NFA Grains Industry Museum
Yes, the Filipino Farmer can be Great Again!
Re-Opening of the NFA GRAINS INDUSTRY MUSEUM after 30 Years
NFA Regional Office Compound, Cabanatuan City, NE
Dr Abe V Rotor**
Grains Industry Museum of the National Food Authority features in a diorama President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Imelda Marcos, Secretary Arturo Tanco, then NGA Administrator Jesus T Tanchanco, Cabinet members and guests.
*The National Food Authority was created through Presidential Decree No. 4 dated September 26, 1972, under the name National Grains Authority, (NGA) by President Ferdinand Marcos. The re-opening of the museum signifies the revival of the original objectives of the museum, which the author envisioned and pursued as its first curator in the early 1980s. Featured in the Grains, official publication of the National Food Authority, the NFA Grains Industry Museum with address at the Regional Office in Cabanatuan City (NE) is now inviting students, scholars, researchers, and ordinary folks, even while restoration is on-going.
The feature story is quoted in part, as follows: (December 2016 Vol. 44, No. 4), written by Ms Lina G Reyes and Ms Josephine C Bacungan),
"Old farm tools and artifacts had been sitting quietly, gathering dust at the dilapidated museum of the Central Luzon Regional office in Cabanatuan City. National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum was a brainchild of then NFA Extension Director Abercio V Rotor with a vision to highlight the evolution of the rice industry through various images on production, post-harvest activities, processing, storage and marketing /distribution of rice and other grains . It was intended to serve as NFA's contribution to the preservation of cultural traditions particularly in the agricultural landscape. It operated for sometime but was closed down due to lack of funds and trained personnel to maintain it. But thanks to he history-loving team of Director Amadeo de Guzman and Assistant Regional Director Serafin Manalili, and then Asst Director Mar Alvarez, et al ... "(the whole staff of the NFA regional and NFA provincial offices.)
"Old farm tools and artifacts had been sitting quietly, gathering dust at the dilapidated museum of the Central Luzon Regional office in Cabanatuan City. National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum was a brainchild of then NFA Extension Director Abercio V Rotor with a vision to highlight the evolution of the rice industry through various images on production, post-harvest activities, processing, storage and marketing /distribution of rice and other grains . It was intended to serve as NFA's contribution to the preservation of cultural traditions particularly in the agricultural landscape. It operated for sometime but was closed down due to lack of funds and trained personnel to maintain it. But thanks to he history-loving team of Director Amadeo de Guzman and Assistant Regional Director Serafin Manalili, and then Asst Director Mar Alvarez, et al ... "(the whole staff of the NFA regional and NFA provincial offices.)
Rare Artifacts
Operated by hand this native rice mill made of wood and bamboo separates the husk from the grain, leaving the grain intact with its bran.
Brown rice or pinawa dehusker made of bamboo and hardened earth with hardwood grinder displayed at the former Farmers' Museum of the National Food Authority in Cabanatuan City.c 1981
The bran contains minerals, vitamins, oil, and digestible fiber which conventional rice mills removed during polishing. Polishing removes the bran leaving the grain white and polished. In the process, much of the grains is broken, particularly the defective and immature ones chalky and powdery. It is the bran that gives the nutritious tiki-tiki which is extracted in the final boiling stage in cooking rice. Tiki-tiki was developed by a Filipino scientist, Dr. Manuel Zamora, a cheap and practical source of infant food supplement which saved thousands of babies during the second World War. It was later popularized as United Tiki-tiki. . 
Biggest wooden harrow (suyod) with a span of two meters, more than twice the size of a typical harrow for upland farming. The harrow is of two designs and make. One with iron pegs (left) is used on wet paddy. It serves as harrow and leveler. The second is made of bamboo with natural and embedded pegs used as harrow for the upland.
Author demonstrates a rare wooden planter with a sliding wooden block at the middle. The block creates a tic-tac sound to let know the worker is busy on the job, while the deep sound warns birds and rodents to keep away from the newly planted seeds. The block vibrates the stake shaking off clinging soil and dirt before it is thrust to make the next hole. Whoever put this mechanism into multiple and unified uses must be a true genius. At the background (above) are naturally shaped hame* made of bamboo. At the foreground is the mold (cross section) showing the formed hame. The process involved is simple. The mould is placed atop an emerging shoot. The shoot grows through the mold and grows to maturity. One or two years after, the bamboo is cut with the mold, and cured and seasoned for durability all in the natural way. (Hame is a curved harness that fits over the nape of a draft animal like carabao and bullock. Hame for the horse is made of two wooden pieces, padded and clamped together around its neck.)
Native raincoats made of leaves of anahaw (Livistona rotundifolia), cowhide, and woven bamboo slats, with matching headgears likewise made of native materials. Foreground: Sleds, one made of bamboo (left) and the other of wood.
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All over the world there are similarities, based on a general pattern, save variations for ease and comfort in usage, which we call today ergonomics, Thus primitive farmers were the founders of this new science. Pride in the farmer can be read on face on discovering these simple tools displayed in the museum.
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All over the world there are similarities, based on a general pattern, save variations for ease and comfort in usage, which we call today ergonomics, Thus primitive farmers were the founders of this new science. Pride in the farmer can be read on face on discovering these simple tools displayed in the museum.
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These sets of mortar and pestle in different designs came from different regions of the country, principally for dehusking palay into rice, and making rice flour. Other uses include cracking beans such as mungo, and grinding corn into grits and bran.
Photo below was taken just after the inauguration of the Museum (1982). The author (left) shows new collection to Dr Romualdo M del Rosario (in barong), deputy director of the National Museum, who helped in setting up the museum.
The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread to many parts of the world. The commonality of inventions is more on function, rather than scientific explanation, the latter serving as basis in improvement and diversification.
Rice Industry Showcase
The Farmers' Museum of the then National Grains Authority, now National Food Authority, was put up in response to the administration's thrust in food self-sufficiency. It was during the time the country gave emphasis on developing cultural pride as a nation and people, as evidenced by the expansion of the National Museum, the putting up of the Philippine Convention Center, and the National Art Center on Mt Makiling, among others, during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E Marcos. The Farmers' Museum occupied the right wing of the Regional NFA Building in Cabanatuan City for two decades, until it closed down. It was once a pride of the agency, the centerpiece of visitation by foreign dignitaries, convention participants, tourists, professors and students, and most especially farmers who found the museum not only as a showcase of the agricultural industry, but as a hallmark of their being the "backbone of the nation." - AV Rotor
There are six dioramas, four of these are shown in these old photographs. A wall mural meets the visitor on entering the museum. Indigenous farm tools and implements are lined on the foreground. The dioramas are grouped at the center of the cubicles.
Rice Industry Dioramas
Rainfed (sahod ulan) farming dominates the uplands and hillsides.
Good harvest depends on generous amount and distribution of
rainfall during the monsoon. Since ancient times festivals implore
providence for bountiful harvest. This practice still exists especially
among the minorities like the Yakans.
World famous rice terraces in Banaue in the Cordillera have been declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Rice farming on the terraces is as old as the terraces believed to be as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, and much older than the Great Wall of China. Science is still studying the sustainability of these terraces through the centuries.
The Encomienda System dominated agriculture during Spanish rule over the
islands for more than three centuries. The friars and Spanish officials were the encomienderos, similar to hacienderos. Although the system underwent land reform, it still persists to this day under corporate umbrella such as the case of Del Monte pineapple plantation. Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac still retains some features
of the system.
Details of two dioramas depicting the Banaue Rice Terraces
and the Hacienda under the Spanish Encomienda System
This mural was destroyed when the wall it was painted on
had to undergo major repairs.
How primitive are farmers' tools and implements? The animal-drawn sled predates the wheel cart, and has not changed since its invention thousands of years ago. It is still used in the remote countryside.
Brain coral for shelling corn raises eyebrow to the city bred. Biggest iron bar scale (timbangan), probably is another item for the Book of Guinness.
Mechanical dryer for palay, corn and beans
“Closing a museum to save money is like holding your breath to save oxygen...”
― Nanette L. Avery
Prototype two-stroke diesel engine, prime mover for milling.
Donated by the late Mr. Bonifacio Tambot, Binalonan, Pangasinan
“Education is the lifeblood of museums. Museum education has the power and the responsibility to do the challenging inner work of tackling tough topics and turning them into teachable moments... If we truly believe in the power of cultural institutions to impact communities and engage authentically with social justice issues, if we believe in museums’ capacity to bring about social change, improve cultural awareness, and even transform the world, than we must also believe that our internal practices have an impact, and must act according to the changes we seek.” ― Monica O Montgomery
Banaue Rice Terraces* Mural at the Grains Museum
"Of the Eight Wonders of the Ancient World, only the Banaue Rice Terraces and the Pyramids of Egypt exist today. The difference between the two however, is that the former continues to sustain a stable civilization as it did in its whole history, while the latter are but colossal empty tombs that speak of an ancient civilization." - avrotor
Wall Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor
Ifugao Rice Terraces wall mural (10ft x 11ft) in acrylic at the Grains Museum of the
National Food Authority, NFA Regional Office Building, Cabanatuan City, painted by AVRotor in 2017
Details: Top, clockwise: native huts and mandala (haystacks), precipice typical in the Cordillera region, destruction of the watershed atop the rice terraces by logging and burning; garden like scene on the terraces, a wildlife sanctuary.
The Banaue Rice Terraces - among five clusters of rice terraces in Ifugao in the Cordillera Region, made it to become the 8th Wonder of the Ancient World. Today only the Banaue Rice Terraces and the Pyramids of Egypt have survived.
To Filipinos it is a monument of pride as a race, a living proof of indigenous ingenuity, and a legacy of pre-Hispanic culture. Which leads scholars to re-define civilization and to put it in proper perspective, other than what the Western World thinks.
The terraces are a "stairway to heaven", piercing through the cloud, taller than the pyramids, the Tower of Babel, the Eiffel Tower - tallest of all man- made structures - built by bare hands with the crudest tools as early as three thousand years ago.
A collective masterpiece of tribes working in cooperation and peace, a prototype nation where people were governed by common aspirations, beliefs, language, customs, isolated from the outside world like the Aztecs and Mayans.
Agro-ecology - a modern term to describe harmony of agriculture and ecology - farming and environment - was born incognito and thrived for centuries, until modern man arrived, studied the "secrets of the rice terraces" and proclaimed himself the discoverer.
What does he know about the Hudhud, the narrative chants and dance and worship at planting time, harvest time, and other rituals? Would this mean anything to increased production, return of investment, research and development?
Believe in cloud seeding the natural way, when clouds collect atop the rice terraces, and condense into rain, gathered at the forest watershed, then slowly released terrace after terrace irrigating the rice plant crop, in precise amount and timetable.
Wonder how the rice varieties of the terraces were developed - varieties jibed with the habagat and amihan, and social life. It was a grave error in introducing 90-day varieties to have two harvests in a year instead of only one, which needed high input and mechanization.
Modernizing agriculture on the rice terraces by introducing chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, use of tractors and other machines, changed the indigenous cycle of the rice plant, so with the socio-economic and cultural lives of the people.
Floating vegetable culture (heap of organic soil) on the terraces, a version of Mexico's floating garden, and India's Sorjan, is no longer feasible with modern agriculture. So with fish culture, the source of food and protein of the inhabitants. The whole food chain and web has been disturbed.
Where is the new generation to take over the old folks, now in their past fifties or sixties - or older? Many terraces are no longer managed the way they were for centuries. They are facing deterioration that may end up to irreversible decline. Erosion, siltation, landslide, gully formation at work need serious and immediate attention.
The "native ambiance" is giving way to posh hotels, modern homes, well paved road networks, various establishments which cater to tourists. Lately a 7-storey parking building has sparked controversy; local officials and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts were appalled.
Banaue Rice Terraces, the tallest and the steepest cluster of terraces in the whole world was granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1995, the first of its kind, but in 2001 it was placed under the List of World Heritage in Danger because of its deteriorating state.
Fortunately it was removed from the list of sites in danger in 2012, but the story does not end there. With globalization taking away the young generation from the terraces, climate change bringing in unexpected consequences, commercialization changing the face of the area, intrusion of destructive technology, this 8th wonder of the world may yet meet the sad fate of the other wonders of the ancient world. ~
National Food Authority, NFA Regional Office Building, Cabanatuan City, painted by AVRotor in 2017
To Filipinos it is a monument of pride as a race, a living proof of indigenous ingenuity, and a legacy of pre-Hispanic culture. Which leads scholars to re-define civilization and to put it in proper perspective, other than what the Western World thinks.
The terraces are a "stairway to heaven", piercing through the cloud, taller than the pyramids, the Tower of Babel, the Eiffel Tower - tallest of all man- made structures - built by bare hands with the crudest tools as early as three thousand years ago.
A collective masterpiece of tribes working in cooperation and peace, a prototype nation where people were governed by common aspirations, beliefs, language, customs, isolated from the outside world like the Aztecs and Mayans.
Agro-ecology - a modern term to describe harmony of agriculture and ecology - farming and environment - was born incognito and thrived for centuries, until modern man arrived, studied the "secrets of the rice terraces" and proclaimed himself the discoverer.
What does he know about the Hudhud, the narrative chants and dance and worship at planting time, harvest time, and other rituals? Would this mean anything to increased production, return of investment, research and development?
Believe in cloud seeding the natural way, when clouds collect atop the rice terraces, and condense into rain, gathered at the forest watershed, then slowly released terrace after terrace irrigating the rice plant crop, in precise amount and timetable.
Wonder how the rice varieties of the terraces were developed - varieties jibed with the habagat and amihan, and social life. It was a grave error in introducing 90-day varieties to have two harvests in a year instead of only one, which needed high input and mechanization.
Modernizing agriculture on the rice terraces by introducing chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, use of tractors and other machines, changed the indigenous cycle of the rice plant, so with the socio-economic and cultural lives of the people.
Floating vegetable culture (heap of organic soil) on the terraces, a version of Mexico's floating garden, and India's Sorjan, is no longer feasible with modern agriculture. So with fish culture, the source of food and protein of the inhabitants. The whole food chain and web has been disturbed.
Where is the new generation to take over the old folks, now in their past fifties or sixties - or older? Many terraces are no longer managed the way they were for centuries. They are facing deterioration that may end up to irreversible decline. Erosion, siltation, landslide, gully formation at work need serious and immediate attention.
