“What Else?” The Endless Question Is The Best For PH Agriculture

Photo taken by me on Thursday, 13 June 2019, near the Sinapog River bridge east of Asingan, Pangasinan, overlooking fields of rice and fruit trees growing, and much water.

I’m showing you this photograph because you, the looker, is at a vantage point – you are above all else, and you should be able to think of things to make things better. Like saving on water. Like multiple cropping with rice. Like growing young cacao with fruit trees as mother trees. Like growing more bananas. And attracting more farm tourists!

“What Else?” is my brand new question that is actually a new rendering of a 16-year-old idea I called The Geography Of Knowledge, the title of the book I single-mindedly & singlehandedly wrote while consulting with PhilRice via then-Executive Director Leo Sebastian. An ebook, published on Innocents Day, 28 December 2003. At PhilRice headquarters in Maligaya in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, I submitted a copy of the pdf of 198 pages, 7” x 9” trim size, to Roger Barroga (God bless his soul), who was my direct boss at that time. Sadly, The Geography Of Knowledge went nowhere! (To see it, email me for a free copy, frankahilario@gmail.com.)

Let’s rediscover it.

The Geography Of Knowledge can be summarized into only 1 word: Options.

Today, I translate “Options” into “What Else?”

Actually, aside from being a creative science writer, I see myself with the old-new role as asker of What Else? in the new PH Agriculture under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar – who prefers the more friendly title “Manong Willie” (Manongfrom the Ilocano word meaning elder brother or kuya) – Frank H as a Manong librarian of continuing knowledge for farmers whom we must relieve from the shackles of poverty permanently and sustainably. To escape, first of all our farmers must become business-minded, if humble. They must stop buying those expensive inputs, or borrowing from “friendly” usurers, and/or selling to “approachable” merchants.

So, I have been thinking back to 16 years ago, back to that geography of knowledge, of proposing to Manong Willie the setting up of an innovative, farmer-friendly library of science and experience in agriculture, with high school-friendly English as the initial language of inquiry via the Internet using a personal computer and/or a cellphone. Of course, the texts in the knowledge bank will be high school-friendly English as possible, so that even illiterate farmers can mine the treasures via their high school children.

That What Else? Library In The Sky works like this:

Type “seeds” (with/without double quotes) and you get something like this (from 123RF.com): 

Click your chosen icon to search further....

You can go back and retrace yourself anytime. Or make a new search with a new word combination, like “rice supermarket” – with or without quotes – and you get other icons or combinations of icon-text to lead you further, until you reach what you want, or like.

We must educate without schooling the illiterate farmers via their high schoolers. Then we can look forward to seeing millions of farmers with happy faces!@517

UPLB CPAf – What’s Rural Development Doing In A Place Like This?

In my new blog “The Wizard Of Os,” I am continuing my Creative Thinking Mantra of 5 Os: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes..... 

In Los Baños, there once was in the UP College of Agriculture, UPCA, the Department of Agricultural Education, Ag Ed, where I obtained my degree, BSA major in Ag Ed, in 1965. Then there was the Department of Agricultural Education & Rural Studies, DAERS. Then UPCA became UP Los Baños, and then came the College of Public Affairs, CPAf.

Today, Wednesday, 29 January 2020, CPAf celebrates its 22^nd founding in 1998 as a college dedicated to “Public Affairs” – it became the College of Public Affairs & Developmentin 2011, same acronym. The anniversary has the theme “CPAf At 22: Recalibrating And Meeting The Challenges Of The Next Decade.” Professor Rolando T Bello is the Dean; the guest speaker is Emil Q Javier, former President of the UP System, former Chancellor of UPLB and recently honored by President Rodrigo Duterte as a National Scientist. He speaks extemporaneously, and I cannot wait for the transcription, so I am going ahead with my own previous thoughts on the young CPAf.

Anyway, I have been thinking something like bringing out into the countryside the functions of 2 of CPAf’s component units: Institute for Governance & Rural Development, IGRD; and Community Innovations Studies Center, CISC[1]. Yes, rural development. In its website, CPAf says, “utilizing the trans-disciplinary approach,” its CISC “focuses its research and extension programs” on the following:

Community education
Development of communities in transition
Watershed communities as learning communities
National/regional communities
Local communities
Community-based governance for sustainable development.

