Agriculture.ph Blog

BULA, Camarines Sur—The 426 farmers here who benefitted from the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and banded themselves together through organic farming 18 years ago is now a multiawarded, multimillion-peso cooperative.

With the over 817 hectares of mostly hilly and rolling pasture land, Pecuria Development Cooperative Inc. (PDCI) continued to evolve and its members amassed over P26 million in total assets while keeping a net surplus of more than P2.4 million and a subscribed capital share of P1.5 million.

Apart from that, the cooperative expects about P8 million in yearly income from the sale of organic rice—its major product—that commands a handsome price through its outlets of leading supermarkets in key cities nationwide.

The cooperative also produces bio-organic fertilizers out of rice straw, chicken dung and carbonized rice hull, and sells pro-organic garden soil and compost fungus activator. Recently, PDCI ventured into broiler production through contract-growing arrangement with Bounty Fresh Corp.

It is also entered into other income-generating activities like agro-forestry, nursery-keeping, and bamboo, vegetable and other alternative crop production.

As part of its service to members, PDCI offers animal dispersal and production activities, commodity and cash loans.

The cooperative provides a social health program bundled with hospital care, medicines through its self-operated drugstore and herbal garden, health-care loan and burial and death benefits for members and their families.

“Indeed, this is one of the few success stories that we can attribute to the implementation of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law during the past 21 years,” Emily Bordado, the Public Information Officer of the Department of Agriculture  regional office based in nearby Pili town, told the BusinessMirror on Monday.

The land lies on a rustic cluster of hills and vast undulating pasture here in barangay Lanipga—formerly known as the Union Agricula y Pecuria del Sur de Luzon, or simply Pecuria—a hacienda-type animal ranch which operated from 1952 to 1985 under the ownership of a wealthy Filipino-Spanish landlord.

In 1988, because of external threats and internal unrest, the property was placed under CARP’s voluntary offer to Sell scheme.

What followed was a struggle for control among farmer groups with members claiming the rights as beneficiaries.

After over three years, the Department of Agrarian Reform  that served as the arbiter found a win-win solution to the conflict through the organization of the Peoples Coalition for Unity and Agrarian Reform Integration Action, which was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 5, 1991.

Eventually, the organization became the PDCI and registered with the Cooperative Development Authority  on September 30, 1991.

Sixteen years after its birth as a cooperative and agriculture producer, PDCI has made a name on its own and carved a niche in the agriculture sector as a successful organization advocating for sustainable and ecologically sound farm practices.

“It demonstrates that farming is indeed a profitable enterprise,” Bordado said.

The cooperative built the capability of each member and their families toward a productive and sustainable community through principled partnership, efficient and effective organization and farm-resource management, she said.

PDCI used most of the tillable land of the 817.33-hectare property for agriculture production using organic technology. Over 733 hectares were devoted to various crops such as rice, sugar cane, vegetables, rootcrops, fruit trees, agro-forest and bamboo.

More than 120 hectares of irrigated area is planted with organic rice and 10 hectares of nonirrigated area with upland rice.

Some 543 hectares are planted with sugar cane, 30 hectares with bamboo, 20 hectares with fruit and agro-forest trees, 5 hectares with vegetables and another 5 hectares with rootcrops.

Cooperative manager Miller Bicaldo said the group’s decision to embrace organic farming technology was influenced by the concepts and ideals of producing healthy food, use of environment-friendly methods and less production cost introduced by nongovernment organizations that helped PDCI.

Written by Danny O. Calleja / Correspondent

Source: Business Mirror

LOCAL swine producers are feeling the crunch of the swine flu scare with dipping domestic pork demand, but expressed optimism on market improvement soon, an industry leader said.

This developed as Emilio V. Escobillo Jr., president of the South Cotabato Swine Producers Association (Socospa), also appeared upbeat as government animal experts are addressing concerns on another hog disease — the ebola reston virus — that obstructed the country’s pilot foreign pork shipment last December.

“There’s initial drop [on domestic pork meat demand] due to misconception,” Escobillo confirmed when sought about the effects of swine flu that killed people in Mexico, the United States and in other countries.

