Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture

Here’s re-inventing the Tagalog expression “Asa aka pa!” from the negative, “Don’t bother, don’t hope!” to the positive, “Hope for more!” As acronym, ASA KA PA!: “Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture!”

While this blog is not to disparage other religious beliefs, I must confess from the start that I am a Roman Catholic. I just created this blog today, ASA KA PA! and I just found out that on this date, the 24th of February, St Francis “received his vocation” in Portiuncula, Italy – in other words, it dawned on him that his life’s role was as a preacher. (image of St Francis[2] from On This Day) And yes, I was born on another important St Francis date: September 17, which today is celebrated by Catholics as “The Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi.” Stigmata: St Francis was the first person recorded “who bore the marks of the crucified Christ (on) his hands, his feet, and (on) his side[1]” (Sacred Heart Catholic Church). 

As a digital preacher for the development of PH Agriculture, the name of my new blog, “ASA KA PA!” has 3 meanings: (1) “More hope for you!” (2) “Hope for more!” and:

Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate,
Knowledge-Aligned,
Pinoy Agriculture!

That is because I am an Agriculturist, a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, a full-pledged University in itself in the UP System. I graduated in 1965, passed the very first Teacher’s Exam the year before, Professional Level. I have been engaged in what I myself invented: Communication for Development, ComDev, since 1975, when I started working for the Forest Research Institute (FORI), based at UP Los Baños. My FORI years, 1975 to 1981, are descriptive of my ComDev desires for my country – I founded and became the Editor In Chief of 3 FORI publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. Those 3 publications made FORI well known in the Philippines and abroad.

At FORI, I was only beginning to show what I could do as a communicator for development. In those years, the Typewriter was King – except that I did experience the use of the IBM Selectric typewriter with its interchangeable keys: nice touch! I have always typed my own articles. I also learned photography by asking questions with the FORI photographer, who was under me.

On Innocents Day, 28 December 1985, I saw the need for me to learn word and image processing. I never looked back. I learned more digital skills over the years from 1997 (I’m guessing) when we had the Internet installed at home.

Today, I blog my own, and have something like 41 GB of collected photographs in my hard disk, 99% of them shot with my own hands. My latest camera is a Lumix FZ100 digital zoom, with AI capabilities: Just point and shoot! (See image above.)

Now then, I am re-dedicating my life to the development of Philippine agriculture via communication for development with a new slogan: “ASA KA PA!”@517


[1]https://sacredheartfla.org/about-us/being-franciscan/fraciscan-feast-days/the-feast-of-the-stigmata-of-st-francis-of-assisi/

[2]https://www.onthisday.com/events/february/24

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What’s Your 1K Worth Today? My 1K Is Worth Love In Communication For Village Development In The 21st Century (CoViD21)!

Image
Today, Friday, 02 Sept 2022, I post this essay as the 1000 th in this blog “CoViD21” – short for “Communication for Village Development in the 21st Century.” Blogging since 2000, I have decided to dedicate myself unrelentingly to village development – an area much neglected. Actually, the 999 essays published before this one appeared in my blog “ Towards A New Eden” but which I have come to the conclusion that building a New Eden is too much of a promise, and developing villages is a dream within one’s reach in a lifetime. The development of villages I have in mind is via Regenerative Agriculture (RA). Rodale Institute introduced the term “Regenerative Organic Agriculture” in 1989 “to distinguish a kind of farming that goes beyond sustainable” (undated, Rodale Institute, rodaleinstitute.org ). So, I now believe that “Sustainable Development” is inadequate! We must go after “Regenerative Development,” especially via Agriculture. At this point, I must say that the application of org
Read more

Knorr Of Big Business Unilever Thinks Big Business Regenerative Agriculture – My Tiny Country PH Also Should!

Image
“Knorr’s plan for 50 regenerative agriculture projects is predicted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use by an estimated 30% while improving biodiversity, soil health and livelihoods.” That is regenerative agriculture (RA) news by Julian Cirineo (05 Nov 2021, “Unilever Wants To Rethink How Farms Work To Secure Food And Resources For The Future,” Rappler , rappler.com ). Note: 50 (not 5 only) RA projects to improve greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and water use by 30% – plus improving biodiversity, soil health and livelihoods. Note the last 7 words in the above paragraph. How can RA improve biodiversity? RA requires that the farmer practices multiculture (a few or many crops grown at the same time in the same place), where monoculture (such as rice-only or corn-only) is the practice – the biodiversity improves crop health because of the ensuing balance of nature, such as some organisms feed on other organisms that would otherwise become pests or cause diseases. RA is your
Read more

How Do We Celebrate “World Environment Day?” 2 Related Answers: “We Believe Farming Is The Biggest Job On Earth” – BASF. “Everyday Is Environment Day For Me!” – Frank A Hilario

Image
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
Read more