Communities, plural – and sustainable development.

The adding of “Development” in the long name of CPAf to me was already “recalibrating” CPAf towards a more encompassing role in PH public affairs, especially with the Department of Agriculture, DA, and the Schools, Colleges & Universities, SCUs.

CPAf as CPAf is not a stranger to me. Sometime in 2005, I edited and produced the book Search For Shared Meanings by Prof Rhodelia Gabriel of CPAf. In June 2014, I was the trainor in a technical writing workshop for the staff of CPAf held in Baguio City, the papers intended to be published in its own Journal of Public Affairs & Development.

And so, even before today’s celebration, I had already been thinking of innovations:

CPAf in a national community education program in collaboration with the SCUs and with financing and management by the DA.

After all, with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, and Moses-like, displaying his “New Thinking for Agriculture” in 2 tablets of stone – each stone with 4 “Paradigms” for development (right image above, left image being CPAf logo). With the DA and billions of pesos under its management…

After all, CPAf has the IGRD for rural development and the CISC for innovations studies – with a DA program, CPAf can go out into the countryside and actively assist the SCUs in originating and trying out innovations in technologies and systems in community education, all towards sustainable development.@517

---

[1]https://cpaf.uplb.edu.ph/index.php/about-cpaf/cpaf-organizational-structure

SEARCA Working With PH SCUs For Sustainable Aggie Prosperity In The Villages

Opportunities: On Facebook, Director Glenn B Gregorio shares the Manila Standard news written by Brenda Jocson: “SEARCA, PhilRice Renew Ties For PH Rice Industry[1].” Very interesting – not the ordinary title but the extraordinary content. Sir, did you know actually you are revolutionizing the role of SCUs?!

Options: My photograph above dramatizes rice demos being conducted to provide discussion points for the 8^th National Rice Technology Forum, NRTF in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan on Sunday, 24 March 2019. (Superimposed, the image of Secretary of Education Leonor Briones, who supports SEARCA’s Director, to her left.) The NRTF is extension work by the Department of Agriculture, DA, and breeding companies on hybrid rice. Inbred and hybrid are options.

Outputs: As I was going to say before I interrupted myself, under a 3-year Memorandum of Agreement, MoA, signed between them on 20 January 2020, SEARCA and PhilRice, according to Ms Brenda, “commit to collaborate on several activities including joint research, capacity building activities, and knowledge and information exchange[2].” The MoA was signed by Mr Gregorio and PhilRice Director John C De Leon at PhilRice headquarters in Nueva Ecija, after the former spoke on his plans for SEARCA.

Wow! In my 44 years of science writing, in agriculture and related fields, this is my first to see a combination of RTE – research, training (capacity building), and extension (knowledge & information exchanges) – agreed upon in a single MoA. I love it!

You know what? I know SEARCA, which is the acronym for Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study & Research in Agriculture, works with Schools, Colleges & Universities, SCUs, in Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar. Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Now then, I see this MoA as an excellent precedent for SCUs anywhere and everywhere to work with SEARCA in conducting RTE, so that the SCUs in the Philippines (and elsewhere) can contribute to the national goal of sustainable prosperity in the villages.

I am particularly interested in extension, where knowledge exchanges are between scientists & scientists and between scientists & technicians, and information exchange is between knowledge popularizers and farmers.

I believe that was the ultimate objective of the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, proposed for adoption by Philippine agricultural bodies by then Director General William Dar of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India. I knew of this because I was somehow involved in getting OpAPA off the ground and, in fact, wrote a guidebook on how to bring OpAPA to life to be meaningful to the farmers; I called the book of 198 pages Geography Of Knowledge. It was not adopted, not even adapted. I still have a soft copy of it – the title of which should give a good idea what it is all about, and how to go about knowledge sharings (plural).

Outcomes? Without a roadmap, OpAPA could not reach its destination. We get lost travelling the geography of knowledge if we do not know what we do not know!@517

---

[1]https://www.manilastandard.net/index.php/mobile/article/315835?fbclid=IwAR2R8IzQ2JorkKtOJ_-tUd3Gf5b79mygTpxY45eSAp1dWDR_pWwykwyFbCk

[2]https://www.manilastandard.net/index.php/mobile/article/315835?fbclid=IwAR2R8IzQ2JorkKtOJ_-tUd3Gf5b79mygTpxY45eSAp1dWDR_pWwykwyFbCk

From Kobe Bryant, Basketball Legend, Via Frank H, Lessons For Communicators In Agriculture!

