UP Los Baños, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) sponsored the “1st Knowledge Sharing Workshop” with Asean member states (AMS). Meanwhile, UPLB was unmoving in the digital front! Searca’s headquarters is right next to the University Library in the campus of UP Los Baños in Laguna. An alumnus coming in and going out of the campus in the last 61 years, I know UPLB is smart in the science of agriculture but sleepy when it comes to digitization of that science. I know: Digital is taught only to a limited few; and it’s difficult teaching yourself digital. Nonetheless, it is necessary that: Physician, heal yourself! Professor, teach yourself! This is in fact the second such event. ANN says, “SEARCA Holds 2nd Knowledge Sharing Workshop On Digital Technologies In The Agricultural Sector With Asean And ERIA [1] ”  (Author Not Named, 14 May 2021, Searca.org ). Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian

This time I am concentrating on farm entrepreneurship, which many PH farmers do not observe, so they do not talk about profit and loss! We want the Philippines to be self-sufficient in food, right? Now, as reported by Revin Mikhael D Ochave ( 18 May 2021, “Farm Aid Needs To Be Better Targeted To Achieve Competitiveness, Habito Says [1] ,” BusinessWorld ), according to Cielito F Habito , former head of the National Economic Development Authority , speaking during the first day of the 2021 National Food Security Summit organized by the Department of Agriculture (DA): Assistance should take the form of helping farmers expand their access to technology and inputs; improve their capacity as farm entrepreneurs; facilitate their access to markets, and achieve scale economies through farm clustering. A short paragraph of 33 words that to me inadvertently and powerfully summarizes what William Dar has espoused for PH Agriculture since he became Secretary of Agriculture on 05 August 2019. Thus

On Facebook, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has come up with the above 2 graphs, among other sharings, and yes, they’re mind-blowing! But like him, I continue to support the Filipino farmers, and to do what can be done for them: inform and inspire ! Let me concentrate on the lower image. The Poverty Scorecard tells us that PH’s poverty incidence of 21.6% is 2 times more than Indonesia’s (10.6%) and Thailand’s (10.5%), 3 times more than Vietnam’s (7.0%), and 20+ times more than Malaysia’s (0.4%)! Shameful, but not hopeless. The poverty of Filipino farmers is where I continue to help eradicate, to fight for. And my weapon of choice is Communication for Development (ComDev), my own 30-year old intellectual creation – the meaning of which is obvious. I published my ComDev theory in 1980, in the technical journal of the Forest Research Institute (FORI) titled Sylvatrop , of which I was the Editor In Chief. That was the time of Filiberto Pollisco , Director of FORI. In contra