Skip to main content

Secretary William Dar Dreams Of A PH Database On Agriculture, ADING – Perfect Match For OpAPA!

On 27 January 2021, the press release came out from the Department of Agriculture(DA) titled “DA Taps State Schools For Food Security Policy Research Projects[1],” data-gathering efforts commonly aiming at creating a regional database for agricultural and rural development, urgently for national food security.

The collaboration is another initiative of the DA under its Agriculture Dialogue and Information Network Groups (ADING) Program “that aims to further strengthen and improve public trust and confidence in the Department.” Note: “Ading” in Ilocano means “younger sibling.” Now, not only the aim but the name is perfect – I am thinking of the 17-year old proposal of Mr Dar himself that he called “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture” (OpAPA), which he advocated in 2003 when he was still Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) – with ADING and OpAPA 2021, we have a family of science knowledge banks with Mr Dar as father!
(“Open Learning” image[2] from Frugalmomeh.com)

Under the partnership agreement, the DA will provide funding of P1.5 million to each of the state universities and colleges (SUCs) for data and information gathering on, among other things, (1) impact of DA’s programs on target communities, and (2) technology utilization by farmers and fishers in every region.

The University of the Philippines through the National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), through Project Team Leader Alex Brillantes, will lead the development of sampling design, research protocol, and data collection instruments that will be used by the SUCs in conducting their knowledge searches.

Separately thinking, once all the sets of data are in and processed into knowledge bits & pieces for Internet searches, in In my mind, OpAPA 2021 will answer all questions, English or Taglish, such as:

Which hybrid rice to plant? Where? How much? Whom to ask?

How do I save on expensive inputs: seeds, fertilizers, cultivation, spraying, harvesting, drying, marketing?

How can a cluster, association, cooperative help my farming?

Which vegetables, fruits, flowers are profitable to grow?

How can I farm if I don’t have enough money?

What do I do when I see a number of insects crawling on my rice plants?

What farm crops can be intercropped with a standing coconut grove?

I want to farm, but I don’t know anything about farming – where do I begin?

I fell in love with OpAPA the first time I saw her, sometime in 2003, when I was hired as a consultant for PhilRice. And I was so smitten that within a week or so, I wrote a book dedicated to bring her to life:

The Geography Of Knowledge. TGoK.

I still have an e_copy of that book, 198 pages, which I conceptualized and wrote all by myself. I submitted the whole manuscript to my direct boss – nameless here, forevermore – and nothing came out of it. I don’t think the PhilRice Executive Director ever saw it. Na-tigok!

With OpAPA 2021, Science with a development face should triumph in Philippine agriculture inclusive of the small farmers!@517


[1]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-taps-state-schools-for-food-security-policy-research-projects/?fbclid=IwAR1_lZr3Wc8zbU1KWcRC_DadDXGBkrxid40gcK8T62jgWczWRIncjVAV5yA

[2]https://www.frugalmomeh.com/2014/09/education-flexibility-thompson-rivers-university-open-learning.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Historical PH 1st Holy Mass: Mazaua Or Limasawa? Fr Amalla Vs Maria Serena Diokno Vs Ambeth Ocampo – And The Priest Is Right!

We Filipinos celebrate 500 years of Christianity today Wednesday, 31 March 2021, Christianity brought to pagans by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing the seas for Spain. The historical question is: Where was the first Holy Mass celebrated: “Limasawa” (in Leyte) or “Mazaua” (in Butuan)? Catholic priest Fr Joesilo C Amalla has just published the book (above), An Island They Called Mazaua, that argues the island of “Mazaua” in Butuan is the “true site of first Holy Mass in the Philippines [1] ”  and not “Limasawa” in Leyte (ANN, 07 January 2021, Manila Times ). The declaration and discussion are made by Butuan-based Fr Amalla in his 644-page book. Among other things, he writes: The truth is that the prevailing state- and church-affirmation and multiple reaffirmations of the island of Limasawa as the site of that first Holy Mass have no factual, historical and geographic (bases) whatsoever nor any shred of evidentiary support from cartographic studies, navigational informat
Post a Comment
Read more

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