BIAG Economics: Brand-New Intellectualization of Agriculture

MANILA: The photograph above that I took, and which I have posterized here, shows a banana clump devastated by something; it is a symbol of Philippine agriculture today: a crop half alive & half dead. We will have to help it regrow to a healthy & productive life. Especially considering climate change.

This is the 3rd essay in a series, in which I am offering BIAG as a new paradigm in Philippine agriculture; to appreciate BIAG fully, you should have read the other 2 essays first before this one:

1, "BIAG, The New Agriculture" (11 April 2016, BIAG, blogspot.com).
2, "BIAG: Do You Begin With Seed, Soil Or Water?" (12 April 2016, BIAG, blogspot.com).

Like I said earlier, biag is life in Ilocano, which I am. Now I can tell you: BIAG is the acronym for bio-inclusive agriculture, which means that all forms of life in, on and above the soil in the farm or field are included as contributors to this new & improved farming paradigm. And it's an expandable, one-size-fits all agriculture: small-scale, medium-scale and big-scale.

Economics, yes. Because if the economics of The New Agriculture of Life does not promise a million to each of a million farmers, why should you care a hoot about it?

So now I give you the economics of BIAG, The New Agriculture of Life, where there is the least cost, the least loss, the highest yield, the highest net, the most sensible income, and zero greenhouse gas emissions (plural); here are the specifics:

No chemical fertilizers.

No organic fertilizers.

No pests.

No pesticides.

No drought.

Highest yields.

Least cost total.

Water conserved.

Plant anytime.

Beautiful view.

Beautiful insects to watch.

Pleasant weather around.

Greenhouse gases avoided.

That's 13 in all.

No cost: No chemical fertilizers.

The very name of The New Agriculture of Life says it all: BIAG. To repeat, biag is life in Ilocano. Under BIAG, you do not apply any chemical fertilizer at all. There is no life in chemical fertilizers, only chemicals. I refer to lab or artificial chemicals. The seed, soil or water in the farm should not be made to suffer from the damaging effects of man-made chemicals.

No cost: No organic fertilizers.

The fertilizer in BIAG would be natural, but not your organic fertilizer, not your compost, not even vermicompost, and not your leaf mold. It is in a different form; in fact, you cannot call it fertilizer technically, because its function is not specifically to fertilize or add nutrients but to give life to the field you are cultivating. What is it? I'll tell you next time! But I'm telling you now, BIAG is not organic fertilizer; it's not bio-fertilizer; it's not organic agriculture; it's not Fukuoka's natural farming; it's not SRI modified for any crop. Let's finish with the economics first.

No loss: No pests.

BIAG will grow your crops so that they will be healthy and can endure the depredation of insects and other harmful organisms. Crops that are unhealthy or suffer from imbalances of nutrients are tasty for the insects to consume. For instance, excessive available nitrogen can make plants attractive to insects (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, sare.org). if your crop is not healthy, the insects multiply beyond their usual numbers, and you have a problem – an infestation.

Note: BIAG takes bacteria, fungi and such other organisms that cause diseases as pests. "The Disease Triangle" comprises a host plant, pathogen, and environment (apsnet.org). This is the conventional view: For a disease to occur, the plant must be susceptible; the pathogen must be virulent; and the environment must be favorable for the disease to develop. In fact, a disease does not occur, such as rice blast caused by a fungus, if the natural enemy of the fungus is present, even if the plant is "susceptible." The fungus becomes "virulent" only if its population increases because of the absence of natural enemies. The environment that favors pest incidence is the one where the predator-prey balance has been disturbed in favor of the prey, who then becomes the plant's predator. Same with insect pests.

No widespread infection (by disease-causing organisms) or infestation (insect pests) occurs when there is a natural balance between predators and preys. It is the preys that become pests when their predators are knocked out by some agricultural practice or by the "better safe than sorry" application of pesticides, and they multiply to epidemic proportions because there is no reduction in their numbers. BIAG sees to it that this natural balance is maintained.

No harm: No pesticides.

Certainly BIAG calls for no neonicotinoids that have been linked to honey-bee colony collapse (Wikipedia). No pesticides, period. Not even bio-pesticides. If you don't spray because you can see that your crop is healthy and there is only the usual population of insects, you will be producing healthful foods. You don't need expensive or inexpensive chemicals to fight the pests because there are no pests.

No water scarcity: No drought.

Before any drought, or even during a drought, The New Agriculture of Life taps the water from all possible sources, including but not limited to the underground water table, and continues to do so, to produce a never-ending supply of water. No irrigation necessary. How? That is a secret I will reveal in the next essay.

High output: Highest yields.

Whether you plant a new variety or an old one, if you follow the guidelines of BIAG, if you allow your plants to grow as Mother Nature intended, you will always get the highest yields because the water and nutrient supplies for your crops are always at their highest levels – they are demand-driven, not supply-pushed like fertilizers in conventional agriculture.

Low input: Least cost total.

No doubt about it. With inexpensive varieties planted, no fertilizers applied, no pesticides sprayed, no irrigation necessary, your practice of The New Agriculture of Life will give you the least cost ever.

How about credit? I recommend that it be obtained through a cooperative that is truly pro-poor (I first described this radical breed of coop 3 years ago in my essay, "IMODest Proposal: A Coop Revolution for millions of poor farmers," 28 September 2013, A Magazine Called Love, blogspot.com). I'm very consistent.