Harvest Time
“Rise with Rice” out
By Sosimo Ma. Pablico
Almost three years after my book entitled Rise with Rice was launched by PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute), its publisher, in March 2005, the second edition is now off the press. It was launched on November 5, 2007 during the 22nd anniversary celebration of PhilRice with the presence of 11 Nueva Ecija farmers and a rice products processor who were chronicled in the book.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap was expected to grace the book launching ceremony but did not make it due to typhoon Kabayan. However, a copy of the book was presented to him the following day when he dropped by PhilRice after testing the performance of the PhilRice-developed mini-combine rice harvester and after turning over flatbed rice dryers with rice hull-fed furnace to the rice clusters in Mabini, Sto. Domingo and Maragol, Munoz, Nueva Ecija .
The book consists of 58 stories on the successes of inbred and hybrid rice farmers as well as post production processors. A much bigger volume than the first edition, the new edition is 7 inches x 10 inches and has 366 pages with full color photos. The first edition, 6 inches x 9 inches, had 272 pages with 35 stories as well as black and white photos.
Since 2004 we have been going around the country from Cagayan Valley to Mindanao talking with men and women who have labored hard to become successful rice farmers. In Mindanao we found that many of the successful rice farmers migrated from Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte and the Ilocano-speaking towns of Tarlac.
It was Dr. Leocadio S. Sebastian, PhilRice executive director, who suggested that we write this book as soon as I retired as a professor at the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte. Looking back now, this project kept me continuously moving from end to end of the country – so different from the four corners of the academe – and alive. But that is beside the point.
In his foreword to the book, Dr. Sebastian said: “We have always aimed to improve the income and productivity of our farmers but we have also portrayed the Filipino farmer as barely successful, worn out, and tanned due to hard labor. Few have paid tribute to the contributions of our farmers as successful adaptors and fewer have told about the story of their successes.”
“These successful farmers are the powerhouse of Philippine agriculture that can energize our farms toward food security and sustainability. The immense impacts of their pivotal role in the ‘socioecosystem’ and development process of our country are insurmountable. How these farmers triumphed amidst insurmountable travails is inspiring as they are humbling,” Dr. Sebastian added.
The book shows that successful farmers are high-risk takers, daring, innovative, persistent like a weed, patient, willing to learn and most of all, hardworking. They can afford to take sacrifices in favor of the prospects of higher yields and more income. They are the farmers who continue to change some aspects of their farming practices as they learn new technologies in seminars, workshops and training programs, believing that those changes would hike their yields and income.
“Rise with Rice is a book that provides inspiration to people involved in rice farming who, despite difficulties, succeeded,” Dr. Sebastian also said. “It also provides motivation for our researchers, development workers and extensionists on the impact of their contributions towards increasing farm productivity. As inspiration or motivation, it gives us hope that increasing farm productivity and income is not an impossible dream and that self-sufficiency is not just an elusive dream.”
Aspiring agricultural journalists may very well take a look at Rise with Rice and, hence, colleges offering a degree program in development communication should have a copy or two for their students. Orders may be sent to the Development Communication Division, PhilRice, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Call or text 09209111398.
In a related development, we have also written a book on the successes of buffalo raisers who have learned to nourish their animals as sustainable sources of milk even as the introduction of dairying to them at the start was like introducing the technology in a foreign land.
Entitled “Changing Lives Beyond the Draft Carabao,” the book was published by the PCC [Philippine Carabao Center]. It was launched in April 2007 during the anniversary celebration of the Center in the presence of Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban and former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, a strong advocate of the “white revolution.”
One of the stories in the book is the emergence of Brgy. Tulong in Urdaneta City as the milk capital of Pangasinan. Through the help of Senator Shahani, farmers in Brgy. Tulong received the first dairy buffalo module consisting of 25 Murrah buffalo heifers.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/ Readers may reach columnist at spablico@yahoo.com . For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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