“The swine flu could not be transmitted [to humans] through eating of pork meat,” he added.

Cathy M. Romero, sales and marketing officer of Matutum Meat Packing Corp., said demand for pork meat also plunged but declined to attribute it to the swine flu scare.

Matutum Meat operates a P200 million modern swine slaughtering facility in neighboring Polomolok, South Cotabato. It distributes fresh and frozen cut pork meat products to the domestic market.

“Normally this season is lean in as far as pork meat consumption is concerned,” Romero said in a separate interview.

Both Romero and Escobillo did not say how much were the decline in pork meat volume from their buyers.

Matutum Meat, a sister company of Cebu-based Sunpride Foods Inc. which produces Holiday and Sunpride canned goods, is the only processing plant in the country accredited by Singapore to export pork meat products in the island-state.

Last December, cut pork meat products were to be transported to the Singapore when the Department of Agriculture (DA) stopped it due to the discovery of a strain of ebola virus in pig tissue samples coming from four swine farms in the provinces of Bulacan, Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija.

Escobillo said the Bureau of Animal Industry, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, is testing hog farms in Mindanao for possible clearance from ebola reston to push forward the country’s foreign foray.

“The BAI promised to finish the ebola testing in three months,” he said.

The ebola reston virus, a subtype of Ebola, was discovered in the Philippines in 1989 among crab-eating macaques exported to the Hazleton Laboratories in Reston, Virginia. (BSS)

Source: Sun Star

A project on growing high-value vegetables under contoured sloping areas is being implemented in Brgy. Masunoy and Brgy. Candungaw in San Isidro, Bohol.

This is a joint project of the local government (LGU) of San Isidro, the Bureau of Soils and Water Management, East-West Seed Company and the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

According to Daisy Monreal, technology transfer technologist of East-West Seed Company, they will showcase the improved techniques of growing high-value vegetables in sloping fields that are contoured to prevent erosion of the soil.

The technologists of East-West Seed have been successfully teaching farmers in six Bohol towns under a program that involved the growing of vegetables in more or less flat lands.

Among the vegetables that are being showcased are hybrid eggplant, tomato, ampalaya, different varieties of sweet and hot pepper, cucumber and other vegetables.

Some 23 farmers have been selected to undergo training. After their training, they will put up their own vegetable projects under contoured conditions. Later, other farmers from the town and other towns will be brought to the adoptors’ projects so they could also learn the techniques of growing vegetables under contoured sloping farms.

Source: Manila Bulletin

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The Brontispa longissima,or coconut-leaf beetle, has invaded the coconut trees in nine barangays here, prompting emergency measures to prevent the destructive pest from spreading to other parts of the city.

City Agriculturist Diosdado Palacat said the infested barangays are Bunguiao, Cabatangan, Curuan, Lunzuran, Pasonanca, San Roque, Sta. Maria, Tumaga and Vitali—the latest.

Palacat’s office is about to survey how many coconut trees the leaf beetle has actually plagued. Palacat said his office has created Task Force Brontispa to help the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) contain and eliminate the Brontispa longissima infestation in the city.

Task force head Carlito Rubares has advised the farmers to report new trees the leaf beetle has infested.

“[The farmers] have to be vigilant so that we can help save our coconut industry,” Palacat said.

The coconut leaf beetle feeds on young leaves and damages seedlings and mature coconut palms.

In the last three decades, the beetle has become a serious threat to coconut trees in the Pacific region, especially in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Vietnam, Nauru, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Maldives, Myanmar, Hainan Island and Aru Islands and, most recently, the Philippines.

Brontispa longissima came to the Philippines in 2004 through imported ornamental plants.

Written by Bong Garcia / Reporter

Source: Written by Bong Garcia / Reporter

STA. FE, NUEVA VIZCAYA — Well-known for its native handicrafts and upland vegetables, this landlocked and mountainous province may soon add fish to its array of indigenous products.

Fish? That’s right. According to Dr. Jovita Ayson, regional director of the fisheries bureau in Cagayan Valley, Nueva Vizcaya’s topography and climate — similar to the country’s summer capital, is not a hindrance to the large scale production of fish.

