William Dar's 8 Paradigms For PH New Thinking For Agriculture

The first duty of a journalist is to know more, to understand if he understands. And so it is that I must ask myself: "Do I understand what Secretary of Agriculture William 'Manong Willie' Dar is saying; to quote from his press statement of 06 August 2019:"

To realize the vision of President Duterte for a food-secure Philippines and to double the income of farmers and fisherfolk, I propose a strategy built around eight paradigms that also make up the "new thinking" for agriculture. The eight paradigms are:

(1) Modernization of agriculture

(2) Industrialization of agriculture

(3) Promotion of exports

(4) Farm consolidation

(5) Roadmap development

(6) Infrastructure development

(7) Higher budget and investments for agriculture, and

(8) Legislative support.

Heavy!

The original Venn diagram image above is from researchgate.net, which I have retouched; I did not tag individual paradigms to dramatize the fact that they all contribute to one and only overall effect – that beautiful yellow sunflower!

The 8 paradigms of Manong Willie are separate petals but all necessary to make the whole blossom, so one petal cannot be sacrificed without harming the whole flower.

That is a paradigm metaphorically.

Now, what is a paradigm technically?

Martyn Shuttleworth & Lyndsay T Wilson define it thus (24 October 2008, "What is a paradigm?" Explorable,explorable.com):

A scientific paradigm is a framework containing all the commonly accepted views about a subject, conventions about what direction research should take and how it should be performed.

In this case, Manong Willie is using the concept of paradigm to signify less research and more development work of the DA. That is to say:

(1) Modernization– We must modernize PH Agriculture; we need more farm mechanization.

(2) Industrialization – We must create separate small, medium and big industries built around the produce & products of our agriculture.

(3) Exports – We must promote more exports such as coconut water, Manong Willie says. I say, for instance, let us promote abaca export, as we have the soil perfect for this crop and we can capitalize on the scientific fact that abaca is the strongest fiber in the world!

(4) Consolidation – Farms must be associated in their operations so that they can enjoy economies of scale and come out with produce and products that are competitive here and abroad.

(5) Roadmaps – The overall PH Agriculture Roadmap should be drawn, and sectoral roadmaps based on that. They will guide us all on what to do, how and where we are supposed to be going.

(6) Infrastructure – PH Agriculture needs more infrastructure not only roads & bridges but, among others, more processing facilities and warehouses.

(7) Budget & Investment – The PH government must invest heavily on agriculture to develop it as a whole; the private sector must participate actively in terms of active investments of its own.

(8) Legislature – The House and the Senate need to get their acts together to support PH Agriculture in terms primarily of additional budget by billions of pesos when necessary.

Necessarily enabling all those 8 paradigms? There are no 2 ways about it!@517