Thinking Differently*

On 27 January 2021, the press release came out from the Department of Agriculture (DA) titled “DA Taps State Schools For Food Security Policy Research Projects [1] , ” data-gathering efforts commonly aiming at creating a regional database for agricultural and rural development, urgently for national food security. The collaboration is another initiative of the DA under its Agriculture Dialogue and Information Network Groups (ADING) Program “that aims to further strengthen and improve public trust and confidence in the Department.” Note: “Ading” in Ilocano means “younger sibling.” Now, not only the aim but the name is perfect – I am thinking of the 17-year old proposal of Mr Dar himself that he called “ Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture” (OpAPA), which he advocated in 2003 when he was still Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) – with ADING and OpAPA 2021, we have a family of science knowledge banks with Mr Dar as fat...

When I was a kid (pun intended) in the then-sleepy village of Sanchez in Asingan, Pangasinan, we had 2 or 3 goats tied to the posts underneath our half-wood-half-bamboo house, fed with grass and often leaves of the damortis ( camachile , Manila tamarind) from branches that I cut and then hung underneath the house for them to reach and eat at will. We did not think of raising more goats to earn more. We were not poor by any means, but we did not think richer . That is the problem I see with people raising goats, consciously or unconsciously fixating on the idea that “the goat is the poor man’s cow.” When you think poorly of the goat, that animal cannot make you richer! I just saw under Goat Project Cordillera “DA-CAR-SAAD Press Release No Kalinga 15” on Facebook and it says (edited a little): The Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program, in collaboration with the local governments of Kalinga (province) and Tanudan (town), turned over 263 head native goats (239 h...

Yes, when it comes to food, you can have everything today, despite the lockdown. That promise we get from government action, as reported by ANN – “DA-ACPC Expands Agri-Negosyo (ANYO) Loan Program To Help Strengthen Food Supply Chain [1] ” (Author Not Named, 10 April 2021, ACPC.gov.ph ). Above, Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) Executive Director Jocelyn Alma R Badiola talks to marketers, part of a series of consultations to enable the ACPC to develop a food-supply-chain-financing program to directly link farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) as suppliers, to market vendors’ associations (MVAs) in Metro Manila as sellers. FCAs will produce what MVAs will sell in a smooth, continuous supply chain. Secretary of Agriculture William Dar , ex-officio head of the Department of Agriculture (DA), to which the ACPC is attached, says: We are initiating this financing program to institutionalize mutual partnership between the farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) an...

  If you know what you need to do, you will keep doing it. On page 119 of the coffee-table book The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable , the volume I produced for the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) to celebrate its Silver Anniversary on 25 April 2012, can be found these entries: Vision The ACPC is the institution on agri credit policy and program development that promotes sustainable and effective delivery of financial services in the countryside. Mission To develop and advocate agri credit policies and orchestrate programs that would promote farmers’ and fishers’ access to sustained financial services. 9 years later, on the ACPC website, ACPC.gov.ph , word-for-word the exact same Vision and Mission Statements [1] appear. What does that signify? To me, it shows that the ACPC, after clearly defining its role in the nationwide development of PH Agriculture as an agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), has remained steadfast in its institutional commitments. I find tha...

Today Saturday, 10 April 2021, Manila PH: “Happy Birthday, Sir William Dar , Secretary of Agriculture! We wish you more happy birthdays to come!” Mr Dar was Director General (DG) 2000 to 2014 of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is based in India. 15 years – the Indians had so much faith in him as science leader, so why not us Filipinos? Know that when Mr Dar became DG of ICRISAT, the institute belonged to the bottom of the list ( kulelat ) among 15 international agricultural research centers under CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research), including IRRI. When Mr Dar retired in December 2014, ICRISAT was already #1, having won many awards and increased its budget over the years. The Secret? Team ICRISAT . The Spirit behind? Mr Dar as Servant Leader . I know all that because I was international consulting writer (WFH) from 2007 to 2014, maintaining the blog iCRiSAT Watch ( Blogspot.com ), publishing a tota...

Above is the front cover of a coffee-table book published by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) titled The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable . The inset logos show that the ACPC is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA). The inset text says: With credit, the ACPC looks forward to the day millions of poor farmers and fishers, along with their households, have become as resilient as the bamboo, that is, pliant, sturdy, resistant to stress, can withstand harsh weather, and thrives even on infertile grounds. Yes, the ACPC now knows our farmers are “Bankable!” – given the ACPC’s financial assistance and supervision to individuals and groups. That is the lesson I personally learned in my field trips and subsequently singlehandedly digitally producing the above ACPC coffee-table book subtitled Celebrating 25 Years Of The ACPC. (I myself celebrated when that book came out.) Late January in 2012, Executive Director of the ACPC Jovita Corpuz , from out of the blue pick...

This is both a Glad and Sad Story. Glad: The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has maintained its ISO 9001:2015 QMS Certification [1] as of October 2020. Sad: Many a poor Filipino farmer remains the loser in the credit card game played in the villages. Well, farmers don’t realize it as credit – they just know it’s Fast Cash , no questions asked, no collateral, no waiting in line. We call it “Five-Six” – it’s really a “Borrow Now Pay Later Plan” – borrow 5 pay 6, 20% interest within 100 days, even within 24 hours. Fast cash for the borrower, fat cash for the lender. Aren’t both happy?! Isn’t that a failure of credit consciousness in the Philippines? Isn’t that a failure of an agency to promote credit worthiness in both borrowers and lenders? No, not so fast! Because, right now, there is no single public agency tasked to promote the use and demote the abuse of farm credit in the Philippines. The nearest body I can think of is the ACPC, but my googling tells me I’m wrong. A ...

