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100% Farming With 00% Fertilizers – In The Netherlands! They Are At Least ‘Producing Twice As Much Food Using Half As (Much) Resources’”

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Here I am early Monday morning, 21 July 2025 (Manila time), newly arisen from bed, with eyes wide as I read this Facebook post of 19 July 2025: “The Netherlands Is Growing Self-Fertilizing Crops – No Chemicals Needed.” From the Unbox Factory , 13 July 2025 Facebook sharing of Lesley Evans Ogden on “The Clean Farming Revolution.” (image sources) “No chemicals needed.” Goodbye Fertilizer Agriculture! I had my own surprise baptism of no-chemicals agriculture when in the mid-1950s I came across Edward H Faulkner ’s eye-opening book Plowman’s Folly at the open shelves of the library of the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines, where I obtained my BS Agriculture major in Ag Educ . Mr Faulkner’s eye-opening message? “Plowing is wrong.” Elsewhere, in “The Straw Thread Revolution,” Masanobu Fukuoka and Libreria Editrice Fiorentina say, “Plowing is an agricultural practice as widespread as it is harmful. In this article, we want to ex...
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Creative Farming – My New Term For An Old Concept, To Encourage People, Farmers And Non-Farmers, To Defeat Despair And Lead Joyful Lives In/Via Farming!

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This whole article is my new message in Agriculture, to you wherever in the world, with this new concept of mine “Creative Farming” – “God willing, you create your own farm happiness!” (image from sg.images.search.yahoo.com ) The blunt statement “Regenerative Farming vs Conventional Farming” does not come from me; it is the title of an article by Sara that appears on fedbythefarm.com ). But “versus” quite captures the situation today; now I believe in the wisdom of RF compared to Conventional Farming. I am an agriculturist and a graduate of the UP Los Baños College of Agriculture (BSA 1965), but now believe in RF versus CF, while my alma mater UPLB hardly mentions RF if at all. I’m sorry to think this: “My alma mater has stopped learning!”? RF was born in the 1980s and spread all over the Internet; UPLB was born in 1909 and has stopped growing except old? This article is my reaction to the article by Sara as published by Fed by the Farm . As the above image shows, there are man...
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As Japan Lends P65 Billion To Philippines For Infrastructure & Climate Change, I Ask Which Is More Dangerous – Debt Or Climate?

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Great, or Grave News? Here it is, by Louise Maureen Simeon : “During a high-level meeting of the two governments yesterday in Manila, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and Japan International Cooperation Agency country chief representative Baba Takashi led the signing of loan agreements amounting to… roughly P65.43 Billion. “This was conducted on the sidelines of the 15th Philippines-Japan High-Level Joint Committee Meeting on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation as part of efforts to expedite the rollout of Japan-supported projects in the Philippines.” The above image, “Japan Lends P65 Billion To Philippines For Infrastructure, Climate Change” is from PhilStar , 25 March 2025 ( philstar.com ), vaguely presenting the news.   I say “vaguely” from the standpoint of not pointing out how the financiang will be spent “boosting infrastructure and climate change initiatives in the country.” Exactly how? Especially about Climate Change – the Enemy of Us All! As ...
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Help, 4! Green Manuring To Produce The New Rich Rice Farmer (PH), To Help Him Raise Rice Right!

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In terms of the New Rich Rice Farmer (PH) , I see that “green manuring” is not talked about in PhilRice and UP Los Baños. Hardly mentioned in their respective websites – is it because it is not a product of their respective efforts in research & development (R&D)? If so, poor excuse for R&D neglect! (image from grocycle.com ) About the subject, Satavic Farms ( satavic.org ) says: (In) green manuring… a crop like dhaincha ( Sesbania aculeata ), sunnhemp or horsebean is sown (usually) just before the monsoons. … Just around flowering (30-45 days after sowing), the crop is cut down and mixed into the soil after which the season’s main crop is sown. However you do your green manuring: IRRI equates “green manuring” with “cover cropping,” but I follow the differentiation made by Satavic Farms: “Green manuring is beneficial in two ways – firstly it fixes nitrogen, and secondly, the addition of biomass… greatly helps in improving the soil texture and water holding ca...
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Help, 3! Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry) To Produce The New Rich Rice Farmer, To Help Him Raise Rice Right!

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PhilRice has much to say about “Agroforestry,” which is “growing farm crops along with tree crops,” with many advantages aside from good income!  So!  I am pleasantly surprised. In the PhilRice website, Christina Frediles writes, “The Science Behind Trees” (12 Apr 2016, PhilRice , philrice.gov.ph ): “Some farms in Claveria, Misamis Oriental … tend plants in steep slopes with erosion-prone and acidic soils while rainfall serves as main source of water. But these obstacles do not bother them. Their ally? The trees – which are beneficial to rice and other crops.” Dr Agustin Mercado Jr , research manager of the World Agroforestry Center-Philippines, says “In planting trees with rice, farmers should consider its economic, environmental, and social benefits.” ”Trees maintain soil organic matters such as leaves and root decays. They improve vegetable productivity by reducing windspeed and increasing relative humidity and soil moisture at the surface.” Nevertheless: IRRI an...
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Help, 2! Crop Rotation To Produce The New Rich Rice Farmer, To Help Him Raise Rice Right!

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After noting that PhilRice is not into Cover Cropping as one of its recommendations for Filipino farmers – see my 30 Aug 2024 article, “Help, 1! Cover Crops To Produce The New Rich Rice Farmer, To Help Him Raise Rice Right!” Regenerative Agriculture , blogspot.com – I’m glad PhilRice is into Crop Rotation, as I see this practice as one of the 13 Regenerative  Agriculture (RA) practices that can help rice farmers grow themselves out of poverty! (Because the PH government is not trying to do that or is silent on zeroing the poverty numbers of Filipino farmers! (I don’t know why – and I’m not going to wait for explanations; I am doing what I can as a writer who happens to be an agriculturist and much bothered about the millions of poor Filipino farmers! (image from m13educators ) Wikipedia says ( en.wikipedia.org ): Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. This practice reduces the ...
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Help, 1! Cover Crops To Produce The New Rich Rice Farmer, To Help Him Raise Rice Right!

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Correct me if I am wrong, but our PH government is not directly helping our farmers rise from poverty and stay up there! No such plans that I know. And my alma mater, UP Los Baños , neither has plans nor programs nor studies on how to produce rich farmers out of poor farmers! It’s not that they don’t know how – it’s that they are not paying attention ! Of course, UP Los Baños knows about most if not all of the 13 practices in Regenerative Agriculture that I listed previously (see my 29 Aug 2024 article, “Help! Only Then Can Hope Be Coming To The Farmers. Help!,” Regenerative Agriculture , blogspot.com ). How can I, an alumnus, explain the lack of attention of my alma mater to farming practices that are low-costs-high-returns? Don’t ask me – ask them! Our farmers will rise from poverty if their earnings are great! That is, their costs are low and their returns are high – I don’t knw of any government official concerned about raising the standard of earnings of Filipino farmers, an...
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