I WRITE this article recalling Dr. Bong Bolo’s invitation for me to return to the Cordillera to help promote the interests of highland agriculture.
We were both working at the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) then. Dr. Bolo was a consultant of a special project implemented by BAR when he was appointed by former DA Secretary Carlos Dominguez, as project director of the Highland Agricultural Development Project (HADP).
It was when I accompanied him during a trip here that he gave me this challenge: “Real agricultural and rural development work is to be encountered if it has to be helped. Return to the countryside, come to the Cordillera.”
It was almost three decades ago when I responded to the challenge given by Dr. Bolo. The years of my life dedicated to promoting highland agriculture and rural development were hard.
There was a time from December – May when drought affected the Cordillera and the cattle and livestock were dropping dead in Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao and Abra.
For the livestock industry, particularly cattle, the Province of Ifugao was worst affected, especially the farmers in the Municipalities of Alfonso Lista, Aguinaldo and parts of Lamut.
When a television crew visited Aguinaldo and Alfonso Lista and started showing dead cattle with their bloated bodies, the media from all over were directed to me. I have been pestered by all kinds of questions at any time of the day. I recall how I struggled with my responses to many of their questions. I was not evasive and the media kept coming back through the phone or visited us in the office. This lasted until the drought abated with the coming of the rains in June.
The night frost or “andap” on vegetables was a calamity created by the media with a scare effect. Initially, television highlighted a piece of land planted with vegetables affected by “andap” leaving the impression that many farmers and their industry is affected.
It caused several unknown and lingering effects down the chain that enterprising traders could take advantage of.
Like what happened with the drought in Ifugao, I was tasked to respond to questions from the media. We have since established the affected vegetable areas in Benguet, not more than two hectares at the most, and that it has no economic impact to the industry as a whole. We have also established the fact that farmers know how to deal with the problem. The night frost is still reported by media today and our farmers wonder why. It has been there all along since the beginning of time perhaps.
I have encountered Dr. Bolo’s challenge about highland agriculture and rural development, alright, ranging from pest and diseases, unsafe pesticide handling, drought, the impact of climate, bad political leadership and interference, poor project implementation, community indifference, eroding and crumbling rice terraces, difficult terrain, trading and marketing, poor transportation and communication infrastructure, we have all kinds of problems here.
I do not write this article like I wanted to carry my bench higher and put anybody down. Some people do that, not me.
The discourses in the development circle have long established where I stand, or where this lowly bench could be located in that circle. When things are fine, information and communication work is acknowledged as “mere talk and writing rubbish” or “picture, picture lang.”
Agricultural development is about the people who plan and administer the government’s livelihood credit and give away pieces of seeds or planting materials, livestock, implements, machinery, or any agricultural input to the farmers. On the other hand, when problems occur, the farmers and others, readily dismiss the agency’s accomplishments that I communicate as “just band-aid solutions” to agricultural development problems in the region.
In CY 2000, then Undersecretary and later, Secretary Domingo Panganiban appointed me as Regional Rice Program Coordinator. His advice then is worth mentioning every now and then. “At the end of the day, your only defense to the nation for the approved development projects and activities under the program is how well these were undertaken by you, your partners, and beneficiaries.”
I was returned back to communications work when Secretary Panganiban was transferred to another office. But indeed, we are all accountable to how agriculture and rural development is perceived and implemented in our communities. In my work, I seek out and communicate development so that others may know about it and in the best case scenario draw inspiration from it.
The participatory development process taking shape to address the plight of our marginalized people can promote and advance agriculture and rural development in the highlands if all stakeholders respect, value, and nurture each other and their contributions to the work.