Agriculture.ph Blog

The farmer in the net

If you own a Facebook account, which I’m sure you do, you might have come across several applications that may have either intrigued or annoyed you. Among the many interactive games available on Facebook, Farmville deserves a place of honor because of its fun graphics and originality, something that’s definitely more amusing that irritating like Pet Society.

Farmville has nearly 35 million monthly users, and pretty soon, it’ll surpass the 35,554,755 record achieved by the ‘How Well Do You Know Me?’ application on Facebook. Farmville’s San Francisco-based developer, Zynga, says that the game provided a simple, fun way for people to unwind at the end of the day, with players spending an average of 20 minutes a day. The game’s popularity has been boosted by a growing trend among urbanites to try to their hand at being a leisure farmer without getting their hands dirty, literally.

Urban Planning

The objective of the game is to make your farm bigger, profitable, level up faster, avoid crops being destroyed, and to socialize with friends. You can plant and harvest fruit seeds, crops, trees, purchase different farm animals, decorate how you want your farm to look.

“What I like most about the game is the fact that young people can play it too,” says Yciar Castillo who plays it with her son. “We send each other gifts and we tell each other when it’s time to harvest. It also teaches kids patience & the value of money in the sense that you have to make money by planting seeds (which you have to pay for) and harvesting and selling your crops.”

It is important to note first of all, that the farming profession requires lots of patience and tender loving care. Neglect your crops for a couple of days and you may come back to a dry miserable field. Of course, this will affect your earnings as well.

In order to be a rich farmer on Farmville, you will need to be a bit savvy about your crops and think well before deciding what to plant.

Go home and plant Camote!

If someone tells you that, go ahead and do it – but do it with class. In Farmville, you get to plant all sorts of things, which help you earn points from berries, veggies, coffee, peppers, pineapples, wheat, cotton, and trees. While in nature, it may take months or years to harvest, in the virtual world of Farmville you can see your crops grow within a few hours. If you wont have time to toil your cyberland, plant things that take longer to grow, like trees. You can also put animals that aren’t high maintenance.

Place everything you own as close together as possible; leave no empty space on your lot. Fill it with trees and animals, this way every inch of your land is making you money.

It’s Berry Good

If you’re bored and have tons of time on your hands, invest in a lot of strawberries. “Planting the berries are the fastest way to earn money, since they have a really short harvest time,” shares Farmville fanatic Kristine Icasas.

Written By ALEXEI F. VILLARAZA

Source: Manila Bulletin

A noteworthy development

The good news is that the farmers being trained to grow high-value vegetables and other crops are being afforded an excellent opportunity to sell their products, too.

We are referring to the more than 1,000 trainees in vegetable production under the auspices of the SM Foundation in collaboration with Harbest Agribusiness Corporation headed by our friend Toto Barcelona.

The branches of SM malls in different parts of the country will be offering to the consuming public the products of farmers who have trained under the Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training Program. In partnership with Harbest Agribusiness Corporation, SM Foundation and SM Hypermart launched the “Fresh Greens” market day from September 15 to November 19.

The twice-monthly Fruits and Vegetables Market Day will help farmers sell their products. That will substantially increase their incomes for their families’ use as well as funds to finance their next planting.

With a prestigious chain selling their produce, the farmers will be forced to improve the quality of their harvests to meet the standards required.

That way, they will become more businesslike in running their farming operations.

Harbest Agribusiness will act as the consignor on behalf of the farmers.

Proceeds of the sales will be distributed by Harbest Agribusiness to the farmers.

The collaboration of SM Foundation with Harbest Agribusiness has enabled thus far 1,734 farmers to graduate under the Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan program. Ongoing are three farmers’ training programs in Davao, Bulacan and Nasugbu (Batangas). SM Foundation expects 1,200 farmer graduates this year, higher than the projected target of 900.

The most recent graduation and harvest festival was held at Brgy. San Felipe, Padre Garcia in Batangas where 99 farmers underwent training. At the end of the program, the new graduates showed off their harvest. Among the high-value vegetables and other crops grown are tomato, eggplant, pachoy, lettuce, ampalaya, upo, squash, sweet corn, watermelon, honeydew melon and others.

