PH Agriculture – When Man Meets Machine, The Mind Must Win!

The journalists such as those of Rappler and Vera Filesand the old newspapers like The Manila Times and Manila Bulletin have yet to see signs of waking up to the realization that we in the Philippines are in the most exciting times of our lives:

Making PH rice competitive in Southeast Asia!

To the young and old journalists, I say:
Growing rice is the best kind of digging dirt you can find!

And so we have the latest column in the Manila Times of now Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie: "Rice Competitiveness Is Attainable (Also Through 4ID)" 2nd of 2 parts (17 October 2019, beta.manilatimes.net). This time Manong Willie is talking about the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Program, RCEP – frankly because PH rice is the least competitive in the Asean!

Compare the costs of producing a kilo of rice:
PH P12/kilo. Vietnam P8/kilo. Thailand P6/kilo.

Clearly, we Filipinos must wage A Rice Revolution!

So, RCEP explains why the DA has been distributing farm machineries, high-yielding rice seeds, credit support, and preparing to train and capacitate poor rice farmers.

So how do we go on modernizing the growing of rice? Manong Willie says:

Two things come into mind: machines and technology… This means deploying various farm equipment for land preparation, planting, spraying…  harvesting, drying and milling.

Then we can all sing:

Planting rice is ever fun
Seen from morn till the set of sun
Can now stand and can now sit
Can rest more for a little bit!

At this point, I am suddenly reminded that the entrance to the UP Los Baños campus is the "Carabao Plaza" that displays the statue of a carabao with a man holding the plow and rope. Circa 100 years ago. No, as far as I know, there are no plans for UP Los Baños to change Carabao Plaza to Tractor Plaza or something similar – I do not know why. In which case, I just have to say that UP Los Baños, my alma mater, does not care much about symbolism.

And so the Rice Tariffication Law, RTL, has allocated starting next year some P5 billion for mechanization of the rice industry. And we have a long way to go, Manong Willie says. In our beloved country, the mechanization level in rice farming is low as measured by horsepower: about 2 hp/ha while China and South Korea each has 5 hp/ha and Japan has 7 hp/ha.

We have a long way to go!
So, move!

I have just discovered, via Facebook sharing of Noel Ocampo Reyes, Marilyn Galang's article "PhilRice, PhilMech Train Rice Specialists, Extension Workers" (16 October 2019, PNA, pna.gov.ph, where above image comes from), where she says Glenn Ilar, PhilRice training coordinator, said:

At least 30 personnel from the Agricultural Training Institute, regional field offices of the DA, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and PhilRice underwent a rice specialist training course from April 29 to Oct 18 in preparation for the implementation of the RCEF program in their areas.

At least we are moving in the right direction!@517