William Dar – We Must Help Philippine Agriculture Immediately!

Including those of the 13 May 2019 elections, the numbers are ticking – against Filipino farmers, and they number millions.

In Part 2 of his column titled "SCUs And Unifying R&D Efforts" (16 May 2019, TheManila Times, (manilatimes.net), William Dar reiterates his wish that state colleges & universities, SCUs, become "one of the main pillars of agricultural research and development." Additionally, such R&D efforts "must also be complemented with stronger extension programs, so smallholder farmers and fisherfolk would benefit from (mature) technologies immediately. And I mean, immediately!"

Considering the depredations of rice tariffication on the economy, especially adversely affecting the rice farmers, I share Mr Dar's call for immediate action – nationally, rationally.

Before we can act rationally and immediately, we must follow the advice of Dean Graziosi, an American multimillionaire, "one of the most watched real estate and success trainers of our generation" (deangraziosi.com), and who is quoted in the above image, the link shared on Facebook by Janet Selose, as saying:

A Dream written down with a date becomes a Goal.
A Goal broken down into steps becomes a Plan.
A Plan backed with Action becomes Reality.

If I understand Mr Dar correctly, that can be translated into these:

Dream:
Eliminate poverty.

Goal:
Create more wealth.

Plan:
Team up with the private sector and create more business enterprises using mature aggie technologies.

Action:
Do extension programs that can work immediately!

All that, I concur, should be the product of collaboration among the Bureau of Agricultural Research, BAR; the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development, PCAARRD; the Commission on Higher Education, CHEd; and the SCUs.

So, the BAR, PCAARRD, CHED and the SCUs must all dream the same Dream: Eliminate poverty among the farmers. Everyone must pursue the same Goal: Create more wealth for more farm families. Everyone must follow the same Plan: Team up with the private sector for new & improved business undertakings in agriculture.

And – this is what I like the best – the common Action must be in extension programs that can work as fast as you can click a mouse.

I mean, the extension work must be essentially digital, mouse-driven. We must take advantage of the Internet.

What I have in mind is the drawing of what I called 15 years ago yet:

The Geography of Knowledge, TGK.

TGK was my 2004 design of a digital knowledge bank for the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, which was proposed by William Dar when he was still Director General of ICRISAT based in India.

These times call for a Revolution in Thinking!

For the New OpAPA, to update my TGK, I shall now call it the Internet of Options, iO. So, how does the iO work? Consider 2 options:

Option A: Conventional rice planting.
Option B: System of Rice Intensification, SRI:

Through the iO website easily accessible, both Options are offered, in popular language, with explanations where they differ in the methods and results.

Stronger, faster extension.

And the winner is?

SRI is low-cost and high-yielding!
What more do you want?517