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How to make good strong coffee

Good things are brewing again for the Philippine coffee industry

Something more than just dark, rich soothing liquid is a-brewing in that hot cup of coffee you’re sipping at the moment. If plans and present efforts aimed at rehabilitating Philippine coffee are realized unhampered, something akin to a revival of a once-major industry might just happen.

Two centuries ago, in the late 1800s, the Philippines was once the fourth-largest exporter of coffee in the world. The first coffee beans were brought to the country by Spanish friars in 1740 and the first areas where these were planted were in Lipa, Batangas, according to Dr. Alejandro Mojica, research director at Cavite State University, a member of the Philippine Coffee Board (PCB) and the country’s leading authority on coffee. By the 1880s, the Philippines was a major coffee exporter. However, coffee rust, a disease that spread worldwide at around that period, crept into the Philippines and devastated almost all of the coffee trees—then mainly Arabica—in the country.

Negros Occidental farmer Nicholas Matti, current cochairman of the PCB, explains that something akin to a Dark Age descended on Philippine coffee for a long period.

“It wasn’t until the 1970s when there was a resurgence in Philippine coffee,” Matti said. “Over half a century earlier, there had been a replanting of Robusta mainly, and some Liberica [or barako], Excelsa and Arabica in the country.”

Most of the coffee planted in the country during the Spanish era was Arabica, and when the worldwide infestation occurred in the 1880s, the Arabica coffee trees in the Philippines were virtually wiped out, except those planted in altitudes of 5,000 feet above sea level. Today, most of the Arabica coffee in the country can be found in Benguet, the Cordilleras and other upland areas in Northern Luzon.

In the 1950s, after World War II, instant coffee made the scene in the country, with Nestlé bringing in Robusta, which the world’s largest food company needed for its instant-coffee product, Nescafé. Again, Cavite was among the first producers of Robusta. Favorable market conditions resulted in more farmers using their land for growing coffee.

Philippine coffee farmers had good reason for planting the bean up until the 1980s. Matti pointed out that some two decades ago, the country was producing up to over 70,000 tons a year. “The country then was consuming about 35,000 tons of coffee, and we had from 35,000 tons up to close to 40,000 tons of coffee for export annually,” Matti said, adding that there was even “a banner year in 1989, when the Philippines exported about $150 million worth of coffee.”

Quota system

The country, which was a member of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), also enjoyed healthy prices for its coffee exports, which was regulated by a quota system set by the ICO. “We had a quota there, and that quota served as a price mechanism and, until 1989, coffee prices on the average were about $2,000 to $3,000 a ton,” explained Matti.

However, the US withdrew from the quota system and, after its withdrawal in 1989, coffee prices dropped to less than $1,000 and had been steadily going down ever since. This drastically affected production, with Philippine coffee farmers turning to other crops because of low prices for coffee. There was some sort of recovery in the mid-1990s, but in 1997 Vietnam started producing coffee in serious numbers.

Recalled Matti: “In 1997, 1998, for instance, the price for a ton of Robusta was $3,500 to $4,000. By 2002, the price plunged down to $400, so within a period of five years, coffee in the world market lost as much as 90 percent of its value.”

The ICO pointed a finger at Vietnam, by then a growing formidable national-producer entity where world coffee is concerned, as the culprit, blaming it for the debacle in the world price for coffee after the country dumped something like 800,000 metric tons of coffee in the world market, consequently causing prices of the commodity to fall way below production costs.

Vietnam, in 1989, produced some 10,000 tons of coffee. By 1997 the amount increased to as much as 300,000 tons, and by 2002 it jumped to over a million tons. This year, Matti said, in a tone which seemingly combined envy and frustration, the Vietnamese will hit 1.3 million tons of coffee “easily.”

Some 90 percent of total coffee produced by Vietnam is Robusta, and the rest Arabica. This dire situation, he underlined, “practically wiped out such Robusta-producing countries like Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. These countries, the entire Southeast Asian region, in fact, possibly with the exception of Thailand, along with the US, Japan, Western and Eastern Europe, practically the whole world, are all now customers of Vietnam.”

By 2002, when the PCB was organized, the country’s total coffee production was down to 23,000 tons. “We lost some 50,000 tons,” said Matti, who has been PCB cochairman since its inception, “and some of the efforts we’ve done since have helped to increase production to 30,000 tons at present.”

Local demand

The country’s current total production is not enough to satisfy local demand for coffee, which is about 60,000 tons annually, and it is sad to know that Filipino coffee drinkers are paying P3 billion to such countries as Vietnam, where most of its 30,000 tons of coffee imports come from every year.

Low prices for coffee have caused a shrinkage in agricultural land planted to coffee. Such towns in Cavite as Amadeo, for instance, where as much as 4,000 hectares used to be planted to coffee by farmers since the 1880s, now only has half that area planted with coffee trees. Since the creation of the PCB in 2002, Amadeo has been used as some kind of guidepost for the board’s aim to reinvigorate over 20,000 hectares of coffee farms in over 20 provinces nationwide.

Earlier after its organization in May 2002, the PCB began extending technical assistance and giving credit programs for coffee farms, and partnered with such institutions as Cavite State University, the Department of Trade and Industry-International Coffee Organization Certifying Agency and the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. in conducting research and training and credit programs for the coffee industry.

