Official Newsletter of the InangLupa Movement Inc.

Vol. 3 No. 2
February 2015 Issue

9 point agenda to jump start an inclusive

and modern Philippine agriculture

In a recent Board Meeting of InangLupa, which is the

first for 2015, the Founding Chairman Dr. William D. Dar
announced that it is now time for everyone to contribute
to Philippine agricultural development.
He announced the importance of encouraging more to
volunteer for the movement which has grown from 4
individuals meeting in ICRISAT to 500.
InangLupa as a social movement will continuously do
advocacy work for its target the smallholder farmers, Dar
said. He then proceeded to ask every board member to
suggest possible areas for engagement. He said, this is not
only a movement but an outright War on Poverty with
InangLupa as the champion.
During the meeting, a nine point agenda was approved
as follows:
First. Congressional Forum on Agriculture and
Fisheries: Conduct of annual congressional conference
and quarterly policy/technical seminar on specific topics to
enhance the level of understanding of lawmakers and
policy makers in agriculture and fisheries.
Second. Yamang Lupa Expansion (Soil Rejuvenation as
entry point): Support YLP in advocating its activities like
soil rejuvenation, nationwide soil health mapping, to
include upgrading of regional soil laboratories, use of
improved crop cultivars/animal breeds, improved delivery
system, and links to market.
Third. Knowledge Delivery System/Farmers Call
Center: Promote science and technology for the
advancement of farmers thru ICT (GreenSIM and
GreenPHABLET) and put up a farmers referral system
where pool of experts will attend to the queries of farmers
thru ICT platforms.
Fourth. Dictionary for Science and Media Partnership:
Publish the Dictionary for Science to educate the media
partners/journalists in writing agriculture articles. This was
proposed by Inanglupa volunteer Frank Hilario.
Subsequently BAR has agreed to provide P 213,000 as a
grant.
Fifth. Co-convenorship of Relevant Conferences/
Symposia: Partnership with science-based organizations/
professional societies, higher educational institutions and
others in conducting conferences/symposia on relevant
and specific topics.
Sixth. Observance of International Year of the Soil
2015: Champion and participate in the celebration of
International Year of the Soil 2015 together with the
Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils and Water
Management and other stakeholders.

Nurturing an inclusive, science-based, resilient

& market-oriented Philippine agriculture

Editorial

I had a dream
Everybody has a dream in the windmills of their
mind. A recurrent dream or a dream of wanting to be
and/or wanting to see.
A recurrent dream to me is a volcano erupting with
all its beauty with lava flowing down connecting to a
myriad waterfalls but giving me fear every time it
happens since it could be the end of ones life and that
of his community or it could be new soil that will
nurture the crops in the area.
The dream of wanting to be the owner of a
public land that I planted with trees but could not
own as it is a government property.
And the dream of wanting to see a nation of
plenty where there is no hunger and abject poverty.
And how can this happen?
In a recent board meeting of InangLupa a nine
point agenda was agreed for 2015 to reshape
Philippine Agriculture under the leadership of Dr.
William D. Dar along with topnotch scientists,
academicians, social entrepreneurs and farmer
leaders.
In addition the dream could be that the
government has decided to support social
entrepreneurship especially those initiated by the
stakeholders with professional managers or
industrialists as partners with the farmers as coowners. This is instead of funding programs managed
by its agencies that most often are not designed to
service the needs of the stake holders in their
communities and most often do not have the
management capability.
That farmers have now clustered their farms to
have the economies of scale as an aggregate to fully
mechanized with common service facilities in land
preparation, cultivation and harvesting and an
appropriate size rice mill for value adding.
That professional agriculturists and managers are
now harnessed to provide the technology and
business management adopting the IMOD (Inclusive
Market Oriented Development) developed by ICRISAT
(International Crops Research for Semi Arid Tropics).
That farmer federations now own the super
markets that sell their produce that is integrated with
a processing and packaging plants powered by
renewable energy to be able to sell at reasonable
prices direct to consumers since they also no longer
have to pay taxes.
That the farmers have already a way of maximizing
the productivity of their lands after being issued a Soil
Health and Credit Cards, Phablets with GreenSIM to
provide them technical weather update and pricing
information in real time.
I had a dream that the farmers no longer have to
wait for assemblers to buy their produce but will only
harvest upon the orders of a cooperative that
markets his produce and share on the profits of his
produce.
I had a dream.for InangLupa. VLD

