The above image? Very Romantic – and Very Wrong!
There, you are looking at a picture of what's wrong with PH Agriculture.
Why?
Before I answer that question, let me tell you what's wrong
up there, in policy making, inside the National Economic & Development
Authority, NEDA itself. By virtue of being President, Rodrigo Duterte is the
Chair of NEDA; now, in 2016, also December, Mr Duterte came up with Executive
Order, EO #5 containing "AmBisyon Natin 2040" as the one archipelagic
dream. That was a good pun but not a good plan – because EO #5 is flawed, fatally flawed.
Yes. Upon reading EO #5, immediately I saw that major error,
so I wrote a long essay "AmBisyon Natin 2040? Needs Improvement" (06
December 2016, Alternative Journalism,
blogspot.com);
unseen, that EO had 2 conflicting Visions – and both were poorly stated, to state it mildly. Vision 1 was 69 words,
too long; Vision 2 was 35 words, still too long. A Vision should be a maximum
of 7 words, and Memorable.
To go back to the image above – That photograph shows the
universal practice of rice farming in the whole Philippine archipelago:
transplanting seedlings that are old, very old; when transplanted, their roots
will break; and therefore their growth will be set back unnecessarily; and
therefore, they will give only minimum, not
maximum yields. This is an agriculturist speaking.
Why cannot our farmers transplant 2-week old seedlings as do
the farmers of Zarraga Integrated Diversified Organic Farmers Association, ZIDOFA,
in the province of Iloilo? Plant singly & squarely. Then their transplants will
suffer very little from the transplanting, and will produce more tillers and
much higher yields. Ask Joby Arandela, Chair of ZIDOFA.
Want to Prioritize
Agriculture? Then, come up with a Big
Vision!
That Big Vision we need should do justice to the Small
Farmers – get them out of Poverty and not only keep them out but elevate their
lives and keep that state sustainable.
Which is a huge
challenge to a government that talks first and think later.
My Big Vision for PH Agriculture is stated in exactly 3
words:
Prosperous, Sustainable Lives!
Get the hell, get the poor farmers out of poverty! and help
them build for their families lifestyles that are (1) technically feasible, (2)
economically viable, (3) environmentally sound, and (4) socially acceptable – give
them 4, not just 1. Appropriate
Technology is necessary; Financial Practicability
is essential; Environmental Conservation
is required; and Social Desirability
is obligatory. Not just Inclusive Growth,
which NEDA desires; it must be Inclusive
Development, which my favorite international agricultural agency ICRISAT subscribes
to. Growth is merely incremental and
sectoral; Development is distributive
and national.
Development cannot be any better than that. In Growth, to
borrow from Henry David Thoreau, millions lead lives of quiet desperation; in
Development:
Families lead lives of quiet inspiration. Why, that's
Heaven!
What PH Agriculture needs right now is a first-rate
Scientist who is also a Top International Manager, whose life has been devoted
to agriculture here and abroad. That's my AmBisyon Natin 2019!517
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