A marketing and promotional program for local ground, roasted and instant coffee, branded Kape Isla, which also serves as a seal of quality for Philippine coffee, was undertaken. Also, in addition to the Pahimis coffee festival held every October in Amadeo, the PCB started to put up its Coffee Break festival, which is held in a Makati mall annually.

Over the seven-year period since the PCB was created, some outstanding results were pointed to by current PCB members. Former Cavite councilor and PCB member Rene Tongson, for instance, gave the case of coffee brand Café Amadeo, which, from a measly “P20,000 to P30,000 sales in 2004, now makes P800,000 monthly sales on ground coffee. October through December, they gross up to P3 million and there was even a time when they made P8 million!”

For her part, entrepreneur Pacita Juan who, along with Matti, cochairs the PCB as well as heads the Pilipinas Gumising at Magkape project, told of another brand, Siete Barako, whose supermarket sales of coffee “has been increasing by 25 percent annually; and take note: This is from Kalinga, this is Kalinga brew!”

Self-sufficiency

Other than the PCB’s targets, which include the rehabilitation and rejuvenation of over a total of 20,000 hectares of coffee farms in over 20 provinces nationwide and expand coffee production to over 20,000 hectares, creating thousands of new jobs in the process, the board’s major current challenge is to become self-sufficient in coffee—meaning, no more importation of the product to meet current demand from Vietnam and elsewhere—by 2015.

In October 2008, the PCB met with the Department of Agriculture (DA), which wanted to have a situationer on the local coffee industry.

“We gave them a report and also a plan and program of action, and the DA told us, go ahead and implement it and we [the DA] will give assistance to the program, which basically includes the continuing rehabilitation, rejuvenation and planting of new coffee trees to as many areas as possible,” related Juan. “The program [of action] is called Pilipinas Gumising at Magkape. It’s literally waking up the farmers and encouraging them to grow coffee. Since the country is divided into 23 coffee-growing areas, it will be a difficult task not to have concentrated people in there. So we have a core group and we divided the country and appointed area directors per area.”

The area directors include Matti, who is in charge of the Visayas (Negros Occidental and Panay); Dr. Mojica and Tongson, who are area directors for South and Central Luzon or mainly the Robusta coffee areas; coffee roaster and entrepreneur Emmanuel Torrejon who, because of his expertise and experience with Arabica, was given the Northern Luzon area (including Benguet, Mountain Province, Bontoc, Kalinga, Ifugao and the Cordilleras), and two others for Mindanao.

The end objective is to get local production to grow from its current 30,000 to as much as 75,000 metric tons within a six-year time frame. It is a lot of work, but there are indications that are more than encouraging for farmers to go back to the land and plant coffee.

The PCB members say the markets for coffee are definitely there, and the Philippines has an advantage of being one of the few countries in the world at present that produces all four varieties of commercially viable coffee varieties—Robusta, Arabica, Excelsa and Liberica.

“The Japanese market for Liberica alone is huge,” pointed out Mojica, “with Japan making inquiries from Cavite coffee growers if it is possible for them to import at least 5 tons a month. But the most the growers can come up with is only 1.2 tons a year. Canada, too, is asking us about Liberica.”

Matti, likewise, related that the PCB is now being approached by a growing number of people who have small tracts of land in the lowlands and are asking if they could grow coffee in there. “We encourage them to grow Liberica and Excelsa because these can be done in low areas and there is a market for these kinds of coffee,” he said.

“Liberica and Excelsa comprise only 1 percent of world consumption, but that 1 percent is identified. It’s here in the Philippines, it’s in Malaysia, in Indonesia and the Middle East. We know where the market is. And there is a market for all four kinds of coffee that are grown here.”

I haven’t even yet told him about a Finnish acquaintance of mine who told me that there is real growing interest in Finland about Philippine coffee, and if he could get his hands on a constant ample supply, is ready and willing to import tons and tons of Liberica and all other local-grown coffees he could get his hands on immediately.

Written by Teodoro Y. Montelibano / Special Reports Editor

Source: Business Mirror

The many uses of tobacco

MANILA, Philippines – Tobacco, known all along as raw material for cigarettes and cigars puffed by smokers, has emerged as a versatile crop with an array of beneficial uses, research and development work of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) showed.

All from the stalks and leaves of the crop, the product-discoveries from tobacco are seen to help stave off in no small measure the negative effects of the global economic crisis.

It was learned that with the support of Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap and the leaders of the tobacco producing provinces headed by deputy national security adviser Luis “Chavit” Singson, the relentless and continuous efforts of NTA researchers have resulted in the successful technological processing of the tobacco dust and the tobacco virgin pulp, both pioneering products.

NTA Administrator Carlitos S. Encarnacion said the environment-friendly tobacco dust, in pilot test applications in fishponds in Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan and Isabela, was proven to be an effective molluscicide against snails and other fishpond pests without any residue in fish harvests. It also enhanced the growth of the “lablab” (algae), a pond fishfood.

Encarnacion is also confident that the agency will be able to get funds for vital machineries and equipment to produce virgin pulp from tobacco stalks. The pulp is needed for the manufacture of handmade and commercial paper.