Written by Zac Sarian

Source: Manila Bulletin

Ratooning rice is advantageous

Following a large scale rice ratooning project in Ormoc City where some 500 hectares of irrigated rice farms last March to May, the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program is bent on pushing the adoption of the technology up to the year 2013.

Dr. Frisco Malabanan, GMA rice program director, said that the ratooning project pushed by Mayor Eric Codilla involving 274 farmers in 17 adjoining barangays was very successful. The farmers were able to produce 20 to 30 cavans per hectare in addition to the more than 100 cavans per hectare of the original harvest.

Ratooning is a technique where the rice stubbles after harvest are allowed to produce new growth that will bear new panicles that are harvestable in just 45 to 60 days later. This is an inexpensive way of producing a second harvest of rice from the same plants because there’s no need to plow the land, no need to plant new seedlings and only one sack of fertilizer is applied per hectare. There’s less likelihood that the crop will be damaged by pests and diseases or by inclement weather because the growing period is very short.

The hybrid rice varieties are particularly suited for ratooning as revealed by the experience in Ormoc. One farmer who ratooned his hybrid rice got 32 cavans per hectare in addition to the 160 cavans he earlier got from the main harvest.

The target of the next ratooning program is for the farmers to get about 40 cavans more from their ratoon crops. At the going price of P725 per cavan, the farmer will be able to gross P29,000 from one hectare. With a production cost of P7,170 per hectare, the farmer can earn an extra income of P21,830 per hectare in addition to what he can get from the main harvest.

Ratooning is possible only in irrigated fields. While there are big areas of irrigated rice elsewhere, it is only in Ormoc City where the biggest ratooning project has been implemented so far. Dr. Malabanan says there is a need to showcase the technology in other rice growing areas. In Ormoc City, the local government unit, the regional field unit of the Department of Agriculture and the National Irrigation Administration have agreed to intensify the promotion of hybrid rice ratooning technology through the provision of location specific interventions and advocacy programs to farmer beneficiaries who will participate in the program.

Written by Zac Sarian

Source: Manila BUlletin

Coco Water Prolongs Freshness of Vegetables

Use coconut water instead of formalin (formaldehyde) in prolonging the freshness of vegetables.

The use of coconut water is simpler, safer, and more economical use than using formalin, which may scare vegetable buyers.

In a demonstration by researchers at the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños (CA-UPLB), stringbeans dipped in fresh coconut water for at least two minutes stayed fresh and marketable even up to four days after harvest.

The shriveling or drying of the beans was also reduced.

The CA-UPLB researchers said that the coconut water contains cytokinins or hormones responsible for retaining the green color (chlorophyll) of stringbean pods. (BPG)

PFN No. 6481 July-Septeber 2004

Source: CocoScope, July-September 1999.

DA, AFP to invest in rubber-plantation project

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are set to invest in a rubber-plantation project in Bukidnon to provide additional funds for soldiers’ training and acquisition of military equipment, among others.

In a statement, the DA said that, together with the AFP, it will convert a 10,000-hectare idle portion of the 42,000-hectare Kibaritan Military Reservation in Bukidnon into a corporate farm devoted to growing rubber with possible expansion up to 16,000 hectares.

The AFP initially estimated its investment in the project at P70 million spent over seven years of planting and plantation management.

“The pilot project, if found profitable, was envisioned to be a template in developing idle parts of wide areas of military properties from Luzon to Mindanao to raise funds to sustain the AFP’s integrated logistical requirements for training; morale and welfare of military personnel; acquisition and maintenance of mission-essential equipment; and showcase production technology for rubber and other agricultural crops. Moreover, the project is envisioned to provide sources of livelihood to settlers close or inside those reservations,” the DA said in a statement.

National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) chairman and Agriculture Undersecretary Jess Paras said Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro earlier endorsed the joint project as an in-partner showcase to the peace-and-development efforts in Mindanao. Nabcor is one of the investment arms of the DA.

Paras said a memorandum of agreement between the DA and the AFP is already being finalized, and will be signed by the middle of September this year.

