Danggay Foundation @

This photo taken 06 August 2016 is of the members of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative meeting in the inner room at the ground floor of the 2-story Danggay House, the one that Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani built in 1996 in her hometown of Asingan in Pangasinan, along with the Danggay Foundation. At the back, the 3 gentlemen seated are, from left, Patrocinio Sapigao, Nagkaisa Board member; Roger Daranciang, Nagkaisa Chair; and Lito Sales, Nagkaisa General Manager. You can't see me, another Board Member, as I am in front of the camera. As you can imagine, Danggay House has high ceilings in both 1st and 2nd floors, built materiales fuertes , with strong & well-built foundations and materials. When Shahani built something, she meant it to last. Not to any other group, Shahani had given us Nagkaisa the keys to Danggay House on 12 April 2013, after she discerned that we were after the public good and could be trusted. Like begets like. She was the Chair of Danggay

MANILA: Tuesday, 07 February 2017, because of the persistence of Ms Dizon Rea in her postings on Facebook, a new interest has been triggered in old me. Here is the exchange of Facebook posts and comments between her and me: Rea : Sapangbato National High School is the 7th school I visited today to give vegetable seeds to be used for the Gulayan sa Paaralan Project! Thank you very much to DA Region 3 HVCDP for their support and collaborative effort in making this project possible. (FAH: The HVCDP is the High Value Crop Development Program of the Department of Agriculture, or DA.) Frank : Visited 7 schools in 1 day, that's a tireless lady! Rea : Yes Sir, 7 schools. Tiring but fulfilling. Rea : With me the students and teachers from Tacondo Elementary School receiving their vegetable seeds for the Gulayan sa Paaralan Project! Thank you very much to DA Region 3 HVCDP for their support and collaborative effort in making this project possible. (FAH: The image above is of

MANILA: Reading William Dar's column in the Manila Times issue of 06 January 2017 with the title "The Agribusiness Incubation Approach" ( The Sunday Times, manilatimes.net ), I was inspired to think of a new concept: Incubating coops as incubators of businesses run by farmer entrepreneurs . The image above shows the Board Members of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative meeting (I am the photographer) in a room in Danggay House, where you also find the Danggay Foundation, the brainchild of Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, now with me as President. I am now thinking of a Danggay project where a cooperative is assisted in incubating businesses for poor farmers. Something that has never been done because you can’t teach the poor to be business-minded, can you? To which I say: "All the more reason to teach!" Up until this time, business incubation is a subject that I have refused to know and understand more of because I'm not business-inclined, ever s

MANILA: How can higher yields guarantee farmer prosperity? Good question! (original image from me, early morning shot) We are attending the 1-2 February 2017 stay-in Agri-Industry Forum at the Dagupan Village Hotel in Dagupan City sponsored by the Department of Agriculture of Regional Field Office 1. As the invitation letter from Regional Director Valentino C Perdido says: The Forum aims to bring together our different stakeholders and foster exchange of business ideas, experiences and information for the advancement of the agriculture industry and for newbie entrepreneurs to be motivated and inspired by successful entrepreneurs. I'm interested because I believe that agro-industrialization , the preferred term to current vogue agri-industrialization , is the way out of poverty for farmers. That's where agro-entrepreneurship should be going. Historically, as far back as at least 1981, or 35 years ago, we were already talking of agro-industrialization of the Philip

MANILA: GK has this slogan: Building communities to end poverty. In only 5 words, Gawad Kalinga has discovered the secret, the practical formula for eliminating poverty. UP with GK! Down with poverty! No poor left behind. Note that what GK is trying to do is: Not ending extreme poverty, as the World Bank would like us to do. World Bank, why do you want to leave millions of the poor behind? Not reducing poverty, as the United Nations' Food & Agriculture Organization, or FAO, desires, and as our very own National Economic & Development Authority, or NEDA, would have it. That is, towards a decline in the number of poor. FAO and NEDA, why not reduce poverty to zero? Can we really end poverty? Now, finally, I have the Bill Gates I had wanted all along, saying "We can end poverty by 2030" (Julie Bort, 21 January 2016, Business Insider, businessinsider.com ). That's 14 years from now. By that time, I will be 91 years old, near the end of