continued on p4
InangLupa Newsletter, February Issue 2015/2

Welcoming home the chosen father of InangLupa

Afternoon of Thursday, 29 January 2015, at the convention

hall of the Bureau of Soils & Water Management (BSWM), we
bid welcome back to the Philippines former Director General
William Dollente Dar of the International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in India,
where he served as DG in the last 15 years, 2000-2014. In my
book, the 8th published by ICRISAT, I call those "The William
Dar Years of ICRISAT."
In his welcome remarks, Director Silvino Tejada of the
BSWM said, "Every farmer has a home of his own. William Dar
is home from his wanderings. We extend our warmest
welcome. Returning home after 15 years of managing ICRISAT,
it is a double honor to have him with us. We thank you, Sir, for
coming home."
Fortunato Battad, currently Chair of the Board of
Agriculture of PRC, and President Emeritus of CLSU, among
other distinctions, said:
If you could only get his virtue as a transformational
leader ... This is what leaders should be in this country, a
servant leader. "I am here to serve and not be served." He
served ICRISAT, he served India; I am glad he is coming back to
serve and not to be served.
Battad also said, "The other asset I would like to emphasize
he has a very good project in InangLupa. Please extend your
cooperation to this program. He is a great Ilocano, a great
Filipino."
Santiago R Obien, former Director of PhilRice and
Nicomedes P Eleazar, Director of the Bureau of Agricultural
Research (BAR) also gave their welcome remarks.
On this occasion, while the MOA was being signed between
InangLupa and BAR, I was asked by Noel Reyes of the DA to tell
the audience about my book project, the Dictionary of Science
for Journalists. I explained that I submitted a proposal to
InangLupa and BAR is funding the production and printing. The
book is meant to translate technical language into layman's
language, or what I refer to as high school English the targets
are journalists who must write their stories with understanding
and local content, as well as junior and senior high school
students to be able to understand the terms so that they can
teach their parents who may not have gone to school. You
cannot write or teach science if you don't talk or teach at the
level of the language of the ones you want to talk to or teach.
Speaking in English and Ilocano, I told my audience to look
at page 3 of the newsletter of InangLupa distributed for the
occasion. I'm a fast reader, so I immediately saw what I wanted
to explain. I gave examples from the newsletter: "Inclusive.
Science-based. Resilient. Market-oriented. Ania ngay ti kayat
nga sawen dagita?" (So what do all those want to say?) I said,

we understand them, but our audience themselves must

understand what we're talking about.
The program sheet said at the top, "WELCOME HOME Dr.
William D. Dar, International Agriculturist." We were
welcoming, as Battad said, "a great Ilocano, a great Filipino."
Never in the history of an international center under the CGIAR
has there been a tenure as long as this. How come he lasted
that long as DG? As he delivers his response, the image in the
background says it for all:
A welcome party for Dr. William D. Dar.
Kudos to a great man!
Great to have you back.
From the BSWM Family
He was great. He saved ICRISAT as an institution from slow
suicide and brought it to fast recovery and, beyond that, he
made ICRISAT #1 among the 15 CGIAR international centers of
research in agriculture. To go to the top, one of the meaningful
things he did was help the staff find new meaning in life as an
institutional body doing "Science with a human face." Not
simply science to advance scientists' agenda, but science to
advance the poor farmers' welfare, especially those in the
drylands of Africa and Asia, where ICRISAT works, up to and
including emancipating them from poverty. Of the Four
Freedoms of Man articulated by US President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt in his State of the Union Address before Congress on
08 December 1941 speech, worship, want, fear one in fact
refers to poverty: freedom from want means freedom from
poverty.
Notwithstanding its local name, InangLupa is not simply
new and improved agriculture, not simply "Science with a
Filipino face." First of all, it is a social movement, more than
teamwork; it is "Science with a social face." InangLupa is
theoretical agriculture applied by real people with real people
with real problems brought about by lack of freedom from
want.
For Philippine agriculture to raise the poor farmers to the
level above poverty and sustain themselves up there, 4 things
are necessary; William Dar calls them the "Four Pillars of
Agriculture," requiring that agriculture be:
(1) Inclusive. The social process of growth must include
the poor farmers in defining problems and searching for
solutions. No one can help the farmers except when they learn
to help themselves.
(2) Science-based. There is room for folk wisdom but even
that must be tested true by science. Technologies and systems
must be evolved and must prove their economies of small scale
for the small.
continued on p4