Above, note my source of this essay. Buhay Teacher (A Teacher’s Life, my translation), whoever you are, you have my utmost admiration. You are unique; you are wonderful. 

I was teary-eyed today, 27 January 2020, reading about the helicopter crash in Los Angeles, California, that took 9 lives: Kobe Bryant, 41, daughter Gianna, 13, and 7 others.

Listen, I am not a fan of basketball. So, it is quite surprising for me to read that basketball is not simply physical: it is also or mostly psychological. If you want to be a star. Thank you, Buhay Teacher, for sharing your story: “8 Life Lessons We Can All Learn From NBA Legend Kobe Bryant[1].”

And yes, since I myself am trying to inspire the new Department of Agriculture under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, I am dedicating this essay to all the communicators of the DA, national, regional, provincial. Yes! We will now try to learn from the basketball legend’s “8 Life Lessons:”

(1)      Rest at the end, not in the middle.

(2)      Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

(3)      The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

(4)      I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.

(5)      As I sit here now, as I take off my shoe and I look down at my scar, I see beauty in it. I see all the hard work, all the sacrifices. I see the journey that it took to get back to this point of being healthy. And I see beauty in that struggle. That’s what makes it beautiful.

(6)      If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will do it for you.

(7)      The magic in life is finding what it is that you love. That’s the key. When you find that thing that you love, your life makes sense. You wake up in the morning, and life makes sense. And for me, it was basketball.

(8)      Heroes come and go, but legends are forever.

Selecting now, I offer #3 to everyone. Yes, everyone. You thought that Lesson #3 would apply neither to communicators nor to farmers, did you? Instantly, I thought it would.

Here is what to communicate how to be great in farming:

Being great for your family is avoiding borrowing from usurers who rob you of your hard-earned money in broad daylight.

Being great for your family is respecting the soil so that you enrich instead of robbing it of its riches, or poisoning it.

Being great for your family is avoiding technologies or systems that being human prohibits – like growing food with toxins in it, or cheating your customers.

Being great for your family is earning from your labors what you deserve and not allowing the merchant to steal from you.

Duty calls. Communicators in agriculture, cultivate farmers to be great!@517

---

[1]https://buhayteacher.com/8-life-lessons-we-can-all-learn-from-nba-legend-kobe-bryant/

DoubleTalk – What PhiVolcS And The New PH DA Need Today!

Sleepily this morning, when I stopped rewriting for the 12th time the original of this essay, the thought just came to me lying on my bed: DoubleTalk! This time, The Wizard Of Os is pointing to common Obstacles and common Opportunities of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology & Seismology, PhiVolcS, and Department of Agriculture, DA, both talking their science to the people – today especially PhiVolcS. 

Above: Main image from NKY[1]; superimposed are the faces of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, and Ma Antonia V Bornas, Chief of the Volcano Monitoring & Eruption Prediction Division of PhiVolcS. They are both in troubled waters, so to speak, but more so Ms Bornas. On mass media such as the newspapers as well as social media such as Facebook, commonly people have been complaining that they do not understand volcanospeak (my term). Of course not! Even I, having been a very wide reader and now always an Internet hound, I cannot explain in plain language such terms as magma and phreatomagmatic explosions.

I am neither a consultant nor a staff of PhiVolcS, neither a friend, but as a science writer dedicated to communication for development, I am interested in the technical jargons of volcanology & seismology being laymanized, that is, stated in non-expert language, so that most people can understand what the experts are trying to communicate. Otherwise, they are only talking to themselves on the Internet, on print, radio or TV!

On Facebook, my once-FORI co-employee Jonathan A Nuñez says another lady has entered the picture, so to speak: “The current situation of Taal Volcano (is) being explained by a volcanologist from London. Ctto Mai Jardeleza.” Another Filipina.

Yet, this lady explainer is not enough. She is a volcanologist, not a popularizer, so there is that language gap I’m sure – I have been a science writer in the last 45 years not to know.

