Brains & Beauty Agriculture

Climate Change: As primate, Man needs Primate Change. Campmates: We must change our diet to organic foods. Shipmates: We are in one sinking ship, we must follow the Ship Captain’s organic orders. The whole world is Noah’s Ark, and The Flood is our own making! I saw the above Facebook post on 29 March 2022, of the webinar of Vinzons’ Policy Center titled “Ensuring Affordable, Available, Sustainable Food Production And Supply. Before It’s Too Late!” also the title of the paper presented by one of the speakers, Teodoro Mendoza , retired Professor of the UP College of Agriculture & Food Sciences of UP Los Baños . Mr Mendoza is a long-time advocate of organic agriculture dedicated to nationally “reduce the carbon footprint and food energy bill.” The event was livestreamed 28 March 5-6 PM on the Vinzons Policy Center’s Facebook page. (inset Facebook image:Mr Mendoza with wife Dette) Organic agriculture (OA) is not new to me. I have been advocating OA since 1966, yes since 57 years ago

Too Late The Hero when it comes to PRRD and what his legislators can do to hugely help finance PH Agriculture!? I almost forgot: BusinessMirror had a 583-word Editorial titled “Support The Backbone Of Philippine Economy” (30 Nov 2021, BusinessMirror.com.ph ) – neither mentioning even   once “Agriculture” nor showing an image of the subject. Perhaps our media editors were still thinking of Agriculture as typified by “The Man With The Plow”? (image from a room in Amancio Farm Hotel in Cordon, Isabela that I took 22 June 2018) Whatever, BusinessMirror, much thanks anyway! I a UP Los Baños agriculturist agree with the editors of BusinessMirror when they declare that Agriculture – in the editorial “agri-food sector” – is the “Backbone of Philippine Economy.” They don’t make editorials like they used to anymore! Now then, BusinessMirror magnifies the importance of growing cacao (for chocolate) and coffee (for that universally famous hot drink), saying: Unfortunately, despite the fact

Last year, 2021, Sri Lanka strictly instructed her 1 million plus farmers: “Don’t Panic, Go Organic!” President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted to prove and show the world how his country would be the historic first 100% organic civilization. Sadly, Sri Lanka failed him, or he failed himself – or was it organic farming that failed? ANN says “Sri Lanka To Pay $200M Compensation For Failed Organic Farm Drive ” (Author Not Named, 26 Jan 2022, Aljazeera , Aljazeera.com ) . I am for the practice of organic farming all over my country, the Philippines – is this Sri Lanka nationwide debacle the worst news ever for advocates of organic farming like me? The island country is currently reeling from a severe economic crisis that has triggered food shortages and rolling blackouts as the Covid pandemic sent the tourism-dependent economy into a tailspin. The government will pay 40,000 million rupees ($200m) to farmers whose harvests were affected by the chemical fertilizer ban, Agriculture Minister Ma

On Facebook, the first image on Earth Hour I saw Saturday is that above, saying: “Provincial Government of Rizal joins the entire world in the observance of Earth Hour, 26 March 2022.” Our National Hero Jose Rizal died for Love of Country; the province named after him lives for Love of Planet Earth. May pinagmanahan! (One takes after one!) Earth Hour on Facebook says ( Facebook.com ): Join us as we switch off all non-essential lights for #EarthHour on 26 th March 2022, 8:30pm… Together we have the power to #ShapeOurFuture. Observing Earth Hour, we mortals are supposed to contribute in shaping our future. Our Facebook source says: Our purpose is to empower an interconnected global community to achieve tangible environmental outcomes for our living planet. Did you know? The “Plus” sign on the Earth Hour logo symbolizes that the campaign is beyond just 60 minutes. As usual, I was googling for materials, texts & images, to be able to write. For the sake of the environment, I sta