InangLupa Newsletter, February Issue 2015/2

Feature

Electronic trading for farmers

(A reprint of Business and Leisure Column by Ray Butch Gamboa
from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, March 20, 2010)

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is going high-tech

with new marketing set-ups that include warehousing
schemes as well. This should be good news to our farmers
who have always wanted to have a set-up similar to the
sugar central. The DA has looked into the electronic trading
system and agricultural commodities exchanges of other
countries that have worked well for their farmers and
adapted the system here. Called ACES, or Agricultural
Commodities Exchange System, it allows for direct contact
between buyers and sellers, a set-up acceptable at all levels
to both camps. The only affected sector here, of course, is
the middle men because the system eliminates the need for
these traders. Farmers can get direct access to quotes, and
because this effectively eliminates wasteful cost, the
consumer is the ultimate winner because he gets to enjoy
lower prices. Internet-based electronic trading system gives
both farmer and consumer more efficiency in the market.
With ACES, the user also has the ability to project raw
material cost by buying forward. On the part of the farmer
he can sell on a forward basis as well-if the current market
price is too low, he can commit to sell a couple of months
later when the price is better. The commodity is first stored
in a warehouse of the National Food Authority (NFA has
special designated warehouses for this scheme) until such
time that the buyer can take possession of the goods
purchased.
The logistic support provided by the NFA gives an
unqualified assurance to the buyer that, at the designated
time of sale, there will be physical delivery because the
commodities are accepted and stored in an accredited NFA
warehouse. For deferred sales, the buyer need not worry
about non-delivery because of the logistic capability of the
NFA. Thats a great way of marketing agricultural
commodities. DA consultant Mr. Gregorio Tan enjoins
farmers and buyers to patronize this system that is most
beneficial to all parties and help pave the way for a
successful electronic agricultural trading system in the
country.
The corn farmers are certainly welcoming this new
system. There is a dire need for better infrastructure for
corn farming in the country, and this could be the start.
Speaking of corn, El Nio has damaged hundreds of corn
lands in Region 2. They speak of about P4 billion in damages.
The countrys livestock has corn requirements of over one
million metric tons, and of this, Region 2 provides some
600,000 to 700,000 metric tons. Since Region 2 is one of the
most severely damaged, expect a serious shortage of corn.
This translates to higher prices of corn and consequently,
higher prices of livestock which includes hogs and chicken.
The governments reaction to this shortage is to import
feed alternatives. Wheat is the more viable substitute for
corn. We asked Mr. Isidro Acosta, vice president of
Philmaize Federation Inc. if they have any projections on the
wheat importation. Mr. Acosta said it is difficult to cite
figures now because even livestock farms and poultries have
been affected by El Nio, and as we speak, these farms are
suffering losses.
Anyway, the corn farmers are already bracing
themselves for this wheat importation. Though they have
not been advised, they are pretty sure some of the wheat
feed have landed because the price of corn has significantly
gone down in a matter of days, which means that wheat
feed has been dumped in the market.
Just recently, the corn farmers were set to sell at P13
which, they say, is already a good price. Now, they can only
sell their produce at P11.30. In two weeks time, the prices
dipped.
As early as December, the corn farmers already foresaw
the deadly effects of El Nio and requested the DA for cloud
seeding, though these exercises were unsuccessful. They
also requested for other mitigating measures like shallow
tube wells. To their credit, the DA responded positively, but
due to bureaucracy, the funds were released too late. The
pumps are now being distributed, though they cannot be
used for corn planting anymore. The federation is advising
corn farmers to consider crop diversification instead and
plant short maturing crops to counter El Nio.

