Agriculture Business Week

Given the rising cost of rice, wheat and corn, the lowly potato is gaining worldwide attention that could help address the food crisis prevailing in many countries, including the Philippines.

The long lines of people queuing at various NFA outlets is proof of the severity of the food problem, and this calls for remedial measures before the situation gets worse.

Many agree that maybe it’s time for rice-eating Filipinos to start rethinking their eating habits to adjust to this kind of situation by looking at alternative food items like potato which is readily available locally.

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Posted on August 10th, 2008 under Rice, Vegetables. Tags: Potato, Rice, Veggies. Comments: None

From Day 1 to Day 5 during their visit to Wellisa Farms in Bantayan Island, we saw how the NICPAI members cling to each other. We were supposed to leave on Day 2 (Friday), but typhoon Frank prevented us until noon of Day 4 (Sunday).

Before the typhoon started to batter Bantayan Island in the evening of Friday, most of the NICPAI members, except Delson and his room mate, left the beach resort where we were billeted to take a look around Sta. Fe town. At around 6 pin, the group called Delson to join them for dinner outside the resort. We were also asked to join the group 30 minutes after. And so we obliged.

Early on Saturday morning, some of them already had news about the damage inflicted by the typhoon on their properties. They knew for sure that since the typhoon passed through their place, their crops have been damaged. In addition to that, some of them had severely damaged properties. Even as the waves were still high, all of them were raring to go home to save whatever they can.

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Posted on August 10th, 2008 under Special Report. Comments: None

Northern Ioilo Corn Producers Association Inc(NICPAI) members are professionals, they are very much in a position to understand and readily adopt innovations that would prove beneficial in their farming endeavors.

We would venture to say that after witnessing the results of the Durabloom techno demo, they easily computed their financial gains if they use and advocate the product.

For instance, NICPAI chairman Jose Baldomero, 64, is a BS Criminology graduate from the Philippine College of Criminology. He retired as a police colonel in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in 2002. Two years before he retired, he was already farming 6 hectares of riceland in Narra, Palawan. He also has a hectare of rice land in Sara, Iloilo where NICPAI is based. When he retired, he started to finance the operations of several corn farmers. Right now, he is financing 99.5 hectares of corn land which require 995 bags of Durabloom.

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Posted on August 10th, 2008 under SPOTlight. Tags: NICPAI. Comments: None