The "native ambiance" is giving way to posh hotels, modern homes, well paved road networks, various establishments which cater to tourists. Lately a 7-storey parking building has sparked controversy; local officials and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts were appalled.
Banaue Rice Terraces, the tallest and the steepest cluster of terraces in the whole world was granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1995, the first of its kind, but in 2001 it was placed under the List of World Heritage in Danger because of its deteriorating state.
Fortunately it was removed from the list of sites in danger in 2012, but the story does not end there. With globalization taking away the young generation from the terraces, climate change bringing in unexpected consequences, commercialization changing the face of the area, intrusion of destructive technology, this 8th wonder of the world may yet meet the sad fate of the other wonders of the ancient world. ~
ANNEX A
Men behind Philippine food self-sufficiency and rice exportation
Remembering Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arturo R Tanco Jr
He brought into international limelight Philippine Agriculture, for which he was recognized by the World Food Council and became its president.
He also promoted the International Fund for Agricultural Development .
Agriculture is often referred to as backbone of the economy. Indeed, food shortage may lead to hunger, consequently stirring unrests that undermine our society.
On the other hand, agriculture the cradle of civilization as history tells us, is the principal guarantee of peace and progress.
This is the foundation of Secretary Tanco's philosophy: to attain self-sufficiency and affordability of food. Subsequently, to raise the category of the country as a net grain exporter, other agricultural products - like sugar, fruits, food oil, not notwithstanding.
And he succeeded! Thus he earned for the Philippines, then a "Phoenix Bird" rising from the ashes of the global food crisis, so to speak, a singular honor which many countries used as model for their own agricultural programs. Vietnam which we helped in its crisis is now a rice exporter. And in disbelief, Vietnam is now a regular rice exporter to the Philippines to augment our annual deficit after Tanco's time by no less than ten percent of rice requirement. Thailand whose students came to learn agriculture from us is consistently the number one rice exporter to the Philippines.
Secretary Tanco (center) briefs members of the National Food and Agriculture Council. (NFAC), a 22-member council that catapulted the Philippines to self-sufficiency in food, through Masagana 99 (rice) Maisan 77 (corn), Gulayan ng Bayan (People-based Green Revolution in fruits and vegetables), among other programs like Bakahan Barangay (livestock), and Palay-isdahan (rice-fish production).
Secretary Tanco and other officials report to President Ferdinand Marcos, the progress of the crash program on food production which broke previous records within a year, a feat heretofore unparalleled.
Today in Philippine history, April 19, 1985
Untimely Demise of Agriculture Minister Arturo R. Tanco Jr.
Arturo R. Tanco Jr., a former president of the World Food Council of the United Nations and his country's Agriculture Minister for 13 years, died today. He was 51 years old.
Mr. Tanco joined the Philippine Government in 1970, after postgraduate studies in management at Cornell and Harvard Universities.
In 1971 he became Agriculture Minister, with special responsibility for increasing the production of rice, corn and vegetables. Under his management, the Philippines overcame a chronic rice shortage and became a rice exporter. He used print and electronic advertising to encourage farmers to use intensive cultivation. He was Agriculture Minister until last year, when he resigned after his election defeat.
Mr. Tanco was elected president of the World Food Council in 1977 and served until 1981. He also promoted the International Fund for Agricultural Development, believing it to be an answer to cyclical food shortages.
In 1971 he became Agriculture Minister, with special responsibility for increasing the production of rice, corn and vegetables. Under his management, the Philippines overcame a chronic rice shortage and became a rice exporter. He used print and electronic advertising to encourage farmers to use intensive cultivation. He was Agriculture Minister until last year, when he resigned after his election defeat.
Mr. Tanco was elected president of the World Food Council in 1977 and served until 1981. He also promoted the International Fund for Agricultural Development, believing it to be an answer to cyclical food shortages.
He helped found the Southeast Asia Research Center for Agriculture and was a director of the International Rice Research Institute, based at Los Banos, Laguna.
Mr. Tanco had a son and two daughters with wife Patricia. (The New York Times) ~
Among those behind the success of attaining food self-sufficiency, particularly through Masagana 99, are Domingo F Panganiban, Emil Q Javier, and those who have gone ahead: Arturo Tanco Jr, (DA secretary), JD Drillon (DA Undersecretary) Roberto Fronda (NFAC Exec Director and Dep Adm NFA), Jesus Tanchanco (NFA adm), Dioscoro Umali (FAO chief Asia), among others the author had the opportunity to work with.
DOMINGO F. PANGANIBAN took over the helm of DA, then DANR (Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources) after Secretary Tanco,
ANNEX B
Yes, we can grow wheat in the Philippines
Yes, the Filipino can. We love to eat pandesal, a unique and distinctly Filipino kind of bun. comes from wheat flour. We import the mother material, the wheat grain, mainly from the United States. Eight (or more) companies which grouped themselves into the Philippine Flour Millers Association or PAFMI import the grain, mill it into flour, and sell it to the baker. The bran called pollard, by-product of milling is formulated into feeds, together with feed wheat which they also import directly. Virtually the same members formed another group, Philippine Association of Feed Millers or PAFMIL. They sell feeds to the livestock and poultry raisers. They also sell meat and related products which they directly import. These are made into hot dog, hamburger, et al.
Here is a scenario for the pandesal eater. The wheat comes from the prairies of North American covering the Dakotas, Kansas, Minnesota’s, Missouri and a dozen more States. A state may be bigger than the Philippines in land area. The American farmer who cultivates hundreds, if not thousands, of acres using airplane and railway systems, plants his wheat either before winter (the germinated seed remains dormant or overwinters), or in the spring. Thus, when we import, we specify winter or spring wheat. Generally the spring hard wheat is preferred for making pandesal, although it is more costly. We import the premium wheat, one of the best in the world. Just to make pandesal! Sixty percent of total volume is made into pandesal. The soft type of wheat (varieties with less of the leavening substance called gluten), is made into cakes, pastries and crackers, instant noodles, pancit canton, mami, soups, etc. There is also the durum wheat or pasta, which are made into macaroni or spaghetti, mainly by the PAFMI members, too. They make those ready-in-two
Wheat is the third most important staple food of Filipinos after rice and corn. Ironically we import it to the last grain to make the popular pandesal and pasta, and a wide variety of bakery products. Its milling byproducts constitute an important feed ingredient for livestock, piggery and poultry.
Now, where is my pandesal? Either it is shrinking or taking new shapes, or both. Go to the popular bakeshops, they have various versions of pandesal. Of course with different product presentation - and prices. That is why pandesal is difficult to standardize, and more difficult to socialize. Not even during the martial law days. How could it be a poor man’s breakfast? Where is the control button? Well at least, during Arturo Tanco’s time as DA secretary, wheat importation was in the hands of the National Grains Authority, under PD 4. and the members of the PAFMI and PAFMIL got their allocations of grain to mill and sell. From the revenues of NGA, warehouses and other post harvest facilities for rice and corn farmers were put up. In short, NGA without national budget, depended on corporate source, mainly from wheat importation, subsidized the small rice and corn farmer. Thus was the golden era of the grain industry in the country.
So the wheat grain arrives here. After importation tax, the grain goes to the giant bins and mill complexes of the PAFMIL members concentrated in Metro Manila, others in Cebu and Mindanao. Total value has greatly increased to billions of pesos yearly. One can imagine the staggering figure to include feed wheat and pollard which the PAFMIL also imports. Plus, of course, the imported corn, fish meal and soyabean meal which are important feed ingredients. Next time you eat hamburger, fried chicken or pork chop, think of food on a pie chart. What part is Filipino?
Threshing wheat by hand is similar to rice. Threshing is much easier, and wheat stalk is kinder to the hand. The hay has higher nutrient value than rice, and is easier for animals to digest. Author's son Marlo, then 5 years old, takes pride in displaying a freshly harvested wheat from a farmer's field.
Well, at least the pork in a can of pork and beans is ours. But it is not entirely. The corn comes from Thailand. It is cheaper to import corn than to cultivate it here. Analogously, it is cheaper to import rice than grow it here. No wonder we (the government) import more than one million metric tons of rice every year – from Thailand, Vietnam, China, Pakistan and India! Why should we not grow enough rice and plant wheat, too, and have pandesal?
Pandesal is shrinking, it is getting more expensive. And this is the reason we should plant our own wheat. As shown in earlier figures from our local wheat varieties which we planted on rice paddies before the EDSA revolution, local wheat can reduce our dependence on imported wheat. We planted Trigo 2 (for cakes and pastries) varieties which were developed by the Institute of Plant Breeding and UPLB. Farmer cooperators in the Ilocos region, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, and also in the Visayas and Mindanao planted for straight five years wheat on their ricefield as second crop under a packaged program initiated by DA, NFA, PCARRD and UPLB and other state universities.
Yes, we can grow wheat successfully in the Philippines. A proof other than the recent success is that during the Spanish period, farmers in Cagayan down to Batangas were growing a variety known as a Cagayan wheat. Wheat is very important to the church. We were then self-sufficient and even shipped part of our produce through the galleon. Read Frenchmen, de Gironierre’s autobiography, Half a Century in the Philippines.
Interviews on Wheat
"As a farmer, I get good average yield, as high as 3.1 MT per hectare, higher than world’s average, comparatively profitable with other cash crops after rice. I use the same tools and equipment as with irrigation, fertilization, and post harvest processes. With the government support I am assured of both market and price of my produce. I also have wheat bran and hay for my livestock, better than those of rice. And I can raise poultry and livestock.
"As a consumer, locally grown wheat can be made into arroz caldo, ridgepole, wheat cakes - other than the conventional pandesal, pan de bara, pan de lemon, pan de coco, cakes and pastries. Now I can eat more than the average per capita level which is 10.3 to 12 kg, because it becomes more affordable, especially so that wheat comes in various preparations, including rice-wheat mix. In this case I will have higher protein intake as high as 12 percent for whole wheat, 8 to 9 percent for regular flour. Rice has barely half protein level. I get 75 percent starch, so with rice. But I get gluten, the substance that makes wheat, and only wheat, naturally leavening. I get also high crude fiber, oil, minerals and vitamins. Now you see why a big American individual has but sandwich for lunch. Of course, what is in between the bread equally counts.
Well, at least the pork in a can of pork and beans is ours. But it is not entirely. The corn comes from Thailand. It is cheaper to import corn than to cultivate it here. Analogously, it is cheaper to import rice than grow it here. No wonder we (the government) import more than one million metric tons of rice every year – from Thailand, Vietnam, China, Pakistan and India! Why should we not grow enough rice and plant wheat, too, and have pandesal?
Pandesal is shrinking, it is getting more expensive. And this is the reason we should plant our own wheat. As shown in earlier figures from our local wheat varieties which we planted on rice paddies before the EDSA revolution, local wheat can reduce our dependence on imported wheat. We planted Trigo 2 (for cakes and pastries) varieties which were developed by the Institute of Plant Breeding and UPLB. Farmer cooperators in the Ilocos region, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, and also in the Visayas and Mindanao planted for straight five years wheat on their ricefield as second crop under a packaged program initiated by DA, NFA, PCARRD and UPLB and other state universities.
Yes, we can grow wheat successfully in the Philippines. A proof other than the recent success is that during the Spanish period, farmers in Cagayan down to Batangas were growing a variety known as a Cagayan wheat. Wheat is very important to the church. We were then self-sufficient and even shipped part of our produce through the galleon. Read Frenchmen, de Gironierre’s autobiography, Half a Century in the Philippines.
Interviews on Wheat
"As a farmer, I get good average yield, as high as 3.1 MT per hectare, higher than world’s average, comparatively profitable with other cash crops after rice. I use the same tools and equipment as with irrigation, fertilization, and post harvest processes. With the government support I am assured of both market and price of my produce. I also have wheat bran and hay for my livestock, better than those of rice. And I can raise poultry and livestock.
"As a consumer, locally grown wheat can be made into arroz caldo, ridgepole, wheat cakes - other than the conventional pandesal, pan de bara, pan de lemon, pan de coco, cakes and pastries. Now I can eat more than the average per capita level which is 10.3 to 12 kg, because it becomes more affordable, especially so that wheat comes in various preparations, including rice-wheat mix. In this case I will have higher protein intake as high as 12 percent for whole wheat, 8 to 9 percent for regular flour. Rice has barely half protein level. I get 75 percent starch, so with rice. But I get gluten, the substance that makes wheat, and only wheat, naturally leavening. I get also high crude fiber, oil, minerals and vitamins. Now you see why a big American individual has but sandwich for lunch. Of course, what is in between the bread equally counts.
Triticale - a cross between wheat (Triticum) and rye (Secale). Triticale was successfully grown on the Benguet in the seventies.
As a rule, triticale combines the high yield potential and good grain quality of wheat with the disease and environmental tolerance (including soil conditions) of rye. It is grown mostly for forage or fodder although some triticale-based foods can be purchased at health food stores or are to be found in some breakfast cereals, bread and other food products such as cookies, pasta, and pizza dough. The protein content is higher than that of wheat although the gluten in fraction is less. The grain has also been stated to have higher levels of lysine than wheat. As a feed grain, triticale is already well established and of high economic importance.
NOTE: Author served as national coordinator in wheat production in the Philippines, a joint program of NFA (NGA then), DA, and PCARRD under President Ferdinand Marcos' administration. He represented the Philippines in a conference, presented a paper on growing wheat in the Philippines, at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento del Mais y Trigo (CIMMYT), Mexico.
ANNEX C
Let's Cut Down Rice Wastage
and Develop Rice Substitutes
Dr Abe V Rotor
We have chosen this article for this session in response to the current problem of rice supply this lean months or off-season period which is exacerbated by the El Niño dry spell, and precipitated by the COVID pandemic."Ang bigas ay mahalaga, huwag mag-aksaya!" (NFA
national campaign)
While our government is committed in assuring sufficient supply of this staple commodity at affordable price, it is the responsibility of every citizen to cut down losses in wastage, and over consumption, of rice and other food commodities.
While our national goal is self-sufficiency in rice by increasing yield and hectarage, we must at the same time reduce rice loss in the field, in processing, and on the dining table on one hand, and reduce rice consumption through various food substitutes, on the other.
The second aspect is how we can reduce our consumption of rice in the light of recurrent production shortage, and increasing price without necessarily depriving ourselves of energy and nutrients.
