New PH DA's Modernization Paradigm Calls For PhilRice To Grow Up, Not Only Grow Rice!

A Senator, Representative, Philippine columnists in business sections of digital media, leaders of farmers and others on Facebook, are incessantly complaining about: 

Merchants buying rice at the least price, P7/kilo, while production cost is P12/kilo – highway robbery!

They keep protesting, as if nothing is being done about it. Of course, they have the right to grumble – they also have the duty to read the papers, if they cannot go digital, and learn about what William Dar/Manong Willie/Servant-Leader has been doing as new Secretary of Agriculture, while barely 1 month on the job.

And right up to this minute, I can tell that people have not been minding much what Manong Willie calls The Eight Paradigms" that are part of "The New Thinking for Agriculture" that he espouses. My earlier essay, "William Dar Is Agriculture Secretary & DA Is All Over The Place – So Is Science!" (07 August 2019, Ani Kitá, ianikita.blogspot.com), lists the 8:

(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.

Now look!

[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]
[Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice] [Rice]

Throughout the Philippines, farmers grow rice in fields along each other and do not consider themselves competitors! One-crop minded is one-track minded.

Now I bemoan: "Why does PhilRice keep promoting rice only?!" Even a century before Manong Willie came into the scene, Filipino farmers have been growing not only rice but other crops, not to mention chickens and goats, aside from the necessary carabao.

"Modernization of Agriculture" – Manong Willie asks why are 80% of farmlands devoted to only 3 crops: rice, corn and coconut? Our agriculture should be earning more from other crops such as cacao and coffee.

The paradigm of "Modernization of agriculture" calls for, among other things, crop diversification – and nobody is talking about that in media. Multiple cropping was not invented yesterday!

PhilRice's own special project called Palayamanan (Rice For Riches, my translation), set up in 2001, looked promising at the beginning, but has not prospered beyond its promise. It called for "rice-based farming systems," meaning in the same place other crops and livestock are grown – but 19 years later, I cannot find a single report in digital media about Palayamanan making 1 farmer prosperous. PhilRice has a separate website on Palayamanan, but the riches remain unreached.

And so today, Filipino farmers keep complaining about their rice they keep growing, competing against each other!@517