The NTA has been working hard for the discovery and development of other beneficial products from the crop to boost the income of the tobacco farmers and generate employment in line with the program thrusts of the Arroyo administration.

Encarnacion said NTA researchers have also formulated tobacco extract concentrates that are efficient against “sucking” insects that damage vegetables and mango “hoppers” that victimize mango fruits.

The organic concentrate is effective against pests found in cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, okra, cowpea, eggplants, pole sitao, watermelon and ornamentals (flowers) according to Rex Antonio Teoxon, planning department manager and concurrent chief of the NTA industrial research department.

He said that vegetables harvested in many areas in the country have a high pesticide residue level due to widespread use of toxic chemical pesticides adding that the use of the tobacco-based pesticide would do away with such risky toxic chemical residues.

Another promising NTA discovery is ethanol. The alcohol extracted from tobacco was found to have up to 92-percent purity.

Amado Dilig, chief of the techno-laboratory services and instrumentation division of NTA’s Industrial Research Dept. said the “encouraging” analysis was tendered by the Ateneo de Manila-based Philippine Institute of Pure and Applied Chemistry (PIPAC).

Cottage industry items like paper/gift bags, baskets, belts, floor tiles, particle and panel boards, lampshades and others have also been produced from tobacco leaves and stalks by NTA personnel in collaboration with the Cottage Industry Technology Center (CITC) headed by Director Franklin Bunoan.

Bunoan and his staff have been training NTA personnel in the CITC compound in Marikina which is an agency under the Dept. of Trade and Industry. The technology learned will be re-echoed to tobacco farmer-cooperative members.

Written by Teddy P. Molina

Source: Philippine Star

State of fisheries: Going, going gone

LIKE the other vital resources, like forests, Philippine fisheries are about to collapse — a victim of the almost unabated “plunder of the commons.”

As defined, the commons encompasses unoccupied land and all waters which are considered God-given set of resources for the people to consume as much as needed.

But these resources appear to have been abused to the point of exhaustion. Despite the country’s vast marine resources – 220 million hectares of coastal and oceanic territorial water area — the Philippines is now experiencing a shortfall in fish supply.

Ask 63-year-old Ronnie Herrera and his son, Dondon, 18. Bago Aplaya, where they used to fish, was once the haven of fish in Davao City. But in one particular noon recently, the older Estrera already docked his banca (outrigger), but with no catch even as he started out dawn.

“It’s not only now, several times, we went home without fish,” he complained.

His son was fortunate, having one icebox of fish catch. But he said the fish were getting smaller and fewer and they were forced to fish farther south into the waters of Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur. “Fishers are already scarce in Bago Aplaya,” Dondon sighed.

Estimates show that if the present rapid population growth and declining trend in fish production continue, only 10 kilograms of fish will be available per Filipino per year by 2010, as opposed to 28.5 kilograms per year in 2003.

“Without any change in fish consumption and no active human population management program,” World Bank warned in a recent report that “domestic demand for fish will reach 3.2 billion kilograms by 2020, given the projected population growth rate of the country.”

Currently, the Philippines is home to almost 90 million people. “About 62 percent of the population lives in the coastal zone,” said the World Bank report, Philippine Environment Monitor.

It said that if increased demand is met solely by marine capture fisheries, such increased pressure on the fisheries sector could lead to an eventual collapse of fisheries and the fishing industry, which employs more than one million people (about five percent of the national labor force).

“All fisheries are showing decline in total catch and per unit effort (total number of fish caught per unit of time) despite increasing effort,” the World Bank report noted. “Fish are harvested at a level 30 to 50 percent higher than the natural production capacity.”

The Philippines is among the largest fish producers in the world, the World Bank report stated. The commercial, municipal, and aquaculture fisheries account for 36, 30, and 24 percent of the total fisheries yield, respectively. Its annual total fisheries yield is estimated to be worth around US$70 to UD$110 billion (equivalent to about 2-4 percent of the country’s gross domestic production over the years).

Even if the government can check the current population growth, there’s one problem that cannot be solved by the country alone: global warming.

“We still have enough fish now but with global warming we may have problems in the next five to ten years unless we do something about it,” warns Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, the executive director of the Laguna-based Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD).

This has been confirmed by a recent report released by the United Nations. “At least three quarters of the globe’s key fishing grounds may become seriously impacted by changes in circulation as a result of the ocean’s natural pumping systems fading and falling,” the UN report suggests.

Global warming refers to an increase in average global temperatures, as a result of too much greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This, in turn, results to climate change. Marine species are not spared from the threats caused by rising temperatures.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration physicist Josefino Comiso recently told Philippine media that rising temperatures could reach a point where “various living creatures” would start to die in large numbers. “Such temperatures would vary from species to species,” he said. “But the deaths of these creatures would gravely affect the food supply chain.”

Even without the threat of global warming, the fishery resources of the country are still beset with other problems. Fishery resources refers to inland (lakes, rivers, freshwater swamps, and fishponds), coastal and offshore waters.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has identified several factors in the fisheries decline. One of these is overexploitation. Oceans, after all, are global common property resources, open, with few limitations to all takers.