Ayson made the comment during the launching of the fish condominium, a component of the Fish for Upland Dwellers’ project here recently. The project is part of the priority thrusts under BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento Jr.

“This demo project will help us create income opportunities for fish farmers. It will also enable us to address nutritional needs of our constituents, as according to the DOH, upland dwellers are prone to fish protein deficiency,” Ayson said.

This innovative fish culture project entails use of recycled metal drums opened and welded on end to form a chamber where fish can be cultured.

One module consists of 9 such chambers laid out in horizontal manner and stacked in 3 tiers with angle bars as frame.

According to Dr. Dominador Abalos, the project, stocked with 3,000 pieces of African hito fingerlings, can produce approximately 1,000 kilos of fish after 6 months culture period. Projected net income is P50,000 with a farmgate price of P110 per kilo. Feed cost is P40,000 while the depreciation cost of the structure is 9,200 pesos per year.

The number of fish stocked per chamber ranges from 300 to 400 pieces. This is to enable the implementors to determine the optional stocking density of fish in such culture system.

A salient feature of the project is its use of the free-flowing water from the mountain streams. Outlets of this free-flowing water can be seen on the roadside when one traverses the Maharlika highway here.

Unlike other fish culture technologies having high stocking density and limited space, our project does not use energy-consuming aerators and water pumps to maintain water quality, thanks to the year-round water from the mountains,” the project leader said.

Nueva Vizcaya’s mountainous feature makes it very difficult and expensive to construct fishponds, particularly in the highlands. This technology allows us to culture fish in constained and marginal areas.”

Written By MAX PRUDENCIO

Source: Manila Bulletin

THE government is bent on protecting local vegetable farmers against illegal entry of imported vegetables in the country.

This was the assurance of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Arthur Yap to the group of vegetable farmers attending the first national vegetable marketing summit held in Davao City recently.

Yap, in his message delivered by High Value Commercial Crops (HVCC) Director Rene Rafael Espino, said the DA and the Bureau of Customs have agreed to curtail smuggling of vegetables in the country.

Last year, the DA-Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) intercepted 96 40-foot containers of illegally imported crop commodities. One of the most recent results of this partnership was the apprehension by plant quarantine staff of 40×40 container vans of onions without the required plant quarantine clearance at the Manila International Container Port in January this year.

“Smuggling destroys local economies and exacerbates poverty in the country as oversupply of imported cheap agricultural products means business closure to local agricultural providers who are unable to compete,” Yap said.

“For the government, this translates to loss of revenues that deprives the country much-needed funds to cover the National Government’s budget deficit and provide additional services on education, health, housing, and other poverty alleviation programs,” he said.

Yap said that despite some difficulties, the DA is pursuing its fight against smugglers who threaten the very existence of vegetable and other agriculture-based industries.

The DA-BPI has been strictly implementing quarantine rules, including the conduct of pests risk analysis on new vegetable imports.

The DA is also tapping nongovernment organizations, such as the Agriculture Sector Alliance of the Philippines (Agap) and Alyansa Agrikultura, to help in accreditation of agriculture industry representative from farmers and fisherfolk organizations in all ocular inspections of imported shipments of agriculture and fishery products, whether in port of destinations or in cold storage facilities and in warehouses.

Although the DA is implementing measures to curb smuggling of agricultural products, Yap said the most effective responses to smuggling are formulation and implementation of better laws, improved systems of trading including responsive bureaucracy, and strong support from industry players.

“All of which should be supported by a system that nurtures good governance and genuinely promotes the welfare of Filipino farmers,” Yap said. (Noel T. Provido/PR)

Source: Sun Star

THE Senate blue-ribbon committee is poised to open an investigation into alleged irregularities attending bidding for the purchase of P1.4 billion worth of heavy equipment by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Sen. Mar Roxas II, who pressed for the inquiry in a privileged speech early this week, cited allegations that the bidding favored certain heavy- equipment distributors whose bid offers were higher than market retail rates.

“Supposedly, the contract has yet to be awarded. But what if nobody was able to discover this? We need to examine this case closely to protect the people’s welfare against those who scheme to pocket the people’s hard-earned money,” he said.

