If Bongbong Marcos (BBM) Will Support Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), He Will Have My Smart Vote!

Among PH presidential candidates, nobody is talking about what ought to be done with agriculture – especially considering Climate Change. You are not The Big Friend if you don’t talk about The Big Enemy.

Above image, sharing on Facebook by Bonifacio Bebe Menguito Via iSambayan, much respected Filipina opinion-maker Solita Garduño Collas-Monsod says:

Hindi kasama sa website in Bongbong Marcos ang kanyang programa ng gobyerno. Walang kahit isang salita tungkol sa kung ano ang kanyang gagawin para sa bansa bilang pangulo.

My translation:

Not included in the website of Bongbong Marcos (BBM) is his program of government. Not a single word is said about what he plans to do for the country as President.

Ha, ha! Ms Solita’s words make up both an obvious criticism as well as a sly suggestion – BBM, come up with your program of government!

Among the May 2022 candidates, BBM knows most about agriculture, having been Governor of his province, Ilocos Norte. I have written in praise of him; see my essay, “PH, I See Cooperatives Country Champions – And BBM My Hero!” (12-10-21, RegINA Queen Mother Earth, Blogspot.com). That was as big a boost as I could give – this one is huger if he comes right down to it:

If BBM will support climate smart agriculture (CSA), I have found my presidential candidate!

We are talking at least 5 million farmers – potential voters – who need all the help they can get when it comes to agriculture.

If amenable, BBM will prod Congress to generate a budget of P517Billion for Year 1 to cover different varieties of loans to farmers via cooperatives, including the manufacture of farm machineries, organic fertilizers, organic pesticides etc.

BBM will cause government machinery to grind out policies, programs and projects to popularize CSA all over the country. And that is not easy – our farmers have been farming and causing their share of global warming by their ab/use of chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and cultivation techniques that expose their fields to long-term irrigation on one hand and barrenness on the other hand.

Pinoy farmers must learn CSA if they are to help stop catastrophic climate change in these islands: hot weather alternating with super typhoons, and droughts alternating with floods.

CSA calls for the following (a few examples of practices):

Organic Fertilizers. Their manufacture does not require fossil fuels whose use in the production of inorganic fertilizers emit greenhouse gases (GHGs). The GHGs are seen as man’s major contribution to climate change, which is to his own doom.

Alternate Wet & Dry Irrigation. Drain the field regularly to conserve water.

Minimum Tillage. The less you cultivate the soil, the less it will lose structure, moisture, and nutrients – and the less it will warm up during the day.

Multiple Cropping. You will not need pesticides if you grow 2 or more crops with each other – the pests in one crop are the foods of the insects in another crop.

People, if you are smart yourself, you will support climate smart agriculture in the first place!@517

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