Healthy Farms for Healthy Foods

Government must serve business interests, at the same time make sure that the commerce serves the common good of the consumers. Madelaine B Miraflor is happy to report: “BAPTC To Spin Into Corporation To Provide Farmers, Traders More Services, Bigger Incom e [1] ”  (16 June 2021, DA.gov.ph ). The government-run Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) in La Trinidad, Benguet, will become a corporation. How good has the trading center been? Ms Madelaine says: During its initial year, a measly 269 metric tons (MT) of vegetables were traded by 108 farmers, traders, and buyers. (Volume) transactions grew exponentially through the years, registering more than 1,000 MT in 2016, 71,220 MT in 2017, 106,000 MT in 2018, 121,200 MT in 2019, and 169,850 MT in 2020. Phenomenal! After 6 years of operation, the BAPTC is now the country’s biggest vegetable trading facility . I say: “It can be bigger, better!” (vegetables-in-trading ima ge [2] f rom Herald Express ) That decision to incorporate

From “Sencia Sabado,” I saw this on Facebook 29 August 2021, “Awan Matay Iti Covid-19,” (Nobody Dies Of Covid-19). I translate freely from the Ilocano: Studies by doctors show this virus lives in the respiratory system of a person and this is where the symptoms arise slowly; steadily the Covid-19 virus destroys the body, until a person dies. Believe it or not, suob (steam therapy) is what we are doing abroad. You will be saved and your health will improve. Nobody dies of Covid-19 if the virus is disabled by way of suob. With anyone who feels a fever, cough, pain or itch in the throat, difficulty in breathing, or any symptom or sign of Covid-19, by the traditional steam therapy with salt, the virus will be disabled; breathing will become easier immediately; and the fever will disappear. This is all you have to do: (1) Boil 1.5-2 liters of water in a casserole. (2) When the water boils, put in 3-4 tablespoons of salt. (3) Stir to dissolve the salt. (4) Switch off or stop the boi

“EDC’s COO Richard B Tantoco talks of his personal and professional journey with his love for nature [1] ” ( Energy.com. ph). Love for nature. During the Age of Dinosaurs (large typewriters), I was a very busy Editor In Chief of the Forest Research Institute (FORI), now Ecosystems Research & Development Bureau, from 1975 to 1981, busy founding & writing & editing for FORI’s 3 regular publications – monthly newsletter Canopy , quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop and quarterly color magazine Habitat (that I patterned after the US National Geographic ). Nonetheless, Mr Tantoco surprises me that, ever since, I have never met a Million Tree Man like him! And native PH trees at that! He writes (“Seeing Green”): I have two dreams. The first is a personal one, and that is to plant a million Philippine native trees in five years. I still don’t have a business model for this endeavor right now, but maybe at some point I can sell some of the seedlings and create an eco-tourism ve

Above, looking at the Internet of Things (IoT), I see both Information and Communication , the give & take and the response, towards Development. (“Internet of Things, IoT” ima ge [1] from Alamy.com ) That thought has arisen from my repeated reading on Facebook the “DA-CAR Press Release No 21-135” dated 27 August 2021 written by ANN (Author Not Named) with this opening paragraph: To keep government information offices and media updated on the priority programs of the government in (the) Cordillera region, more than 150 information/communication officers and media partners attended the meeting focusing on “strengthening government communication towards resilience and recovery” at the Conference Hall, Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office-Cordillera (DA-RFO-CAR) on 25 August 2021. (bottom image) CAR is the Cordillera Administrative Region. Actually, only 25 joined the meeting in person while more than 130 attended virtually. The assembly was facilitated by the Philippi

Those world-famous Banaue rice terraces are good for tourism, but what about farming & climate? A question never before asked till now! Pinoys, when you complain against climate change, you complain against what your own people, perhaps including you, may have done to Mother Earth, for decades – abuse natural resources . The rice terraces are beautiful to tourists, Filipinos and foreigners alike – but they are not so beautiful when you consider the rice planted and the yield. Look at the above image again – yellow swaths against greens – ricefields with soils poor in nutrients for any crop. Truth to tell, the owners of those terraces are not earning enough, and so they leave the area, or stay and complain about life. It is as if the terrace farmers have no choice. But there is! They just have not been thinking the science of it . This is a wide-reading agriculturist speaking. Mar Berry of World Agroforestry has written about it: “Coping With Climate Change Through Agrofore

  With bangus fingerlings from the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program, 4 Lanao del Sur fishers’ cooperatives harvested and sold a total of P 3 Million after 5 months. Wow! That is from the news “Four Fisherfolk Cooperatives In LDN Earn More Than Php 3M From Bangus Production [1] ” written by Jennifer A Valcobero (07 June 2021, SAAD.da.gov.ph ). The gross of P 3,032,480 was from a total of 22.77 tons of bangus harvested. SAAD is a national program of the Department of Agriculture (DA). The Lanao Del Norte cooperatives & number of their members are the Baroy Stakeholders & Fishermen Cooperative with 62, Lala Fishermen’s Cooperative with 63, Simbuco Aqua Marine Multi-Purpose Cooperative with 207, and Tangueguiron Seaweed Grower & Fishermen Cooperative with 67 – for a total of 399 fisher beneficiaries of the DA program in that Northern Mindanao province. The 4 fishers’ groups had held synchronous stockings in December 2020 and harvests in May 2021. Teo