Although fish stocks are a renewable resource, many of them are strained to the limit. “Over the years, they have suffered from a widespread notion that the seas are inexhaustible and economic pressures that have encouraged over-exploitation,” deplored the line agency of the Department of Agriculture.

“Overfishing is the primary cause of dwindling fish population,” wrote Peter Weber, author of Net Loss: Fish, Jobs, and the Marine Environment published by the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank said that most fishing vessels, which are often subsidized by governments, have twice the capacity needed to extract what the oceans can sustainably produce. The result, according to the bank, is “a vicious circle: as catches per vessel fall, profits plummet, and fishers overfish to maintain supplies, causing serious depletion of stocks and endangering long-term availability.”

The BFAR also attributes the decline in fish catch to the employment of destructive fishing methods like the use of cyanide and dynamite. The practice of cyanide fishing has been rampant among Filipino fishermen for more than 25 years already.

On the other hand, about 70,000 fishers — that’s 12 percent of the total number of capture fishers in the country — are suspected to engage in blast fishing.

The destruction of the coastal ecosystem has also taken its toll on the country’s marine resources. Mangrove swamps, marshy area, and coral reefs make up the coastal ecosystem and most of them are in bad conditions.

Mangroves are important feeding sites for many commercially important fish species (mullet, tilapia, eel, and especially milkfish), shrimps, prawns, mollusks, crabs, and sea cucumbers. Fry that gather in mangrove areas are very important for aquaculture.

In the Philippines, an estimated 10-15 per cent of the total fisheries come from coral reefs. About 80-90 percent of the income of small island communities comes from fisheries.

“Coral reef fish yields range from 20 to 25 metric tons per square kilometer per year for healthy reefs,” said Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former environment secretary.

But today, only 4.3 percent (1,161 square kilometers) of its once sprawling 27,000 square kilometers of coral reefs are in good condition.

“Nowhere else in the world are coral reefs abused as much as the reefs in the Philippines,” said marine scientist Don McAllister. Apart from bleaching, the reefs face infestation by coral-eating crown of thorns starfish.

Written by Henrylito D. Tacio

Source: Sun Star

The controversial health benefits of eggs

Is eating eggs unhealthy? This is a topic that has continuously been debated from a health standpoint. For years now, many people believe that eating eggs is unhealthy because of its high cholesterol content.

Let me share with you some interesting trivia about the health controversy on eating eggs:

* Do you know that there are two kinds of cholesterol, dietary (found in food) and blood (found in our bloodstream; also known as serum cholesterol). Do you also know that it is a misconception that dietary cholesterol becomes blood cholesterol as soon as we ingest an egg. Actually, our bodies manufacture the majority of our blood cholesterol;
* Do you know that the amount of cholesterol one’s body makes differ from one individual to another;
* Do you know that on average, one large egg contains 70 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat and 213 milligrams of cholesterol. Egg whites alone contain no cholesterol;
* Do you know that eggs are rich in protein, low in sodium, easy to prepare and full of vitamins and minerals. In fact, eggs are one of the best dietary sources of vitamin D other than milk. Also, egg contain folate, which helps prevent birth defects and cardiovascular disease;
* Do you know that dietary cholesterol found in animal foods, raises blood cholesterol in only about one-third of people. And, as shown in some egg studies, dietary cholesterol causes the blood to produce HDL (“good”) cholesterol along with LDL (“bad”) cholesterol – thus helping offset potential adverse effects;
* Do you know that in one Harvard study last 1999, of nearly 120,000 men and women, found no association between eggs – up to one a day – and heart disease except in people with diabetes. Nor did it find a link between eggs and strokes;
* Do you know that in a Japanese study of more than 90,000 middle-aged people in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2006, and a study in 2007 from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, USA – both studies found no link between frequent egg consumption and heart disease. In the light of these findings, recommendations about eggs have changed over the years, and cholesterol guidelines, in general, are being rethought; and
* Do you know that studies have shown that it’s the saturated fat-rich foods that usually accompany eggs (like cheese bacon, sausage) and how eggs are often prepared (like frying in plenty of butter or salty ingredients) that are the culprits in raising the blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease – and not eating eggs per se.

Today, thanks to continuous researches on the health benefits of eggs – we should not feel guilty anymore eating eggs. We should not give up eating eggs. Instead, we should enjoy it. Yes, the so-called cholesterol scare has been rebutted by many studies, reports and researches showing that eating eggs is healthy.

Written by Nelly Favis-Villafuerte

Source: Manila Bulletin

Avocado can heal

AVOCADO is often said to be the most nutritious fruit in the world, and it is! The fruit provides more than 25 essential nutrients such as protein, iron, copper, phosphorus and magnesium, just to name a few.

Nutritionists claim avocado contain goodly amounts of Vitamin C (necessary for the production of collagen needed for the growth of new cells and tissues, prevents viruses from penetrating cell membranes, and also a powerful anti-oxidant), thiamine (converts carbohydrates to glucose to fuel the brain and nervous system), and riboflavin (helps the body to release energy from proteins, carbohydrates and fat).

Avocado also has 60% more potassium than banana. Potassium is a mineral that helps regulate blood pressure. As such, adequate intake of potassium can help guard against circulatory diseases, like high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke. In addition, avocado also provides calories for energy and beneficial phytochemicals such as glutathione.

