The AgriGana Revolution: Farming With Less, Farmers With More!

MANILA: We must wage the War on Poverty for the sake of the poor farmers, and not simply increase the yields in their rice farms. We need ideas as fresh as the morning dew.

The poor are more. Especially the farmers. The President can take care of 3.7 million drug addicts, the number according to him (24 October 2016, huffingtonpost.com), while the rest of us have to take care of 30 million in the farms, the number according to the New Agriculturist (April 2012, new-ag.info). The number should be more now, like 37 million farm poor. Or 10 times more than the drug addicts. We should pay 10 times more attention to farmers than drug addicts!

The poor are more, farmers and families in villages. For the War on Poverty, our slogan should be:

No more poor!

Given that, we in Danggay Foundation say, "Let us learn from those who know better, who have more experience, and who have more science in them."

I myself have made much of the master mind and modern & methodical management of William Dar as shown in his 15-year tenure as Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, or ICRISAT, based in India, and I have written some 500,000 words about ICRISAT and him packaged into 8 books, 7 published. I know that what ICRISAT is today it owes to the team led by its erstwhile Team Captain William Dar, a Filipino. He is retired and now in the Philippines; he has founded the Inanglupa Movement where he is now President. He is prepared to lead his country applying more science to agriculture.

With my utmost admiration, I have just read his column at the Manila Times titled "Agripreneurship" dated 30 December 2016 (Manila Times, manilatimes.net), and I don't like it. Agripreneurship I mean.

First, let me tell you a little story, to give credit to whom credit is due. On Facebook, Ms Dizon Rea shared a link to William Dar's column at the Times, with a lead that quotes the author as saying, "One way to revitalize and modernize the country's agriculture sector is though agripreneurship, which I believe is wider in scope than agribusiness."

Here is the exchange of Facebook comments between me and Ms Dizon:

Frank A Hilario. I like the idea of farmers being trained to be, but not the term agripreneur – I'm sure it will scare farmers.

Dizon Rea: Sir, may I know your opinion why you were thinking that the term or word "agripreneur" is not a good idea that would scare farmers? What's wrong with it? kindly explain please...

Frank A Hilario: It's the sound, not the meaning, too foreign; it is not memorable and is difficult to grasp. You have to simplify it or make it more familiar, like AgriGana – the farmers will get it immediately. The word gana should be easily understood and appreciated by Filipinos because it is in fact (the familiar) Spanish gana, gain, and so is a winning situation!

And immediately, I wrote another and separate comment:

Frank A Hilario: AgriGana was instant inspiration – now I am going to write a long essay about it.

Which is this one.

I don't like agripreneurship and that is why I am writing this essay. I know, the term is a contraction of the combined words agriculture and entrepreneurship; now, the term agriculture is easy to digest, but entrepreneurship by itself is a hard fact to swallow, even more to follow. By the farmers.

If I say agripreneurship, this new term complicates an already complicated situation. I ask, "Why do you make the farmers' lives more uncomfortable offering them a food that is not easy to swallow?" The whole concept is not farmer-friendly, in other words – that's my objection. If you say agripreneurship, you are talking in a language foreign to the farmers even if they knew English.

If I say agrigana, or AgriGana, I'm talking in a language that the farmers immediately understand even if the term is new to them. Applying a basic communicator's rule: You have to talk the language of your audience if you want them to pay attention to what you're saying.

Why AgriGana? It's a new term but contains 2 concepts that are old and that farmers are already familiar with: Agriculture and Gana:

Agriculture – It's English but today, farmers know even to say, "Department of Agriculture," so they know that agriculture is equivalent to farming, which is what they do; they also know that the word "farmer" refers to them. The technicians and experts of the Department of Agriculture have been dealing with them earnestly for almost 50 years, since Miracle Rice. They also know that "Miracle Rice" is IR8, from IRRI. Being in English, "agriculture" and "farmer" are ideas to be proud of, not the everyday "panagtalon" and "mannalon" (Ilocano), and not the common "pagsasaka" and "magsasaka" (Tagalog). You have to give dignity to the farmers because they deserve it.

Gana – You also have to make immediate sense to the farmers. Instant recognition, with the promise of instant gratification. Gana is a Spanish word familiar to all the tribes in the Philippines because we were subdued by the Spaniards when they occupied the islands for some 350 years, except perhaps the Muslim groups, who were never conquered by the Spaniards. Gana means earn or gain as well as appetite, desire, zest, enthusiasm, zeal. How wonderful a word gana is! At the first mention of it, AgriGana or simply agrigana is instantly welcome because it is at once recognizable and because it has the promise of riches, of abundance. You don't use the concept of "economics" in English or any translation of it with the farmers – they will not listen to you. Economics is Greek to the farmers. So, you don't tell them "inclusive growth" and explain that it is limited in scope compared to "inclusive development."

AgriGana. Don't forget abre gana, literally, that which opens the appetite, or simply appetizer. And the Tagalog masagana, abundant; gumagana, it's working. Gana in Spanish also means to want to, to feel in the mood. So, AgriGana has everything working for it!

