Agriculture Business Week

Farming has never been easy, especially if you’re only using a hand tractor and the field you’re tilling is very muddy. Chances are, you would hardly push the hand tractor while trudging through the deep, very Soft mud or worst, the hand tractor might even get stuck in the mud.

These always happen in the fields situated at the low-lying areas of Aurora. These fields are always flooded that’s why these are called laboy, bahay-tubig or tubigan. It’s very hard to prepare these “floating fields”, and farmers are frustrated with the very low yield they usually get despite all their efforts until the floating tiller was developed.

One of the farmers who first used the floating tiller was Elias Lachica. This 45-year old PhilRice farmer-cooperator from Barangay Bacong, San Luis, Aurora was asked to record data on its use and he was impressed with the way it works.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Farming. Tags: Farming, Tiller. Comments: None

Vegetable farmers in the mountainous areas of Carranglan, Nueva Ecija can now bring their produce to the road side fast and easy, as an agricultural tramline was turned over recently by BPRE Executive Director Ricardo L. Cachuela to the municipal government.

The agricultural tramline is an alternative transport system that facilitates efficient delivery of agricultural products at reduced cost from production areas to the market.

Carranglan Mayor Luvimindo Otic received the agricultural tramline in behalf of his constituents and expressed his gratitude for its establishment in his municipality. “This technology is badly needed in our place,” he said.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Farming, Vegetables. Tags: Farming, Veggies. Comments: None

With the harvest period nearing and with the very attractive grain prices, it’s pay-off time for the hard work and the correct decisions made in the early going. Actually, farmers are use to declaring “tumama” by the time the ears are showing from the green, healthy-looking plants. Of course, harvesting is still several weeks away but there’s something the way these crops would show their potential yield. In fact, veteran farmers or agronomist can do an estimate right away.

Since we’re done with the first 60 days, more or less, of your corn plant, we’ll now discuss the stages immediately after flowering and some of the important factors that may interfere with it. Assuming that everything went right ;n the early stages, I would say that the postflowering phase is a lot easier to manage. As the kernels become mature with time, the reduction in yield from potential stresses becomes lower.

WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE POST-FLOWERING PERIOD?
The stages following pollination is when kernel development is rapidly occurring. Dry matter accumulation or seed-filling is the top priority for the plant. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are being relocated from the vegetative to the reproductive parts. Moisture content of kernels is around 85% at the blister stage and will continue to decline until maturity where it is expected to be at the 3035% level depending on the hybrid and environment.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Corn/Maize. Tags: Corn. Comments: None

A scientist who developed the technology of transporting live fish to distant places is eyeing the possibility of tuna ranching, which could tremendously increase the value of the fish.

He is Dr. Bonifacio Comandante of Dumaguete City whose technology could put fish (such as lapu-lapu, seabass and also vannamei and tiger prawns) to sleep while in transit and then awakened upon reaching their destination.

His prize-winning technology adds tremendous value to the marine products because live fish and prawns command much higher prices than the dead ones. ‘ For instance, live vannamei will often retail at P600 per kilo while the dead counterpart may only fetch half the price. The same could be true with lapu-lapu and other species.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Fish, Tuna. Comments: None

The organic fertilizer needs of farmers in Batangas, Quezon, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, and Mindoro, and fishpond operators in Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Pangasinan could now be fully satisfied by a newly established processing plant in San Juan, Batangas that manufactures Durabloom bio-organic fertilizer for crops and Nova Pure PCM Aqua for fishponds.

Owned by Engr. Reynaldo Garcia, a 45year old construction magnate who used to be in the ricemilling business, the processing plant is a franchisee of the Novatech Agri-Food Industries which developed Durabloom and Nova Pure PCM Aqua.

The bio-organic fertilizer Durabloom is now widely used by corn and sugarcane growers in Mindanao and it appears that the establishment of this processing plant is timely as the processing p’.ant in Bantayan Island in Cebu may have difficulty in satisfying the rapidly growing demand for Durabloom. Nova Pure PCM Aqua, on the other hand, is now widely used by fishpond operators in Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Pangasinan.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Farming, Organic. Tags: Durabloom, Fertilizer. Comments: None

From 1983 TO 1989, Engracio Martin of Brgy. Pag-asa, Rizal, Nueva Ecija worked in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as an electrician. Even if his initial salary was not much, $380 a month with food allowance in the first three years, it even went down to $320 in the next three years.

Realizing that his employer only wanted to take advantage of the unemployment rate in the Philippines by offering lower salary, he finally decided to go home even if he did not have any definite plan for the future. He was certain that he would be able to manage his financial situation in no time at all. For one thing, he had saved some money from his meager salary and second, since he has a college degree in agriculture from the Sabani State Agricultural College in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija, he could venture into farming.

When he went home, he bought a tricycle and used it as a public conveyance vehicle. It did not take long before someone mortgaged a hectare of rice land to him for P30,000 and that was the start of his farming. Three years later, an additional 7,000 sq. m. was mortgaged to him again. He drove his tricycle in the mornings and worked in the farm in the afternoons so he would be able to provide well for his family.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Entrepreneurs, Rice. Tags: Entrepreneurs, Farming, PhilRice, Rice. Comments: None