News On New PH Agriculture – William Dar Optimist, Rene Ofreneo Pessimist!


Rene E Ofreneo writes “Dar’s ‘Leveling Up’ Vision: Will It Work?” in the 20 February 2020 issue of Business Mirror, a total of 1,032 words including title[1]. And it’s not pleasant. I am The Wizard Of Os, yes? I can see Manong Rene:
Sees the Obstacles
Sees Not the Opportunities
Sees Not the Options
Sees Not the Outputs
Sees Not the Outcomes!

How did my favorite British wit Oscar Wilde put it again?

Between the optimist and the pessimist
The difference is droll.
The optimist sees the doughnut,
The pessimist the hole!

With that column at the Business Mirror, it turns out Manong Willie is the Optimist and Manong Rene is the Pessimist!

When William Dar/Manong Willie became PH Secretary of Agriculture, he came out with his “New Thinking for Agriculture” with “The Eight Paradigms” to give it flesh – all for “leveling up” PH agriculture.

Manong Rene says:

(William) Dar blames the terrible collapse of agriculture to the failure of the average Filipino small farmer “to access low cost finance for inputs”, “limited links to the value chain and retail markets”, and “no access to better inputs and modern technologies”.

Not quite, Manong Rene. I should know the thinking of Manong Willie since I was an international consulting writer for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, when he was the Director General – I wrote for ICRISAT from January 2007 to December 2014. The ICRISAT slogan was “Science with a human face.” In terms of science background, Manong Willie has a PhD in Horticulture from UP Los Baños. In terms of science management in the Philippines, he was Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research, and Director General of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic & Natural Resources Research & Development. He was DG of ICRISAT from January 2000 to December 2014, or 15 years.

Manong Willie is bringing science to the people for the people.

Manong Rene, if you did not know, led by Manong Willie, our Department of Agriculture, DA, has adopted the slogan “Masaganang Ani At Mataas Na Kita” (Plenteous Harvest, Bounteous Income, my translation). Roughly, DA’s much harvest along with much income translates to ICRISAT’s science with a human face. If anything, now the DA identifies 100% with the poor – the DA head was born poor, and his family could not afford to send him to high school. It was an uncle who saved him from ignorance – education should always lead us out of ignorance.

Manong Willie looks at continuing farmer poverty as a failure in the paradigm of inclusive growth, which is that of the World Bank (and therefore our economic planners), instead of inclusive market-oriented development of ICRISAT (and therefore that of our Manong Willie).

Between inclusive growth and inclusive development, the difference is gross: In Growth we continue to have the poor; in Market-Oriented Development, the poor properly share in the values added along the value chain from seed to spoon. If Manong Rene does not know that, poor Manong Rene!@517





[1] https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/02/20/dars-leveling-up-vision-will-it-work/?fbclid=IwAR1Y2qGyogPVSgFrNDkNTak4Ybz8chakBnxhtJqZ9sZIzIAqWuhQ6LUPBlg



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