Except for the terms agripreneur and agripreneurship, I agree with what William Dar says in his Manila Times column of 145 words including title. It's not his fault; he is using terms that have been there at least since 2006.

The agripreneur is "the individual managing an enterprise (with) diversified farming operations" (Christine Tew citing Carla Barbieri, May 2010, Importance of Agritourism for Agripreneur Goal Accomplishment, mospace.umsystem.edu). The source cited is Ms Carla's unpublished dissertation at Michigan State University, written in 2006. That is to say, the terms agripreneur and agripreneurship are at least 10 years old. So, if I don't like Agritourism either, I'm rejecting foreign terms.

I'm a practical person and a journalist so, under my leadership, Danggay Foundation will support any initiative that we can relate to the concept of AgriGana. I want the concept to be simplified to be easy for the farmers to digest:

(1)  Higher yields

(2)  Lower costs

(3)  Higher prices

(4)  Lower losses

(5)  Higher certainty

(6)  Lower worrying

(7)  Higher incomes.

In other words, Ilocano Incidentals, Incredible Income! We just have to simplify the economics of it so that the farmer can compute on only one piece of paper, or simply with his cellphone, or best, only in his mind.

Higher yields.
Naturally, AgriGana encourages a higher yield per crop, whatever the crop of whatever variety. AgriGana also encourages multiple cropping, which increases total yield per area from so many crops. Multiple cropping also helps prevent the attack of pests and diseases because of the natural balance of "friends" and "enemies" among insects and other organisms in the field.

Lower costs.
Once you mention "lower costs" in the dialect, for instance saying, "Nalaka" in Ilocano, meaning cheap, immediately the farmer will get the idea that AgriGana is good for him, and he will listen more, eagerly. "Nalaka" also means easy; AgriGana is easy to learn. Like lower seed cost, because you buy from your AgriGana cooperative. Like lower fertilizer cost, because your coop is your friend.

Higher prices.
If you grow your rice without chemicals, you can sell it at a premium price, because many consumers have now become health-conscious. AgriGana encourages farmers to be health-conscious themselves.

Lower losses.
We can begin with the seeds: For rice, plant only 25 kg instead of 50 kg per hectare; instead of losing, you save 50% of the usual seed cost. There is more. Farmer Rolly Andres of San Manuel in Pangasinan tells me 25 kg is more than enough if you follow square planting, which I suggested to him and which he followed – by all means, farmers should follow square planting, as it not only reduces the seed requirement but it also increases the yield! You have a yield loss if you don't maximize the potential of your crop. Ask Rolly and he will tell you. I also have a Facebook album of his rich ricefield – the image above is from one of my photographs of his richfield.

Higher certainty.
To lower the risks of pests and diseases, AgriGana encourages healthy farming, where for instance weeds and crop refuse are turned into organic matter on the topsoil to enrich it, thereby growing healthy plants that therefore can repel insect pests and disease-causing organisms. Not using chemicals alone eliminates risks of pesticide residues in the food you produce and eat. Multiple cropping increases certainty of profiting more from and overcoming any loss in any crop.

Lower worrying.
From the beginning, usually the farmer borrows cash to pay for his seeds, fertilizers and pesticides and, usually, he turns to the loan-friendly motorcycle man, the usurer, to whom he pays 6 for every 5 he borrows within 100 days; that is, if he borrows P10,000, at 20%, he pays back P12,000 – or the wily usurer demands that the loan be paid in kind and at the prevailing price at harvest time, because he knows he will get more than P12,000 if he gets paid in sacks of rice. That loan worries the farmer endlessly. Instead, the AgriGana cooperative will lend all the cash the farmer needs at anytime and all the time from seed to selling, so that he escapes the embrace of the friendly loan-giving Shylock.

Higher incomes.
AgriGana knows that marketing is the crux of the matter, the crucial point, the heart of the problem of the farmer not getting his due from the fruits of his labors. If you sell through your AgriGana cooperative using the inventory credit system or warrantage, you will certainly get higher prices for your produce or processed products – and therefore, higher incomes all the time.

AgriGana speaks the language of the farmers as far as encouraging them to have a business mindset. They don't have to attend any training at all; one workshop and that may be all.

New Year's Wish: To launch the AgriGana Revolution, we need a budget of P11 billion to cover all the 11 states proposed for Federal Philippines, which we also advocate. Within 2 croppings or 1 year, incomes of farmers would have multiplied at least by 11 times.

I want to emphasize the role of the AgriGana cooperative, a multi-purpose setup. The Coop's Board should be composed of a partnership inspired by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, or ICRISAT, in its strategy called Inclusive Market-Oriented Development. The Coop's Board should comprise representatives from the public, science, private, business, philanthropic, and peasant sectors. Peasants must be active participants in initiatives to benefit them, not merely beneficiaries. (And yes, we owe the idea of warrantage to ICRISAT.)

The old year is gone. With AgriGana, it should be a Happy New Year! for all, including the families of poor farmers in the villages. Let this be AgriGana's slogan from hereon:

Spend Wisely, Earn Well. @

By Frank A Hilario, President of Danggay Foundation

05 January 2017. Essay word count, excluding this line. 2017