The Nabcor head instructed his technical people to join representatives of the AFP headquarters in Manila to jointly inspect the area to fine-tune the implementing guidelines under the plan and validate the projected-investment requirements and viability analysis made by the military brass.

Paras also ordered his people to find out the viability of multiple cropping with other cash crops, like corn and coffee, and the possibility of an engineering brigade based in Bukidnon to help in building access roads to the plantation and other facilities, like putting up an irrigation system.

A technical working group from the AFP and the DA, he said, has met four times and visited the proposed rubber plantation.

Soil samples from the first 1,000 hectares to be planted on in the first year of the project have been taken for analysis to determine if other crops, including corn, coffee and cassava, are suitable.

The inspection team also found that 16,000 hectares, out of the original 42,000-hectare reservation, have been awarded to agrarian-reform beneficiaries under certificates of land acquisition.

Part of the proposed plantation was also found to be cultivated by some farmers who had an agreement with the camp commander to make those idle patches productive while the government had no use for them.

In a dialogue with farmers, the project implementers told the temporary occupants that they will be taken in as workers as soon as the plantation work has been started.

Written by Cai U. Ordinario

Source: Business Mirror

FIELDS program, plus rainy weather, moves RP closer to rice self-sufficiency

FULL-blast operations of the FIELDS component of the GMA rice program, coupled with abundant rains, are seen to bolster a bumper harvest of rice this coming harvest season, starting next month.

FIELDS stands for Fertilizers, Irrigation and other rural infrastructure, Extension, Education and training for farmers, Loans, Dryers and other post-harvest facilities, and Seeds of the high- yielding varieties. It was launched in April last year when global rice prices started hitting historic highs.

Besides rice, the program covers corn, high-value crops, livestock and fisheries.

Barring any devastating typhoon going the way of four major rice-producing regions in Luzon and the Visayas and an El Niño-triggered drought in the Zamboanga Peninsula, rice harvests this year are seen to meet, if not surpass, the 17.48-million-ton forecast  harvests from 2.66 million hectares planted to rice this year.

This was the assessment made by Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Jess Paras on the basis of the latest situation report to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap earlier this week on the aggressive implementation of the FIELDS program in the rice sector by rice program director Frisco Malabanan.

“Based on current planting reports, certified seeds have already exceeded the 2008 wet-season performance and significant production gain is expected in Western Visayas, thus high-yield increment is expected,” Paras said.

There was also a marked increase in areas planted to rice during the main planting season as typhoons Dante, Emong and Feria brought in abundant rain, but made little devastations when they entered the country, he added.

An estimate made by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics on the total area planted to rice was 2.66 million hectares, much higher than the 1.95 million hectares that yielded 7.4 million metric tons during the dry-season planting in the first half of the year.

Since last year, the DA had made it a major thrust the restoration of irrigation systems that have gone inefficient in past years, the building of postharvest facilities, particularly dryers, and the provision of hybrid-and inbred-rice seed at subsidized price to farmers.

Last year alone, deteriorated irrigation systems providing water to 24,430 hectares were rehabilitated, while totally dysfunctional irrigation canals were restored to irrigate 41,735 hectares. Records for this year on restoration and rehabilitation of old irrigation systems are yet to be consolidated.

Although the FIELDS program covers the whole country, higher incremental harvests on large swats of rice lands have been focused on the five largest rice-producing regions, namely, Central Luzon, the Bicol region, Cagayan Valley, the Ilocos-Pangasinan region and Zamboanga Peninsula.

The five regions supply more than half (60 percent) of the entire rice production in the Philippines.

Written by Jonathan L. Mayuga

Source: Business Mirror

Aquinas U promotes urban agri-technology in demo gardens

LEGAZPI CITY—Aquinas University of Legazpi (AUL) has implemented a project, dubbed “Urban Agriculture through the High-Value Commercial Crops Techno-Demo Farm,” within its expansive campus here.

The project features a 60-square-meter greenhouse where vegetables highly sensitive to rain and changes in temperature like broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower and honeydew melon are being propagated.

