Healthy Farms for Healthy Foods

Is this good news coming from the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) ? “Smartphones, Social Media Become Vital Tools For Farmers Under This Digital Farming Course [1] ” ( Betheena Unite , 30 July 2021, MB.com.ph ): Farmers Go Digital – A farmer-youth tandem completes the hands-on activity on smartphone familiarization under the Digital Farmers Program (DFP) training conducted by Agricultural Training Institute Region 2.  (above image from ATI Region 2) What the ATI is trying is “to build a pool of digitally-adept farmers and agriculturally-involved youth nationwide.” Farmers better at working their smartphones. The next stage of the ATI training is the DFP to be conducted this August: The DFP 102 this August will center on in-depth agriculture applications and the utilization of social media and smartphones to improve both farming efficiency and productivity. After this course, participants should be able to identify and use agri-related applications from both government and pri

Look at Marguerite De Leon of Rappler – unashamed to display the languages of body & tattoos, ashamed to display the English language at the first sign of casual conversation! (MDL’s half body [1]  from Rappler ) Ms Marguerite has written about her feeling guilty spokening English – “The Guilt Of Being Born And Raised Filipino, But Having English As Your First Languag e [2] ” (18 August 2020, Rappler.com ). “Spokening English” in my title above is of course a Filipino corruption of “speaking in English,” either an apology for speaking in that tongue, or attempt to shame someone who is. We Filipinos are downgrading our own cultural abilities such as by being ashamed of communicating in English at anytime. Ms Marguerite says: English is my first language, the one I hear in my head when I think, the one that just rolls right out of me when I need to convey something, anything. I Frank A Hilario am an FBI, full-blooded Ilocano, but English is my first language when I think, espe

“We care!” It’s 4:30 AM, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 in Manila. I just woke up from a dream, and that’s the thought, exact 2 words that woke me up. Unfortunately, UST and other PH universities don’t care! We have had no Internet since 3 days ago; we paid 1 week ago – on his birthday, I cannot Facebook-greet SRO “Happy 86!” PLDTHomeFibr doesn’t care! (I had to predate this one.) “We care” is free, something you can find only on Facebook – if you have Internet . Above image, proudly shared on Facebook via Varsitarian.net: “UST Becomes First PH University With 5-Star QS Rating.” How do UST people rate themselves in terms of National Development? (Don’t answer.) The article by Jacqueline B Martinez (21 July 2021) says, “UST has become the first and only higher education institution (HEI) in the Philippines with a five-star Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) rating.” Details: QS recognized UST’s Doctor of Medicine program as its specialization and gave it a perfect score in graduate employability

Happy 86 th Birthday SRO! May you have more happy rices to come! As my tribute, I have created a component of my theory of Communication for Development (C4D) in your honor: Advice from Age for Development (AA4D). I understand that once in a while, Santiago Rigonan Obien , who loves his initials SRO , takes over the chairmanship of Asia Rice Foundation (Asia Rice), which is based at Searca, which is based at the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Asia Rice is Asia-wide; Searca is Asean-wide; and UPLB is nationwide – in one geographical location in my country, all the bases of Asian science are covered! I mentioned on page 2 of my 1 st internationally published book Team ICRISAT Champions The Poor (2007, 133 pages), published by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), that I had written on SRO this article: “ Management: Relating Is Everything. Or, The Wizard Of Rice Who Cultivated Minds,’ 31 July 2006, https://americanfr

I continue enriching my own theory of communication for development (C4D); this concept is Extension for Development (Ex4D) – learn more, aggie extensionists whoever you are wherever, so you can extend more! (original poultry image [1] from The Big Book Project ) We are in Barangay Sabang, San Jose, Batangas, at the LMV Farm. We are with the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) listening to ACPC interviewer Karlo Abarquez talking with Cecille Aldueza , wife of Leo Marvin Virtucio (LMV); I translate & pick freely from the Taglish exchange. Ms Cecille says of her husband: “ He is the full-fledged egg farmer. I cover Finance and Marketing as well as Product Development.” Around 2012, we started with a small poultry near our house in Lumil. We were based in Makati while developing a farm here in Barangay Sabang. Right now we have 3 buildings. They settled in San Jose in 2016 to manage their agribusiness full-time. What we wanted to do was look for bigger markets. We are sti

Above, only 6 individual images show in the single photograph, but I say there is a 7 th image. What!? It’s the whole view , from which to derive a single, overall meaning! (See also my last sentence below.) The above is that of a providential Windows 10 collage in my extension ViewSonic screen, photograph taken by me with my Lumix FZ100 digital camera on 06 May 2018. As far as I can tell, the included images are all mine, lodged in my Lenovo ThinkPad 500 GB laptop. Those are among my available collection of 10,347 photos (no duplicates) dating back 2004; actually, I have more – I have also lost about 20,000 images by my error in reformatting my hard disk in the previous, smaller laptop ( Lenovo IdeaPad ). I selected that photograph when I saw the upper left image is that of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) with its slogan “Science with a human face,” and the lower middle image, that of William Dar , then Director General of ICRISAT