As an overview, rice is lost in three stages.
2. Gains in rice production may be negated by huge postharvest loss mainly due to lack of facilities and improper processing. Postharvest loss ranges from 10 to 37 percent of total harvest. If we can only reduce Postharvest loss to the low level of 10 percent, we would be self-sufficient in rice. Philippine rice importation in 2014 was 1.2 million metric tons worth at least one-half billion dollars.
3. Nutritional loss incurred during food preparation, cooking and poor eating habits is likewise high (no quantified figure but significant).
We can reduce postharvest loss. Postharvest loss can be reduced during the following activities:
1. Threshing - Use improved thresher, thresh on time and do not plant easy-shattering varieties.
2. Drying - Sundry properly, use mechanical dryers if sun drying is not feasible.
3. Milling - Use mill types/model with high milling recovery. Mill grains, which are properly dried. Do not mix different varieties.
4. Handling and transport - Use good sacks, transport properly and on time.
Rice Weevil (Sitophilus oryzae)
5. Storage - Keep pest away and moisture low. Store properly and dispose on time.
Let's Develop Substitutes to Reduce Pressure on Rice
Among the legumes, mungo (Phaseolus radiatus) is best known. Generally, consumers of these products are unaware that they are doing a favor to the rice industry, particular during the lean months.
Here are some facts about rice to consider:
The Philippines is a major rice consumer, with a population of roughly 110 million and annual per capita rice consumption of 133 kg.
2. Daily calorie supply per capita is 2,357. Rice supplies 38% of it.
3. With a total of rice eating Filipinos of 87 million, our total rice requirement is 13 million MT. Today's production is less than 12 million MT.
4. Our total rice area is shrinking, even as land use policy regulates non-agricultural land use, such as settlements and industry.
5. Farmlands are becoming marginal due to poor management.
6. Agrarian program, since it was promulgated 50 years ago, remains a social and political issue, instead of being a catalyst of growth and development.
7. Farming remains in the hands of farmers who are on the average 58 years old, with low formal education, and with very little personal savings.
8. There are less and less students taking up agriculture. Not even 10 percent of agriculture graduates go into farming.
9. There is need to define clearly our agricultural policy on rice self-sufficiency. In the seventies and eighties, the Philippines became one of the world's exporters of rice, as a result of a successful food production program. We were also self-sufficient in most basic food items.
10. Investment in agriculture is very low, priority is in industry. It should be the other way around, as many countries realized lately. ~
The second aspect is how we can reduce our consumption of rice in the light of recurrent production shortage, and increasing price without necessarily depriving ourselves of energy and nutrients.
As an overview, rice is lost in three stages.
1. Field loss in production mainly to pest and force majeure runs up to 50 percent of potential harvest. In many cases, it is total crop failure.
Mechanized rice threshing in modern agriculture replaces manual method and close-knit community tradition.
3. Nutritional loss incurred during food preparation, cooking and poor eating habits is likewise high (no quantified figure but significant).
We can reduce postharvest loss. Postharvest loss can be reduced during the following activities:
1. Threshing - Use improved thresher, thresh on time and do not plant easy-shattering varieties.
2. Drying - Sundry properly, use mechanical dryers if sun drying is not feasible.
3. Milling - Use mill types/model with high milling recovery. Mill grains, which are properly dried. Do not mix different varieties.
4. Handling and transport - Use good sacks, transport properly and on time.
Rice Weevil (Sitophilus oryzae)5. Storage - Keep pest away and moisture low. Store properly and dispose on time.
Let's Develop Substitutes to Reduce Pressure on Rice
Low production together with devaluation of our peso and spiraling world market price of the commodity have caused the price of rice to shoot up to as much as 100 percent in the last five years, and it is going to increase further.
Nature's gleaners. With farm animals and fowls around there's little waste on the farm. In fact, what is considered as waste becomes profit.
This view leads us to believe that we can institute or strengthen agricultural reforms and programs. One area to focus our attention is the development of rice substitutes such as other cereals, rootcrops, and legumes.
Aside from direct substitution, the increase in the uptake of fruits and vegetables, meat and fish would lead to a reduction in rice consumption, not to mention its valuable contribution to nutrition, thus the improvement of health.
Corn as a whole tops all rice substitutes, other than the fact that 20 percent (20 million) of our population depends on corn as staple.
In urban areas the most popular rice substitutes are noodle products, followed by pandesal and other wheat products. In rural areas, sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) and cassava (Manihot esculenta) top the list of rootcrops.
Aside from direct substitution, the increase in the uptake of fruits and vegetables, meat and fish would lead to a reduction in rice consumption, not to mention its valuable contribution to nutrition, thus the improvement of health.
Corn as a whole tops all rice substitutes, other than the fact that 20 percent (20 million) of our population depends on corn as staple.
In urban areas the most popular rice substitutes are noodle products, followed by pandesal and other wheat products. In rural areas, sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) and cassava (Manihot esculenta) top the list of rootcrops.
Among the legumes, mungo (Phaseolus radiatus) is best known. Generally, consumers of these products are unaware that they are doing a favor to the rice industry, particular during the lean months.
The development of these substitute products on the part of the farmers is beneficial. It will definitely boost diversified farming, and consequently income on the farm. A program based on this alternative is definitely necessary both in the short and long term, particularly if the focus is the development of indigenous products.
1. Per capita consumption of rice is from 95 to 130, Metro Manila and Ilocos Region, respectively. National average is close to 100 kg per person. Update, from DA-BPI, as follows:
2. Daily calorie supply per capita is 2,357. Rice supplies 38% of it.
3. With a total of rice eating Filipinos of 87 million, our total rice requirement is 13 million MT. Today's production is less than 12 million MT.
4. Our total rice area is shrinking, even as land use policy regulates non-agricultural land use, such as settlements and industry.
5. Farmlands are becoming marginal due to poor management.
6. Agrarian program, since it was promulgated 50 years ago, remains a social and political issue, instead of being a catalyst of growth and development.
8. There are less and less students taking up agriculture. Not even 10 percent of agriculture graduates go into farming.
9. There is need to define clearly our agricultural policy on rice self-sufficiency. In the seventies and eighties, the Philippines became one of the world's exporters of rice, as a result of a successful food production program. We were also self-sufficient in most basic food items.
10. Investment in agriculture is very low, priority is in industry. It should be the other way around, as many countries realized lately. ~
Don't waste food, don't!
Yes, children, there is Santa Gracia
Don't throw away food left on the table. Please don't.
Recycle leftover in a different presentation.
• Food waste could otherwise go to millions who have not enough to eat.
• Food waste breeds pest and disease, sickens the air.
• Anything that goes to waste draws down the economy.
• Waste widens inequity in resources.
Here are some things to do with food leftovers.
1. Sinagag - fried rice mix with bits of bacon, ham, fried egg, fish, and the like.
• Waste widens inequity in resources.
Here are some things to do with food leftovers.
1. Sinagag - fried rice mix with bits of bacon, ham, fried egg, fish, and the like.
2. Torta - tidbits like those mentioned in scramble egg. Include veggies like carrot and onion.
3. Pickle – excess veggies and fruits plus vinegar, sugar and salt, and spices. Good for carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, green papaya, yam (sinkamas), others.
4. Paksiw – if not consumed is fried, makes a new menu.
5. Daing – fish in season is dried, cooked with gata’ (coconut milk).
6. Suka – fruit vinegar from overripe pineapple, banana, others, but not tomato and kamias.
7. Pudding – bread not consumed on time is also made into pizza bread- bread crumbs, garlic bread.
8. Sopas – Grind bones, shrimp head for soup and broth. Bulalo for whole bone.
9. Pastillas – milk p
owder not consumed on time, also grated hardened cheese.
owder not consumed on time, also grated hardened cheese.10. Veggie and fruit peelings – for animal feeds, composting. Include solids from brewing (coffee) and juicing fruits. Ultimately, inevitable food waste is collected for feeds in poultry and piggery.
Food waste also emanates from carelessness in handling, food preparation and serving. Much is also lost due to lack of proper processing, transport and storage facilities. Estimated loss in postharvest alone runs from 10 to 37 percent of actual harvest of crops.
In "Give us this day our daily bread..." in the Lord's Prayer, us here is regarded as thanksgiving and remembering the millions people around the world who may not have the food they need.
I believe in the wisdom of the old folk who reminds us of the value of food. They have experienced hunger during war, drought, flood, crop failure, pestilence - even in normal times. They have not lost sight of the presence of Santa Gracia.
Yes, children there is Santa Gracia. ~
*In observance of World Food Day October 16, every year. Actually, Food Day must be observed every day.
ANNEX D - Don't throw away rice hull or "ipa."
Here are 5 practical uses.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Top: Cross-section of rice grain; closeup of grain. Middle: Rice hull stove, building block of rice hull and clay. Bottom: rice hull as litter; newly built vegetable plots. Acknowledgement: Google search, Wikipedia, Internet images
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The bean weevil is a cosmopolitan insect whose grub lives inside the bean, eating the whole content and leaving only the seed cover at the end of its life cycle. When it is about to emerge the female lays eggs for the next generation. Whole stocks of beans may be rendered unfit not only for human consumption, but for animal feeds as well. It is because the insect leaves a characteristic odor that comes from the insect’s droppings and due to fungal growth that accompanies infestation
Fisherfolk selling their catch on the roadside, 
Mineral water is prepared by treating ordinary drinking water with malunggay seeds. Three or four crushed mature seeds are soaked for three hours to kill any germs and to allow particles to settle at the bottom. Transfer treated water into smaller bottles leaving behind the sediments. Place in ref to chill.
Home industry: rice cakes - patupat amd tupig (photos). Also suman, pinipig, tinubong, bucayo, bibingka. Natural yeast and other beneficial microorganisms extend shelf-life and improves taste. Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Home biotechnology products: padas (fish) bagoong,and peanut brittle. Manaoag, Pangasinan.
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Nature works silently through her invisible biological agents. We wake up to the fresh aroma of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, the cured taste of dried tapa, tinapa, ham and bacon – all these are products of a mysterious process we generally call fermentation. Aged wine is mellower, cured tobacco is more aromatic, naturally ripened fruits are sweeter, dried prunes, raisin and dates have higher sugar content and have longer shelf life. Why many foods taste better after allowing them to stand for sometime! Take suman, tupig, puto, bibingka, and the like. Thanks to the myriads of microorganisms working in our favor even while we are asleep.
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The vast potential uses of microorganisms - bacteria, algae, fungi and the like - in providing food, medicine and better environment to supply the requirements of our fast growing population and standard of living are being tapped by biotechnology. Biotechnology hand in hand with genetic engineering will likely dominate the Green Revolution of this century – the fourth since Neolithic time. But will this be a Green Revolution for the people?
Biotechnology is not new
My father, a gentleman farmer, was a brewer. He inherited the trade from my grandfather and from previous generations. I still use today the good earthen jars in producing the same products – basi, the traditional Ilocos wine, and its by-product, natural vinegar - using the same indigenous formula.
The making of basi and vinegar, as well as a dozen other products of sugarcane, like panocha, pulitiput, kalamay, sinambong, and kinalti, is a traditional cottage industry in the Ilocos region which is traced back to the Pre-Hispanic era when hundreds of small independent brewers like my father lived comfortably on this once flourishing industry.
Things appeared simple then. But time has changed. We know that sugarcane has long been planted with rice, legumes and vegetables, but it sounds like new in modern parlance with terms like crop rotation or crop diversification. Making of wine, vinegar and confectionery products are under agro-industry. Because the process generates profit, we call this value-added advantage. So with the tax that is now slap manufactured products. To determine the business viability of a business we determine its internal rate of return (IIR) and its return on investment (ROI). Brewing today is agro-processing and an agribusiness. And my father would be called not just a proprietor or entrepreneur - but as a business partner since family members and relatives share in the operation of the business. Possibly his title today would be general manager or CEO.
Things in my father’s time have become outdated, shifting away from traditional to modern. But it is not only a matter of terminology; it is change in business structure and system.
Big business is name of the game
There must be something wrong somewhere. But while we diagnose our country’s ills, we should make references to our own successes, and even come to a point of looking on models within our reach and capability to emulate. There are “unsung heroes” in practically all fields from business, agriculture, manufacturing to folk medicine and leadership. Perhaps for us who belong to the older generation, it is good to feel whenever we recall old times when life was better – and better lived. For which, on the other side of the coin, we pose the present challenge to the youth.
Basi for export, tourists, and weddings
Let me cite particular areas of biotechnology in which small entrepreneurs play a vital role and which they have proven themselves successful in one way or the other.
The first group involves the production of alcoholic drinks and vinegar through fermentation.
These products are
§ Basi (sugarcane)
§ Lambanog (coconut)
§ Tuba (coconut)
§ Layaw (nipa)
§ Bahalina (coconut and tangal)
§ Fruit wine (kasoy, bignay, pineapple, etc.)
§ Vinegar (nipa, sugarcane, coconut, various fruits)
There, wine making is an art, and a personalized enterprise, with each cellar having a distinctive quality trademark. Bordeaux in France for example, is famous for brand, while the Scotch Whiskey remains a top grade liquor made from grains. Similarly we have Basi in Ilocos amd lambanog in Southern Tagalog, Bahalina in Eastern Visayas and Mindanao, Tapoy in the Cordilleras, which is Kampai in Japan. So with Apple cider compared to our own Sukang Iloko, or Sukang Paombong.
Basi table wine of the Ilocos Region sold in tourists shops. Basi is made from sugarcane, brewed and aged in earthen jars (burnay). San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
The second group of village biotechnology products are beverages, food condiments, tobacco and betel for chewing. § Kapeng barako (Batangas and Cavite)
§ Cacao (Batangas, Mindanao)
§ Vanilla (Mindanao)
§ Tsaa (Batangas)
§ Fruit puree (mango, guyabano, etc., Southern Tagalog, Mindanao)
§ Bagoong and patis (Navotas, Balayan, Dagupan)
§ Kesong Puti (Laguna)
§ Betel or Nganga (Cordillera, Laguna, Ilocos)
§ Ketsup (banana, tomato)
§ Rolled tobacco (Cagayan Valley, Ilocos)
Like in the first group, these products are area-specific which point out to their indigenous production and processing, so with their patronage. Rolled tobacco or pinadis, for example, has a special market for old people who are used to the product – and not to the younger generation. This is also true with betel or nganga.