Gardens for more hardy vegetables such as squash, eggplant and watermelon have also been established in an open area of 1,000 square meters whose perimeters were planted to root crops like ubi and sweet potato.

Cucumber and sweet corn are being intercropped with those plants during the dry season. A 5,000-square-meter farm for upland organic rice is also being established.

Adjacent to the demo farm, organic fertilizers will be produced soon through vermiculture using earthworms in the decomposition process of rice hull and coconut peat.

The first phase of the project started late last year with the establishment of a “techno-demo” farm in the Rawis Campus with a time table of one year, after which it will be replicated on an expanded version in a larger property of the university in the upland village of Banquerohan, also here.

The replication will be the second phase of the project and is being supervised by Antonio Payonga of the Bicol University College of Agriculture and Forestry based in Guinobatan, Albay.

This phase would start before the end of the year and managed in such a way that it becomes self-sustaining.  The income derived from the sale of products will be plowed back to the project for continuous production. A part of the money will be saved for future expansion and development, Payonga said.

Vegetable production within the urban farm could be done continuously in a year with two or three cycles, while upland organic rice and root crops will be produced once a year, he explained.

The demo farm is a project conceived by the Aquinas Center for Continuing Education (CCE) in response to the challenges of the prevailing food crisis felt with the dwindling supply of agricultural crops in the local market, Susan Cabredo, CCE head, said.

The challenge is directed not only to the agriculture sector, but to all sectors of society, including academe, as the problem is exacerbated with the increases in prices of oil that directly affects food production and distribution, Cabredo said.

“Thus, it behooves academic institutions like AUL to transform from being mere consumers of food products to growers and suppliers, especially of high-value commercial crops, the technology of which could be shared with communities, particularly those in the urban areas,” she explained.

Related activities could also provide students in science, engineering and commerce hands-on experiences that dovetail classroom learning about state-of-the-art urban-farming technology. In fact, the AUL College of Business Administration has already prepared a business plan that would help the project earn revenue, Cabredo said.

Aside from alleviating poverty and improving the well-being of Legazpeños and Albayanos in the long term, the project could also improve the quality of urban environment through “greening,” and thus help reduce pollution, she said.

Considering the university’s proximity, the demo farm could spur agro-tourism, like the strawberry fields of La Trinidad, Benguet. It would also enhance or reinvigorate the entrepreneurial skills of the Aquinians while building stronger linkages with the communities it serves, Cabredo said.
AUL owns several parcels of land within the city, such as the downtown Political Science Campus, the Aquinas Peak in barangay Taysan and a vast agricultural estate in Banquerohan, among others. Close to the business district, the main campus in barangay Rawis is more than 30 contiguous hectares.

Written by Danny O. Calleja

Source: Business Mirror

New antibiotics to be launched at Agrilink

One of the country’s leading poultry and livestock feeds suppleirs has come out with an anti-pneumonia treatment that can be administered to pigs for a shorter period but with better efficacy, thus minimizing stress.

The new product named Sustalin LA-20% of the Univet Nutrition & Animal Healthcare Company is a broad-spectrum antibiotic primarily indicated for use in mycloplasmal and bacterial pneumonia.

“It (Sustalin) can also be given for post-farrow management and scouring.

Just administer Sustalin LA at 1 ml per 10 kg bodyweight intramuscularly.

If disease persists, repeat treatment after three days,” said Univet general manager Ricardo Alba.

“The short duration of treatment and the ease of administration are important since there are antibiotics that require several consecutive injections, which can be very stressful to both the pigs and the raiser,” Alba explained.

Another effective Univet antibiotic is the MaMMAvet, which is specifically indicated for bacterial infections, particularly the so-called MMA (mastitis-metritis-agalactia) Syndrome that usually afflicts mother pigs 12 to 48 hours after giving birth.

Mastitis is the inflammation of the breast or udder; metritis is the inflammation of the uterus; while agalactia is the inability of the sows to produce milk. The MMA Syndrome is best treated with MaMMAvet, a combination of two synergistic antibiotics (penicillin and streptomycin).