“We will examine closely what this project is all about and why the NIA favored these two companies, which from the outset are obviously disqualified from doing the job.”

According to Roxas, the two companies, he identified as Civic Merchandising Inc. and Transport Equipment Corp. (TEC), were favored in the NIA bidding, despite failing to meet a key bidding requirement imposed by the NIA’s bids and awards committee.

He pointed out that under the NIA’s bidding rules, “a company must have a single transaction in the last 10 years that is equivalent to 50 percent of the approved budget contract. Neither Civic nor TEC fulfilled this requirement,” he added.

Roxas argued that “transparency is important in all government projects so the people would know that their monies are not being wasted on useless things. We must make sure that this project does not follow the trail of the fertilizer-fund scam.”

He said a blue-ribbon committee inquiry into the NIA bidding anomaly is expected to result in remedial legislation that would strengthen safeguards in the Government Procurement Act.

Written by Butch Fernandez / Reporter

Source: Business Mirror

With deforestation remaining unabated and the demand for quality wood on the rise, the success of efforts to regain Philippine forest cover may lie in the quality of seedlings being planted to replace lost vegetation.

The UPLB College of Forestry and Natural Resources (CFNR) has been pursuing this track of providing quality forest trees and other plants via tissue culture.

“We want planting materials that grow very fast and perform very well under adverse conditions in the field. Although the work now is still in the experimental stages, the commercial scale production of quality forest species may soon be realized,” said Dr. Portia Lapitan, director of the UPLB Forest Biotechnology Program.

A tree physiologist and forest geneticist, Dr. Lapitan believes that biotechnology is necessary to meet the increasing demands for planting stocks. As of now, the Philippines is said to need an estimated 195.4 million seedlings a year to meet the annual planting target for 100,000 hectares.

At present, there are not enough existing seed sources of forest species for reforestation and production in the country.

At the UPLB campus, the program’s modest laboratory is home to hundreds of glass bottles with tiny, cloned seedlings of various tree and non-tree species growing in modified Murashige and Skoog media. The Forest Biotechnology Laboratory has been operational since 2002 and has produced a number of valuable seedlings, all of which have been grown from tissue culture.

The seedlings come from germinated seeds of trees with superior quality. The tissue-cultured seedlings are expected to reach maturity earlier and perform better than the conventionally raised trees. They also retain the quality of the mother tree, including its disease and pest resistance.

The Forest and Biotechnology Program has developed tissue culture protocols for Acacia mangium (mangium), Gmelina arborea (yemane), Paraserianthes falcataria (falcata, Moluccan sau), Tectona grandis (teak), and Calamus (rattan) species.

Future work will include species such as the Falcata tree (Paraserianthes falcataria), Jathropa, and the Moringa tree, commonly known as “malunggay.” These will be developed to answer the need for sources of bio-fuel in the country.

According to Dr. Lapitan the protocol for out-planting still has to be refined in order to ensure higher seedling survival. She and her team of scientists and researchers are now working to perfect the breeding and biotechnology work to develop and produce planting materials in order to meet the demand for reinstating the country’s forests and tree plantations.

Written By BERNICE P. VARONA

Source: Manila Bulletin

A HOUSE committee member on Food and Agriculture has expressed concern over the declining coconut industry of the country.

Bukidnon Second District Rep. Teofisto Guingona told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro by phone, over the weekend that the coconut industry has suffered a sharp decline and that national government should come in to prop it back up.

“Unless we do something about it, we will lose our place in the coconut world market,” Guingona said.

He cited a recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) study that showed that “the Philippines will lose the distinction of being the world’s top coconut producer and supplier.”

The report also stated the government’s continuing failure to address the concerns of stagnation and declining productivity of coconuts, low domestic consumption and weak research and development, “as major reason for the decline.

“Our competitive advantage in the international market is being chipped away unless the government does something to address the declining productivity of coconuts,” Guingona said.
He added that while other countries are catching up with the Philippines in terms of production and export, national government has done anything on any “large-scale replanting.”

