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ASINGAN, PANGASINAN: We just ended at noon today, 23 October 2012, the very first General Assembly Meeting of our Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative held at the Senior Citizens building across from what is known as the Danggay building but which we will willingly call the  Senator Letecia Ramos-Shahani Hall , to honor the lady who planned and funded it through her congressional development fund (pork barrel). For weeks now, we have had the keys to the Danggay building; it is like Occupy Wall Street because Danggay used to be impregnable, off-limits to outsiders. We learned at the GA meeting that Nagkaisa was officially listed in the registry of the Regional Cooperative Development Authority, Dagupan Extension Office on 10 October 2012. We met at the Seniors' conference room because Danggay is an almost-empty building, no chairs and no desks. It's an old building but it's nice, because it's concrete and has withstood the tests of time; it has 2 floors, 2 rest rooms and a...

MANILA – Today at 40, ICRISAT is #1 among the 15 international centers of agriculture of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. This pre-eminence was achieved in about 10 years by Team ICRISAT, with Director General  William Dar  as Team Captain. Metaphor:  ICRISAT @ 40 is ready to take on the world, middle-aged, at the 7th stage of life, according to  Erik Erikson : "Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs Self-absorption or Stagnation" with "Basic Strengths: Production and Care" ( support4change.com ). This is the time when, Erikson says, "we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to 'be in charge,' the role we've (long) envied." Another metaphor:  We have just registered  Nagkaisa , a multipurpose cooperative in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, the Philippines. Board Member or not, because I ...

MANILA – Today at 40, ICRISAT is #1 among the 15 international centers of agriculture of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. This pre-eminence was achieved in about 10 years by Team ICRISAT, with Director General  William Dar  as Team Captain. Metaphor:  ICRISAT @ 40 is ready to take on the world, middle-aged, at the 7th stage of life, according to  Erik Erikson : "Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs Self-absorption or Stagnation" with "Basic Strengths: Production and Care" ( support4change.com ). This is the time when, Erikson says, "we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to 'be in charge,' the role we've (long) envied."  Another metaphor:  We have just registered  Nagkaisa , a multipurpose cooperative in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, the Philippines. Board Member or not, because I want o...

DAGUPAN City: 10 September 2012, we have just submitted the Articles of Cooperation and Bylaws of Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative to Ms  Jocelyn Vasquez  of the Regional Cooperative Development Authority office along Perez Blvd in this City, and we understood it was good as approved except for the signature of the Director who happened to be on official trip, and then the assigned number. We  means  Rogelio "Roger" Daranciang  as Chair of Nagkaisa,  Jose "Lito" Sales  as Vice Chair, and  Florencia "Poying" Altura  as Treasurer. With her sister  Norie , Poying drove us in her Toyota (nice ride) all the way from Asingan to Dagupan to Lingayen, where we visited the Office of Governor  Amado T Espino  and said hello to Board Member  Ranjit Ramos-Shahani , who is from Asingan . Norie and I tagged along, so we were witness to history being made - Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative is the very first senior citizens' attempt to l...

MANILA - How do you explain the success of ICRISAT in becoming the #1 institute within the CGIAR universe of 15 international centers for agricultural research? From where I sit, it's the positive & productive interaction of partners, people, science and funds - none more important than the other. It was Team ICRISAT at first, led by Director General   William Dollente Dar , working with science, people and funds. Leadership made the local difference. Then it became Team ICRISAT & Partners. Partnership made the global difference. In a chain, the strongest link is the weakest; in science, that's usually funds. In the 65th Governing Board meeting of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics held at ICRISAT's campus in Patancheru, India held 21-24 September 2011, the GB approved the Institute's Fundraising Plan meant to set into full motion the Business Plan for 2011-2015, considering the revised funding processes and mechanisms of...

ASINGAN, PANGASINAN - Sunday, 25 September 2011, at 1400 hours, I am with the 7 Vet Med students from the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMSU) in La Union Province who have just finished their practicum at the individual buffalo farms of members of the Bantog Coop led by  Modesto "Modi" Gabriel . The 7 are:  Jonathan Cariaga, Edmar Cardaño, Cherry Mae Castillo, Jenny Ruth Catabay, Cristy Caoile, Catherine Lobrete,  and  Marie Claire Cablac . The natural leader turned out to be Jonathan; the first 3 are Seniors, the rest Juniors. They were sent to the Bantog Coop by their professor, Dr  Elizabeth P Galaraga  whom they fondly call  Doc Aga . She has heard about the success of this coop in raising imported buffalos for milk production. They were very thankful of their hands-on experience. It is their 3rd and last day; I just happen to be visiting my hometown and I learned about it only today through  Neneng Manuel . Modi asks them to ...

MANILA - ICRISAT is quietly reinventing market-oriented agriculture, so you may not have heard of it. They call their approach  inclusive market-oriented development . For that, they use the acronym IMOD; I prefer the acronym iMODe, to call attention to the concepts of  inclusive  and  development , that which are ICRISAT's twin intellectual contributions to market-oriented agriculture, MOA.  The central idea is to link farmers to markets in an inclusive way order to escape poverty . Certainly a radical notion. To appreciate the importance of that, let us consider  Michael Porter’s  notion of the value chain, but in a modified manner. All things being equal, to a farm produce, there is value added along the way as it goes to the market.  In MOA, the value chain actors are : (1) input providers, (2) producers, (3) traders, (4) processors, and (5) marketers (fiji-taro-and-kava.com). I interpret that quite simply as that the chain is like this: Input...