Revolutionizing PH Agriculture And How We Write About It – Manong Willie & Frank H
At about 0240 hours
today, Saturday, 06 June 2020, beginning to write this essay, I suddenly
realized that we in the Philippines have been revolutionizing the thinking for
agriculture in developing countries! Me, an Ilocano, I always say, “I have
always been an original aboriginal!”
When he became
Secretary of Agriculture on 05 August 2019, William Dar, who prefers to be
called “Manong Willie” – terms of endearment in our Ilocano language – already
had a mindmap of the New PH
Agriculture he was going to lead as Chief of the Department of Agriculture, DA.
He called it “The New Thinking For Agriculture” translated in concrete forms
into “The 8 Paradigms,” which are (my shortcuts):
(1) Modernization.
(2) Industrialization.
(3) Promotion of exports.
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development.
(6) Higher budget & investment.
(7) Legislative support.
(8) Roadmap development.
The items are not shown sequentially and not by importance – they are all
important and necessary, working for the ultimate goal of a progressive
agriculture for the Philippines, with the poor farmers having been elevated
from poverty to prosperity, and sustainably so. The roadmap should see to that.
The Filipino farmer
must modernize his crop, fish & livestock production, harvesting,
processing, storing, and marketing. Small farms need to be consolidated in
operations in order to enjoy economies of scale.
Philippine agriculture
must lead to more industrialization. There must be more crop & livestock
& fish products for exports.
Of course, all of the
above calls for infrastructure development, which calls for higher budgets
& investments from the private sector and legislative support in terms of
policy and budget from Congress.
All for good, or better.
Another Ilocano, my
personal contribution to The New PH Agriculture is now what I refer to as THiNK Journalism:
True
+
Helpful +
inspiring +
Necessary +
Kind
Journalism.
I invented the term “THiNK Journalism” just
this month of June, but I have been practicing it since at least when in 16
April 1975 I began working for the Forest
Research Institute, FORI, as Information Officer and ending up as Editor In
Chief (and founder) of all 3 major FORI publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop on tropical forestry, and quarterly popular color magazine Habitat.
As a blogger, I have uploaded at least
5,000 long essays, a minimum of 1,000 words each; that accounts for my 5-year
old standing claim as “World's creative genius online, most prolific writer of
non-fiction[1]”
(see my blog, Creative Thinkering,
Blogger.com).
As a science writer, I always try to look
for what is True, but what I write must be Helpful and Inspiring and Necessary
and Kind. If not Inspiring? For others to learn the lesson, I find a way to be
Kind.
That means that even
if it is True and I find it neither Helpful nor Inspiring nor Necessary, I do
not write about it.
When I write about it, it means I now think that it is
THiNK Journalism. All for good or better.@517
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