I am inventing an area for helping develop my country the Philippines – Education for Development (Ed4D), which explains the above title. [The acronym considers another area, Extension for Development (Ex4D), coming up!] Facebook sharing of Aida Page : On 23 July 2021, in his message, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar challenged the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College (ISPSC) celebrating the first-year anniversary of Gilbert Arce as ISPSC President. (The Facebook post did not say in which of the 6 campuses of ISPSC that it happened: Candon City, Cervantes, Narvacan, Santiago,  Santa Maria,   Tagudin – all in Ilocos Sur. I will assume here that it was Santa Maria because that is where Mr Dar was born.) (ISPSC log o [1] from Facebook) Mr Dar’s challenge to all campuses and alumni of ISPSC was: “Partner with the government in pushing for economic stability and usher development (for the Philippines) to be able to compete with other countries.” In his anniversary message, Mr Dar

My discovery: “Community-Based Participatory Action Research” (CPAR) is R4D I love. The best is yet to come! Thus inspired, “More C4D 4 More R4D” is the slogan for this new blog of almost-81-year-old FAH, Communication for Development (C4D) . Grow old along with me! Dirk Schubotz says participatory action research (PAR) is “participative and democratic research practice with transformational foc us [1] ”  (2019, “ Participatory Action Research,” Sage Research Methods ): At the core of PAR projects is the triad of action, participation, and research. … The ambition of PAR (is) to undertake social research not only in order to find out things but also to change things, and how this ethos of planning and working towards social change, rather than (merely) hoping to trigger change, sets PAR apart from other conventional types of research. (Above, PAR imag e [2] from Sage Research Methods ); superimposed village photograph by FAH taken 23 October 2018) PAR is a different type of resea

Why don’t the Philippine Council For Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development (PCAARRD) and/or Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) promote R4D for farm tourism, first, by researching successful farms? Already, the Department of Agriculture (DA) , through its attached agency Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), is helping develop tourism farms with its Sure-Aid and Recover from Covid-19 (SURE Aid Covid-19) Loan Program. I am reading the interview of Elmer Relente of Calaca, Batangas, husband of Ellen , owners of Anpilo AgriFarm (above image), by Karlo Abarquez , from the Communications & Public Affairs Division of ACPC, where Emmalyn Guinto is Division Chief. (I’m selecting & translating freely from the 4,300-word transcript in Taglish of the video recorded on location.) Notably, Mr Relente says, “Naisipan naming itayo ang farm na ito dahil sa paniniwala namin na may bukas sa agrikultura.” (We thought of setting up this farm because w

Which do you do to combat aflatoxin on farm produce: Control the fungus? Or control the food contamination? More! As practitioner of my own 1980 theory of communication for development (C4D), I am now actively campaigning for research for development (R4D) in PH and abroad. Today, I compare 2 approaches to R4D by 2 international research agencies trying to defeat the same aflatoxin contamination of farm produce by the fungus Aspergillus flavus . These are the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India; and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) based in Nigeria – both under the aegis of CGIAR. “Combating Aflatoxi n [1] ”  shouts the webpage of ICRISAT (lower image); “IITA Signs Aflasaf e [2] …” says the title from the IITA Bulletin (upper image). One method of combat contrasts with the other: dollar-rich, that of the IITA; dollar-conscious, that of ICRISAT. Here is a quote from the IITA article by ANN (Author Not Na

My open appeal to the Philippine Council For Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development (PCAARRD) and Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR)   – “Please fund thousands more researches for development!” This new essay in this new blog, Communication For Development  PH (C4D), was inspired by my yesterday’s essay, “ PH Revolutionizing World Science – ‘R4D Instead Of R&D,’ Says William Dar, Agriculture Secreta ry [1] ” (20 July 2021, Communication For Development PH, blogspot.com ) – which has been inspired by Mr Dar. We must emphasize what we do is for development. We have a Goliath of a problem here, as 49-year old PCAARRD itself by name has welcomed “research and development” (R&D) and i gnored “research for development” (R4D). R4D needs C4D before, during & after. And I am the pretender to the one who defeated Goliath – David. My nerve to do a David comes from, among other things, being an original aboriginal (Ilocano) with my own theory

Time to wake up the world into a bright new day via a revolutionary idea in Science! I have been reading the commencement address of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar at the 69th Annual Commencement Exercises of Central Luzon State University (CLSU) held on 09 July 2021 in the Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija. On this occasion, Mr Dar was conferred a Doctor of Humanities title ( Honoris Causa ). (top image) As ex-officio head of the Department of Agriculture (DA) , among other things, Mr Dar said uniquely (with my little editing): The challenges of development in a nation such as ours are deep, difficult, and persistent. They will continue for as long as we draw breath: poverty, technological backwardness, and shameful waste. That’s why we at the DA (wish to) tap those excelling in the field of agri-research, such as CLSU, to pursue research for development instead of research and development. It is a quest for learning and truth. And I emphasize this change in the (conc