Healthy Farms for Healthy Foods

Today, how come the Northern Foods Corporation, NFC, based in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, owes tomato farmers of the Ilocos almost P 40 Million? A clue is that the NFC is a government corporation [1] ( NFC.gov.ph ), and government is not very good in business, is it? Even if the product is as popular in Filipino homes as catsup or ketchup. (ketchup bottles [2] f rom NDTV Food ) With its huge farmer debt, the NFC has been hardly operating. Here comes the Department of Agriculture, DA, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who now is, according to an official DA news release, “(allotting) P 65 million to help (the NFC) get back on its feet.” During a visit to the NFC processing facility in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte on 26 September 2020 (image above), Mr Dar said: We will extend needed financial assistance to the (NFC) to make it financially afloat and thus make it attractive for potential investors enroute to its privatization. The total P 65 Million consists of P 26 Million from the Ag

Here is another Brave New World PH! 54 days ago from today, 28 September 2020, The Editorial of The Manila Times predicted a modern revolution in PH Agriculture brought about not by a presidential decree but by a department head’s Administrative Order, AO, saying [ 1] : The Department of Agriculture has set into motion a program of consolidation and clustering in the nation’s farm and fisheries sector that will, if it is allowed to be carried out as designed, completely transform Philippine agriculture from a perennial laggard to one of the country’s economic strengths. “That will… completely transform Philippine agriculture” from being a laggard to being a source of power. The Times’ editorial is in fact boldly titled, “DA Consolidation Program Will Save PH Agriculture” – and let us thank God it is worth saving! (The DA head) signed… AO 27 on 05 August 2020, auspiciously marking his first year of service as the country’s agriculture chief. He said that many countries have long a

Going with Research, Growing with Extension … We don’t – well,, I don’t – associate the Department of Agriculture, DA, with Research, so it is a little unsettling that I read the news item by ANN, “Agri Research Centers To Receive Funding For Enhanced Tech Development And Extension [1] ”  (Author Not Named, 16 September 2020, DA.gov.ph ). (Research-Action [2] image from WesternU.ca ) Research and Extension, R&E. So, doing its own research and extending the results to the farmers and fishers by way of technology or system, the DA is developing PH Agriculture. So now, as far as I can see, R&E will be receiving the proper primordial attention in the countryside as Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has “directed the upgrading of the Regional Integrated Agricultural Research Centers, RIARCs, of the Department of Agriculture, DA, nationwide to launch the development of technology systems that would greatly improve Philippine agriculture,” according to ANN. During the inaugur

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar is a warrior, intellectual. Above, note his “Ang Bagong Pananaw Sa Agrikultura.” The New Thinking For Agriculture, comprising 8 paradigms. (List below) I am challenging PH digital media to be warriors for agriculture, not worriers of. I am taking the liberty of addressing online media directly, especially these selected Media Worriers : (1) BusinessMirror, (2) BusinessWorld, (3) Manila Bulletin, (4) Manila Times, (5) Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, (6) Philippines Daily Inquirer, (7) Philippine Star, and (8) Rappler. Warriors are braves; Worriers are cowards. If they accept my media challenge, speaking for the Filipino people, for those Media Worriers to become Media Warriors, they must educate themselves on “The New Thinking for Agriculture” and its 8 paradigms: (1)    Modernization (2)    Industrialization (3)    Promotion Of Exports (4)    Consolidation Of Small- And Medium-Sized Farms (5)    Infrastructure Development

  Yesterday, 25 September 2020, ANN of BusinessMirror joyfully reported, “BM’s Bumper Harvest At 2019 ‘Binhi’ Awards [1] ”  (Author Not Named, BusinessMirror.com.ph ): (Mirroring the past), the BusinessMirror dominated… the 2019 Philippine (Binhi Awards) by winning seven awards, including top prizes in two major categories. The paper’s Agriculture reporter Jasper Emmanuel Y Arcalas was hailed the country’s Best Agricultural Journalist of the Year for the third consecutive year. The BusinessMirror’s Agri-Commodities page, edited by Associate Editor Jennifer A Ng, won the Best Agriculture Page Of A Newspaper back-to-back. The BusinessMirror Broader Look Team bagged the SL Agritech Best In Rice Reporting award for its investigative piece titled “Pre- And Post-Rice Trade Liberalization Law, Big Traders Gaming Farmer Groups.” Easily, one can see those are matters of Significance . Now, we look for Relevance to PH agriculture . That is to say, they are all important and necessary in

  Today, Thursday, 24 September 2020, the UP Board of Regents, BoR, elected Jose V Camacho Jr as the new Chancellor of UP Los Baños. I was hoping to present a national program proposal for the new Chancellor to consider, somebody else, but a Chancellor is a Chancellor. The proposal I call Farmer’s Choice a digital knowledge base that shows even the options users did not know existed in terms of technologies & systems they can use. Today, there is no such knowledge system anywhere in the world – but it has existed in my mind in the last 17 years. It started when Director General William Dar of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, submitted to PhilRice a common knowledge project called “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture,” OpAPA. All digital. As a PhilRice consultant at that time, I wrote up a whole book on how to implement OpAPA: The Geography Of Knowledge , all of 198 pages. Unfortunately, nobody appreciated it. Toda