“MaMMAvet effectively addresses the MMA Syndrome, compared with the other leading pen-strep combination brands. Moreover, it is in suspension form so that there is no need for mixing. It is easier to use and has a longer shelf life which makes it more practical to use. It also more economical since its effective dose is only half of that of the leading brand,” Alba pointed out.

MaMMAvet and Sustalin LA are among the latest products that Univet will exhibit at the Agrilink, Foodlink and Aqualink trade show which will be held at the World Trade Center Metro Manila on Oct. 2 to 10.

Source: Manila Bulletin

‘Ideal’ ethanol feedstock may be commercialized in 5-10 years

An “ideal ethanol” feedstock from “cellulosic ethanol” is seen as a second generation, “way of the future” feedstock that can be commercialized by the Philippines in the next five to 10 years.

A memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development (PCASTRD) and the the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB) will be signed to carry out a P10 million, five-year program toward the commercial availability of cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol is believed to be an ideal biofuel feedstock as it uses waste materials that normally do not have economic value. It uses non-food part of crops, non-food crops like grasses, or industrial waste like wood chips, skin and pulp. This makes food security a non-issue compared to other feedstocks like corn, sugarcane, and cassava.

“It does not compete with food resources. Since cellulose cannot be digested by humans, its production does not compete with food. In comparison, sugar and starch-based ethanol are from a variety of food crops (and) require vast agricultural lands and input,” said Dr. Fidel Rey P. Nayve Jr., program leader of the “Fuel Ethanol Production from lignocellulosic Feedstocks.”

Authorities are trying to develop a local technology for this as cellulosic ethanol is already produced on a large-scale basis in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Raw materials for it are abundant and grow with hardly any production cost. Producing it does not leave any waste since plants – wood, straw – are made up mainly of cellulose, so that “the whole plant can be harvested.”

“The Philippines has plenty of agricutural residues such as rice straw, rice hulls, sugarcane bagasse, corn stover, and corn cobs as well as potential energy crops like cogon grass and talahib,” according to Nayve as reported by a report of Mervin John C. De Roma.

Aside from eliminating substantial waste, the process of producing ethanol from cellulosic materials helps reverse the adverse effects of climate change and may even earn carbon credits for its producers. A United States Department of Energy study indicated that cellulosic ethanol cuts off greenhouse gas emission by 85 percent “over reformulated gasoline,” according to De Roma.

Written by Melody Aguiba

Source: Manila Bulletin

Banana rejects as cheap feed

In the banana producing areas in Mindanao, the growers have a problem with their so-called “rejects”
which are either too small or too big for the export market.

One big plantation alone may have 15 tons of rejects every day. There are some businessmen who buy the rejects dirt cheap (R500 per truckload) but they can buy just a small fraction.

One company that is taking advantage of the availability of cheap off-size bananas is Perfect Milling, a feedmill in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, managed by Aerol Conde. Thanks to the off-size bananas, Aerol can produce high quality feeds at a lower price than the competition. He said that his feeds (for swine and poultry) are at least P40 per bag cheaper than the leading brand in the market.

The secret is the use of banana meal as substitute for the expensive yellow corn as source of energy. The banana meal is just about P5 per kilo compared to the P12 per kilo of yellow corn or higher. The banana meal is a good source of energy. The fresh fruits are sliced, dried and then powdered.

Aerol, a mining engineer, used to work for a mining company but this closed down in 1991 so that he had to look for work as a beer salesman. While doing his beer marketing, he started raising a few pigs as additional source of income. That’s when a veterinarian friend who is expert in feed formulation taught him how to mix his own feeds. The formulation was good, his pigs grew fast and so he offered his feeds to other hog raisers. That’s how he found that feedmilling could be a good money maker. At that time it cost him only P300 to produce a bag of swine feed which he was able to sell at P450.

Aerol and his sister and two brothers decided in 1997 to make a business in feedmilling. They came up with an initial P100,000 capital, Aerol not drawing any salary for the first six months. The feedmill has grown into a major business. By next year a new pelletizing plant will start operating that could significantly add to the present production of 15,000 bags per month.

Written by Zac Sarian

Source: Manila Bulletin