Beauty & Brains Farming

  The caption above says, “DA-PRDP turned over the Village Level Rubber Processing and Marketing Enterprise to SARPHIL CARP Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative (SACARBECOM) in Monkayo, Davao De Oro last 11 March 2021.” Rubber being produced in the Philippines, a non-traditional commercial product. We are competing with Indonesia and Malaysia? From the story by Joy M Montecalvo , the caption needs explanation. Not the enterprise itself, the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) turned over a village-type rubber sheet facility that can process 192,000 liters of latex yearly. Miss Joy says, “The 124 members of SACARBEMCO will now be able to produce 55 to 60 MT of rubber sheet per annum and increase their income to at least 5 percent per year or a total of 30 percent in six years.” Hopefully, I say. (The SACARBEMCO is the SARPHIL CARP Beneficiaries Multi-purpose Cooperative based in Monkayo, Davao De Oro.) Miss Joy says in the headline,...

No, I am not an un/known paid apologist of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), but I am an agriculturist, UP Los Baños, and a writer, creative and critical – you have to appreciate being Critical before you can achieve the genius level of being Creative. And practice makes perfect, so! The top image says, “IRRI: The Miracle That Never Was & Never Will Be,” a Facebook sharing by a group (never mind who). Here is its list of “Little-Known Truths About How IRRI Harms Filipino Rice Farmers” – 1: IRRI ignores the effectiveness of the peasant-oriented approach to growing food. 2: IRRI ignores the cries for justice of its workers and peasants whose rights it violated. 3: IRRI undermines self-sustaining peasant farming. 4: IRRI’s Green Revolution model is now being decried worldwide as it worsens the climate crisis. Peasant-oriented approach to growing food? Whatever it is or how it is carried out, sorry, but that “peasant-oriented approach” has failed to banish poverty a...

According to Britannica , abaca ( Musa textilis Nee) is native to the Philippines [1] , thus the other name, Manila hemp. According to Wikipedia , abaca has many uses, including tea bags, banknotes, decorative papers, hats, bags, carpets, clothing and furniture. The Philippines supplied 87.4% of the world’s supply in 2014, earning $111.33 million, and the demand is still greater than the supply [2] . Abaca is the lifeblood of more than 200,000 farming families from 56 provinces in the Philippine s [3] (Author Not Named, 29 June 2015, “Improved Abaca Varieties To Nail PH As Top Exporting Country Abaca: Weaving More Opportunities Into Farmers’ Lives,” DoST.gov.ph ). That’s about 1 million Filipinos dependent on abaca for their livelihood – so why have I not heard of at least one millionaire abaca family?! DoST, where are the opportunities for abaca planters and weavers? That was 6 years ago! On 16 March 2021, Jasper Y Arcalas reported: “Abaca Yield Seen To Dip Further In 2021; P 17...

Can’t find inspiration? Me, with already an idea on what to write on, I further inspire myself with an image or photograph, such as the one above: “What if the meaning of life is to find meaning in life?” (image of Philosoraptor [1] from Imgflip ) This essay was inspired by the Facebook sharing shown on my son Jomar Hilario’s own digital campaign for a million or more Filipinos each to pursue a Virtual Career (VC). On my own, I began my one-man digital work from home (WFH) early 2007: writing, editing, desktop publishing. On Facebook, then-flight attendant Ludmila Carluen Barrica shared, “There Is Nothing Wrong With The Job But With Finding Meaning In What You Do.” Based in Doha, for many years, she was lonely, angry, frustrated, what-have-you – she reached near-breakdown. I wanted to quit. My prayers for years included a constant plea for guidance how I could resign from what the world coin(ed) as a prestigious job. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, it (helped) me discove...

You too can be creative! Promise. I thought about my new blog’s name “i THiNK DiFFERENT” the other day, Saturday in Manila, 10 April 2021, which Filipinos refer to as “Araw Ng Kagitingan” (Day Of Valor), and which I see differently – It’s “Day Of Defeat,” as about 60,000 Filipino and American soldiers surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Forces in Bataan and they were forced to walk to Tarlac, about 100 km, and the Death March killed about 5,000 Filipinos and 500 Americans. In other words, I am what I call a Thinkerer , you know what I mean. And so is Anna Marsh , CEO of Studiocanal UK, who has written “ 11 Things Highly Creative People Do Differentl y! [1] ”  (10 May 2017, Just Creative ). Miss Anna begins by saying: Creative people always see things with a different perspective. They see themselves not for what they are, but for what they can be. 1.    They create their own schedule. 2.    They set aside time to be creative. 3.    They recogni...

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 head...

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...