Gov Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya meets

SMART and InangLupa executives
MAKATI Gov. Ruth Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya recently met
with executives of the InangLupa Movement Inc (ILMI) to
map out the connectivity of their farmers using SMART
communications facilities with a GreenSIM and
GreenPhablet developed by International Crops Research
Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
Padilla said that she has been looking for partners to
give weather information and real time price to their
farmers to avoid the exploitation of traders on their
produce and to outsmart the debilitating effects of climate
change.
The meeting started with SMART Public Affairs
Manager Mon Isberto asking why is rice farming
unsustainable. Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU)
President Florentina S. Dumlao pointed out several factors
like poor soil fertility, inferior seeds, varietal constraint
and many others.

L-R Ms. Jill Lava, Engr. Ed Sabado, Dr. Florentina Dumlao, Mr.
VL Sonny Domingo, Ms. Glai Pajela, Mr. Apollo Domingo, Ms.
Cheryl Caballero, Dr. William Dar, Gov. Ruth Padilla, Mr. Mon
Isberto & Mr Darwin Flores

SMART Community Partnership Head Darwin Flores

joined in by saying that the cost of production is so high
that rice farming requires a subsidy and the connectivity
of the farmers to the market.
What came out as a problem during the meeting was
the credibility of the content and source of information if
the connectivity will be put in place through the SMARTICRISAT-InangLupa networking with the political will of the
LGU under Gov. Padilla.
Dr. William D. Dar, President of InangLupa added by
saying that ILM will champion said initiatives.
ICRISAT ICT scientist Guntuku Dileepkumar said in a
teleconference that the way to go about the credibility of
the information on pricing is to connect it initially to the
export price of the commodity and refer it to the data
base which should now be the basis of programming the
ICT for the LGU and the farmers.
Dr. Dar added that if the farmers connectivity
(FarmConnect) when establish in Nueva Vizcaya will be
the first in the Philippines and will be a trailblazer in this
area where ICT is key in empowering the farmers of the
province. This will serve also as the model for the whole
country.
An MOU will be developed to establish a tri-partite
partnership between the LGU to use the GreenSIM and
Phablet the SMART Communications Inc to provide the
tools for connectivity and the InangLupa with the NVSU to
provide the content.
InangLupa Newsletter, February Issue 2015/2