She was doing what she could, out of the goodness of her heart, something socially original & heart-warming – opening a community pantry for the poor who needed food to get some free , amidst Covid19 restrictions. Joseph Pedrajas tells us she is Ana Patricia Non , 26 years old, a virtual unknown until she actualized this unprecedented act of kindness (“Who Is Patricia Non, The Woman Who Sparked Kindness Through The Maginhawa Community Pantry?” 06 May 2021, Manila Bulletin , MB.com.ph ). She did it out of love for the poor. She did it along Maginhawa Street in Teacher’s Village in the Philippines’ capital Quezon City . Mr Pedrajas says: There was no mob action that greeted that first opportunity to get free food. The people waited in line for hours and followed the rule which Patricia had written on a cardboard sheet – ”Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.”   (Give what you can, take what you need). (lower image from her) She must have been thinking of

The Philippines has an 11-year-old Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 (Republic Act 10068), but I have yet to read so many successful stories of farmers applying organic fertilizers in their fields. Today, I would like to find out more. RA 10068 says (FAO, 2010, leap.unep.org ): This Act declares that the policy of the State shall be to promote, propagate, develop further and implement the practice of organic agriculture in the Philippines in order to enrich the fertility of the soil, increase farm productivity, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment and prevent the depletion of natural resources. Beautiful! But I saw something I did not like. This Editor In Chief with 50 years of experience immediately saw what was lacking in the Abstract as presented by FAO 12 years ago: Did you notice that the 4-5 purposes of the Act does not say anything about the farmer? If you ask me, it should have said, in the first place, instead of fertility of the soil: “in order to enrich t

Here, you are not going to see an image of a cecid fly whose species is now deeply troubling mango farms in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. Why because according to my agricultural eyes physical and mental, the problem is somewhere else . (mango farm image from dotproperty.com.ph ) As I write this, the “2 nd Luzon Mango Congress is going on, 24-25 March 2022, at the Bureau of Soils & Water Management (BSWM) next to the Department of Agriculture (DA) headquarters in Quezon City. Why is this Congress important? Well, Luzon produces 45% of the mangoes in the Philippines ( DA.gov.ph ). Thursday, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar addressed the Congress, saying as according to his Facebook sharing 24 March 2022, “I challenged them to implement collectively the management and control protocols against the cecid fly. The communities of mango must unite to control the cecid fly!” Oh, I am sure they are united – but so far, that unity has not eliminated the common enemy called th

We have ignored “World Environment Week” and it’s time to pay attention to it. All the more reason because wars of all kinds are going on all over the world, and I am scientifically convinced that the kind of environment we have, or the kind we cultivate, propagates such wars. The inclusive date for “Environment Week” according to Jenica Dizon is 20-27 March (upper image). Differently, the Government of Virgin Islands says it’s 04-10 June (lower image from   bvi.gov.vg via YouTube). What? We don’t even have a single inclusive date! We mortals do not care much about our environment to celebrate it, do we? Not the issue of the inclusive dates, what I want to tackle here is what we mortals can commonly do to truthfully celebrate World Environment Day/Week. The above image I saw on Facebook, the post “Be Green, Be Great” by Waves For Water Philippines Country Director Jenica Dizon, “highlights the importance of caring for issues facing our environment.” I have always cared much abou

It seems only now that farmers have a Secretary of Agriculture who knows much of what they need, from seeding to selling: William Dar , who is from a poor family in Ilocos Sur. Last year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) began constructing an onion cold storage facility in Moncada, Tarlac ( Glen S Ramos, 22 June   2021, “DA To Construct Onion Cold Storage Facility In Moncada,” Maharlika.tv ). The building, all 364 sqm of it, has been finished (bottom image). Zorayda Tecson says, “DA Turns Over P 20-M Onion Cold Storage Facility To Tarlac Farmers” (16 March 2022, Philippine News Agency, PNA.gov.ph ). The facility is for 820 onion farmers in Moncada, members of the Sapang Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Note: Cooperative . Under Mr Dar, the DA deals with formal farmer groups: associations, cooperatives, clusters, because: In union there is strength! Regional Executive Director Crispulo G Bautista Jr of DA Region 3 says, “The project intends to (improve) the price of bulb onions in lean

