IS ANYONE aware of a school that combines agriculture, fisheries, forestry, business administration, economics, engineering, information technology and other disciplines together towards the common goal of food sufficiency and food security?
To put it in another way, is there a school that aims to solve the problem of extreme hunger and food scarcity? In other words, a school that would champion the cause of food abundance?
As a case in point, the University of the Philippines (UP) System has all of the above mentioned schools and colleges that are scattered in several campuses, but there is no single location or facility where these could all converge for research, product development, training, packaging, marketing, networking and other related activities.
As I understand it, there could be a piece of land inside UP Diliman that could be used as the site for this school, which we could tentatively call the International Food Abundance Research and Marketing School (IFARMS).
Perhaps the university officials would be interested in this project, because it fulfills some of the functions that a state university should do, such as teaching courses, conducting research, creating employment and helping the community.
As a research facility, IFARMS could conduct studies about artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, drones, renewable energy, biotechnology, organic agriculture, aquaculture, aquaponics, hydroponics, soil science, plant science, alternative feeds, biogas, biochar and water production.
Of course, the energy research should include geothermal, solar, wind, hydro and wave sources. I think that the unifying factor here should be convergence. All the sciences within the UP system should be tapped to come together towards a single purpose, no other than food abundance.
To be clear, the convergence should also include the social sciences, such as sociology and political science.
TELEMEDICINE AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL
Marinduque governor Presby Velasco has a wonderful plan to make telemedicine available to all the 218 Barangay Health Units (BHUs) in his island province, and I am very happy to help him with the project as his Information and Communications Technology (ICT) consultant.
Although the technology for telemedicine is already available in the market, it appears that no province has yet implemented a province wide telemedicine project that could connect patients from the grassroots level to the doctors at the municipal halls and the provincial capitol.
By doing that, Governor Velasco will be able to achieve the goal of providing universal access to healthcare to everyone in his province.
Although the project might appear to be complex, it is actually designed with a simple plan that would make it easy to implement. The one part of the plan is to install internet connectivity in each of the BHUs, using satellite or fiber, depending on what is available and affordable. The other part of the plan is to install an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software system. As of now, EMR software is only available in private clinics, for the purpose of storing the medical records of patients in electronic form, either in Local Area Networks (LANs) or online data centers.
Either way, a doctor would find it easier to diagnose a patient’s ailments, because he or she has access to the medical history. Because of the internet connectivity, any patient who walks in to any BHU will be able to avail of an actual online consultation with a medical doctor who will probably be located at either the municipal hall or the provincial capitol.
Of course, this system will work even if face to face consultations are not allowed./PN