“We haven’t even adequately invested in research and development of the coconut industry. The government must invest in the–immediate rehabilitation of the coconut industry, particularly in replanting of the new coconuts,” Guingona said.

He further pointed out that coconut trees in the country are harvested for its lumber faster than replanting them.

“At present, the rate of coconut trees being cut down is faster than the rate of new coconuts being planted,” Guingona explained.

Guingona is saddened to note that coconut used to be the country’s biggest crop industry after rice and corn and our country as a leading coconut producer in the world.

“Coconut is the country’s biggest crop industry after rice and corn. We are also the world’s top producer and supplier of coconut with our 59 percent share in world coconut exports,” he said.

Guingona said that should the coconut industry continue to decline, some 3.5 million coconut farmers and another 25 million Filipinos are bound to be affected.

“These people who depend on the coconut industry are mostly concentrated here in Mindanao and in Southern Luzon. But they are among the poorest of the poor as the coconut industry continues to languish from government neglect,” he said.

Written By Cong B. Corrales

Source: Sun Star

THE banana industry may be experiencing growth as banana plantations in Mindanao undergo expansion, but farm workers—the new owners of these vast tracts of lands—remain poor despite the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) having been put in place.

Worse, the banana-plantation workers-turned-agrarian-reform beneficiaries (ARBs) may not be able to acquire full ownership of their CARP-awarded lands within their lifetime, a comprehensive study of the banana industry showed.

Unless overall economic arrangements are improved, the banana plantations in the hands of farm workers might not survive, the study stressed.

The study, commissioned by the Development Academy of the Philippines and La Liga Policy Institute, is called “In the hands of farm workers, can banana commercial farms survive?”

It stressed the need for these former farm workers “to develop coping strategies to mitigate serious constraints and threats to their survival as new owners and managers of banana commercial plantations.”

The study, which includes a thorough analysis of the financial status of the various agrarian-reform cooperatives, as well as their members’ ability to cope with the crisis after the land transfer, blamed poor implementation of CARP in commercial farms that allegedly failed to bring about rural development.

If it is of any consolation, the implementation of CARP in banana plantations could be credited for the subsequent expansion of banana plantations in Mindanao. However, the study said it has not alleviated the poverty of the farmers.

“In fact, it may have even worsened the plight of retrenched farm workers,” the study revealed.

The study noted that the implementation of CARP even led to a massive retrenchment of farm workers during the 10-year deferment period offered to landlords and corporations after the program started in 1988, “so as not to undermine the economies of scale” which may prove detrimental to economic growth.

Retrenched farm workers, the study argued, may not be able to benefit from CARP unless the government acts with decisiveness to include them in the list of bona fide ARBs.

Not to be undermined is the virus threat that could wipe out the banana- export industry. So far, big industry players were able to weather the crucial situation and even expanded over the 20-year-implementation of CARP—10 years under a deferment period and 10 years after its subsequent implementation—which made the Philippines the fourth-biggest exporter of Cavendish, the global market of which is estimated at $6.1 billion.

In Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, the expanse of commercial farms has grown from 32,000 hectares in 1999 to 44,000 hectares in 2004, the study cited. Production volume in the two provinces has increased from 1.2 million metric tons (MT) to 1.5 million MT in the same period.

The Philippines, despite being the fourth-biggest exporter of Cavendish, next to Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia, dominates the Japan market and has recently penetrated South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

Growth in terms of export, however, remains slow. The Philippines, according to the study, has a share of only 6 percent of the global Cavendish market.

While some farmers who formed cooperatives managed to survive economically as the new owners of banana plantations, those under onerous lease and lease-back contracts and pay-to-own arrangements are in even worse situation, the study revealed, as their land, which has not been fully acquired, becomes a liability rather than an asset.

The study showed that 15,000 to 20,000 farm workers claiming rights to lands under CARP were excluded from the list of supposed bona fide agrarian-reform beneficiaries during the 10-year deferment period from1988 to 1998.

The period was marked with unrest and characterized by social aberrations.  Human-rights violations and violence were observed in commercial farms during the said period, the study noted.

Written by Jonathan L. Mayuga / Correspondent

Source: Business Mirror