Skip to main content

Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture

Here’s re-inventing the Tagalog expression “Asa aka pa!” from the negative, “Don’t bother, don’t hope!” to the positive, “Hope for more!” As acronym, ASA KA PA!: “Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate, Knowledge-Aligned, Pinoy Agriculture!”

While this blog is not to disparage other religious beliefs, I must confess from the start that I am a Roman Catholic. I just created this blog today, ASA KA PA! and I just found out that on this date, the 24th of February, St Francis “received his vocation” in Portiuncula, Italy – in other words, it dawned on him that his life’s role was as a preacher. (image of St Francis[2] from On This Day) And yes, I was born on another important St Francis date: September 17, which today is celebrated by Catholics as “The Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi.” Stigmata: St Francis was the first person recorded “who bore the marks of the crucified Christ (on) his hands, his feet, and (on) his side[1]” (Sacred Heart Catholic Church). 

As a digital preacher for the development of PH Agriculture, the name of my new blog, “ASA KA PA!” has 3 meanings: (1) “More hope for you!” (2) “Hope for more!” and:

Advancing Sustainable, Appropriate,
Knowledge-Aligned,
Pinoy Agriculture!

That is because I am an Agriculturist, a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, a full-pledged University in itself in the UP System. I graduated in 1965, passed the very first Teacher’s Exam the year before, Professional Level. I have been engaged in what I myself invented: Communication for Development, ComDev, since 1975, when I started working for the Forest Research Institute (FORI), based at UP Los Baños. My FORI years, 1975 to 1981, are descriptive of my ComDev desires for my country – I founded and became the Editor In Chief of 3 FORI publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. Those 3 publications made FORI well known in the Philippines and abroad.

At FORI, I was only beginning to show what I could do as a communicator for development. In those years, the Typewriter was King – except that I did experience the use of the IBM Selectric typewriter with its interchangeable keys: nice touch! I have always typed my own articles. I also learned photography by asking questions with the FORI photographer, who was under me.

On Innocents Day, 28 December 1985, I saw the need for me to learn word and image processing. I never looked back. I learned more digital skills over the years from 1997 (I’m guessing) when we had the Internet installed at home.

Today, I blog my own, and have something like 41 GB of collected photographs in my hard disk, 99% of them shot with my own hands. My latest camera is a Lumix FZ100 digital zoom, with AI capabilities: Just point and shoot! (See image above.)

Now then, I am re-dedicating my life to the development of Philippine agriculture via communication for development with a new slogan: “ASA KA PA!”@517


[1]https://sacredheartfla.org/about-us/being-franciscan/fraciscan-feast-days/the-feast-of-the-stigmata-of-st-francis-of-assisi/

[2]https://www.onthisday.com/events/february/24

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UPLB, Where Has All Your Extension Gone? Gone To Flowers Everyone! When Will They Ever Learn?

What do you mean “Extension”? Here is “Dean Umali’s Rule” as his colleagues remember it [1] : “When a farmer visits your office, stop everything you are doing and give him his due attention, for he is the primary commitment of your being in this institution.” What is known as “UPCA’s Golden Age of Extension” is 1959 to 1969, when Dioscoro L Umali was Dean of UPCA – that is according to Louise Sigrid Antonio et al writing 25 May 2014, “Dioscoro L Umali,” in their blog The Heat Ray Of Archimedes ). I was Freshman at UPCA when he became Dean in 1959; later, I remember UPCA agronomists really busy with national extension projects involving rice and corn. (top image [2]  from Philippine Science Heritage Center, Facebook ) On 20 November 1972, through Presidential Decree 58, the UP System was created, with UPLB as one of the universities in the system. Unfortunately, while the college UPCA grew into the university UP Los Baños, the Extension function grew out of the university until
Post a Comment
Read more

The PhilRice Drum Seeder Looked Good In April 2018 – Where Is It Now?

Above, top image, the Antique ricefield looks very promising in yield. Here is the story as shared on Facebook by PhilRice (my translation in English): TINGNAN! Unang palayan sa Sta. Ana, Tibiao, Antique na natamnan ng 60kg binhi kada ektarya sa pamamagitan ng sabog-tanim. Look! First ricefield in Santa Ana, Tibiao, Antique that was planted with 60 kg seeds per hectare by way of broadcasting. Sa kauna-unahang pagkakataon, natunghayan ng mga magsasaka sa nasabing lugar na kayang-kaya ang 60kg kada ektarya gamit ang seed spreader machine (granular applicator) at certified seeds mula sa RCEF. For the first time ever, farmers in that area witnessed that 60 kg/ha is quite enough using a seed spreader machine (granular applicator) and certified seeds from RCEF. Makikita sa larawan na magaganda ang naging tubo at mabubulas ang mga itinanim na palay. What can be seen in the picture is beautiful growth of and robust rice plants. Ayon sa ulat, namangha ang mga magsasaka rito na kay
Post a Comment
Read more

PH Transformation – Via Ron Amos Jr’s “Cultural Revolution” Or Frank A Hilario’s “Agri-Cultural Revolution”?

Thursday morning, 29 April 2021, at about 0830 hours, I read Ron Amos Jr’s “The Need For A Cultural Revolution” as his “Transit Dialog” Facebook post, all 722 words excluding byline, and I have been moved to respond via this essay – because what Mr Amos is sharing is 100% problem and 0% solution! Mr Amos says: What we need is to reimagine and reinvent the country and ourselves: a cultural revolution that will create not only our identity but also our unified spirit. How we do it is by transitioning from the medieval age of rule by influence, wealth, creed, and power towards a society that willingly balances the individual and the community, freedom and restraint, and privileges and duties. How do we do ALL that? Mr Amos is not saying. The best that he says towards a solution is this, “A Call To Action:” So as not to point fingers, we all start within ourselves – our backyards, bloodlines, and even barkadas. Our leaders need a change of mind from preserving their status quo to
Post a Comment
Read more