  It’s the Science, whereby in a short while the soil in your garden literally turns from dirty to divine – very rich in foods for flowers, fruit trees, ornamentals, or vegetables. (Grow Rich ima ge [1] f rom amazon.com ) Without digging, yes! Cheryl Magyar gives you “6 Reasons To Stop Digging Your Garden + How To Get Starte d [2] ” (01 July 2019, Rural Sprout ). She says: Now is the season to stop treating your backyard garden as a mini-farm and end the backbreaking work of digging once and for all. Not only will your gardening “work” be more fun, you’ll end up working less hard too – which can only be a good thing. Instead of digging up your garden, mulch it! I have a direct experience in mulching our ricefield of 1 ha in our town of Asingan, Pangasinan, Philippines in the 1960s. I got the idea from American Edward H Faulkner: minimum tillage. I told the giant Howard rotavator tractor operator not to set the rotating blades to any depth but to simply pass the big, hulky thin

In case you didn’t know (I didn’t): “Banana is one of the Philippines’ major export fruit crops, producing more than 2 million metric tons (MT) every 3 months (19 June 2019 [1] ,” Press Reader ). That major. Above, read my scary title again – might as well be physically true as sounded by local banana exporters 3 months ago and in the words of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar: “We’re losing our market share to other countries.” He is referring to Cavendish banana being exported by other countries. That is according to the report of Madelaine B Miraflor (22 September 2020, “DA Worries PH Losing Export Market Share In Bananas [2] , ” Manila Bulletin ). Miss Madeleine says it is something Mr Dar is “starting to seriously worry about.” Mr Dar says (Mr Dar’s imag e [3] from Manila Bulletin ): The Philippines is losing in the (banana) export war. What happened? ¶ “If left unchecked, this will substantially reduce the Philippines’ exports, disrupt trade in the international markets, an

More than 5 years ago, in February of 2015, former UP System President Emil Q Javier came up with a position paper published by the National Academy of Science and Technology titled “Modernization Of The Coconut Industry” (NAST Bull 8, 5 pages in pdf). In Bull 8, Mr Javier showed that we had scarcely  milked the coconut dry of its numerous food, medicine and other benefits. (coco fruits image [1] f rom The Kahimyang Project, glasses of milk [2] from Stanpac ) Here comes the news from the Department of Agriculture, DA, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, “DA Moves To Integrate Coconut, Dairy Farmin g [3] ”  (Louise Maureen Simeon, 20 September 2020, PhilStar Global ). The Memorandum of Agreement, MoA, has been signed for the Coconut-Carabao Development Project, CCDP. The CCDP is primarily aimed to raise the income of coco farmers to desirable levels. It is a 2-year project covering 17 sites nationwide. The CCDP is a collaboration of the Philippine Carabao Center, PCC, and th

A1, an OFW, takes up farming, cultivates 50 ha and makes P 1,500,000 (US$30,000) every 6 months out of garlic and onions. Story comes out. A2, also an OFW, cultivates 1 ha of rice and makes only P 10,000 each cropping season. No story. A3, a farmer, converts his 7-ha crop farm into a tourism farm and now is earning P 1 million a year! Story. A4, an agriculturist, quits his job at a government office, converts his 5-ha farm into a tourism farm and is earning P 120,000 a year. Compare with A3. No story. A5 is raising improved native chickens (dominant CZ) in La Union and is now earning half a million every 6 months. Story. A6, long-time farmer, is raising native chickens and barely earning enough for his family. His wife sells fish in the public market. No story. A7 planted the Longping hybrid rice in 10 hectares and made P 500,000 in 1 growing season. Story. A8 planted Longping hybrid rice in 1 ha and made only P 15,000 in 1 growing season. No story. A9 is growing cacao seedling

  Today, Saturday, 19 September 2020, on Facebook Father Corapi Catholic Channel shares, and I love the quote: You are never too old to set another goal. Or to dream a new dream. CS Lewis Sharer of wisdom, Catholic. Source Protestant. I am Catholic. We Catholics don’t have a monopoly of wisdom! Actually, less than 2 months ago, on 07 August 2020, I created this new blog of mine where you are reading this – Brave New World PH – with a logo of a girl walking surrounded by a bright future. I did borrow that BNW image from comicbook TV [1] ) . What stronger image for bravery than a girl? For the brave new Philippines. Because, yes, if I do not dedicate the rest of my life to my country, it’s still mine but what good is my digital knowhow then? Talent shared is talent multiplied. In agriculture in the Philippines, with the continuing lockdown up to 12 September 2021, there is very little or no freedom at all for government agencies, scientists & extensionists, as well as private c

Du30’s coronavirus lockdown extends to 12 Sept 2021, but no presidential decree should quarantine our thinking such as on science applied to agriculture, on knowledge applied to farming – and on a national university reaching out to the people to help them think on problems and act out solutions. The University of the Philippines Los Baños is crucial here and, since as an alumnus I know that UPLB has inadvertently locked down itself into the Silence of Science, as a modern knowledge warrior I dare my alma mater to wake up from its science slumber and serve the people with eyes wide open and mind alert! In the above image, I’m saying if you are the UPLB Chancellor, you need instant multi-institutional perspectives that you can create only in a digital universe. UPLB needs a digital Chancellor now! I, Frank A Hilario, as: Editor In Chief of several science publications in the last 45 years; a self-taught digital Editor in the last 25 years; a self-directed unstoppable blogger publish