On the other hand, bagoong and patis, which used to be a specialty among Ilocanos, are now marketed abroad. So with kapeng barako a local coffee which is mainly grown in the highlands of Batangas and Tagaytay. Fruit puree and fruit preserve, though relatively new, are amazingly growing fast, as people are shunning away from carbonated drinks. Because of high demand, these products became a boom to small growers, who recently are becoming mere conduits or raw products suppliers of big companies, instead of making and marketing the finished products themselves. Tea, coffee, fruit juice and chocolate, in this order, make up the world’s top beverages, thus pointing out the vast opportunities of biotechnology.
The third and largest group of village biotechnology products is in food. § Puto and Kutsinta or rice cake, very popular among Filipinos
§ Bibingka (rice)
§ Maja (corn grit)
§ Burong manggang paho, mustasa
§ Burong Isda (dalag and rice)
§ Hamon (manok, baboy, pato)
§ Toge (mungo sprout)
§ Cakes (banana, cassava)
§ Ripening of fruits (madre de cacao)
Food processing constitutes the bulk of village biotechnology in developing countries, on both domestic and commercial scales. Like in the other groups, these undertakings are seldom organized as formal establishments, but rather fall under the category of informal economics.
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“The biggest piracy that is taking place today is not at sea and on the rich. It is stealing people’s resources – from herbal medicine to indigenous technology – stolen by rich countries and big corporations. Biopiracy and technopiracy constitute the greatest violation to human rights and social justice in that the people are not only deprived of their means of livelihood; they are forced to become dependent on those who robbed them.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Informal or “underground” economy is the lifeblood of rural communities. They are the seat of tradition, rituals, barter and other informal transactions. They link the farm and the kitchen and the local market. They are versions of agro-processing and agribusiness on the scale of proprietorship and family business. They strengthen family and community ties.
Development Models on the Grassroots
It is for this reason that the NACIDA – National Cottage Industry Development Authority – was organized. And truly, it brought economic prosperity to thousands of entrepreneurs and families in the fifties to sixties. This concern for the common tao made Ramon Magsaysay the most loved president of the Philippines.
South Korea for one in the late sixties, saw our PRRM and NACIDA models and improved on them with their SAEMAUL UNDONG development program which ultimately brought tremendous progress in its war-torn countryside.
In Tanzania, one can glimpse similarities of our program with LAEDZA BATANI (Wake up, it’s time to get moving), a rural development program. The Philippines stood as an international model, recognized by the WB and ADB, for our countryside development – cottage industries, farmers’ associations, electric cooperatives, rice and corn production program, which made us agriculturally self-sufficient and net exporter of rice.
We developed biotechnology in farm waste utilization through composting with the use of Trichoderma inoculation, and in natural rice farming by growing Azolla in lieu of urea and ammonium nitrate. Another area of biotechnology is in the retting of maguey fiber, which is a work of decomposing bacteria. These and many other people-based approaches to development projected the image of then President Ferdinand Marcos among greatest nation builders like Mao Tse Tung, Chiang Kai Shek, Park Chung Hee, Dr Mahathir, Sukarno, Lee Kuan Yu, among others in the Western hemisphere - leaders who brought their respective countries out of the Thir World syndrome. There is but one abnd common denominator of progress in these countries, and that is development at the grassroots, or the so-called bottom-up development.
Green Revolution for the masses
This Green Revolution has to be addressed to the masses. The thrust in biotechnology development must have a strong social objective. This must include the integration of the mass-based enterprises with research and development (R&D). Like the defunct NACIDA, a program for today should be cottage-based, not only corporate-based. Genetic engineering should be explored not for scientific reasons or for profit motives alone, but purposely for social objectives that could spur socio-economic growth on the countryside, and the improvement the lives of millions of people.
Alternative Food
These lowly organisms will be farmed like conventional crops. In fact, today mushroom growing is among the high-tech agricultural industries, from spawn culture to canning.
Spirulina, a cyanobacterium, has been grown for food since ancient times by the Aztecs in Mexico and in early civilizations in the Middle East. Its culture is being revived on estuaries and lakes, and even in small scale, in tanks and ponds. Today the product is sold as “vegetablet.”
Seaweeds, on the other hand, are being grown extensively and involving many species, from Caulerpa to Nori. Seaweed farming has caught worldwide attention in this last two decades, not only because it offers a good source of food, but also industrial products like carageenan and agar.
Environmental Rehabilitation
In the remote case that a nuclear explosion occurs, how possible is it to produce food and other needs in the bomb shelters deep underground? Fiction as it may seem, the lowly microorganisms have an important role. For one, mushrooms do not need sunlight to grow. Take it from the mushroom-growing termites. Another potential crop is Chlorella. While it produces fresh biomass as food it is also an excellent oxygen generator, oxygen being the by-product of photosynthesis. But where will Chlorella get light? Unlike higher plants, this green alga can make use of light and heat energy from an artificial source like fluorescent lamp.
Sewage treatment with the use of algae is now common in the outskirts of big cities like New York and Tokyo. From the air the open sewer is a series of reservoirs through which the sewage is treated until the spent material is released. The sludge is converted into organic fertilizer and soil conditioner, while the water is safely released into the natural environment such as a lake or river.
Marine seaweeds are known to grow in clean water. Their culture necessitates maintenance of the marine environment. Surprisingly seaweeds help in maintaining a clean environment, since they trap particles and detritus, and increase dissolved Oxygen and reduce dissolved CO2 level in water.
Bacteria being decomposers return organic substances to nature. So with algae and fungi. Fermentation is in fact, a process of converting organic materials into inorganic forms for the use of the next generation of organisms. In the process, man makes use of the intermediate products like ethyl alcohol, acetic acid, nata de coco, lactic acid, and the like.
Speaking of sustainable agriculture, take it from Nature’s biofertilizers like Nostoc and other Eubacteria. These BGAs form green matting on rice fields. Farmers in India and China gather this biomass, and use it as natural fertilizer. Another is Rhizobium, a bacterium that fixes atmospheric Nitrogen into NO3, the form of N plants directly absorb and utilize. Its fungal counterpart, Mycorrhiza, converts Nitrogen in the same way, except that this microorganism thrives in the roots of orchard and forest trees.
Let me cite the success of growing Azolla-Anabaena on ricefields in Asian countries. This is another biofertilizer, and discriminating consumers are willing to pay premium price for rice grown without chemical fertilizer - only with organic and bio-fertilizers.
At one time a good friend, a medical doctor and gentleman farmer, Dr. P. Parra, invited me to his Azolla farm in Iloilo. What I saw was a model of natural farming, employing biotechnology in his integrated farm –
• Azolla for rice,
• Biogas from piggery,
• Rhizobia inoculation for peanuts and mungbeans,
• Trichoderma for composting.
• Food processing (fruit wine and vinegar)
His market for his natural farm products are people as far as Manila who are conscious of their health, and willing to pay the premium price for naturally grown food.
Genetic Engineering
It is true that man has succeeded in splicing the DNA, in like manner that he harnessed the atom through fission. and Hydrogen through fusion. Genetic engineering is a kind of accelerated and guided evolution, and while it helps man screen and develop new breeds and varieties, it has yet to offer the answer to the declining productivity of farms and agriculture, in general, particularly in developing countries. Besides, genetically engineered products have yet to earn a respectable place in the market and household.
Genetic engineering of beneficial organisms is the subject of research institutions all over the world. I had a chance to visit the Biotechnology Center in Taipei and saw various experiments conducted by Chinese scientists particularly on antibiotics production. But biotechnology has also its danger. One example is the case of the “suicide seeds”. These are hybrid seeds which carry a trigger enzyme which destroys the embryo soon after harvest so that the farmers will be forced to buy again seeds from the same supplier come next cropping season. It is similar to self-destruct diskettes, or implanted viruses in computers. This is how an international company Monsanto, the inventor of suicide seeds, is creating an empire built at the expense of millions of poor farmers over the world.
Medicine and Natural Food
As resistance of pests and pathogens continue to increase and become immune to drugs, man is corollarily searching for more potent and safe kinds and formulations. He has resorted to looking into the vast medicinal potentials of these lowly organisms, as well as their value as natural food. Here are some popular examples.
1. Nori or gamet (Porphyra, a red alga) – elixir, claimed to be more potent than Viagra
2. Edible seaweeds - rich in iodine, vegetable substitute. There is no known poisonous seaweed.
3. Seaweeds as source of natural antibiotics, much safer than conventional antibiotics.
4. Mushrooms have anti-cancer properties.
5. Spirulina as food and feeds
6. Cyanobacteria prolongs life, restores youthfulness.
7. Yeast is a health food
8. Yogurt is bacteria-fermented milk, health drink.
9. Carica and Mamordica extracts for medicine and health food
10. Organically grown food (without the use of chemical pesticide and fertilizer)
Dr. Domingo Tapiador, a retired UN expert on agriculture and fisheries, helped initiate the introduction of Spirulina in the country. He showed me the capsule preparation produced in Japan. “Why can’t we grow Spirulina locally?” he asked.
Today a year after, there are successful pilot projects. Spirulina is not only good as human food but feeds as well. Professor Johnny Ching of De la Salle University Dasmariñas found out that Spirulina added to the feed ration of bangus improves growth rate. (MS Biology, UST) Similar studies point out to the beneficial effects of Spirulina on the daily weight gain in poultry and livestock. Earlier studies also discovered Azolla, an aquatic fern with a blue-green alga symbiont – Anabaena, as a valuable feed supplement to farm animals.
These lowly groups of organisms which cannot even qualify as plants, but instead protists with which protozoa are their kin, biologically speaking that is, are after all “giants.”
They hold the promise in providing food, medicine, clean environment, and as a whole, a better quality of human life for the people today and the coming generations.
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Rice hull is the outer cover of the rice grain which comprises 25 percent of the total weight. The cover is made up of a pair of hull-shape structures - lemma and palea - which are tough and impregnated with silica and cellulose. Considered waste in rice producing areas, now there are uses which this article would like to share - and recommend.
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1. Rice hull ash protects mung-beans from bean weevil.
Burnt rice hull (ipa) contains silica crystals that are microscopic glass shards capable of penetrating into the conjunctiva of the bean weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus. Once lodged, the crystal causes more damage as the insect moves and struggles, resulting in infection and desiccation, and ultimately death.
This is the finding of Ethel Niña Catahan in her masteral thesis in biology at the University of Santo Tomas. Catahan tested two types of rice hull ash, One is partly carbonized (black ash) and the other oven-burned (white ash). Both were applied independently in very small amount as either mixed with the beans or as protectant placed at the mouth of the container. In both preparations and methods, mungbeans – and other beans and cereals, for that matter – can be stored for as long as six months without being destroyed by this Coleopterous insect.
This is the finding of Ethel Niña Catahan in her masteral thesis in biology at the University of Santo Tomas. Catahan tested two types of rice hull ash, One is partly carbonized (black ash) and the other oven-burned (white ash). Both were applied independently in very small amount as either mixed with the beans or as protectant placed at the mouth of the container. In both preparations and methods, mungbeans – and other beans and cereals, for that matter – can be stored for as long as six months without being destroyed by this Coleopterous insect.
2. Preheated rice hull is used to incubate balot eggs.
Simulating the way the mother duck incubates its eggs old folks bury duck eggs in rice hull (ipa) heated under the sun until they become penoy (incipient embryo) or balot (full grown embryo). For commercial production the eggs are held in bundles made of simamay or fishnet), placed in large holding boxes filled with rice hull. They are harvested in batches to meet market schedules.
3. Rice hull compost is good soil conditioner for the garden.
Mix rice hull with other farm residues that are ordinarily used in making compost at varying proportions but not exceeding fifty percent of the total volume. These include animal manure and chicken droppings, dried leaves, peanut "hay" or tops, scums (lumot, Azolla and Nostoc from ponds and rice fields). Add equal amount of top soil to the final product. This is excellent medium for potted plants and for germinating seeds, bulbs, and cuttings. When buying commercial potted plants, examine the medium used; the rice hull is still partly visible.
4. Rice hull as fuel
There are stoves designed for rice hull as fuel. One has a continuous feeding system for commercial use, otherwise ipa is hand-fed for typical kitchen stoves. Rice hull has a high thermal value because it contains silica that increases temperature level. This means faster cooking. To make full use of this advantage, rice hull must first undergo thorough drying usually under the sun. It is then stored in sack for ready use. With the spiraling cost of LPG and electricity - and the dwindling supply of firewood - rice hull as fuel is the best alternative in rice-based areas.
5. Rice hull as litter of livestock and poultry
To solve muddy animal sheds and corrals, spread rice hull for time to time. This is also good for range chicken, and holding pens of animals in the market. Rice hull binds the soil and other materials such as grass and rice hay. When the litter becomes thick and old, replace it with a fresh one. The old litter is a good fertilizer for the orchard and garden. ~
* Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday
ANNEX E -
"Palay-isdaan" (Rice-Fish Culture)
An Agro-Ecology Model
Dr Abe V Rotor
Palay-isdaan is a revival of a virtually lost art and indigenous farming system and industry. Since the late fifties, the introduction of pesticides and chemical fertilizers and their rampant use decimated wildlife in ricefields. As a rule therefore, the ricefields must be free of these poisons, for palay-isdaan to succeed.
Top, clockwise: lowland ricefield during monsoon season; harvesting fish ahead of rice harvest as monsoon ends; close-up of Azolla, aquatic fern as natural source of fertilizer, fish food, and mulch in controlling weeds in the ricefield; duck raising may be integrated with rice-fish culture.
This technology is indigenous. What we call palay-isdaan is an innovation of a traditional way of raising fish and other freshwater organisms while the rice plant is growing in the field during the rainy season.
Many wildlife species are found in ricefields as their natural habitat. These are commonly freshwater fish like hito, dalag, gurami, martiniko, and lately, since the fifties, tilapia. Then we have ulang (freshwater lobsters), shrimps, kuhol, suso’, and tulya. Strong rains release these organisms from their aestivation, usually in carabao wallows, ponds, and river basins – or in mud where they were ensconced during summer. The ricefields become one huge lake at the peak of the rainy season, and as the water subsides, these organisms are trapped in the paddies. Farmers pick them up for food, which is indeed a good source of protein for the family. Many find it a sport hunting them, while others find ways of protecting them until they reach maturity. The latter is the basis of palay-isdaan technology, which has these features.
