UPLB CPAf – What’s Rural Development Doing In A Place Like This?


In my new blog “The Wizard Of Os,” I am continuing my Creative Thinking Mantra of 5 Os: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes..... 

In Los Baños, there once was in the UP College of Agriculture, UPCA, the Department of Agricultural Education, Ag Ed, where I obtained my degree, BSA major in Ag Ed, in 1965. Then there was the Department of Agricultural Education & Rural Studies, DAERS. Then UPCA became UP Los Baños, and then came the College of Public Affairs, CPAf.

Today, Wednesday, 29 January 2020, CPAf celebrates its 22nd founding in 1998 as a college dedicated to “Public Affairs” – it became the College of Public Affairs & Developmentin 2011, same acronym. The anniversary has the theme “CPAf At 22: Recalibrating And Meeting The Challenges Of The Next Decade.” Professor Rolando T Bello is the Dean; the guest speaker is Emil Q Javier, former President of the UP System, former Chancellor of UPLB and recently honored by President Rodrigo Duterte as a National Scientist. He speaks extemporaneously, and I cannot wait for the transcription, so I am going ahead with my own previous thoughts on the young CPAf.

Anyway, I have been thinking something like bringing out into the countryside the functions of 2 of CPAf’s component units: Institute for Governance & Rural Development, IGRD; and Community Innovations Studies Center, CISC[1]. Yes, rural development. In its website, CPAf says, “utilizing the trans-disciplinary approach,” its CISC “focuses its research and extension programs” on the following:

Community education
Development of communities in transition
Watershed communities as learning communities
National/regional communities
Local communities
Community-based governance for sustainable development.

Communities, plural – and sustainable development.

The adding of “Development” in the long name of CPAf to me was already “recalibrating” CPAf towards a more encompassing role in PH public affairs, especially with the Department of Agriculture, DA, and the Schools, Colleges & Universities, SCUs.

CPAf as CPAf is not a stranger to me. Sometime in 2005, I edited and produced the book Search For Shared Meanings by Prof Rhodelia Gabriel of CPAf. In June 2014, I was the trainor in a technical writing workshop for the staff of CPAf held in Baguio City, the papers intended to be published in its own Journal of Public Affairs & Development.

And so, even before today’s celebration, I had already been thinking of innovations:

CPAf in a national community education program in collaboration with the SCUs and with financing and management by the DA.

After all, with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, and Moses-like, displaying his “New Thinking for Agriculture” in 2 tablets of stone – each stone with 4 “Paradigms” for development (right image above, left image being CPAf logo). With the DA and billions of pesos under its management…

After all, CPAf has the IGRD for rural development and the CISC for innovations studies – with a DA program, CPAf can go out into the countryside and actively assist the SCUs in originating and trying out innovations in technologies and systems in community education, all towards sustainable development.@517





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

In Looking At The Crown Of Thorns, I Found The Clowns

Image
We could use a surprise sense of humor!  Yes, especially on the wide problematic fields of Agriculture. There was this news that some high PH government officials wanted to probe Vice President Leni Robredo for “competing against” PH agencies in providing much-needed assistances during this coronavirus lockdown, and Marigs Laririt shared a picture-story on Facebook quoting Ms Leni as saying, “I didn’t know it was competition. I didn’t see any competitors!” Ms Marigs says, “Ay, parang friends ko kung sumagot si Mam.” (Ay, with Mam, it’s just like my friends answering back.) That is a two-handed backslap, and you can imagine the lady laughing! She is the humor-monger; they are the clowns. Today is Friday, 03 April 2020 and in one account ( Wikipedia ), Friday the 3 rd of April was crucifixion of Jesus and his crowning of thorns [1] . (images: Crown of Thorns [2]  from St Anthony Messenger , 1 st clown [3]  from The Guardian , 2 nd clown [4]  from Shutterstock ) About the living clowns I
Read more

“Natural Farming” – Aggie Journalists, We Must Be Careful With The Terms We Use!

Image
Look at the contrasting images: Which one is correct in claiming what is being practiced is “natural farming”? Top Image: This one accompanies the Anonymous WWF-Philippines story, “Mindanao Farmers Start Off the Year with Natural Farming Systems Technology” published online December 2019 [1] . The World Wide Fund, WWF, is a very credible international source of knowledge on conservation, right? Not this time. Very clearly, you can see the white plastic mulch covering the furrows and bare soil in-between them. Mr or Ms Anonymous, the plastic mulch is not natural. The soil not covered in-between furrows is not natural. So much soil bare, not natural, allowing so much natural water wasted because it had evaporated from the unprotected, hot soil surface! That is not conservation; that is not natural. The term “natural” is used here very carelessly . Aggie journalists, wake up! How come I noticed all that immediately when I saw the photograph? Because I learned my organic farming more t
Read more