The world does not pay much attention to people with original ideas, does it? I did not know all this about Arturo Gomez , and I had been in and out of UP Los Baños when he was a name, becoming one time Director of the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Graduate Study in Agriculture (SEARCA) – one, that he was the Filipino Pied Piper of Multiple Cropping . (images: with wife Kwanchai ; multiple cropping from hotels.com ) Saturday, 19 March 2022, I am reading 2 Facebook sharings on the death of Art Gomez, those of UPLB Professor Teodoro “Ted” Mendoza and UPLB alumnus & organic agriculture advocate Pablito Malabanan Villegas , both of whom I know. Ted Mendoza’s sharing Dr Arturo Gomez – a mentor and a scientist of all time. Condolence to the Family. Sir: You planted the seeds of multi-crop systems for the Philippines and the rest of the world some half century ago when the trend was plantation monocropped agriculture. Surely, your efforts are not in vain .What you were promotin

Since last month, I have been enticing any of the Presidentiables to pay close attention to agriculture (see my essay, “Vision Impossible, PH Presidentiables!? Well, You Have To Use Your Inner Sight, Insight. Do Not Allow The Negatives To Negate Your Campaign!” 06 Feb 2022, Towards A New Eden , Blogspot.com ). No luck until today. In that essay, I emphasized farms & farmers, and organic farming. Not surprising, as I am an alumnus of UP Los Baños, BSA Ag Edu 1965 – an agriculturist who is a teacher. More appropriately, an extensionist, having concocted my own theory of communication for development of villages in the 21 st century (CoViD21) last Tuesday, 23 Nov 2021. Yes, CoViD21. I’m excited, really, that a Presidentiable has spoken of Agriculture as #1 in his priority. Daniza Fernandez   says “Prioritize Agriculture To Achieve Zero Poverty Rate – Marcos” (20 March 2022, Inquirer.net ). I am a farmer’s son from Asingan in Eastern Pangasinan, so I know farmer poverty. We were no

Thankfully, via email today Saturday, 19 March 2022, my good friend JAQ suggests our Presidentiables should somehow be climate change-conscious even now. Unfortunately, not one of those many candidates for President has spoken anything close to that subject. Specifically, JAQ sent me the link to Rodel D Lasco’s column of today (Saturday, 19 March 2022) in the Inquirer , “Toward A Climate Resilient Development” ( inqm.news ), where after explaining the latest work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Mr Rasco says: Our next president’s term will coincide with this critical decade for climate action. Thus, one relevant criterion for our vote is the candidate’s qualification to steer the country toward a climate resilient path. As one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate hazards, we cannot afford to make the wrong choice. I agree that we are now in that “critical decade for climate action” as according to the IPCC report mentioned. But if Mr Rasco i

Wow! The World Bank is setting aside $200 Million ( P 10 Billion+) to finance the PH project “Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency (FishCoRe)” to help 500,000 Filipinos to skillfully rise above poverty in their capture and culture fisheries, and the country to intelligently conserve its marine resources. FishCoRe hopefully will be implemented this year. (inset image from PCAF, pcaf.da.gov.ph ) In a letter to PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar , WB Country Director Achim Fook said: We fully support the goals of the FishCoRe Project to sustainably improve incomes of Filipino fisherfolk, and support resilient coastal communities through enhanced ecosystem management, productivity-enhancing technologies, aquaculture, reduced post-harvest losses, value-chain infrastructure, and related activities. Mr Dar, chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to which the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is attached, says FishCoRe, a 7-year project, is BFAR’s “medium-to-long-ter

The greatest revolution of all time suggests itself today – born out of love! An intellectual reaction to Russia’s war on Ukraine on that part adversely affecting energy products. It also revives a lingering love affair of mine 57 years back when I graduated from UP Los Baños. First love never dies? I have always been a rebel thinkerer. Above, the love image from 123rf.com suggests The New Garden of Eden where grows Adam’s Apple in its original state: au naturel. Absolutely no chemicals involved. Entirely grown naturally. Yes, The New Apple. From The Organic Revolution . Revolution in agriculture. And it will occur in the Philippines first! Here’s a wake-upper you probably haven’t heard. Luisa Maria Jacinta C Jocson says ( “Alternative Fertilizers Touted As Import Costs Rise,” 01 Feb 2022, BusinessWorld , bworldonline.com ): The Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) said farmers must explore non-traditional fertilizers after sharp increases in the price of imported fertilizer.