Like, how do you popularize “phreatic eruption”? I know of another kind of eruption and, privately, I could use it to explain the phreatic kind. But that’s getting ahead of my story.

We need DoubleTalk! I suggest PhiVolcS begin right now to construct a dictionary of technical terms, with thorough explanations, and several popular-language equivalent(s). I could show them the small Dictionary of Agriculture I prepared for the InangLupa Movement headed by Manong Willie – we need a very-much extended version of that, with abundant popular examples. Both for the common tao and journalists.

Organizationally, it must be not less than a new whole PhiVolcS division, VolcS Populi – populi means popular, and that exactly is the language PhiVolcS people need to talk to us. Their hourly or daily Advisory is too dense. Serve the people, talk to the people in their language, not yours!

Same with the DA – I am begging it to create a whole new division for popularizing technical terms. For one, the DA needs to explain those eight paradigms of Manong Willie in a million and one ways.

For both PhiVolcS and the DA, a social media division would be ideal.@517

---

[1]https://www.nkytribune.com/2019/02/vent-haven-museum-presents-double-talk-2019-ventriloquists-show-at-other-dame-academy/

Communicators For Development, Social Media Should Be At Your Beck & Call!

Of the 5 Os – Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes – I am talking Options here.

Via email from Academia, I have just downloaded Communication For Development And Social Change, a book edited by Jan Servaes (429 pages). Right under “Introduction,” Mr Servaes quotes Everett Rogers in 1976:

Development Communication is the study of social change brought about by the application of communication research, theory, and technologies to bring about development.... Development is a widely participatory process of social change in a society, intended to bring about both social and material advancement, including greater equality, freedom, and other valued qualities for the majority of people through their gaining greater control over their environment.

Now then, the Mission of DevCom is Social Change, the Vision being Development. Mr Rogers is saying development is “intended to bring about both social and material advancement.” Then, the College of Development Communication, DevCom, of UP Los Baños has not been living up to the mandate of using communication to help bring about advancement of people socially and materially!

Nonetheless, I do not agree with “human rights” and “gender equality.” Village development must be considered above human rights, that is, the ultimate application of the United Nations’ Principle of Sustainability: economic viability, technical feasibility, environmental soundness, and social acceptability.

ComDev or DevCom, we are talking of development of villages. Remember, “It takes a village to nurture a child.” In the Philippines, we are better off than many countries in terms of gender equality, the female here already morerespected than the male, alleluia!

We should now be quite busy with social media for social development. Milena Peisker has the perfect description of what ComDev should be all about in the very title of her 2011 review article, “The Communication of Participation” with the subtitle, “An Exploratory Study Of The Effects Of Social Media On Social Change[1],” and among other things, she concludes: “Social media does not cause social change.” I qualify:

Only society can cause social change, but social media should be able to catalyze social change.

That is what I am after. So, now I’m looking at Facebook and my favorite social media, blog. I use Blogger.com. Facebook and/or Blogger.com, we should all be able to cause society to proceed to change, in this case, in PH Agriculture.

So, currently I have this new blog, I, The Wizard Of Os, where you are reading this 517-word essay (including title). Blogging is where I have persisted, since 2005, in trying “to change the world,” if only the world of thinking.

Which brings me to the “New Thinking for Agriculture” espoused by PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, the thinking encouraged emanating from what Manong Willie calls “The Eight Paradigms,” which are: modernization, industrialization, export promotion, consolidation of farms, infrastructure, higher investments, legislative support, and roadmap development.

Cultivating social change in agriculture via social media is actually Goliath challenges, plural. Are you Davids enough to join? Use your head!

Differently, to encourage you, look at the above image, from Shutterstock.@517

---

[1]http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/content/pdf/participant-papers/2011-symposium/The-Communication-of-Participation-an-exploratory-study-of-the-effects-of-social-media-on-social-change-Milena-Peisker.pdf

In Search Of The Wizard Of Sustainability

In pursuit of the new PH Agriculture with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, my new contribution comprises the concept I call The Wizard Of Os, where the 5 Os are: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs, and Outcomes.

Here now is anotherjob for The Wizard!

Obstacles

They are all over the place – read!