In recent years, most people avoid eating avocado like the plague. The reason: avocado is high in fat. In fact, 75 percent of its calories come from fat (which is why avocado is a good source of energy). But what they don’t know that the fat it contains is the healthful monounsaturated fat, which has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

“Avocados aid in blood and tissue regeneration, stabilize blood sugar, and are excellent for heart disorders,” said Dr. Ed Bauman, director of Bauman College. “They’re loaded with fiber (11 to 17 grams per fruit) and are a good source of lutein, an antioxidant linked to eye and skin health.” Unsaturated fats are those found in dairy and animal products.

Another reason for eating avocado: It helps in the absorption of nutrients that are fat-soluble such as beta-carotene and lutein, when foods containing these nutrients are eaten with avocado.

Overall, avocado is considered a complete food: it has vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, calories and fiber, no cholesterol, and is sodium free. As such, avocado is ideal for growing up children, adults and even for babies, especially when blended with other fruits. For athletes, avocado is a nutritious energy booster to rev up the body’s strength.

In the past, avocado has been considered to be an aphrodisiac. In fact, the Aztecs used the avocado as a sex stimulant and its name for the fruit as ahuacatl, which means “testicle.” Because of this well-entrenched reputation for inducing sexual prowess, avocado wasn’t purchased or consumed by any person wishing to protect their image from slanderous assault.

Although edible by themselves, avocados are commonly used as a base in dips. ÿIn areas where the fruit is commonly grown, a common breakfast is avocado on toast.

This is made by mashing the avocado with some lemon juice, salt and pepper and spreading on hot freshly toasted bread.

Actually, the avocado fruit is not sweet, but fatty, distinctly yet subtly flavored, and of smooth, almost creamy texture. In Brazil and Vietnam, avocados are frequently used for milk-shakes and occasionally added to ice cream and other desserts. In Indonesia, a dessert drink is made with sugar, milk or water, and pureed avocado.

In the Philippines, ripe avocado is often eaten as a snack by scooping from flesh from the skin then mixed with some sugar and milk or cream. Most Filipinos simply find the taste so delicious!

In Australia, avocado is commonly served in sandwiches, often with chicken. In Mexico, avocado is served mixed with white rice, in soups, salads, or on the side of chicken and meat. In Peru avocados are consumed with tequeños as mayonnaise, served as a side dish with parillas, used in salads and sandwiches, or as a whole dish when filled with tuna, shrimps, or chicken.

There are many health benefits you can get when eating avocado. Recent studies have shown that high avocado intake has effect on blood serum cholesterol levels. Specifically, after a seven day diet rich in avocados, hypercholesterolemia patients showed a 17% decrease in total serum cholesterol levels. These subjects also showed a 22% decrease in both LDL (low-density lipoprotein or “bad cholesterol”) and triglyceride levels and 11% increase in HDL (high-density lipoprotein or “good cholesterol”) levels.

Researchers have also discovered that avocados are rich in beta-sitosterol, a natural substance shown to significantly lower blood cholesterol levels. In a review article published in the December 1999 issue of the American Journal of Medicine, researchers pointed out that beta-sitosterol was shown to reduce cholesterol in 16 human studies.

But before you pile avocados onto every dish, remember that when it comes to calories, avocados have lots of them — because of all that fat. Fat of any type has double the calories of the same amount of carbohydrates.

“Avocados add great variety to a well balanced, low-fat diet, but you have to eat them in moderation,” reminds Melanie Polk, a registered dietitian and director of nutrition education at the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.

A recommended serving size is two tablespoons, or roughly one-sixth of a medium-sized avocado. Each serving provides five grams of fat and 55 calories. Still, compared with butter or mayonnaise — which each pack 22 fat grams and 200 calories in a 2-tablespoon serving — they don’t seem so bad.

Avocado is also an excellent remedy for dry skin. Rub the inside of the skins against clean skin. For a face mask, mix 1/4 cup each of avocado puree and sour cream. Gently rub on face and neck, avoiding the sensitive areas around the eyes, and let it soak in about 15 minutes. Rinse with tepid water. Then gently massage the invisible oil into the skin with an upward and outward motion.
However, here’s a word of warning: There is documented evidence that animals such as cats, dogs, cattle, goats, rabbits, rats, birds, fish and horses can be severely harmed or even killed when they consume the avocado leaves, bark, skin, or pit. The avocado fruit is poisonous to some birds.

The reason for this is that avocado leaves contain a toxic fatty acid derivative known as persin. The symptoms include gastrointestinal irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory distress, congestion, fluid accumulation around the tissues of the heart and even death. Birds also seem to be particularly sensitive to this toxic compound. Negative effects in humans seem to be primarily in allergic individuals.

Avocado has a long history of cultivation in Central and South America. It was introduced into the Philippines in 1890 by the Spaniards through seeds coming from Mexico. However, it was only from 1902 to 1907 that avocado was introduced successfully into the Philippines by the Americans.

According to a report from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the country had a total area of 4,753 hectares planted with avocado from 1990-1997.ÿ The Average annual production was estimated at 45,864 tons.

Written by Henrylito D. Tacio

Source: Sun Star

Chicken suffer from stress too, says study

MANILA, Philippines – With the sizzling days back, poultry raisers would do well to protect their fowls from the sweltering heat.

