Excellent City Leadership, Deficient PH Journalism! On Butuan City’s "AgriBoost" Being Among 15 Winners In Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge 2021

Yes, Butuan City’s AgriBoost is a Winner in Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge 2021; No, it is not the Grand Prize Winner –only 1 among the 15 winning cities from 13 countries chosen by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

(image from PhilStar.com, Mayor Lagnada 3rd from right)

Of the many reports I googled on the results of the Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge(GMC), only 4 got the news right.

Most PH media said Butuan City was the Grand Prize Winner of the Bloomberg GMC, which is very wrong: Butuan is only 1 among 15 winners chosen from a group of 50 Champion Cities. This journalist cannot forgive that journalistic untruth, as googling would have corrected the error. Does this mean Filipino journalists are Lazy Juans?

Pola Rubio says, “Butuan City, Philippines is among the 15 winning cities of the 2021-2022 Global Mayors Challenge announced by Bloomberg Philanthropies Tuesday” (18 Jan, “Butuan Wins Bloomberg Philanthropies Funding For City Programs,” PH.news.yahoo.com):

“AgriBoost,” the city’s winning proposal, is an agribusiness model innovation that improves the agricultural market by giving farmers predictive data to make decisions about the type and quantity of crops to plant. According to Bloomberg, it considered Butuan’s idea on agriculture and marketing as compelling because of its ambitious goals that could be achieved short-term through the initiative.

AgriBoost, ambitious but achievable – with farmers, their cooperatives and marketers collaborate for the good of all, including food consumers. My congratulations to Butuan City Mayor Ronnie Vicente Lagnada.

On his part, Alexander Lopez of the Philippine News Agency (PNA) says (19 Jan 2022, “Bloomberg Win Big Honor For Butuan: Mayor,” PNA.gov.ph):

AgriBoost is an innovation designed to address the agri-business value chain issues such as boosting the competitiveness of farmers through technical and resource support, demand-driven production, and reliable farm gate pricing.

Government has to support the farmers technically and financially; farmers have to produce according to predicted demands; and growers have to enjoy reliable farm gate prices. On top of that, consumers must enjoy affordable quality vegetables, virtually increasing their purchasing power.

It also strengthens the agricultural hub in the city that helps catalyze market forces, the orchestration of collaborative planning and decision-making among the value chain partners.

ANN says, “The goal of AgriBoost is to ensure that the city’s residents have enough healthy and affordable food while farmers and suppliers receive good prices for their produce” (Author Not Named, 18 Jan 2022, “Butuan, Philippines Wins Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Mayors Challenge, journal.com.ph).

Dwight De Leonsays (“Butuan Wins In Bloomberg’s Global Innovation Contest,” 19 Jan 2022, Rappler.com):

“This brings mixed feelings of pride and honor as we dedicate this win to all of us,” said Butuan City Mayor Ronnie Vicente Lagnada, in an address to city hall employees.

As with the other winning 14 cities, Butuan City will be awarded $1 million for urban innovation. Also, Butuan City will receive technical support and coaching for 3 years.

Now, is this Bloomberg-news journalistic incident telling me PH journalists have hyperactive minds and super-lazy hands?@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