“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have noted with keen interest how the (Philippine) agriculture sector has managed to achieve a positive growth rate,” Searca says. “A positive growth rate” – That is the rating that Director Glenn B Gregorio of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study & Research in Agriculture (Searca) gives at the Center’s website on the performance of PH Agriculture amid the Covid-19 pandemic. That is considering the 2% growth rate in the first half of the year. Mr Gregorio does not mention it, but that is the overall achievement masterminded by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar (face in above multi-image). In effect, Mr Gregorio is saying: “Mr Dar’s ‘OneDA Approach’ is working!” After looking at the short-term, Mr Gregorio is looking at the long-term performance of PH Agriculture, as I understand him, assuming that the Covid-19 lockdown will not continue . In the past several decades, I have been in and around the UP Los Baño

  And the children will love you for them! Yesterday, Sunday, 22 August 2021, browsing Facebook I saw again Aida Page’s sharing, “The Most Beautiful Tree in the World” (image on top), and I could not resist this comment: “Most colorful, yes. Most beautiful is different.” “The World’s Most Beautiful Trees” are different to different people – and they should be enjoyed as such. There is science and there is art hidden in my statement above of 17 words. The science is agroforestry , agriculture+forestry, or the cultivation of forest farms. The art is landscape horticulture , or the growing of food in eye-pleasing arrangements, structures & systems. The bottom multi-image [1] is from Growing With Nature , and it asks: “Types of Food Forests: Which is Right for You?” Thinking aloud of food and forest, I am also thinking of climate change. You don’t have to completely understand the concept of “climate change” to be part of the solution. I believe we should be planting at least 1 m

Journalists, please be careful with your hype!  (“Hyperbole” image [1] fr om Li’l But Mighty ) Especially about individual successful farmers. Now then, the digital newspaper story “Young Maguindanao Farmer Empowers Youth Via Agriculture [2] ” by ANN (Author Not Named, 19 August 2021, Philippine Canadian Inquirer ), has 3 lessons: (1) Journalism, (2) Empowerment, and (3) Agriculture. I’m not exaggerating! 1 st Lesson: Journalism ANN says June Rey Peñafiel , above, a 27-year-old farmer in Maguindanao, has harvested 12 metric tons (MT)/hectare with hybrid rice SL-8H, planting seeds from the Department of Agriculture (DA) under the Hybridization Program. June Rey has been planting rice since 2013, twice a year. He has enjoyed per hectare a return on investment (ROI) of 4 times, gross income being P 160,000 and gross expenses P 40,000. Yes, hybrid rice enriches him with that fantastic ROI! But that is a  singular story. According to DA Hybrid Rice Program Adviser Frisco Malabanan , t

V Bruce J Tolentino et al have just authored a book co-published by the Department of Agriculture (DA) with its attached agency, the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) – which has just inspired me with a concept, as intimated in my title above. The book is titled Enabling Rural And Agricultural Finance For Inclusive Development In The Philippines , published August 2021 (264 pages, available in pdf) – the above multiple images comprise the book cover. In her Preface to the book, Jocelyn Alma R Badiola , currently ACPC Executive Director, reminds the reader that the ACPC was created in 1986 through Executive Order 113, “to synchronize all credit policies and programs in support of the (DA’s) priority programs.” Thus, the ACPC was “given the responsibility of reviewing and evaluating the economic soundness of all ongoing and proposed agricultural credit programs, whether for domestic or foreign funding, prior to approval.” Leading the first efforts then was the now-main auth

  I just learned that our Department of Agriculture (DA) has  P 9.8 Billion of  unspent  funds – that reflects the Ilocano in Secretary of Agriculture  William Dar . Another Ilocano, I’m thinking of helping spend fast  P 1.7 Billion going digital, creating this last quarter of the year a Knowledge Bank for 5 million Filipino farmers. (“Knowledge Bank” image [1]   from Knowledge Bank,  Facebook ) The Commission on Audit (COA) has come out with a negative spending report on the DA.  Ralf Rivas  says, “COA Questions DA For  P 9.8-Billion Unspent Funds, Wrong Farmers’ List s [2] ”  (19 August 2021,  Rappler ). Wrong lists? Today, as Editor In Chief of 46 years and Internet-ready for 30 years, I am more interested into what the DA could use the funds for: P 1.7 Billion as Intelligence Fund in Agriculture. This particular Intelligence Fund is for creating a universal, limitless Knowledge Bank that is actually the brains of SMART JUAN:  Stored Matter Adapted To Rural Terrain Translated For Jo

  “English, the great language of democracy, will bind us forever to the people of the United States and place within our reach the wealth of knowledge treasured in this language.” I am celebrating PH President  Manuel Luis Quezon ’s (MLQ’s) birthday Thursday, 19 August, with him saying tha t [1]   30 December 1937,  Rizal Day . In the same breath, MLQ said: The fact that we are going to have our national language does not mean that we are to abandon in our schools the study or the use of the Spanish language, much less English…. English, the great language of democracy, will bind us forever to the people of the United States and place within our reach the wealth of knowledge treasured in this language. Even Quezon, your favorite nationalist, acknowledged the power of the English language in the matter of knowledge! Me, a full-blooded Ilocano, informally adopted (American) English as  my primary intellectual language  sometime in the mid-50s when I was 1 st  year high school in my home