AGRI 61

Second Semester, 2019-2020

Commentary Paper No. 2
Laurenz James C. De Matta
June 8, 2020

AGRA, is a fantasy themed musical that takes place in the land of Lakapati, it
depicts modern agricultural problems such as the loss of interest in agriculture,
delivering research to farmers, traditionalists with bad impression on innovations,
and political conflicts. The protagonist, Agra, is a princess of Farmaya, she invented
Siporia, an enhanced rice species, through artificial breeding. She made it in hopes
of solving the kingdom’s problem on food security and pest emergence. King Ekono,
the King of Farmaya, leader of the Council of 7 Lands, is a traditionalist. He firmly
believes that Kingdom Tekiya’s Pesticide is sufficient in the eradication of the pests
in the upcoming pest season. He represents the political figures that hinders the
development of technology, he believes that innovations break the law of nature and
thus is a taboo. The villain Hener, who replaced Ekono as the Leader of the Council,
improperly handles technology. He deliberately releases pests in hopes of becoming
the savior of the land. He represents the individuals that uses innovations for their
own motives to gain power, money, and reputation. Meanwhile, Yiro, is a man who
came from the land of Pinagbabawal, where outcasts of the 7 lands go, where there
is no law and everyone is free to do what they want to. Yiro, Sonya, and the people
of Pinagbabawal represents the critical people of our world. They are always
rationally thinking and they oppose bad decisions made by the leaders of the
Kingdoms. When Agra came to the land and introduced Siporia, the people of
Pinagbabawal was inspired to conduct experiments that led to the creation of Tuyo,
Tocino, and Vinegar. The creation has greatly helped their problems in food security.
Agra pointed out that even though experimenting is tiresome, it is essential to
improve current processes in food making, thus making it more efficient. Sonia and
Yiro discovered that Hener deliberately releases pests in the wild. Hener killed Sonia
in their confrontation which sparked the movement of the people of Pinagbabawal,
now called the land of Pag-asa. Hener was kicked out of the throne after his fierce
battle with King Ekono on the Throne room.

Like Agra, Agricultural Extension and Communication agents introduce new

technologies and methods to farmers. It is important to point out that Agra and her
supporters never forced their innovations to the kingdom, they are always explaining
what the innovations may bring to the future. She effectively used communication
consciously to help people form good decisions. Extension agents encounter
varieties of reaction to innovations, there are always traditionalists like King Ekono
who doesn’t want to adapt these technologies because of his beliefs, we can see
how Agra never wronged King Ekono, understanding and explaining the
circumstances is a great skill for an extension agent so that he/she would not offend
the consumer. Extension agents always put themselves in the shoes of a consumer,
by doing this they understand what the consumer thinks and thus they can devise a
plan to convince them.
In real life, there are also farmers that thinks like the people of Pinagbabawal,
they are open to innovation and they believe that adapting new technologies can
greatly improve their production. After adapting the process of experimentation, they
were equipped with knowledge and skill to feed themselves more efficiently.
Extension services must be designed to develop agricultural skills among farmers,
stimulate them to acquire new knowledge, enable them with access to the flow of
information and transfer of knowledge and scientific findings. I saw how Agra used
extension as an advisory work, she taught and enabled farmers so that they will be
equipped sufficiently to solve agricultural problems on their own.
In the musical play, we can see how the experimentation bore fruit to many
products. Because of the experiments of the people of Pinagbabawal, we saw the
importance of extension as an agrarian-and-political instrument, as a tool for
production, ensuring good pipeline between research and farm, and liberation of the
nation from the control of Hener-who uses technology in a wrong way. Innovations
brought upon by extension was used to stimulate the development of agricultural
production leading to food security. I would give credit to Agra, for being an effective
extension agent. Because of her, countless socio-political problems were solved.
References:

(2017). AGRA: A New Musical

Leuuwis,C. (2013). Communication for Rural Innovation: Rethinking Agricultural

Extension. Retrieved from :https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=Eppo
m7NVmvMC&lpg=PT10&ots=acDC2Xvnc4&dq=agricultural%20extension
%20&lr&pg=PT10#v=onepage&q=agricultural%20extension&f=false

Pannell, D. J., & Claassen, R. (2020). The Roles of Adoption and Behavior Change
in Agricultural Policy. Retrieved from: doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13009