Multiple Cropping, Monocropping, Agroecology, Farming Systems, Organic Farming – The Art Gomez I Did Not Know

The world does not pay much attention to people with original ideas, does it? I did not know all this about Arturo Gomez, and I had been in and out of UP Los Baños when he was a name, becoming one time Director of the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Graduate Study in Agriculture (SEARCA) – one, that he was the Filipino Pied Piper of Multiple Cropping.

(images: with wife Kwanchai; multiple cropping from hotels.com)

Saturday, 19 March 2022, I am reading 2 Facebook sharings on the death of Art Gomez, those of UPLB Professor Teodoro “Ted” Mendoza and UPLB alumnus & organic agriculture advocate Pablito Malabanan Villegas, both of whom I know.

Ted Mendoza’s sharing

Dr Arturo Gomez – a mentor and a scientist of all time.
Condolence to the Family.
Sir: You planted the seeds of multi-crop systems for the Philippines and the rest of the world some half century ago when the trend was plantation monocropped agriculture.
Surely, your efforts are not in vain .What you were promoting 50 years ago if adopted, should have addressed a lot of food problems now.
This generation and the next have to implement the systems you were promoting 50 years back.

I say: Multiple cropping still not the vogue in the Philippines, hardly taught in courses, classes or workshops within and without the so-called “Los Baños Science Community” that is composed of 6 major scientific institutions: Asean Center for Biodiversity (ACB), Forest Products Research & Industry Development Commission (Forpridecom), IRRI, Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), UP Los Baños, and Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study & Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).

Yes, the trend is, as Prof Ted puts it, still “plantation monocropped agriculture.” No wonder single-cropped Philippine banana, coconut, corn, onion, pineapple, and rice still suffer from their ancient pests & diseases. Monocrops lack the natural protection that multiple crops enjoy – the “friendly” organisms in one crop are “enemies” of organisms in the other crops, as they actually consume them as food. That is natural pest control. Mother Nature helps similarly when you do intercropping or companion planting.

Yes, Mr Gomez, “This generation and the next have to implement the systems you were promoting 50 years back!”

Pablito Malabanan Villegas’ sharing

Yes, Dr Ted, I know Dr Art Gomez devoted his life and career to promoting and practicing appropriate farming systems technologies globally. I am one of his avid followers and practitioners and advocates globally as well. I firmly believe in sustainable farming systems as my idol’s poor farm parents practiced it in upland farming systems -- lo and behold such farm technology generated above poverty line income that sent us 8 siblings to school that liberated us all from indigency, food insecurity and hopelessness!

(It’s still the solution today), so let us stop mono-cropping. Go, go, go agro-ecological and organic-based FARMING SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY AND ITS VALUE CHAIN OPTIMIZATION AND CLUSTERED FARMING!

I say, summarizing, here are 3 scientific minds speaking the same language: Nature-based agriculture.@517