On Facebook, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar quietly shares some good news in Philippine Agriculture: “India Vows Support For Agriculture [1] ”  by Eireene Jairee Gomez (27 March 2021, Manila Times ): Speaking at the General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Fisheries Inc (PCAFI) on Friday, Shambhu Kumaran , Ambassador of India to the Philippines, recognized the old connections between the two countries, which (seek) to build up people-driven and people-centered partnerships. The Indian government has vowed to strengthen (its) long-standing cooperation with the Philippines, particularly in the areas of intensifying technological transfer in the country’s agriculture and (fisheries). Old connections – Here are a few items of note: Filipino culture has “Indian influenc es [2] ”  ( Wikipedia ). About 30% of the Tagalog language is loanwords from Sanskrit; the uses of brass, bronze, copper and tin in the Philippine decorative arts and meta...

310 hectares of public land in Pampanga currently under the jurisdiction of the Pampanga State Agricultural University (PSAU) are in an intellectual managerial deadlock, having to choose between 2 agrarian schemes: ü Agrarian Ownership? The Department of Agrarian Reform (the DAR) distributes the lands to new individual farmers.   ü Agrarian Stewardship? PSAU retains formal stewardship with profit sharing with countless landless farmers in such projects as: agroforestry, bamboo, coconut, coffee, genebank forestry, goat, mixed orchard, mulberry, silvipasture, and tamarind production. I think like that with the news story by William L Beltran , “PSAU Appeals Retention Of CARP-Able Landholding, Offers Stewardship [1] ”  (26 March 2021, PIA.gov.ph ). I can feel the anguish of PSAU’s President Honorio Soriano Jr . The 376 hectares of land owned and titled to PSAU have been, according to Mr Beltran, “validated by (the DAR) as coverable under the Land Reform Program of the gover...

As of Easter Sunday, 04 April 2021, as a creative writer who started publishing himself, in print in 1975, or 55 years ago, and in digital media in 2000, or 20 years ago, I have blogged digitally alone about 7,000 essays – long , up to 7,000 words; and short , exactly 517 words, including title. Extra creative! My very last essay, which I blogged Sunday, “2 Leadership Lessons From Apayao Women – Help Yourself By Helping Other s [1] ” ( Asa Ka Pa! ), is most original and extraordinary – so far, it’s my best! But it started in my head nothing like that. Lesson: Your best is still to come. There’s hope! In the top image, Akin Olokun says, “People come into your life and go, but you will always have to live with yourself. Make yourself pleasant, positive, and peaceful.” The bottom image says, “The great gift of Easter is Hope” – Basil Hume , Archbishop of Westminster, who “presided over one of the most turbulent periods of Catholicism in Brita in [2] . ” The great British poet Alexander...

In the 820-word story by Kathleen Faye B Agonoy of SAAD Apayao titled “Rural Women-Led Communal Gardening In Celebration Of National Women’s Month [1] ” (29 March 2021, SAAD.da.gov.ph ), I see 2 lessons in leadership. I see them, after reading 5 times, what with the original Ilocano words included, and as an Ilocano myself I had to check the accuracy of the translation. And the leadership lessons are: (1)   Self-help: Look for leadership in someone who wants to help herself first of all (“tao nga kayat na metlang nga tulungan iti bagi na”). (2)   Communal interest: That chosen leader can then convince others to join in a community project with this assurance: “You help yourself by helping others!” The Apayao communal gardens are in Poblacion, Imelda, Alem, San Luis (PIAS), owned by the PIAS Farmers Association (PIAS FA). I note with interest that the association is registered at the Department of Labor & Employment as a cooperative. Personally I believe in the power of...

I am a certified Civil Service Professional teacher. Teachers anywhere in the world, public or private, we have been educated wrong & wrongly! In the Philippines, the wrong teaching happens, from the most expensive private school International School Manila (ISM) , $16,160 per ye ar [1] ( Moneymax ), to the inexpensive University of the Philippines System (UP System) where mega-blogger Frank A Hilario graduated (UP Los Baños). Teachers teach us to memorize, and then memorize, and finally memorize! Our teachers do not teach us to think, and how to think! German American Gundula Bosch says we must “Train PhD Students To Be Thinkers Not Just Specialists [2] ” (14 February 2018, Nature.com ): (Today, microbiology) students are taught every detail of a microbe’s life cycle but little about the life scientific. They need to be taught to recognize how errors can occur. Trainees should evaluate case studies derived from flawed real research, or use interdisciplinary detective games t...

Above, the dead leaves that spread well to cover the field amidst the growing crop is Good Friday, which precedes a resurrection on Easter Sunday – on this field, the resurrected soil will produce a crop that is Heaven on Earth, just as Jesus the Christ resurrected and brought us Heaven on High! (trash farming imag e [1] from Quora.com ) Above the above, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar and Aida Page share a Facebook post with this legend: “Make soil richer with leaves;” the image supplied that accompanies the article I myself have written (03 October 2019, “Appreciating Organic Farmin g [2] ,”   Agriculture.com.ph ). The lower image is perfect, soil covered 100% – if you are going after mulching, as the dried leaves protect the soil from drying up and slowly enrich it with the nutrients from their deteriorating bodies. But surface mulching, as you can imagine, is a tedious way of practicing organic farming. I know of an excellent way that I have been plugging/blogging a...