Tuesday, September 27, 2011

ComArt - Green Revolution: Review #3 Communication and Socio-cultural Change (Self Administered Test, 25 items)

3. GR Dr Abe V Rotor and Ms Melly Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid DZRB 738 KHz AM Band
8 to 9 o'clock in the evening, Monday to Friday


Green Revolution in the seventies - crowning glory of Philippine Agriculture

1. Botanically speaking, the parts of these plants we eat are classified as follows: cassava tuber is a root, so with kamote, peanut is a fruit, potato tuber is a stem, onion bulb is a leaf.

2. The production capacity of genetically modified crops of corn, potato, and soybean – the most common GMO food we are taking every day - has increased even without increasing the supply of nutrients in the soil. GMOs are the world’s ultimate recourse to feed an ever increasing population now approaching the 6.5 billion mark.

3. These are Lazy Man’s plants, or what we consider literally as tanim ng tamad, a syndrome many Filipinos fall into, a little bit of every thing (tingi-tingi), ningas kogon, makakalimutin, kulang sa tiyaga, and mapabaya’: papaya, malunggay, siling labuyo, katuray, ube, patola, kondol, upo, alugbati, talinum, patani, batao, segidillas, kumpitis.

4. Talinum is a small tree that is why it is so easy to grow, and will last for a long time, season after season and you have vegetables throughout the year. Alugbati is tree like malunggay. In fact they usually grow together in some forgotten corner, along dikes and fences, around open well, and does not need care at all practically speaking. Alugbati is best as salad, cooked with mungo, beef stew, sinigang, bulanglang.

5. Agro-ecology will always clash – there is no compromise. Either you are an ecologist or you are an economist. Take eco-tourism, eco-village, etc.

6. The area required for a Homesite for the Golden Years is greatly variable and flexible; it can be as small as 100 square meters to 10 hectares in area. This allows evolution of as many models as one could think of.

7. Value-added, a term in manufacturing gave rise to a new taxation E-VAT. To cope up with the added burden on the part of both entrepreneur and consumer, why not process your product and get instead the benefit of the new law? Example. Don’t just sell your palay harvest, have it milled sold as rice, make flour out of it, make puto and bihon, and others.

8. Based on the same question above, to get the benefits of VAT, market your own produce; be an entrepreneur, a middleman/trader and of course, a producer.

9. Start by planting the seeds of the following crops if you go wish into immediate commercial production – because the seeds of these plants are plentiful, you have no problem of supply: chico, guava, orange, mango, rambutan, lanzones, avocado, tiesa, atis, guayabano – as well as others that produce plenty of seeds. That’s how nature intended it to be.

10. Seeds always turn out genetically true to type. Big mango fruits come from seeds of big mango fruits, big guava means big guava, sweet pomelo – sweet pomelo, seedless atis – seedless atis, red pakwan from red pakwan.

11. Just follow the direction of the sun when you plant by rows and plots – north to south, so that there is less overshadowing of plants. In this case you may increase your harvest by as much as 10 percent.

12. Extend the shelf life of fruits such as mango, avocado, atis, guayabano, nangka, by rubbing salt at the end of the stem, the base of the fruit.

13. Ampalaya has many recipes. All you need is buy a bundle of fresh ampalaya tops made into salad and dipped with bagoong and vinegar. Or add ampalaya leaves to mungo and dried fish or sautéed pork. Pinakbet anyone? Native or wild ampalaya cut in half or quarter without severing the cut. Ampalaya at delatang sardinas.

14. If there is a Luther Burbank, the American plant wizard, in the Philippines we have Nemesio Mendiola, foremost plant breeder of the Philippines.

15. Lowland ricefields during the monsoon season make a contiguous lake that is a an abode to many edible species of freshwater fish, crustaceans, mollusk and amphibians. T

16. Palay-isdahan means converting spent fishponds to rice production since rice is an aquatic plant.

17. Rice can be grown commercially on any elevation from lowland, upland, hillside to highland. This is true to corn, mango and coconut. F

18. The sea is limitless in resources considering that more than 70% of the earth’s surface is water. For this matter, the world’s population can safely increase further without fear of shortage in food and other needs. It is only a matter of improving and disseminating technology and direct it to this purpose.

19. The most allergenic food is cow’s milk. Yet cow’s milk is most recommended for babies and adults alike, in countless preparations from ice cream to cakes to cream, etc.

20. Milk from animals is an invention of countries with winter, when there are no direct source of vitamins and minerals which are fruits and vegetables. Thus, in tropical countries where there are green food all year round requires very little milk – if at all.

21. Converting mangrove swamps into fishponds is a solution to food crisis because fishponds produce more food that what the mangrove swamps normally contribute to the natural supply of food.

22. GM rice or golden rice contains yellow pigment of daffodils which is rich in Vitamin A. Vit A may be needed by the body but an overdose of it is not good to health, among the effects is allergy. This is the first case of “biopharming” – implanting drugs and medicine in food plants to act as food and medicine at the same time.

23. There is limit to growth; it cannot be a perfect progression. Somehow the curve becomes an inverted C – which means that the factors of growths become the antithesis of growth itself.

24. WB warns of social unrest in the event that the impending food shortage cannot be contained on time and by solutions acceptable by the masses. Revolution starts with hungry stomach as history can attest. French Revolution, Russian, Chinese to mention some. These support Marxist philosophy of justifying socialism over aristocracy and capitalism.

25. Ordinary people like anyone of us can secure for ourselves and family enough food and proper nutrition. This is food security in action. It is food security that gives us real peace of mind. The biological basis does not need farther explanation. It is the key to unity and harmony in the living world. Queuing for rice defeats the image of a strong economy. High prices of food do not give a good reflection either. How about ASEAN, UN, WHO? ASEAN commitment to regional food security, food aid from the UN or US may simply ease the impact of food shortage or inequity in its distribution, but they are but palliative measures. And having a dreamer Joseph in public food depot is not reliable either. It is green revolution at the grassroots that assures us of not only food but other necessities of life – and self employment. It is that piece of Paradise that has long been lost that resurrect in some corner of your home. Paradise is not lost, if you create one. Do you agree?














Answers: 1t, 2f, 3t, 4f, 5f, 6f, 7t, 8t, 9f, 10f, 11f, 12f, 13t, 14t, 15t, 16f, 17f, 18f, 19t, 20t, 21f, 22t, 23t, 24t, 25t


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