1. The dike (pilapil) must be strong and high enough to prevent the fish to escape. To do this, trenches are dug around the rice field like a moat, two meter wide and one-half meter deep. The soil material is used to rebuild the dike.
2. Another model is to build a wide trench, 3 to 4 meters wide and one-half meter deep, running through the center of the rice paddy. This is usually done in low-lying areas where the water stays much longer. The trench serves as a natural trap for the fish as the surrounding water subsides.
3. A third model is recommended for irrigated areas where the rice field is managed like a fishpond. Here the farmer selects the fish he wants to grow, provides them with supplemental feeds, and gives attention more than what the other two models require. A commercial model would mean converting 30 percent of the total area into trenches.
Palay-isdaan is a revival of a virtually lost art and indigenous industry. Since the late fifties, the introduction of pesticides and chemical fertilizers and their rampant use decimated wildlife in ricefields. As a rule therefore, unless the ricefields are free of these poisons, palay-isdaan will never succeed.
4. Because it takes time for the fish to grow to maturity it is advisable to plant traditional varieties which mature in 110 to 130 days. But this is feasible only where the rainy season is long and water supply is readily available. Traditional varieties generally do not need chemical spraying and fertilization.
Well-managed rice-fish farms in Central Luzon and other parts of the country can yield as much as 200 kg of tilapia per hectare. At P100 per kilo, the gross value is P20,000. While this gives around 15 percent additional income, the farmer should consider a reduction in rice yield by at least 5 percent. Still palay-isdaan gives more income than rice monoculture.
Irrigated areas can have two fish crops a year, but this is not advisable because of the high cost of irrigation. Besides, it is virtually impossible to grow palagad rice (summer crop) without heavy dependence on chemical pesticides and fertilizers.~
-----------------------
Palay-isdaan is a practical and cheap source of food and nutrition for the farming family. It provides a natural sport and recreation most especially to children. Palay-isdaan is among the attractions in agro-tourism.
--------------
Acknowledgement: Internet photos
ANNEX F
Legacy of the late NFA Administrator Jesus T Tanchanco
(Administrator, National Grains Authority and National Food Authority, 1971-1986).
Dr and Mrs Abe V Rotor exchange pleasantries with former NFA administrator Jesus T Tanchanco (right) during the last homecoming of former NGA-NFA employees in 2012. It was the last meeting of our group with this great man.
1. Live in the present. Live today.
2. Forget the mistakes of yesterday. Yesterday has gone forever.
3. Stop criticizing yourself and stop criticizing others.
4. Yearn for self-improvement.
5. Hold on to your self-respect by appraising yourself honestly.
6. Learn to listen to others. It helps remove bias from your opinion.
7. If you have a goal, reach for it.
8. If you make a mistake, try again.
9. Don't be timid in conversation.
10. Exercise your imagination creatively to achieve success.
11. Do one thing at a time. Shoot for one goal at a time.
12. Believe in the Providence not for luck but blessings.
*From my old files I found this article ideal for framing, so that it can serve as a daily personal reminder. Spontaneously I thought of my boss for fifteen long years, the admirable and respectable Jesus T Tanchanco, former administrator of the National Food Authority under the regime of President Ferdinand E Marcos. During his time the Philippines became not only self-sufficient in rice and other major agricultural commodities, but a net exporter as well. The Philippines attained the status as exporter of rice in Tanchanco's time like Thailand and Vietnam today. I realize that the success of a leader - a government official - depends largely on personality which is the embodiment of the qualities of that person.
ANNEX G
As I Remember Mr. Roberto E. Fronda
Executive Director, National Food and Agriculture Council (NFAC)
Executive Director, National Food and Agriculture Council (NFAC)
Deputy Administrator, NFA (Formerly NGA)
• information dissemination and education,
• behavior change,
• social marketing,
• social mobilization,
• media advocacy,
• communication for social change, and
• participatory development communication.
Different schools of development communication have arisen in different places.
1. The "Bretton Woods school of development communication" arose with the economic strategies outlined in the Marshall Plan after WW2, and the establishment of the Bretton Woods system and of the WB and IMF in 1944. Due to his pioneering influence in the field, Everett Rogers has often been termed the "father of development communication."
----------------------------------
Originally, the paradigm involved production and planting of development in indigenous and uncivilized societies. This western approach to development communication was criticized early on, especially by Latin American researchers because it tended to locate the problem in the underdeveloped nation rather than its unequal relations with powerful economies. There was also an assumption that Western models of industrial capitalism are appropriate for all parts of the world. Many projects for development communication failed to address the real underlying problems in poor countries such as lack of access to land, agricultural credits and fair market prices.
---------------------------------------
The world bank currently defines development communication as the "integration of strategic communication in development projects" based on a clear understanding of indigenous realities. Institutions associated with the Bretton Woods school include:
PHOTO: Dr Anselmo S Cabigan served as director for Research and Extension of the National Food Authority until he retired to join the academe. Extension draws the link between and among the stakeholders of the state agency in stabilizing price and supply of basic food. Similarly development communication aims at bringing in unity and understanding among various sectors of society.
• UNESCO
• United Nations (FAO),
• the Rockefeller Foundation,
• the Department of International Development of the United Kingdom,
• the Ford Foundation.
2. Latin America
The Latin American School of Development traces its history back further than the Bretton Woods school, emerging in the 1940s with the efforts of Colombia's Radio Sutatenza and Bolivia's Radios Minera. These stations were the first to use participatory and educational rural radio approaches to empowering the marginalized. In effect, they have since served as the earliest models for participatory broadcasting efforts around the world.
3. India
The history of organized development communication in India can be traced to rural radio broadcasts in the 1940s. As is logical, the broadcasts used indigenous languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada.
PHOTO: Dr Dioscoro L Umali (1917 – 1992) served as Dean of UPLB and became the regional Director of FAO in Southeast Asia. He continued to serve as consultant of IRRI after his retirement.
Independent India's earliest organized experiments in development communication started with Community Development projects initiated by the union government in 1950's. Radio played an equally important role in reaching messages to the masses. Universities and other educational institutions - especially the agricultural universities, through their extension networks - and international organizations under the UN umbrella carried the dev-comm experiments further.
4. Africa
The African school of development communication sprang from the continent's post-colonial and communist movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Development communication in Anglophone Africa saw the use of Radio and theatre for community education, adult literacy, health and agricultural education.
5. University of the Philippines at Los Baños
The systematic study and practice of Development Communication in the Philippines began in the 1970s with the pioneering work of Nora C Quebral who, in 1972 became the first to come up with the term "Development Communication." In at least some circles within the field, it is Quebral who is recognized as the "Mother" of Development Communication.
Aspects of development communication which the CDC has extensively explored include Development Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Development Journalism, Educational Communication, Science Communication, Strategic Communication, and Health Communication.
Mother of DevCom in the Philippines. She helped in launching DC as an academic discipline and she has taught many renown development communication professionals. Her academic base since the 1960′s has been the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). She coined the term “development communication”, which she defined as: “the art and science of human communication linked to a society’s planned transformation from a state of poverty to one of dynamic socio-economic growth that makes for greater equity and the larger unfolding of individual potential.”
6. Cybernetics approach
Another area of exploration for the CDC at UPLB is the aspect of development communication relating to the information sciences, the decision sciences, and the field of knowledge management. In 1993, as part of the then Institute of Development Communication’s Faculty papers series, Alexander Flor wrote a paper on environmental communication that, among other things, proposed a definition of Development Communication expanded from the perspective of cybernetics and general systems theory:
If information counters entropy and societal breakdown is a type of entropy, then there must be a specific type of information that counters societal entropy. The exchange of such information – be it at the individual, group, or societal level – is called development communication.
7. The Participatory Development Communication school
Focusing the involvement of the community in development efforts, the evolution of the Participatory Development Communication School involved collaboration between First World and Third World development communication organizations.
References
1.Quebral, Nora C. (1973/72). "What Do We Mean by ‘Development Communication’". International Development Review 15 (2): 25–28.
2. Quebral, Nora (23 November 2001). "Development Communication in a Borderless World". Paper presented at the national conference-workshop on the undergraduate development communication curriculum, "New Dimensions, Bold Decisions". Continuing Education Center, UP Los Baños: Department of Science Communication, College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los Baños. pp. 15–28.
3.Manyoso. Linje (March 2006). "Manifesto for Development Communication: Nora C. Quebral and the Los Baños School of Development Communication". Asian Journal of Communication 16 (1): 79–99. doi:10.1080/01292980500467632
4.Avrind Singhal, Everett M. Rogers (1999). Entertainment-education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805833501.
5.Flor, Alexander (1993) (Monograph). Upstream and Downstream Interventions in Environmental Communication. Institute of Development Communication.
6.Thussu, Daya Kishan 2000). International Communication: Continuity and Change. London: Arnold.
Bahay Kubo (My Nipa Hut) is one of the most loved traditional songs. All kids in my generation learned it by heart in the elementary. Not so many kids today are familiar with it. It is good to rediscover the beauty and lesson of the song.
Bahay kubo, hahit munti, ang halaman doon ay sari-sari. Singkamas at talong, sigidillas at mani, sitao, batao, patani. Kondol, patola, upo, kalabasa, at sa ka mayroon pa, labanos, mustasa. Sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya, at ang paligidligid ay linga.
“The effective executive is one who has sense enough to pick good men to do the job and self-restraint to keep from meddling while they do it.”- Catoy Fronda
Masagana 99 was an agricultural program of then Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to increase rice production among Filipino farmers. The program, launched in 1973 at a time the country was experiencing a rice supply shortage, led the Philippines to attain self-sufficiency in 1975–1976, and export rice to its neighboring Asian countries in 1977–1978.
By Dr Abe V Rotor
To write about the life of a fallen great man when he dies is like painting a huge wall, not knowing where to start and combine colors. Knowing Roberto “Catoy” Fronda the man and working with him in public office in a span of five years was more than a decade experience and a lasting memory.
Today as I go over his pictures I am pretty sure everyone who knew him can tell what he was truly like, whether he was at work or at leisure. There is always that aura of serenity and gentleness in him. In meetings and discussions he had that characteristic of being relaxed. He could as almost instantly make people laugh as stimulate them into brain storming.
So sorely missed are his wits or his manner of “puffing problems out” with a style pipe – even his unique way of carrying conversations that may last for hours with always something new to learn. Someone related familiar Fronda stories. Another imitated his sideburn and moustache and sparse beard, and almost sounded like him. Friends quipped, “That’s Catoy.” But he was original and it will take a long search to find one like him again, if ever.
What made him an effective executive? And relevant to the conditions on the countryside? And loved by all – mayors, teachers, farmers, businessmen and members of the cultural minority, not to mention government officials who held him in high esteem?
For one thing, he inspired devotion in people near and around him. He had tireless energy and total dedication to his task. He had a keen, analytical mind and could immediately separate the grains from the chaff, so to speak. He had the knack of putting people at ease even in tense moments and inspired them to open up and give their views and opinions. Coupled with this was his patience in listening. He had a terrific sense of humor and often used this to show that an opinion or suggestion was not on target. He was as frank as he was honest.
The late Deputy was a scholar in his own right.
Fronda finished agricultural engineering at the UP at Los Baños where he was born and brought up with three sisters and a brother. His father, the dean of poultry industry in the Philippines today is formerly an animal science professor at Los Baños. Catoy’s love for agriculture and nature is traceable to his childhood environment.
He spent many years as teacher – first s instructor in an agricultural school, then with the Irrigation Unit extension program as field engineer, and finally, as action man of the Rice and Corn Production Coordinating Council (RCPCC), precursor of NFAC. To the end of his life he was still teaching, and his classroom was as big as the countryside. His subjects: food and agriculture. His students: Technicians and farmers. Later in the last two years, he joined the First Lady’s Project Compassion to work out on an integrated approach to rural development, combining four major subjects: green revolution, nutrition, family planning and environmental sanitation, into a practical curriculum. Indeed, he was a great teacher.
At NFAC he held responsible positions such as COPE for Agriculture, a Malacañang designation as coordinating officer for program execution in agricultural development alongside with the concept of PROD and MOVER programs of the president. At the same time he was chairman of the executive management board of the committee on National Irrigation Integration (CNI), and also the chairman of the executive council of the National Minorities Assistance Council (NAMAC). Shortly after his death a posthumous award was conferred on him by PANAMIN for “outstanding achievement in the development of cultural minorities.”
He held an enduring love for the minorities that he could be found in settlement areas as often as in pilot farms where the package of technology with the discovery of miracle varieties were tried in full scale.
At other times he would be found sitting down with the steering committee on food production. He was member in the UN Development Program or the ASEAN permanent committee on food production. He was member in no less than a dozen local and foreign organizations involved in food production.
He travelled extensively and most of his trips abroad were made in the last five years of his life, making him one of the most traveled government executives at one time. For three occasions he visited Taiwan on the latter’s invitation, toured the whole Southeast Asia, and crossed the breadth of the whole American continent, reaching as far as Mexico and Columbia. There he studied agricultural programs and represented the Philippines in conferences. The single most important occasion he attended was the symposium on agricultural institutions for integrated rural development in Rome under FAO in 1971. For him he considered that such integration taken in began to be realized when Seoul adopted a seed dispersal program patterned after his concept. For this he received a distinction award from the South Korean government.
Shortly after the proclamation of 1081 he was called upon to help organize the new cereal agency, the NGA. It was a recognition of his being one of the most knowledgeable officials on agriculture, particularly on grains production. Among his records, he spearheaded the rehabilitation program in the great Central Luzon flood in 1972, brining back the productivity of the area through an unprecedented crash program of agricultural rehabilitation. The concept of inter-agency cooperation in the NFAC was carried on under his directorship at NFAC during the dark years immediately following the new social order, a job which needed much courage and endurance. Earlier he was one of the architects of introducing technology into the farm with the discovery of miracle varieties, this to become the founding principle of Masagana 99. But his greatest achievement was his influence on public service discipline and dedication among government works in the field.
For three years as deputy administrator of NGA he provided much of the technical aspects of administration, and, like in NFAC, his expertise was highly recognized. In 1975 he joined the First Lady’s Project Compassion while holding on to his position with NGA, two key position he hung on until the day he died.