Opportunities

Jica Simpas, Content Producer at Pepper.ph, writes, “Here Are 4 Organizations That Work Directly with Our Local Farmers[1]:

BukidFresh – Aaron David & Gorby Dimalanta work with small farmers who are members of coops in Cavite and Laguna.

Farm To Folk – Ms Jica does not say where FTF operates.

Good Food Community – Adrienne Tan & Carl Lee work with farmer groups in Capas, Tarlac and Dumagats from Rizal.

Real Food – Nicole Olbés Fandiño goes for healthy, clean food – free of chemicals, hormones and preservatives. She works with farmers from different places. She says:

We have visited many of their farms and have seen their passion – we’ve seen how they respect the earth and treat their animals humanely. Their produce is a cut above the rest and we value this.

Outputs

I see the 4 food companies steadfastly working with farmers to sell farm produce.

Outcomes?

All that is Very Good, in fact Excellent – all cultivating the farmers they are dealing with. But how are they cultivating entrepreneurship among the farmers and/or cooperatives of which they are members? Who determines the price any time, and are the farmers in fact earning sustainable incomes arising from marketing arrangements?

Says Farm to Folk: “In a way, we empower our local farmers to be businessmen themselves.” No, FTF. I do not see that is happening. They are producing and delivering farm produce, but that is less than half of being in business. The bigger part of entrepreneurship is marketing plus duly receiving the equitable share of the added values along the chain. Without a fair marketing contract, I do not see entrepreneurship happening.

Says FTF further:

The process is simple and direct, just as our brand name. We source the goods, which includes grains, coconut, cacao, fruit/veg powders, and coffee, straight from farms, fulfilling orders to our customers.

That is to say, Farm To Folk is buying and selling the farmers’ produce – now, who determines the price and who gets the lion’s share of the added values? If it is not the farmers earning more, then they are actually helping themselves more and helping farmers less!

Farm To Folk believes that “the ultimate power to help create impactful change in our agriculture sector rests on the Filipino folk. With increased demand for local, organic products, our Filipino farmers can have fair, sustainable livelihood.” No FTF. That is not correct. It is notdemand that singlehandedly determines sustainable livelihoods – it is equitable distribution of values added.

I see the 4 organizations are doing their best for the producers, but their best is not enough – someone must teach the farmers to be entrepreneurial themselves, conscious and able to turn costs & returns in their favor –leading towards sustainable & desirable lives!@517

---

[1]https://www.pepper.ph/here-are-4-organizations-that-work-directly-with-our-local-farmers/?fbclid=IwAR3Ozv4M7dDF99GbQs6qMsGrXsUlGu6lwGHUzDTP_XgDjoPejP2ctLUjLaY

Digitalizing FFS To Bring Out The Farmer’s Native Genius – The Wizard Of Os, Frank H

You may want to read first my earlier essay, The Wizard Of Os. Original, these 5 Wizard Os: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes – Agriculture Anywhere proceeding from production to marketing.

Obstacle:

I junked the Farmer Field School, FFS, in this essay here: Creative Scus. But Alyssa Jade McDonald-Bärtl reacted positively, and Ms Alyssa is a respected board member of the Unternehmensgrun-Bundesverband and Founder of Blyss Chocolate gmbh[1]. She informed our Facebook friend Nestor V Saludo, who in turn sent me her message:

I understand! Just curious as the efficacy of FFS and diffusion education etc is something I work on. In November, the FFS HQ of FAO put together some great work on digitalization of FFS aspects; however there are still some points which need adjustment locally. Thus, your colleague's suggestion of local R&D from uni / higher ed to contribute to custom-FFS (or digital or diffusion) infos for farmers as a concept is well backed by popular opinion and science.

Opportunity:

Yes, I am interested in “the efficacy of FFS and diffusion education” – FFS is a tired educational tool and should now be retired. But I’m educable. Ms Alyssa says the FFS headquarters of FAO “put together some great work on digitalization of FFS aspects, however there are still some points which need adjustment locally.”

Let’s visit the FAO FFS website[2]:

A Farmer Field School brings together a group of farmers, livestock herders or fisherfolk, to learn on how to shift towards more sustainable production practices, by better understanding complex agro-ecosystems and by enhancing ecosystem services. A FFS group meets regularly during a production cycle, setting up experimentation and engaging in hands-on learning to improve skills and knowledge that will help adapt practices to their specific context. The FFS empowers individuals and groups to move towards more sustainable practices and (improved) livelihoods.

