Brains & Beauty Agriculture

Today, while I know the Department of Agriculture, DA, of my country the Philippines, has been and continues doing its best to contain the devastation of the African swine fever, ASF, and minimizing piggery losses all over the archipelago, I embark on a journey of nativitization – my invention, to mean going back to the native habits and habitats: To counterbalance the debilitating force of the foreign invader ASF, I’m thinking of the DA embarking on the rehabilitating force of The Return Of The Natives . Under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, the DA must now cultivate what I call the Asian Swine Fervor , ASF 2 , piggeries raising any of the Philippine native pigs, the best under the circumstances: not picky with food or feed; are hardy, resistant to pests & diseases, and most of all have meats more delicious than any of the imported porks! And of course, you are sure that the animal has not been slaughtered because it got sick with the African swine fever. The strains/lin...

Yesterday, how did I say UP Los Baños has been treating the Filipino farmers up to now? At best, half-ignoring their knowledge needs (see my essay, “Why Is UP Los Baños Visibly Digital And Invisibly Developmental? [1] “15 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital ). Indeed: For Filipino rice farmers, UPLB has been developing technologies, but not developing lives! Differently, is the internationally renown IRRI, based at the campus of UP Los Baños, any better in dealing with rice farmers in the Philippines and all of Asia? Not that I know of, and I have been in and out of Los Baños, where it is based. Look at the above image again – the cover of the 27-page manual Steps To Successful Rice Production (IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank [2] ). I ask: “What does successful mean?” So! After 60 years of R&D, IRRI has come up with a 27-page distillation of much of what it has discovered about what are the steps to successful rice production. Is that all the rice farmer needs to be successful? No, ...

UP Los Baños, why does it not house the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture?! Right at the entrance to the campus, 2 big electronic billboards confront you, left and right, open simultaneously and showing exactly the same thing. (image from Good News Pilipinas [1] )  My question is, as a 1965 alumnus and communicator for science, why is UP Los Baños not in the forefront of supporting Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s intellectual “New Thinking for Agriculture” – Amor Propio? The answer to my question in my title is this: UP Los Baños is strong in Communication but weak on Development! That weakness is self-inflicted – and more than 40 years old. When I was the Chief Information Officer of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, in the mid-to-late 1970s, I published in the FORI Sylvatrop forestry journal a technical paper on Communication for Development, ComDev , which I presented as a theory in contradistinction from UPLB’s Development Communication, DevCom, the brai...

There is the beginning of good news from the Department of Agriculture, DA, Region 1 based in San Fernando City, with Freddie Lazaro writing about a “100-Hectare Farm In La Union Readied For Community Hybrid Rice Farming Project [1] ” (13 July 2020, Manila Bulletin ). Communitizing (my word) 185 farmers belonging to farmer associations in Santa Maria, Santa Fe, and San Jose, Agoo, La Union is going to be a hard day’s night! Mr Lazaro says: The 100-hectare model farm was provided through consolidation by the DA Regional Field Office 1 (RFO1) while pushing forward the concept of farm clustering as a vital tool in leveling up agricultural productivity in the country. Those 36 words I just quoted are already a mouthful: 100-ha model farm, consolidation, farm clustering, leveling up agricultural productivity … The perspective is that of DA RFO1; where is that of the Agoo farmers themselves? Mr Lazaro says the farmers belong to associations – not my cup of tea. From my experience as a ...

In the Philippines, in Agriculture, how far do you think is the Researcher’s Lab from the Farmer’s Field?  Too far! The Philippines is the Go Lag Archipelago in the matter of publishing papers in technical journals in agriculture – because Editors In Chief don’t care enough for readers! This is your Editor In Chief speaking. Actually, there are 2 lags: (1) from Research to Publication, and (2) from Publication to Extension. (images from Go Lag Book & Ride [1] , PH map [2]   Fine Art America ) The problem of lag lies mostly in aggie universities, including UP Los Baños, the #1 aggie university in the Philippines: Technical publication is neglected; Popularization is neglected; Extension is neglected! Today, via Facebook sharing, I am reading Glenn B Gregorio’s with co-author Rico C Ancog’s technical paper published in the Central Mindanao University Journal of Science of 02 July 2020: “Food Security Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic: Research And Development Priorities For H...

Urban Gardens Magazines. Plural! My 2 nd proposal for ABS-CBN to resuscitate itself. Publish digital gardening magazines for the cities. Different magazines for fruits, flowers, ornamentals, trees, vegetables. All digital. Chic but cheap. Print on demand. Above, on a US magazine, the main image says “Grow your own food [1] ” (from LookBookReport ). As caption to the inset image, Anna Bueno of CNN Philippines asks, “Can urban gardening flourish in Manila?” My answer: “Manilans must learn good urban gardening.” Easily digitally. I have already suggested Turning Agriculture into Digital – see “Digitally Reborn – (1) ABS-CBN Brings Digestible Science To The Farms & Homes [2] ” (17 July 2020, THiNK Journalism, Digital ). I’m speaking from verifiable experience, and I alone can make the claim you can read as tagline to my blog Creative Thinkering : World's creative genius online, most prolific writer of non-fiction. Frank A Hilario, Guru That blog alone contains 1K plus es...

Giant ABS-CBN Corp and its 11,000 employees all are now looking dejectedly at the future after the PH House of Representatives voted 70-11 denying renewal of its franchise. Noontime, Saturday, 11 July 2020, I witnessed the tearing up and crying of masked employees of ABS-CBN, video on Facebook. Earlier, Angel Locsin shared that Kapamilya stars like her were dumbstruck, unable to think clearly what to do after that legislative denial. Yesterday, on Facebook my brother-in-law Teddy Reynoso looked at it differently – that with the denial, it was like those 70 ladies & gentlemen jointly cast an animal into the sea thinking it would drown: It was a turtle! Another metaphor: Here is ABS-CBN digitally reborn – Agrikultura Lingkod Kapamilya. Agriculture Serving The Family. With this essay, I am suggesting that ABS-CBN swim in the waves of digital waters into the realms of PH Agriculture, whereby even via cellphone the science of the growing of food reaches the farmer anywhere anytime ...