He was endowed with a remarkable persuasive power during tight situations. In Isabela for example, millers were reluctant to enter into the quedan. He related a story about two shipwreck survivors who wanted to “eat each other.” It was like switching on light that the millers roared into laugher and later pledged to participate in the Quedan program.
“With the personality of this man,” a miller commented, his humor and wit, expert knowledge, patience and persistence, there hardly are problems in agriculture he cannot thresh out or lead to a solution.”
“He did more thinking than the rest of us,” recalls a bureau director who worked with him for years,” and he was full of jokes and laughter.”
I discovered a souvenir album of selected phases which he must have treasured in the course of his government career. Among these are philosophies of life reflective of his own. Here are some examples:
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” “If you begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties.”
On decision making, he had these to say. ”He who is a good judge of men corrects what he hears by what he sees; he who is not a good judge of men corrects what he sees by what he hears.”
“The effective executive is one who has sense enough to pick good men to do the job and self-restraint to keep from meddling while they do it.”
“Never make a decision in anger or out of anger.”
In the last pages of the album, like the last years of his life, his thoughts turned to spiritual retreat.
“Man is a gregarious animal and much more in his mind than in his body. He may like to go alone for a walk, but he hates to stand alone in his opinions.”
“The crumbling of one’s on little world is no reason to let life pass you by. One doesn’t recover from hurt by building a wall around oneself.”
And on the inside back page of the album was his favorite photograph wearing a warm smile and a good stride with this line written: Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”
Whether these phrases were his own composition or selected from his reading, makes little difference for the man whose life style and thinking were influenced by these philosophies.
To the last minute of his life his mind was alert and strong as ever, his zeal for work undiminished. He still talked of rice and project compassion in between pits of pain. And while resigned to his fate, he never resigned from his task.
The last time I visited him was on his last birth. He was already abed and in pain. I learned that he had received the last sacrament and that he had outlived his condition for nearly three months. He was in usual good mood and wits, and we talked casually. Physically he had significantly declined. But there was a glow in his face that showed a spirit strong as steel and a determination to live. I remember him that the resources of the spirit are like savings: they must be accumulated before they are needed. He had a vast accumulation of such resources.
As I bid goodbye, he said:
“I’m glad you came. Please tell our people that I love them all.” He smiled and our hands clasped for the last time. Three days later, he died.
His last trip through the modern metropolis to his resting place at Loyola in Marikina was as brief as his service to his fellowmen was long.
The grass was green and sparkling after an early afternoon shower. The sun was bright on our faces as we laid him to eternal rest. Grief was on every face but heads were held high like t he spirit of the man. Beyond lay the paddies where golden panicles bowed in plenty and respect. ~
**Published in the GRAINS Magazine of the National Food Authority, then National Grains Authority, in 1978
ANNEX H
In Defense of NFA
Remembering Senator Butz Aquino
Dr Abe V Rotor
Consultant (1989-1993), Committee on Food and Agriculture
Senator Butz Aquino, chairman
Senate of the Philippines
Dr Rotor served as consultant of the Senate's Committee on Food and Agriculture with the late Senator Butz Aquino as chairman (1989-1993). The committee stood vigorous against the abolition and privatization of NFA.
Outstanding accomplishments as senator may be gleamed from the bills he sponsored and co-sponsored, namely:
- Cooperative Law of the Philippines
- Magna Carta for Filipino Farmers
- Seed Industry Law of the Philippines
- Law Banning Muro-ami Fishing
- Law Establishing Carabao Research and Training Centers (Co-sponsor with then Senator Erap Estrada)
Travels with Senator Butz
- Nagpandayan, Nueva Ecija (Cooperative)
- Tagudin, Ilocos Sur (Cooperative)
- Santiago, Isabela (Farmers Forum)
- Samboan, Cebu (Ban on Muro-ami fishing)
- Vigan, Ilocos Sur (Guest speaker)
- Concepcion, Tarlac (Butz hometown)
- Tel-Aviv, Israel (AVR, sponsored by the Senate Committee)
Anecdotes
- Helping a helpless motorist in wee hours
- Butz's double in a town's restaurant
- Endless requests into the night
- Defending the NFA in Senate debates
- Visit to Israel
- Representing Butz in a farmers' forum in Cotabato City
- 13 in a Helicopter at night (Siquijor to Cebu)
- Twice forced landing on a helicopter at Santa Fe Pass in Nueva Vizcaya
- Kamaro (fried mole cricket), anyone?
- Butz and Young Marlo (author's son) on a ranch in Batangas
- Driving at racetrack speed to Tagudin, Ilocos Sur
- Briefing over breakfast at his residence for the day's session
- Outdoor dinner. Getting rid of flies and midges. ~
In Defence of NFA
The National Food Authority was created through Presidential Decree No. 4 dated September 26, 1972, under the name National Grains Authority (NGA) with the mission of promoting the integrated growth and development of the grains industry covering rice, corn, feed grains and other grains like sorghum, including wheat which we had substantive success on the farm level.
Agapito "Butz" Aquino Aquino (May 20, 1939 – August 17, 2015) was a Senator of the Philippines from 1987 to 1995, congressman from Makati and a part-time film and television actor. He was born to former senator Benigno S. Aquino Sr. and Aurora Aquino-Aquino. He was the brother of former senators Benigno S. Aquino Jr. and Tessie Aquino-Oreta, the uncle of President Benigno S. Aquino III as well as Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV.
ANNEX I
Social Media and DevCom
Development Communication - Catalyst of Socio-Economic Change
Dr Abe V Rotor
What is Development Communication?
Development Communication is recognizing the power of communication as a catalyst for social development. it is also the utilization of existent communication tools and applicable theories for result-driven strategies for the advancement of society.
University of the Philippines at Los Baños: seat of the country's agricultural research and training.
The term "Development Communication" was first coined in 1972 by Nora C. Quebral, who defines the field as "the art and science of human communication linked to a society's planned transformation from a state of poverty to one of dynamic socio-economic growth that makes for greater equity and the larger unfolding of individual potential."
Original building which housed UPLB's Farm and Home Development program. Author was among the pioneers of this special graduate course in 1962-1963 under the leadership of then Dioscorro Umali, Thomas Flores, Leo de Guzman, Roger Cuyno, Perla Tagumpay, Nora Quebral, Diosdado Castro, et al.
Some approaches include:
Development Communication is recognizing the power of communication as a catalyst for social development. it is also the utilization of existent communication tools and applicable theories for result-driven strategies for the advancement of society.
University of the Philippines at Los Baños: seat of the country's agricultural research and training.
- Development Communication is a type of marketing and public opinion research that is used specifically to develop effective communication or as the use of communication to promote social development.
- Purposive communication intended for a specific target audience that allows for the translation of information into action resulting in a higher quality of life.
- The improvement of a community using information and technology and the community's ability to maintain the created ideal state without compromising its environment and resources.
- It is the voluntary involvement of a group of people in a development activity with full knowledge of its purpose that will allow them to grow individually and as a community.
- The process of eliciting positive change (social, political, economic, moral, environmental, etc) through an effective exchange of pertinent information in order to induce people to action.
- Development communication extends to include: information dissemination on developmental schemes/projects, communication for eliciting positive change, interactivity, feedback on developmental issues, feedback/reverse communication for eliciting change. On development side, sustainability issues need to be given proper importance vis-a-vis economic development.
- The practice of systematically applying the processes, strategies, and principles of communication to bring about positive social change.
The term "Development Communication" was first coined in 1972 by Nora C. Quebral, who defines the field as "the art and science of human communication linked to a society's planned transformation from a state of poverty to one of dynamic socio-economic growth that makes for greater equity and the larger unfolding of individual potential."Original building which housed UPLB's Farm and Home Development program. Author was among the pioneers of this special graduate course in 1962-1963 under the leadership of then Dioscorro Umali, Thomas Flores, Leo de Guzman, Roger Cuyno, Perla Tagumpay, Nora Quebral, Diosdado Castro, et al.
Some approaches include:
• information dissemination and education,
• behavior change,
• social marketing,
• social mobilization,
• media advocacy,
• communication for social change, and
• participatory development communication.
Different schools of development communication have arisen in different places.
1. The "Bretton Woods school of development communication" arose with the economic strategies outlined in the Marshall Plan after WW2, and the establishment of the Bretton Woods system and of the WB and IMF in 1944. Due to his pioneering influence in the field, Everett Rogers has often been termed the "father of development communication."
----------------------------------
Originally, the paradigm involved production and planting of development in indigenous and uncivilized societies. This western approach to development communication was criticized early on, especially by Latin American researchers because it tended to locate the problem in the underdeveloped nation rather than its unequal relations with powerful economies. There was also an assumption that Western models of industrial capitalism are appropriate for all parts of the world. Many projects for development communication failed to address the real underlying problems in poor countries such as lack of access to land, agricultural credits and fair market prices.
---------------------------------------The world bank currently defines development communication as the "integration of strategic communication in development projects" based on a clear understanding of indigenous realities. Institutions associated with the Bretton Woods school include:
PHOTO: Dr Anselmo S Cabigan served as director for Research and Extension of the National Food Authority until he retired to join the academe. Extension draws the link between and among the stakeholders of the state agency in stabilizing price and supply of basic food. Similarly development communication aims at bringing in unity and understanding among various sectors of society.
• UNESCO
• United Nations (FAO),
• the Rockefeller Foundation,
• the Department of International Development of the United Kingdom,
• the Ford Foundation.
The Latin American School of Development traces its history back further than the Bretton Woods school, emerging in the 1940s with the efforts of Colombia's Radio Sutatenza and Bolivia's Radios Minera. These stations were the first to use participatory and educational rural radio approaches to empowering the marginalized. In effect, they have since served as the earliest models for participatory broadcasting efforts around the world.
3. India
The history of organized development communication in India can be traced to rural radio broadcasts in the 1940s. As is logical, the broadcasts used indigenous languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada.
PHOTO: Dr Dioscoro L Umali (1917 – 1992) served as Dean of UPLB and became the regional Director of FAO in Southeast Asia. He continued to serve as consultant of IRRI after his retirement.
Independent India's earliest organized experiments in development communication started with Community Development projects initiated by the union government in 1950's. Radio played an equally important role in reaching messages to the masses. Universities and other educational institutions - especially the agricultural universities, through their extension networks - and international organizations under the UN umbrella carried the dev-comm experiments further.
4. Africa
The African school of development communication sprang from the continent's post-colonial and communist movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Development communication in Anglophone Africa saw the use of Radio and theatre for community education, adult literacy, health and agricultural education.
5. University of the Philippines at Los Baños
The systematic study and practice of Development Communication in the Philippines began in the 1970s with the pioneering work of Nora C Quebral who, in 1972 became the first to come up with the term "Development Communication." In at least some circles within the field, it is Quebral who is recognized as the "Mother" of Development Communication.
Aspects of development communication which the CDC has extensively explored include Development Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Development Journalism, Educational Communication, Science Communication, Strategic Communication, and Health Communication.
6. Cybernetics approach
Another area of exploration for the CDC at UPLB is the aspect of development communication relating to the information sciences, the decision sciences, and the field of knowledge management. In 1993, as part of the then Institute of Development Communication’s Faculty papers series, Alexander Flor wrote a paper on environmental communication that, among other things, proposed a definition of Development Communication expanded from the perspective of cybernetics and general systems theory:
If information counters entropy and societal breakdown is a type of entropy, then there must be a specific type of information that counters societal entropy. The exchange of such information – be it at the individual, group, or societal level – is called development communication.
7. The Participatory Development Communication school
Focusing the involvement of the community in development efforts, the evolution of the Participatory Development Communication School involved collaboration between First World and Third World development communication organizations.
References
1.Quebral, Nora C. (1973/72). "What Do We Mean by ‘Development Communication’". International Development Review 15 (2): 25–28.
2. Quebral, Nora (23 November 2001). "Development Communication in a Borderless World". Paper presented at the national conference-workshop on the undergraduate development communication curriculum, "New Dimensions, Bold Decisions". Continuing Education Center, UP Los Baños: Department of Science Communication, College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los Baños. pp. 15–28.
3.Manyoso. Linje (March 2006). "Manifesto for Development Communication: Nora C. Quebral and the Los Baños School of Development Communication". Asian Journal of Communication 16 (1): 79–99. doi:10.1080/01292980500467632
4.Avrind Singhal, Everett M. Rogers (1999). Entertainment-education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805833501.
5.Flor, Alexander (1993) (Monograph). Upstream and Downstream Interventions in Environmental Communication. Institute of Development Communication.
6.Thussu, Daya Kishan 2000). International Communication: Continuity and Change. London: Arnold.
NOTE: Dr Abe V Rotor studied at UPLB under the Farm and Home Development program, a post graduate course sponsored by the UP-Ford Foundation scholarship in 1962-63. With thanks and gratitude to his mentors, the late Dr Dioscorro Umali, Dr Thomas Flores, Mr. Diosdado Castro, Dr. Roger Cuyno, Dr Nora Quebral, Prof Perla Tagumpay, Prof Leo de Guzman, other instructors, program coordinators, and to his colleagues, (Batch 1963).
ANNEX J
Relevance of Bahay Kubo Philosophy Today
Bahay Kubo is an enduring symbol of food self-sufficiency, indigenous biodiversity, simplicity and quaintness of living and natural beauty.
Dr Abe V Rotor
An old painting of Bahay Kubo, circa 1970
Bahay Kubo (My Nipa Hut) is one of the most loved traditional songs. All kids in my generation learned it by heart in the elementary. Not so many kids today are familiar with it. It is good to rediscover the beauty and lesson of the song.
Bahay kubo, hahit munti, ang halaman doon ay sari-sari. Singkamas at talong, sigidillas at mani, sitao, batao, patani. Kondol, patola, upo, kalabasa, at sa ka mayroon pa, labanos, mustasa. Sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya, at ang paligidligid ay linga.
Different versions of the Bahay Kubo
These are main features of the song.
- There are eighteen (18) plants, which are indigenous, mostly native varieties. (biodiversity)
- Many of the plants have medicinal values and are effective home remedies for common ailments (luya, sibuyas, bawang).
- The four kinds of vegetables are represented: leafy (mustasa), fruit (kamatis, talong, kalabasa), root (labanos, singkamas), seed (linga, patani, mani).
- Spices and condiments are included in the list (linga, luya, bawang)
- The plants have different planting and harvesting schedules, thus enhancing whole year round supply of vegetables, and the use of resources and family labor.
