PH Agriculture – Good News And Bad News, Coming From Japan!

From where I sit, on an executive chair that has stood the test of time (and my sitting sometimes all day), I can see that my President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr has brought from his first Japan’s official visit this February good news – and bad news!

Good News: “Marcos Visit: PH, Japan Ink 7 Deals On Infrastructure, Defense, Agriculture” (Sofia Tomacruz, 09 Feb 2023, Rappler, rappler.com). Ms Sofia says:

Through an MOC on agriculture, Marcos and Kishida agreed to establish a joint committee on agriculture to tackle opportunities for technology exchanges and the broadening of Philippine access to Japanese markets for agricultural projects.

Good News And Bad News: Ms Sofia also says:

(1st UPDATE) A memorandum of cooperation on information and communications technology aims to bring Japan's expertise to Philippine efforts to transition to a digital economy.

That implies that we Filipinos are not yet digital in economy, and as a digital denizen since 1991, I know that very well! So, is BBM going to be the Filipino Digital President? Why not!

Meanwhile, an MOC on ICT was signed to facilitate cooperation on the Philippines’ transition to a digital economy, including the development of more broadband networks and presence of more diverse 5G suppliers.

Thank you for the 5G – for my blogging, I rely on PLDT 5G within 24 hours a day!

The agreements also [seek] to bring in Japanese expertise in beyond 5G technologies and artificial intelligence.

How about bringing organic agriculture (OA) into the Philippines from Japan? I just learned that OA in Japan started sometime in the 1930s (Yoshitaka Miyake & Ryo Kohsaka, 03 June 2020, “History, Ethnicity, And Policy Analysis Of Organic Farming In Japan: When ‘Nature’ Was Detached From Organic,” journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com).
(Lower image from pngwing.com)

I'm an agriculturist, an alumnus of UP Los Baños, BSA major in Ag Edu, 1965 – I began taking interest in organic agriculture (OA) outside UPLB classes; now, browsing in the UPLB Library’s open shelves sometime 1965-66, I discovered American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner’s book Plowman’s Folly (published 1943), on the pages of which I learned that, yes, plowing was bad – first of all, it destroyed the structure of the soil.

Of it, RK Schofield says (Nature, vol 153, pa 391, 1944):

WHERE is the folly? Mr Faulkner declares it to be with [plowmen] who bury green manures, weeds and stubbles many inches below the surface. … He advocates the use of the disk-harrow as a means of incorporating such materials into the soil surface.

That’s my organic farming!

This UPLB agriculturist is saying there is much to learn also from Japan about organic farming. Yoshitaka Miyake & Ryo Kohsaka say (03 June 2020, “History, Ethnicity, And Policy Analysis Of Organic Farming In Japan: When ‘Nature’ Was Detached From Organic,” Journal of Ethnic Foods, journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com):

Japan’s organic agricultural history extends over 80 years, with well-known concepts such as the Fukuoka method or the more recent Teikei from the early twentieth century and the 1970s, respectively.

So, BBM Sir! Let’s go digital with organic agriculture – ready when you are!@517