Fact is, like humans, winged creatures, particularly chickens, suffer from excessive heat stress, too.

It’s because they do not perspire as they do not have sweat glands.

Panting is the most obvious sign of thermal stress, states a report titled “Heat Stress” pieced together by the Department of Agriculture-Livestock Development Council (DA-LDC), DA Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), and Israel embassy in Makati City through Navot Haklay Mashav, Center for International Cooperation, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As temperature rises above optimum (18-24 degrees Celsius) birds      respond with behavioral changes that leave negative effects in growth rate, egg production, egg shell quality and size, feed intake and conversion, and hatchability rate.

(PAGASA reported temperatures in Metro Manila reaching a sweltering 35.7 degrees Celsius last May 25.)

“Severe panting takes a lot of energy and ultimately results in death because of heat exhaustion,” the DA-LDC/BAI/Israel report states.

They advise adoption of management practices to counter heat stress among chicken. Such practices include provision of adequate drinking water supply, avoidance of overcrowding in poultry houses, and preventing manure buildup on the ground below the poultry house.

“Manure will restrict air flow and produce additional heat through the natural decaying process,” the three entities pointed out. “More water is consumed by birds during hot weather in order to prevent dehydration. Cool drinking water stimulates both feed and water intake.”

One low-cost management practice is painting the poultry house roof with reflective paint, particularly on non-insulated houses, to reduce radiation. Another is hanging shade net and curtains on the sides of the chicken house.

“Plant shade trees near the poultry house,” they also advise.

Good management practices that require bigger investments include installing sprinklers and fans inside the chicken house, and insulation of the ceiling with effective materials such as urethane foam and expanded polysturone.

Written by Rudy Fernandez

Source: Philippine Star

IS IT “tuh-MAY-toh” or “tuh-MAH-to”? Whichever, pronunciation doesn’t matter when it comes to this fabulous nutritious crop once considered as poisonous. A botanist mistakenly took the tomato for the “wolf peach” referred to by Galen in his third century writings, that is, “poison in a palatable package which was used to destroy wolves.”

But the question that is still debatable: Is tomato really a vegetable or is it a fruit. By definition, a fruit is the edible plant structure of a mature ovary of a flowering plant, usually eaten raw and tomato can be categorized as such.

From the point of view of horticulturists, tomato is considered a vegetable plant.

Since “vegetable” is not a botanical term, there is no contradiction in a plant part being a fruit botanically while still being touted as a vegetable.

According to Andrew F. Smith’s The Tomato in America, the tomato probably originated in the highlands of the west coast of South America, where they grow wild in what is now Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. They were first cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas as early as 700 AD.

After the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They also took it to the Philippines, whence it moved to Southeast Asia and then the entire Asian continent.

The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe. It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was certainly being used as food by the early 1600s in Spain.

The tomato plant was probably not grown in England until the 1590?s. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard, a barber-surgeon. Gerard’s Herbal, published in 1597 and largely plagiarized from continental sources, was also one of the earliest discussions of the tomato in England. Gerard knew that the tomato was eaten in both Spain and Italy.

Meanwhile, in Italy, thanks to tomato, pizza came to existence. Pizza was invented around Naples in the late 1880’s. The story goes that it was created by one restaurateur in Naples to celebrate the visit of Queen Margarite, the first Italian monarch since Napoleon conquered Italy.

The restaurateur made the pizza from three ingredients that represented the colors of the new Italian flag: red, white, and green. The red is the tomato sauce, the white was the mozzarella cheese, and the green was the basil topping. Hence, Pizza Margarite was born, and is still the standard for pizza.

In the United States, soup mogul Joseph Campbell came out in 1897 with condensed tomato soup, a move that set the company on the road to wealth as well as further endearing the tomato to the general public.

He may have made tomato soup popular, but the first recipe was credited to Maria Parloa whose 1872 book The Appledore Cook Book described her tomato chowder.

So much for history! The English word “tomato” comes from the Aztec word, tomatl. Botanist Tournefort provided the Latin botanical name, Lycopersicon esculentum. The French referred to the tomato as pommes d’amour, or love apples, as they thought them to have stimulating aphrodisiacal properties. Among Filipinos, tomato is called kamatis.

In most parts of the world, tomatoes are eaten freely, and their consumption is believed to benefit the heart among other things. They contain lycopene, one of the most powerful natural antioxidant which has been found to help prevent prostate cancer.

Tomato extract is now also being promoted for treatment of high blood pressure. Lycopene has also been shown to improve the skin’s ability to protect against harmful ultraviolet rays.

In the Western diet, tomato is the top source of Vitamin A and C. It also contains a significant amount of dietary fiber, beta-carotene, iron, magnesium, niacin, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin and thiamine.

Nutritionists claim tomato is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. And unlike most foods, cooking or processing of tomato is beneficial to health. It increases its lycopene content (e.g. tomato paste, catsup, tomato soup, tomato sauce).

This is so because as heating up tomato breaks down its cell walls and releasing more lycopene. Test also shows that eating tomatoes has more benefits (with all of its other ingredients) than taking lycopene alone.