- The plants have different growing types or habits which means they occupy specific places and have space allocations. (viny, herb, bush).
- Nutrition-wise they provide the basic requirements for growing up and good health.
- The ambiance projected by the scene is green, tranquil, clean, shady and cool (environment-friendly).
- The garden exudes a feeling of self-sufficiency and offers a potential for livelihood.
- Simplicity is the key to a contented life (with least energy consumption, and amenities).
- Such a scene expands the imagination to include a backyard fishpond, chicken coop, orchard trees and ornamental plants, among others – all of these contribute to the enrichment of the Bahay Kubo, without modifying its basic concept and structure.
ANNEX K
Farm-to-Market Economics
Talipapa - People's Market
Dr Abe V Rotor
Biking through, like drive in buying.
Market's birthplace,
the primordial concept of commerce,
beginning of exchange of goods by barter,
where barter evolved into trade;
flea market, local version, unique,
beautiful, distinctly Filipino;
a place for thrifty spending,
classless marketing;
it's people's economics,
family enterprise,
where business is unlimited -
outlet of farm surplus
so with home made crafts;
where transaction is by bargaining,
the suki system as an institution;
it's the "nerve center" of daily activities,
growth center of social and economic life
on the grassroots,
fallback of the economy in crisis,
where the ordinary vendor,
like the unknown soldier
is an unsung hero. ~
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Talipapa in Mexico
Talipapa in the days of the Galleon Trade
Talipapa, a tourist attraction in Boracay
Freshness and accessibility are features of talipapa
"Stretching the peso" is another talipapa's feature.
Talipapa, makeshift market or "flea" market
Talipapa-on-wheels
Talipapa - starting point of entrepreneurship,
and recommended research topic in school ~
ANNEX L
People’s Green Revolution 2
Agribusiness and Biotechnology on the Village Level
Dr Abe V Rotor
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Nature works silently through her invisible biological agents. We wake up to the fresh aroma of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, the cured taste of dried tapa, tinapa, ham and bacon – all these are products of a mysterious process we generally call fermentation. Aged wine is mellower, cured tobacco is more aromatic, naturally ripened fruits are sweeter, dried prunes, raisin and dates have higher sugar content and have longer shelf life. Why many foods taste better after allowing them to stand for sometime! Take suman, tupig, puto, bibingka, and the like. Thanks to the myriads of microorganisms working in our favor even while we are asleep.
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The vast potential uses of microorganisms - bacteria, algae, fungi and the like - in providing food, medicine and better environment to supply the requirements of our fast growing population and standard of living are being tapped by biotechnology. Biotechnology hand in hand with genetic engineering will likely dominate the Green Revolution of this century – the fourth since Neolithic time. But will this be a Green Revolution for the people?
Biotechnology is not new
My father, a gentleman farmer, was a brewer. He inherited the trade from my grandfather and from previous generations. I still use today the good earthen jars in producing the same products – basi, the traditional Ilocos wine, and its by-product, natural vinegar - using the same indigenous formula.
The making of basi and vinegar, as well as a dozen other products of sugarcane, like panocha, pulitiput, kalamay, sinambong, and kinalti, is a traditional cottage industry in the Ilocos region which is traced back to the Pre-Hispanic era when hundreds of small independent brewers like my father lived comfortably on this once flourishing industry.
Things appeared simple then. But time has changed. We know that sugarcane has long been planted with rice, legumes and vegetables, but it sounds like new in modern parlance with terms like crop rotation or crop diversification. Making of wine, vinegar and confectionery products are under agro-industry. Because the process generates profit, we call this value-added advantage. So with the tax that is now slap manufactured products. To determine the business viability of a business we determine its internal rate of return (IIR) and its return on investment (ROI). Brewing today is agro-processing and an agribusiness. And my father would be called not just a proprietor or entrepreneur - but as a business partner since family members and relatives share in the operation of the business. Possibly his title today would be general manager or CEO.
Things in my father’s time have become outdated, shifting away from traditional to modern. But it is not only a matter of terminology; it is change in business structure and system.
Big business is name of the game
Like many other village industries, the local breweries bowed out to companies that now control the production of commercial and imported brands. The proliferation of many products and the inability of local products to keep up with the growing sophisticated market have further brought their doom. Definitely under such circumstances the small players under the business parameter of economics of scale find themselves at the losing end. Bigness is name of the game.
Monopolies and cartels now control much of the economy here and in other countries. Transnational companies have grown into giants, that one big company far outweighs the economy of a small country. Today agribusiness and biotechnology are corporate terms that are difficult to translate on the village level and by small entrepreneurs.
All these fit well into the present capitalistic system that is greatly under the influence of IMF-WB on borrower-countries, and terms of trade agreements imposed by GATT-WTO on its members, many of which reluctantly signed the its ratification. Under the capitalistic system there has been a shift of countryside industries into the hands of corporations, national and transnational. Take these examples.
Coffee is raised by millions of small farmers all over the world, but it is monopolized by such giant companies like Nestle and Consolidated Foods. Cacao is likewise a small farmer’s crop, but controlled by similar multinationals. So with tea, the world’s second most popular beverage.
Unfortunately this inequity in the sharing of the benefits of these industries is exacerbated by the absence of a strong and effective mass-based program that emphasizes countryside development through livelihood and employment opportunities. Multi-national monopolies thrive on such business climate and biased laws and program in their favor.
We import rice, corn, sugar, fruits, meat and poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables in both fresh and processed products, when in the sixties and seventies we were exporters of the same products. We were then second or third in ranking after Japan in terms of economic development.
“Small business is beautiful”
Monopolies and cartels now control much of the economy here and in other countries. Transnational companies have grown into giants, that one big company far outweighs the economy of a small country. Today agribusiness and biotechnology are corporate terms that are difficult to translate on the village level and by small entrepreneurs.
All these fit well into the present capitalistic system that is greatly under the influence of IMF-WB on borrower-countries, and terms of trade agreements imposed by GATT-WTO on its members, many of which reluctantly signed the its ratification. Under the capitalistic system there has been a shift of countryside industries into the hands of corporations, national and transnational. Take these examples.
Coffee is raised by millions of small farmers all over the world, but it is monopolized by such giant companies like Nestle and Consolidated Foods. Cacao is likewise a small farmer’s crop, but controlled by similar multinationals. So with tea, the world’s second most popular beverage.
Unfortunately this inequity in the sharing of the benefits of these industries is exacerbated by the absence of a strong and effective mass-based program that emphasizes countryside development through livelihood and employment opportunities. Multi-national monopolies thrive on such business climate and biased laws and program in their favor.
We import rice, corn, sugar, fruits, meat and poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables in both fresh and processed products, when in the sixties and seventies we were exporters of the same products. We were then second or third in ranking after Japan in terms of economic development.
“Small business is beautiful”
There must be something wrong somewhere. But while we diagnose our country’s ills, we should make references to our own successes, and even come to a point of looking on models within our reach and capability to emulate. There are “unsung heroes” in practically all fields from business, agriculture, manufacturing to folk medicine and leadership. Perhaps for us who belong to the older generation, it is good to feel whenever we recall old times when life was better – and better lived. For which, on the other side of the coin, we pose the present challenge to the youth.Basi for export, tourists, and weddings
Let me cite particular areas of biotechnology in which small entrepreneurs play a vital role and which they have proven themselves successful in one way or the other.
The first group involves the production of alcoholic drinks and vinegar through fermentation.
These products are
§ Basi (sugarcane)
§ Lambanog (coconut)
§ Tuba (coconut)
§ Layaw (nipa)
§ Bahalina (coconut and tangal)
§ Fruit wine (kasoy, bignay, pineapple, etc.)
§ Vinegar (nipa, sugarcane, coconut, various fruits)
With readily available raw materials and simple tools used, brewing is a practical industry. More so, with the simplicity of fermentation itself which is the conversion of sugar into ethanol through fermentation with yeast. The brewed product is either consumed immediately or aged. Aging improves quality and lengthens the shelf life of the product. These home breweries are reminiscent of European vintages. It is said that the best wine in the world is not found in public bars and wine shops, but in private home cellars of Europe. It is true.
There, wine making is an art, and a personalized enterprise, with each cellar having a distinctive quality trademark. Bordeaux in France for example, is famous for brand, while the Scotch Whiskey remains a top grade liquor made from grains. Similarly we have Basi in Ilocos amd lambanog in Southern Tagalog, Bahalina in Eastern Visayas and Mindanao, Tapoy in the Cordilleras, which is Kampai in Japan. So with Apple cider compared to our own Sukang Iloko, or Sukang Paombong.
The second group of village biotechnology products are beverages, food condiments, tobacco and betel for chewing. § Kapeng barako (Batangas and Cavite)
§ Cacao (Batangas, Mindanao)
§ Vanilla (Mindanao)
§ Tsaa (Batangas)
§ Fruit puree (mango, guyabano, etc., Southern Tagalog, Mindanao)
§ Bagoong and patis (Navotas, Balayan, Dagupan)
§ Kesong Puti (Laguna)
§ Betel or Nganga (Cordillera, Laguna, Ilocos)
§ Ketsup (banana, tomato)
§ Rolled tobacco (Cagayan Valley, Ilocos)
Like in the first group, these products are area-specific which point out to their indigenous production and processing, so with their patronage. Rolled tobacco or pinadis, for example, has a special market for old people who are used to the product – and not to the younger generation. This is also true with betel or nganga.
On the other hand, bagoong and patis, which used to be a specialty among Ilocanos, are now marketed abroad. So with kapeng barako a local coffee which is mainly grown in the highlands of Batangas and Tagaytay. Fruit puree and fruit preserve, though relatively new, are amazingly growing fast, as people are shunning away from carbonated drinks. Because of high demand, these products became a boom to small growers, who recently are becoming mere conduits or raw products suppliers of big companies, instead of making and marketing the finished products themselves. Tea, coffee, fruit juice and chocolate, in this order, make up the world’s top beverages, thus pointing out the vast opportunities of biotechnology.
The third and largest group of village biotechnology products is in food. § Puto and Kutsinta or rice cake, very popular among Filipinos
§ Bibingka (rice)
§ Maja (corn grit)
§ Burong manggang paho, mustasa
§ Burong Isda (dalag and rice)
§ Hamon (manok, baboy, pato)
§ Tocino, longganisa
§ Itlog na pula and century egg
§ Balot and Penoy
§ Tokwa (bean curd)
§ Taosi (fermented black bean)
§ Talangka Paste
§ Pickles (papaya, carrot, ampalaya, onion, cucumber, etc.)
§ Itlog na pula and century egg
§ Balot and Penoy
§ Tokwa (bean curd)
§ Taosi (fermented black bean)
§ Talangka Paste
§ Pickles (papaya, carrot, ampalaya, onion, cucumber, etc.)
Left, tinobong (rice cake in bamboo), longganisa, red egg, kapeng barako, sinangag rice
§ Toge (mungo sprout)
§ Cakes (banana, cassava)
§ Ripening of fruits (madre de cacao)
Food processing constitutes the bulk of village biotechnology in developing countries, on both domestic and commercial scales. Like in the other groups, these undertakings are seldom organized as formal establishments, but rather fall under the category of informal economics.
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“The biggest piracy that is taking place today is not at sea and on the rich. It is stealing people’s resources – from herbal medicine to indigenous technology – stolen by rich countries and big corporations. Biopiracy and technopiracy constitute the greatest violation to human rights and social justice in that the people are not only deprived of their means of livelihood; they are forced to become dependent on those who robbed them.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Informal or “underground” economy is the lifeblood of rural communities. They are the seat of tradition, rituals, barter and other informal transactions. They link the farm and the kitchen and the local market. They are versions of agro-processing and agribusiness on the scale of proprietorship and family business. They strengthen family and community ties.
Development Models on the Grassroots
It is for this reason that the NACIDA – National Cottage Industry Development Authority – was organized. And truly, it brought economic prosperity to thousands of entrepreneurs and families in the fifties to sixties. This concern for the common tao made Ramon Magsaysay the most loved president of the Philippines.
South Korea for one in the late sixties, saw our PRRM and NACIDA models and improved on them with their SAEMAUL UNDONG development program which ultimately brought tremendous progress in its war-torn countryside.
In Tanzania, one can glimpse similarities of our program with LAEDZA BATANI (Wake up, it’s time to get moving), a rural development program. The Philippines stood as an international model, recognized by the WB and ADB, for our countryside development – cottage industries, farmers’ associations, electric cooperatives, rice and corn production program, which made us agriculturally self-sufficient and net exporter of rice.
We developed biotechnology in farm waste utilization through composting with the use of Trichoderma inoculation, and in natural rice farming by growing Azolla in lieu of urea and ammonium nitrate. Another area of biotechnology is in the retting of maguey fiber, which is a work of decomposing bacteria. These and many other people-based approaches to development projected the image of then President Ferdinand Marcos among greatest nation builders like Mao Tse Tung, Chiang Kai Shek, Park Chung Hee, Dr Mahathir, Sukarno, Lee Kuan Yu, among others in the Western hemisphere - leaders who brought their respective countries out of the Thir World syndrome. There is but one abnd common denominator of progress in these countries, and that is development at the grassroots, or the so-called bottom-up development.
Rhizobium (photo) resides inside these nodules attached to the roots of leguminous plants. This bacterium fixes inert N2 gas into soluble NO3 or nitrate which is then absorbed and used by plants.
Today there are many opportunities of biotechnology that can be tapped and packaged for small and medium size businesses and organized groups of entrepreneurs and farmers. These opportunities also pose a big challenge to the academe and to enterprising researchers in government and private institutions.
• Spirulina (blue-green alga or Eubacterium) - high protein, elixir.
• Chlorella (green alga) – vegetable, oxygen generator
• Pleurotus and Volvariella (fungi, mushroom) – anti-cancer food.
• Azolla-Anabaena (eubacterium with fern)– natural fertilizer
• Porphyra, red seaweed, high-value food (“food of the gods”)
• Hormophysa (brown alga) – antibiotics
• Eucheuma (red alga) – source of carageenan, food conditioner
• Gracillaria (brown alga) – source of agar, alginate
• Sargassum (brown alga) – fertilizer and fodder
• Saccharomyces (fungus, yeast) – fermentation
• Aspergillus (fungus) – medicine, fermentation
• Penicillium (fungus) – antibiotics
• Spirulina (blue-green alga or Eubacterium) - high protein, elixir.
