Yes, following the “New Thinking for Agriculture” espoused
by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, we need more new &
improved technologies.
You are looking at the cover of the book published by the College of Agriculture &
Food Science, CAFS, of UP Los Baños, a copy of which I saw this 03 March 2020
during the 111th year celebration of the founding of the College of Agriculture, CA,
where Manong Willie was keynote speaker.
The book contains more than 200 technologies, with images in
full color accompanied by short texts, a total of 114 pages.
As an alumnus of UP Los Baños, I am proud that CA itself has
produced so many technologies. Now, as a science writer, I understand that the
language is partial to those who understand the scientific jargon – but as a
communicator for development, I am disappointed that the text is very limited. Essentially, the text
accompanying an image is a caption, not a presentation.
The title and subtitle of the book are forbidding to
non-techies:
AGRITECH
The UPLB-CAFS Technologies
The UPLB-CAFS Technologies
This thin full-color book is expensive; I asked how much and
the lady said, “P250.” I wanted to buy a
copy but she did not have change for my 1K.
Still, I want to help my alma mater. As a self-taught desktop
publisher, digital science writer and a dedicated blogger, using mostly my own
photographs or images, my better contribution to this effort of extension of
the CAFS is not to buy a copy of the
book but to sell to the CAFS the idea that the whole concept of the book needs
to be much expanded and made available cheaper
in print and online. And yes, the
language must be popular, if in English, understandable by at least a senior
high school student (later versions in Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano etc.) Then we
can be assured of a volume attracting a wide readership – and therefore buyers
of technologies.
The CAFS communication project I have in mind on the
technologies needs to produce several user-friendly books to write; I am also thinking
of a dedicated website for those 200+ CAFS technologies, the webpages being where
anyone with high school English and a cellphone can communicate and download pertinent
information and instructions.
The back of the book says:
As this book presents
a list and description of technologies developed by UPLB-CAFS, concerned
agencies and individuals will be well-equipped in making important decisions as
to what technologies must be applied based on the needs of specific end-users.
Unfortunately, I must say no, the book does not
present adequate information on and not contain enough instructions on the use of the technologies for any decision
to be made. Note that the text I quoted above, the one that begins with “IPB
Var 13 is an open…” contains only 71
words!
More
data and information must be provided on those 200 technologies. I hope to
convince the heads of UPLB on this communication need for the language of
science to be that of the people!@517
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