Welcoming home...from p2

(3) Resilient. This has something to do with the

advent of climate change not to mention livestock,
crops must be able to grow well and yield well despite
either lack of rain or too much rain, either drought or
flood, either higher or lower temperature in the
surroundings.
(4) Market-oriented. The aim must always be to
make farming profitable to the farmers, young or old.
That is to say, farming must be run as a business, not
simply a hand-to-mouth existence.
Pillars. A pillar is a free-standing, vertical support
(American Heritage Dictionary) and therefore firm,
solid. I understand the nature of William Dar's analogy:
4 pillars if 1 pillar is missing, the whole structure will
fall. "A house divided against itself cannot stand"
Jesus Christ. I get the metaphor. "A house subtracted
from itself cannot stand" Frank A Hilario.
Notwithstanding, since I'm a writer, and Pope
Francis just passed by us, I'd love to call them The Four
Languages of Being in Agriculture, following Pope
Francis' excellent pronouncement about the Three
Languages of the mind, heart and hand, when he told
the youth in Manila during his visit (18 January 2015.
en.radiovaticana.va).
What is (the) most important subject you have to
learn in life? To learn how to love. This is the challenge
that life offers you: to learn bow to love. Not just to
accumulate information without knowing what to do
with it. But through that love, let that information bear
fruit.
For this the Gospel offers us a serene way forward:
using the three languages of the mind, heart and hands
and to use them in harmony. What you think, you
must feel and put into effect. Your information comes
down to your heart and you put it into practice.
Harmoniously. What you think, you feel and you do.
Feel what you think and feel what you do. Do what you
think and what you feel. The three languages.
Applying Pope Francis' advice, in uplifting the state
of the poor farmers in the Philippines, we must apply
the 4 languages of Being Inclusive, Being Science-Based,
Being Resilient, and Being Market-Oriented.
Why Being? Because it's a process. Why Languages?
Because, as in verbal languages, it has to be learned by
the head, heart and hand. We have to think; as we
think, we have to feel; as we feel, we have to do.
Because the expression of the languages of being will
vary according to the circumstances, the situations
science has to adapt to them. The expression of
science, which is either in the form of a technology or
system, is not like prescribed medicine, where you have
to follow doctor's orders exactly; the expression can
always be improved upon. To be friendly and therefore
welcome, the expression of science must depend on
the user of that science it must have a human touch.
Precisely, I myself want to improve the language of
science journalism in this country and in the world
by teaching science journalists the very language they
don't learn in any school of journalism:
The Language of Science with a Human Touch.
(Frank Hilario - http://amagazinecalledlove.
blogspot.com/)

YLP Corner

YLP updates
Yamang Lupa Program (YLP) will conduct a review
and planning workshop on April 2015 to be organized
by DA-BAR. It will be participated by the YLP steering
committee, program management group and technical
working groups of the three pilot regions.
Expected to attend are experts from International
Crops Research Institute for Semi- Arid Tropics,
executives from DA-High Value Crops Development
Program, DA-National Rice Program, DA-BAR, DABSWM, DA-ATI, DA-BPI, DA-Regional Field Offices
(Regions 4A, 8 & 9), State Universities and Colleges and
Local Government Units, and working/management
group members of the consortium partners.
The main objective of the workshop is to review
the progress of YLP, and assess the strengths and
constraints during the initial implementation stage of
the program. Also, part of the workshop will be the
planning and developing of more appropriate strategies
for effective implementation and management of the
program. Lastly, the YLP group must prepare detailed
action plans for implementation in the next two years
to meet the expected outputs and achieve its goal.
Focal persons from the satellite programs of YLP
that includes Sustainable Intensification for Prosperity
and Growth (SIPAG) in Ilocos Sur, Building Resilience
and Rural Livelihood Program (BRRLP) in Nueva Vizcaya,
and Improving Productivity and Building Resilience
Program (IPBRP) in La Union will also be invited in the
workshop to share their experiences in their respective
areas.
InangLupa spells out...from p1

Seventh. Strategic Communication/ Marketing for

InangLupa: Create video presentation and other
materials of InangLupa activities and projects for
distribution worldwide to include prospective donors.
Eighth.
InangLupa
Scholarship/Fellows:
Sponsorship to deserving students of smallholder
farmers embracing the vision of InangLupa.
Ninth. Capacity building of Food Security Warriors:
Produce well-rounded volunteer trainors by organizing
various trainings on agriculture, agri-business, farmers
sustainability,
environmental
protection,
soil
conservation, etc.

InangLupa Newsletter
Editorial Board
William D. Dar

VL Sonny Domingo

Adviser

Editor-in-Chief

Junel B. Soriano

Associate Editors:

Managing Editor

Francis J. Flores
Cheryl Natividad-Caballero
William C. Medrano
Zosimo M. Battad

Paul Vincent M. Anareta

Copy Editor
Website:
E-mail:
Facebook:
Tel No:
Liaison Office:

http://inanglupa.org
inanglupa@yahoo.com; w.dar38@yahoo.com
https://www.facebook.com/inanglupa
+63 (02) 654 5415; +63 906 4104 023;+63 917 6512 711
ICRISAT Coordination Office
DA-BSWM Building, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

InangLupa Newsletter, February Issue 2015/2