In the Philippines, the great variety of its uses leads to its popularity. It is one of the most common ingredients in salads. It is made into soup, pickle, catsup, sauce, and juice. Tomato is served raw, baked, stewed and as a sauce with various other foods.

There are two types of tomatoes grown in the country. The fresh market or table tomatoes are planted in both dry and wet season. Wet season is planting is more risky because tomatoes are very susceptible to pests and diseases brought about by continuous rain and high temperature.

The second type is the processing tomato planted only during the dry season especially in areas supposed to be idle such as lowland rice fields. Processing tomatoes are needed for industrial purposes in the manufacture of paste, sauce, and catsup.

Although tomatoes thrive on many types of soil, a fairly fertile, well-drained soil reasonably free from root-knot nematodes and bacterial wilt organism is best. A sandy loam soil is ideal especially when an early yield is desired. For longer and later yields, heavier soils are preferable.

“Tomato is generally considered a warm season crop that requires a relatively long season to productive profitable yield,” reminds the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte. “The ideal planting for maximum production is from October to January to avail of the cool and dry climate growth and good fruit setting.”

Written by By Henrylito D. Tacio

Source: Sun Star

“NOTICE that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind,” the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee once said.

No wonder, most Asian cultures believe that humanity emerged from a bamboo stem. In the Philippines, for instance, legend tells that the first man and the first woman each emerged from split bamboo stems on an island created after the battle of the elemental forces (sky and ocean).

In Malaysia, a similar legend tells of a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant; he wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside.

Bamboo is known as the world’s tallest grass. But recently, it has received a new tag: “the grass of hope.” Although bamboo has been part of their art and culture, it was only recently that Chinese leaders took the plant seriously and is now building a massive bamboo industry.

Some years back, a Dabawenyo reported that other Asian countries, the United States, and France were making a killing out of bamboo. “The tragedy here in the Philippines,” he said, “is that we have an abundance of bamboo but we don?t know much about. It is so common that we ignore its potentials. Other countries have already seen not only the beauty but the potentials of bamboo.”

But today, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is looking at bamboo in a different manner. “Bamboo is now recognized as the material of the millennium,” it said. “The versatility of bamboo proves to be of greater potential that the demand for the product continues to increase in terms of production and utilization. Aside from this, the international market demands more bamboo products that could help boost the flailing economy of our country.”

All over the globe, there are 91 genera and about 1,000 species of bamboo, generally known as kawayan in the Philippines. There are eight commercial species grown in the country and most of them can be found in Iloilo, Davao, Bukidnon and some parts of Luzon.

Bamboo, the most diverse group of plants in the grass family, is distinguished by a woody culm, complex branching, a generally robust rhizome system and infrequent flowering. Long known as the “poor man’s timber,” it is often listed as a “minor” forest product.

“Bamboo is not a weed, it’s a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant,” commented Steve Lacy.Thomas Edison supposedly used a carbonized bamboo filament in his experiments in developing the light bulb.

Alexander Graham Bell also used bamboo for his first phonograph needle. “You can eat, wear, and build with bamboo,” said Michael Block.

The bamboo shoot (new bamboo culm that comes out of the ground) is food for many Asians. In the Philippines, they are made into pickles, fresh lumpia, or simply cooked with coconut and shrimps. In Thailand, bamboo salt seasoning and bamboo salt soybean paste can be bought in the public markets. The Taiwanese consume as much as 80,000 metric tons of bamboo shoots per year to make pickled bamboo shoots, one of their most popular fares.

Some of the most popular species of bamboo used for food are “kawayan tinik” (Bambusa blumeana), “bayog” (Dendrocalamus merrillianus), “bolo” (Gigantochloa levis), giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper), and “kayali” (Gigantochloa atter).

Just a health warning: shoots of some species contain toxins that need to be leached or boiled out before they can be eaten safely.

“With the increasing awareness on the many health attributes and recipes one can make out of bamboo shoots, it is now gaining popularity within the broader population and in the global market,” reports Nimfa Torreta of the Department of Science and Technology. “There is also a worldwide interest on bamboo shoots because of the growing population of Asian ethnic origin around the world who have particular preference and taste for Asian food.”

Bamboo shoots have a huge potential for market. Export of bamboo shoot from Thailand in 1994 was pegged at US$29.50 million. Japan has a steady market of 250 tons per month while Australia imports 6,000- 12,000 tons of canned bamboo shoots annually.

In terms of exports, the bamboo’s potential remains in the areas of furniture and handicrafts, whose global market grows at an annual average of US$8-billion. “We’re not talking here of raw bamboo for export, but finished products made from bamboo. From roots to tip, you can make soap, medicines, cosmetics, furniture, bricks, clothing, paper, floor tiles, wall panels, drinks, vegetables — even surf boards from bamboo,” said Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz.

Why is there a sudden craze for bamboo these days? “Bamboo is seen as a green product and a renewable resource in the developing world — more and more buyers are taking a closer look at bamboo as raw material,” Cruz added.

The exports of bamboo furniture in the Philippines rose from US$625,000 to US$1.2 million in the mid-80s until the mid-90s. Both bamboo furniture and handicrafts racked up US$438 million from 1991 to 2000.Total exports of bamboo furniture in 2000 were recorded at only US$3.2 million.