• Chlorella (green alga) – vegetable, oxygen generator
• Pleurotus and Volvariella (fungi, mushroom) – anti-cancer food.
• Azolla-Anabaena (eubacterium with fern)– natural fertilizer
• Porphyra, red seaweed, high-value food (“food of the gods”)
• Hormophysa (brown alga) – antibiotics
• Eucheuma (red alga) – source of carageenan, food conditioner
• Gracillaria (brown alga) – source of agar, alginate
• Sargassum (brown alga) – fertilizer and fodder
• Saccharomyces (fungus, yeast) – fermentation
• Aspergillus (fungus) – medicine, fermentation
• Penicillium (fungus) – antibiotics
• Caulerpa (green alga) – salad (photo)
• Leuconostoc (bacterium) – nata de coco, fermentation of vegetables
• Acetobacter (bacterium) – acetic acid manufacture
• Rhizobium (bacterium) – Nitrogen fixer for soil fertility
• Nostoc (BGA or Eubacterium) – bio-fertilizer
• Ganoderma (tree fungus) – food supplement, reducer
• Leuconostoc (bacterium) – nata de coco, fermentation of vegetables
• Acetobacter (bacterium) – acetic acid manufacture
• Rhizobium (bacterium) – Nitrogen fixer for soil fertility
• Nostoc (BGA or Eubacterium) – bio-fertilizer
• Ganoderma (tree fungus) – food supplement, reducer
Nata, newly harvested
• Halobacterium and Halococcus (bacteria)- bagoong and patis making
• Lactobacillus (bacterium) lactic fermentation, yogurt making
• Candida (yeast) – source of lysine, vitamins, lipids and inveratse
• Torulopsis (yeast) – leavening of puto and banana cake
• Trichoderma (fungus) – inoculant to accelerate composting time.
As I proceed, allow me to present a background of biotechnology in relation with the history of agriculture.
Three Green Revolutions
The First Green Revolution took place when man turned hunter to farmer, which also marked the birth of human settlement, in the Fertile Crescent, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the present war in Iraq is taking place.
The Second Green Revolution is characterized by the improvement of farming techniques and the expansion of agricultural frontiers, resulting in the conversion of millions of hectares of land into agriculture all over the world. This era lasted for some three hundred years, and marched with the advent of modern science and technology, which gave rise to Industrial Revolution. Its momentum however, was interrupted by two world wars.
Then in the second part of the last century, a Third Green Revolution was born. With the strides of science and technology, agricultural production tremendously increased. Economic prosperity followed specially among post-colonial nations - the Third World - which took the cudgels of self rule, earning respect in the international community, and gaining the status of Newly Industrialized Nations (NICs) one after another.
• Lactobacillus (bacterium) lactic fermentation, yogurt making
• Candida (yeast) – source of lysine, vitamins, lipids and inveratse
• Torulopsis (yeast) – leavening of puto and banana cake
• Trichoderma (fungus) – inoculant to accelerate composting time.
As I proceed, allow me to present a background of biotechnology in relation with the history of agriculture.
Three Green Revolutions
The First Green Revolution took place when man turned hunter to farmer, which also marked the birth of human settlement, in the Fertile Crescent, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the present war in Iraq is taking place.
The Second Green Revolution is characterized by the improvement of farming techniques and the expansion of agricultural frontiers, resulting in the conversion of millions of hectares of land into agriculture all over the world. This era lasted for some three hundred years, and marched with the advent of modern science and technology, which gave rise to Industrial Revolution. Its momentum however, was interrupted by two world wars.
Then in the second part of the last century, a Third Green Revolution was born. With the strides of science and technology, agricultural production tremendously increased. Economic prosperity followed specially among post-colonial nations - the Third World - which took the cudgels of self rule, earning respect in the international community, and gaining the status of Newly Industrialized Nations (NICs) one after another.
Cultured mushrooms: Shitake and Pleurotus Tagaytay
Towards the end of the last century, the age of biotechnology and genetic engineering arrived. Here the conventions of agriculture have been radically changed. For example, desirable traits are transferred through gene splicing so that trans-generic – even trans-kingdom – trait combination are now possible. Bt Corn, a genetically modified corn that carries the caterpillar-repelling gene of a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, exemplifies such
case. Penicillin-producing microorganisms are not only screened from among naturally existing species and strains; they are genetically engineered with super genes from other organisms known for their superior production efficiency.
Biotechnology for people and environment. The need for food and other commodities is ever increasing. Together with conventional agriculture, biotechnology will be contributing significantly to the production of food, medicine, raw materials for the industry, and in keeping a balanced ecology. This indeed will offer relief to the following scenarios:
1. World’s population increases from today’s 8 billion to 10 billion well within a few years..
2. Agricultural frontiers have virtually reached dead end.
3. Farmlands continue to shrink, giving way to settlements and industry,
while facing the onslaught of erosion and desertification
4. Pollution is getting worse in air, land and water.
5. Global warming is not only a threat; it is a real issue to deal with.
These scenarios seem to revive the Apocalyptic Malthusian theory, which haunts many poor countries - and even industrialized countries where population density is high. We are faced with the problem on how to cope up with a crisis brought about by the population-technology-environment tandem that has started showing its fangs at the close of the 20th century.
Now we talk in terms of quality life, health and longevity, adequate food supply and proper nutrition - other human development index (HDI), notwithstanding.
Towards the end of the last century, the age of biotechnology and genetic engineering arrived. Here the conventions of agriculture have been radically changed. For example, desirable traits are transferred through gene splicing so that trans-generic – even trans-kingdom – trait combination are now possible. Bt Corn, a genetically modified corn that carries the caterpillar-repelling gene of a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, exemplifies such
case. Penicillin-producing microorganisms are not only screened from among naturally existing species and strains; they are genetically engineered with super genes from other organisms known for their superior production efficiency.
Biotechnology for people and environment. The need for food and other commodities is ever increasing. Together with conventional agriculture, biotechnology will be contributing significantly to the production of food, medicine, raw materials for the industry, and in keeping a balanced ecology. This indeed will offer relief to the following scenarios:
1. World’s population increases from today’s 8 billion to 10 billion well within a few years..
2. Agricultural frontiers have virtually reached dead end.
3. Farmlands continue to shrink, giving way to settlements and industry,
while facing the onslaught of erosion and desertification
4. Pollution is getting worse in air, land and water.
5. Global warming is not only a threat; it is a real issue to deal with.
These scenarios seem to revive the Apocalyptic Malthusian theory, which haunts many poor countries - and even industrialized countries where population density is high. We are faced with the problem on how to cope up with a crisis brought about by the population-technology-environment tandem that has started showing its fangs at the close of the 20th century.
Now we talk in terms of quality life, health and longevity, adequate food supply and proper nutrition - other human development index (HDI), notwithstanding.
Cultured tainga ng daga (Auricularia). It is a giant compared to the native species growing in the wild.
As scientists open the new avenue of genetic engineering to produce genetically modified organisms (GMO) for food, medicine and industry, entrepreneurs are shaping up a different kind of Green Revolution on the old country road – the employment of veritable, beneficial microorganisms to answer the basic needs of the vast majority of the world’s population.
Green Revolution for the masses
This Green Revolution has to be addressed to the masses. The thrust in biotechnology development must have a strong social objective. This must include the integration of the mass-based enterprises with research and development (R&D). Like the defunct NACIDA, a program for today should be cottage-based, not only corporate-based. Genetic engineering should be explored not for scientific reasons or for profit motives alone, but purposely for social objectives that could spur socio-economic growth on the countryside, and the improvement the lives of millions of people.
Alternative Food
These lowly organisms will be farmed like conventional crops. In fact, today mushroom growing is among the high-tech agricultural industries, from spawn culture to canning.
Spirulina, a cyanobacterium, has been grown for food since ancient times by the Aztecs in Mexico and in early civilizations in the Middle East. Its culture is being revived on estuaries and lakes, and even in small scale, in tanks and ponds. Today the product is sold as “vegetablet.”
Seaweeds, on the other hand, are being grown extensively and involving many species, from Caulerpa to Nori. Seaweed farming has caught worldwide attention in this last two decades, not only because it offers a good source of food, but also industrial products like carageenan and agar.
Environmental Rehabilitation
In the remote case that a nuclear explosion occurs, how possible is it to produce food and other needs in the bomb shelters deep underground? Fiction as it may seem, the lowly microorganisms have an important role. For one, mushrooms do not need sunlight to grow. Take it from the mushroom-growing termites. Another potential crop is Chlorella. While it produces fresh biomass as food it is also an excellent oxygen generator, oxygen being the by-product of photosynthesis. But where will Chlorella get light? Unlike higher plants, this green alga can make use of light and heat energy from an artificial source like fluorescent lamp.
Sewage treatment with the use of algae is now common in the outskirts of big cities like New York and Tokyo. From the air the open sewer is a series of reservoirs through which the sewage is treated until the spent material is released. The sludge is converted into organic fertilizer and soil conditioner, while the water is safely released into the natural environment such as a lake or river.
Marine seaweeds are known to grow in clean water. Their culture necessitates maintenance of the marine environment. Surprisingly seaweeds help in maintaining a clean environment, since they trap particles and detritus, and increase dissolved Oxygen and reduce dissolved CO2 level in water.
Bacteria being decomposers return organic substances to nature. So with algae and fungi. Fermentation is in fact, a process of converting organic materials into inorganic forms for the use of the next generation of organisms. In the process, man makes use of the intermediate products like ethyl alcohol, acetic acid, nata de coco, lactic acid, and the like.
Speaking of sustainable agriculture, take it from Nature’s biofertilizers like Nostoc and other Eubacteria. These BGAs form green matting on rice fields. Farmers in India and China gather this biomass, and use it as natural fertilizer. Another is Rhizobium, a bacterium that fixes atmospheric Nitrogen into NO3, the form of N plants directly absorb and utilize. Its fungal counterpart, Mycorrhiza, converts Nitrogen in the same way, except that this microorganism thrives in the roots of orchard and forest trees.
Let me cite the success of growing Azolla-Anabaena on ricefields in Asian countries. This is another biofertilizer, and discriminating consumers are willing to pay premium price for rice grown without chemical fertilizer - only with organic and bio-fertilizers.
At one time a good friend, a medical doctor and gentleman farmer, Dr. P. Parra, invited me to his Azolla farm in Iloilo. What I saw was a model of natural farming, employing biotechnology in his integrated farm –
• Azolla for rice,
• Biogas from piggery,
• Rhizobia inoculation for peanuts and mungbeans,
• Trichoderma for composting.
• Food processing (fruit wine and vinegar)
His market for his natural farm products are people as far as Manila who are conscious of their health, and willing to pay the premium price for naturally grown food.
Genetic Engineering
It is true that man has succeeded in splicing the DNA, in like manner that he harnessed the atom through fission. and Hydrogen through fusion. Genetic engineering is a kind of accelerated and guided evolution, and while it helps man screen and develop new breeds and varieties, it has yet to offer the answer to the declining productivity of farms and agriculture, in general, particularly in developing countries. Besides, genetically engineered products have yet to earn a respectable place in the market and household.
Genetic engineering of beneficial organisms is the subject of research institutions all over the world. I had a chance to visit the Biotechnology Center in Taipei and saw various experiments conducted by Chinese scientists particularly on antibiotics production. But biotechnology has also its danger. One example is the case of the “suicide seeds”. These are hybrid seeds which carry a trigger enzyme which destroys the embryo soon after harvest so that the farmers will be forced to buy again seeds from the same supplier come next cropping season. It is similar to self-destruct diskettes, or implanted viruses in computers. This is how an international company Monsanto, the inventor of suicide seeds, is creating an empire built at the expense of millions of poor farmers over the world.
Medicine and Natural Food
As resistance of pests and pathogens continue to increase and become immune to drugs, man is corollarily searching for more potent and safe kinds and formulations. He has resorted to looking into the vast medicinal potentials of these lowly organisms, as well as their value as natural food. Here are some popular examples.
1. Nori or gamet (Porphyra, a red alga) – elixir, claimed to be more potent than Viagra
2. Edible seaweeds - rich in iodine, vegetable substitute. There is no known poisonous seaweed.
3. Seaweeds as source of natural antibiotics, much safer than conventional antibiotics.
4. Mushrooms have anti-cancer properties.
5. Spirulina as food and feeds
6. Cyanobacteria prolongs life, restores youthfulness.
7. Yeast is a health food
8. Yogurt is bacteria-fermented milk, health drink.
9. Carica and Mamordica extracts for medicine and health food
10. Organically grown food (without the use of chemical pesticide and fertilizer)
Dr. Domingo Tapiador, a retired UN expert on agriculture and fisheries, helped initiate the introduction of Spirulina in the country. He showed me the capsule preparation produced in Japan. “Why can’t we grow Spirulina locally?” he asked.
Today a year after, there are successful pilot projects. Spirulina is not only good as human food but feeds as well. Professor Johnny Ching of De la Salle University Dasmariñas found out that Spirulina added to the feed ration of bangus improves growth rate. (MS Biology, UST) Similar studies point out to the beneficial effects of Spirulina on the daily weight gain in poultry and livestock. Earlier studies also discovered Azolla, an aquatic fern with a blue-green alga symbiont – Anabaena, as a valuable feed supplement to farm animals.
Native fruits (hastened to ripen with madre de cacao leaves)
These lowly groups of organisms which cannot even qualify as plants, but instead protists with which protozoa are their kin, biologically speaking that is, are after all “giants.”
They hold the promise in providing food, medicine, clean environment, and as a whole, a better quality of human life for the people today and the coming generations.
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*Abercio V Rotor, Ph.D. is the award-winning author of Living with Nature Handbook (Gintong Aklat Award 203), Living with Nature in Our Times (National Book Award 2006), and radio instructor of People’s School on Air (Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, Gawad Oscar Florentino Award for Development Communication on radio). He is also author of other books in essays and poetry, and textbooks in Humanities and Literature. Dr Rotor is a former professor at UST, a former director of NFA and consultant of the Philippine Senate. He is married to Cecilia A Rojas, CPA, MBA, CESO3, (also an NFA retiree) with whom they have three children: Matthew Marlo, Anna Christina, and Leo Carlo. The family hails from San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. Dr. Rotor is founder and presently head of the Living with Nature Center (San Vicente, Ilocos Sur).
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