Option:

Gentlemen, digital is the way to go! “To learn on how to shift towards more sustainable production practices, by better understanding complex agro-ecosystems and by enhancing ecosystem services” – You have to laymanize all and show all. Today, the best way to teach? Digital.Especially in the Philippines, the social media capital of the world. Via cellphone (image above from Page Design Shop[3]): People can repeat the lesson at will.

No more repeatingexperiments! Simply record digitally the experiments of volunteer farmers and all the others have to do is pay digital attention! Visual and aural presentations are more convincing.

The FFS has been configured as if the farmer knows nothing, and so the FFS is a season-long instruction class for robots! “This is what to do; this is how, when.”

Output:

FAO says, “The FFS empowers individuals and groups to move towards more sustainable practices and (improved) livelihoods” – the best way to convince anyone of sustainable practices & improved livelihoods is to show digitally, time span included.

Outcome:

Digital FFS can show farmers convincingly how to think and act for themselves & families and in time lead sustainable lives beyond poverty!@517

---

[1]https://www.facebook.com/alyssajademcdonald/about?lst=1156013429%3A746018571%3A1579774614

[2]http://www.fao.org/farmer-field-schools/home/en/

[3]https://pagedesignshop.com/choosing-the-perfect-cell-phone-case/

Wizard Of Os

In rethinking Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie’s “New Thinking for Agriculture” with its embedded “Eight Paradigms,” today Thursday, 23 January 2020, I came to the realization that we need to add a Wizard of Os if we are to succeed in one of the prime goals of the new PH Agriculture: Entrepreneurship.

Yes! The 5 Os are: Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs and Outcomes - proceeding from production to marketing. That is to say, to train anyone senior, adult or young, on entrepreneurship, one must teach and go through the 5 Os. 

Obstacles. What are the problems, complexities, lacks, insufficiencies that may be encountered along the way from old knowledge or new idea to the start of production up to marketing? 

Opportunities. The obstacles must be viewed some other way. They may be re-viewed in perspective so that the opportunities may be discerned. Or, thinking out the obstacles, what are the scenarios, openings, prospects that can be considered as hiding some fruitful consequences?

Options. In this case, an option is a technology or system choice for operation anywhere and everywhere in the value chain. For instance, with what manner to engage: Loan or Self-Finance? Which crop to choose: Cacao or Rice? If cacao, nurse trees or wide field? If rice, direct seeding or transplanting? If transplanting, young or old seedlings? Organic or inorganic fertilizer? Processed or not processed? Sell to individual or institutional buyers? And so on and so forth.

Outputs. Outputs are: Food, Feed and Income. Your choice(s).

Outcomes. Does the income result in the farmer and his family being set free from poverty and sustained there? The image above intimates the ultimate goal – Prosperity from Agriculture.

The image of castle, from Pinterest[1], which I widened a little bit, is borrowed from the children’s fantasy tale Wizard of Oz imagined by L Frank Baum, and represents wealth honestly earned and truly deserved out of one’s travails & triumphs travelling along the Yellow Brick Road, in this case, from Agriculture (crops & livestock), and the related sciences of Horticulture (garden crops) and Agroforestry (farm crops growing with forest species as nurse or mother trees). 

Ah, what’s the significance of today? The “A-Team” premiered on American NBC[2]. I loved the A-Team TV series because there was always fun; there was always a problem that got solved in the end with the genius of the team: Hannibal, Murdock, Face, and BA Baracus. Dave Lavinsky says[3]:

The TV series was a huge hit and made Mr T a household name. It didn't matter what the challenge (was), the team collaborated to create a viable solution, sometimes with only seconds to spare. 

They were always funny, and always won. Always towards the end of the show. I loved the spirits of teamwork, fun and creativity, which should prevail even in agricultural pursuits. 

Today, I imagine the A-Team would be looking at the 5 Os in trying to solve a problem or to get out of a sticky situation, which is how we should treat agriculture in order to triumph in the end!@517

---

[1]https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/242209286186289084/

[2]https://www.onthisday.com/events/january/23

[3]https://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/05/09/do-you-have-an-a-team/#6fe583776975