There’s more to bamboo than just furniture and food. Its role in the construction field is equally substantial. Hundreds of millions of people live in houses made from bamboo. In Bangladesh, where 73% of the population lives in bamboo houses, bamboo provides pillars, walls, window frames, rafters, room separators, ceilings and roofs. In Costa Rica, building with bamboo withstood earthquake which buildings with other materials were unable to.

Throughout rural Asia it is used for building bridges, from the sophisticated technology of suspension bridges to the simpler pontoon bridges. Bamboo scaffoldings employed on the high rise structures of Tokyo and HongKong.Building with bamboo in Costa Rica withstood earthquake which buildings with other materials were unable to.
Bamboo is also used for musical instruments of all three types: percussion or hammer instruments, wind instruments, and stringed instruments. The Bamboo Organ of Las Pias has pipes made of bamboo culms. In Java, Indonesia, 20 different musical instruments have been fashioned of bamboo.

Capitalizing on this current trend and without much effort and capital needed, bamboo production could be a very promising livelihood opportunity for Filipinos. Some experts claim there is a lot of future in bamboo. Unfortunately, it is not as appreciated as yet in the country.

As trees are fast disappearing in various parts of the world and with the concern of environment growing, timber are getting scarce day by day. This is due to long period of time taken by even softwood to attain maturity. So, a substitute or if that is not possible, an alternative, has to be found. Bamboo is the answer for this.

Bamboos can be extensively grown in a wide range of habitats, from lowland to mountain forests in both dry and humid tropics, even on wastelands, swamps and dry or regularly flooded river banks.

The bamboo business is labor-intensive, especially during the first two years of operation. Studies have shown that labor alone accounts for roughly 90 percent of the total production cost. But the beauty of bamboo growing becomes more obvious after the first two critical growing years.

Bamboo matures in four to five years and growers and farmers can enjoy multiple harvests in the subsequent years. “If the bamboos survive,” says a bamboo grower, “you are assured of money for the next 30 to 50 years.”

Another good thing: the price of bamboo does not suffer from severe fluctuations unlike the prices of pork and chicken. In fact, they are priced depending on the diameter, volume, and distance traveled.

“It is a pity that we have neglected this important crop for so long,” laments Roy C. Alimoane, director of the Davao-based Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation, Inc.

“God can be realized through all paths,” Ramakrishna once pointed out. “All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.”

Written By Henrylito D. Tacio

Source: Sun Star

TJ touching the unidentified fruits

What is the name of this tree with unidentified fruits that came from Mindanao?

Unidentified fruits as big as the head of the person touching it

Photo Courtesy of TJ Gonzales of Baliuag, Bulacan

The mussaendas are ornamental shrubs with one or more of their sepals developing into a large, colorful, petaloid structure.  They bloom almost throughout the year, except from January to March when they are less floriferous.

No other ornamental has gained wide acceptance in the Philippines as that of the mussaendas. Collectively known as Doñas, they are cultivated throughout the country. The mussaenda hybrids are considered a centennial breakthrough in Philippine Horticulture. They are also very much sought after in the tropical countries.

The development of the mussaenda hybrids gained momentum when a mutant of the species M. philippica was discovered in Mt. Makiling, UP Los Baños in 1915. This species was named ‘Doña Aurora’ in 1938 in honor of the wife of the late President Manuel L. Quezon. The late Dr. Dioscoro L. Umali, plant breeder and former Dean of the UP College of Agriculture, initiated the development of the hybrids in 1948 using M. erythrophylla, a species with single red petaloid and ‘Doña Aurora’ as parents. Continuous crossing and backcrossing resulted into the present colorful hybrids of mussaendas that differ in the number of petaloids depending on the parents used.

Mussaenda “Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo”

Mussaenda “Dona Amelita”

Mussaenda “Corazon C. Aquino”

Mussaenda “Gining Imelda”

Mussaenda “Dona Evangelina”

Mussaenda “Dona Leonila”

Mussaenda “Dona Luz”

Mussaenda “Dona Alicia”

Mussaenda “Dona Trining”

Mussaenda “Dona Esperanza”

Mussaenda “Dona Pacencia”

Mussaenda “Dona Aurora”

Mussaenda “Dona Hilaria”

Mussaenda “Queen Sirikit”

Naming of the hybrids after the Philippine First Ladies has become a tradition. Though in 1986, some hybrids were given Filipino names. These were ‘Diwata,’ ‘Paraluman,’ ‘Lakambini,’ and ‘Maria Clara.’

Mussaenda ‘Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’ is the first mussaenda hybrid named after a Philippine President and the first to be registered and released in this century. It is a cross between ‘Doña Evangelina’ which has full, deep red petaloids as the female parent and ‘Doña Aurora’ (the first mussaenda to be named after a First Lady), which has full, white petaloids as the male parent.
The hybrid befits our President since she is the daughter of a former First Lady after whom the female parent was named. It has also the smallest petaloids among the hybrids. Both mother and daughter mussaendas are very hard to propagate. On the other hand, the male parent is the most popular and well known among the mussaendas. Mussaenda ‘Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’ is officially registered with the National Seed Industry Council of the Department of Agriculture.

Source: www.uplb.edu.ph