wednesdAY | may 13, 2020

MDM

P11

Reinvention and resilience

Maria Capra patrols my gulayan sa bakod

My gulayan sa bakod is now one month old. The chili plant that I transplanted from a pot is taking in new leaves and is showing flowers. It seems determined to make up for lost time.

The pair of moringa (malunggay) cuttings are showing sprouts. My taro (gabi) plants are looking like plants with their canopies. The alugbati (Chinese spinach) is all green, its runners redirected toward the fence by a bundle of branches. I am looking forward to the squash plants to follow suit and to occupy the edge of the fence itself.

“Ah, it will come, it will come,” I tell myself.

Above all, there is a vigilant Maria Capra patrolling my gulayan sa bakod during the day. With her around, I am assured of one thing. My mini-

garden is protected from the neighborhood cats that prowl the vicinity and that sometimes deliver their “night soil”on loose earth with impunity.

Several times, my wife and I spotted the bird (actually a fan-tail easily recognizable by its black and white colors, reason perhaps it is known as Maria Capra) chasing the household cat. The bird it appears has declared that house in Agdao and an adjoining house its territorial domain and enforces that claim with sharp beaks that would send the cats reeling in pain.

With Maria Capra patrolling her domain, the integrity of my mini-garden is assured. You see, the presence of cats and dogs is a nightmare to any green thumb determined to ensure the soil is not

According to Maximo Torero, the Chief Economist of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), a recession in developed countries will drastically affect the agricultural sector in most developing countries. Most fruits grown in developing countries are exported to the developed countries. The recession may lower the demand for these fruits. Therefore, the large scale production of these fruits in most developing countries will not be sustainable in the long run. Unless, according to the FAO Chef Economist, they can find a way to solve such a problem. The strategy they propose is to find or develop local and regional demands for these goods. In short, there has to be some adjustments made to cope economically with the pandemic.

Businesses must reinvent themselves or refocus, if not change entirely. This may mean changing the products sold by the businesses. For instance, in the United States, several producers of wine and spirits changed their products to hand sanitizers. They may want to turn back to producing

spirits if things get better, but for now they have opted to adapt to the demands. In order for them to come back from the impact of the coronavirus, they reinvented their businesses. They adapted to the changes in order to be resilient.

This is something that we should all aspire for, most especially businesses that were, and are still, drastically affected by the pandemic. Perhaps this may not be easy, but it is not impossible. Businesses that use technologies that are flexible enough to accommodate changes are the ones that can make the changes relatively easier. For example, there are still some restaurants and coffee shops that prefer the dine-in experience over bringing them out; they discourage take-out orders. To keep their businesses afloat, which also means providing some employment, they should be able to adapt with the current circumstances. This may mean changing their image a bit to accommodate takeouts, and to even consider delivery services as a major component of their services.

examples is simple: we cannot overcome the impact of the current crisis if we do not allow ourselves to adapt or make some adjustments. We cannot just wait and hide until things get back to normal; if we do so we run the risk of losing a lot to the pandemic. For one, nobody knows when this will eventually stop. So hiding and waiting may take a long while and mean only wasted time and opportunity. Waiting and hiding are also not a proactive response to the crisis. It is a sort of withdrawing or running away from difficulties. Because of the uncertainty of the current situation, an active and intelligent response is needed. We have to be resilient in the face of these difficulties and not to succumb to its threats.

There are several ways to do this, but how exactly, I cannot be sure. I think one of them is to learn more about the various uses of the latest information and communications technology. Most assume that because we see many people have access to social media they are familiar with computers and the extent of what it can

do to us personally and our businesses. If more and more of us become familiar with the capacity of the latest computers we will know how we can adapt to the situation. The so-called millennials are able to go on with their lives close to normal compared to the older generation. This is because of how much they know about computers. The older generation should quickly get familiar with the capacity of their smartphones or computers so that they can think of ways to adapt to the situation and respond intelligently to it.

Another is that we can start changing some of our habits. Most celebrations we do outside our homes, but perhaps we can start changing this habit by finding ways to do them indoors. We can forego eating at the restaurants and instead cook and celebrate at home; opt to have family movie nights at home. We can sort of reinvent socialization by being more close with our family. What I am saying is that we can still go on with our lives and be happy despite this crisis the world now faces. That, I think, is resilience.

Nor can you call chicken dung churned out by various poultry farms an organic fertilizer. Neither can it be used outright as a soil conditioner as some farmers oriented towards mass production are wont to do. This is because chicken dung is known to contain the antibiotics that were fed to the chicken at the poultry farm and their effects on plants are believed to be systemic, meaning they stay with the plants and the humans that consume the plants.

To avoid these, animal dung (goats, pigs, and chicken) are processed by composting before they are considered safe to use.

My composting area is small by comparison, roughly two feet by six feet in diameter but it is enough to accommodate the biodegradables produced by the household. There,

all fruit and vegetable peelings have been deposited, as well as old and rotting wood. Time and again, I covered them with tree leaves gathered from the vicinity.

You will be surprised at the variety of microorganisms, earthworms, maggots, and crawling creatures working night and day to turn the pile into a compost. The practice does not emit odor. That corner also attracts the flies and several times, I saw dragonflies hovering at the edges.

And since the flies have all the food they need, not one has since strayed into the kitchen as well as the adjoining kitchen of a brother-in-law, much to his delight.

You can try it yourself. And I am more than willing to show how it is done.

For some businesses this may mean changing entirely the goods they produce, although temporarily. For example, before the lockdown your shop may have been tailoring suits, you can change it for the moment to the production of something more expected to be in demand, such as personal protective equipment. Perhaps, if your current tools and equipment will allow with only few changes, you can opt instead to produce face masks or face shields.

There are still other examples of this reinvention and resilience. Schools are perhaps some of the earliest ones to do this. There are some big schools that were able to easily adapt to an

online delivery of education, although with some early difficulties. One of these difficulties is internet access. Substantial numbers of students and faculties do not have readily available computers and internet access at their homes sufficient for an online class. In response, some schools have provided their faculties and students with computers and internet connection devices. Schools are repositories of knowledge, and thus it is no surprise that they were able to adapt early to the current situation. Their engagement with current technologies allowed them to respond timely and appropriately to the crisis.

The lesson from these

contaminated by their feces. It is a strict protocol observed by organic farming practitioners.

And as far as that goes, human feces and chicken dung do not have any place in a strict organic farming environment. So unlike in market-focused farms where anything goes as my cousin, Alberto Tuban Jr., who worked as an engineer in the building of several

dams in China discovered way back. Determined to improve the diet, his search for leafy vegetables ended at a wet market and his eyes bulged at a pile of newly-harvested pechay (Bok Choy). Yet at his quarters’ kitchen sink just when he was preparing it for the pot, he saw to his horror bits of human feces clinging to the roots of the plants.