Agriculture Business Week

Can I get anthrax?
Yes. Anthrax can enter through a break or abrasion in the skin after direct contact with infected animals or their products, such as blood, wool or hides. Anthrax may also be transferred by biting flies. Within a few days, redness, and swelling occur followed by a black scab at the site of infection. The cutaneous (skin) form is most commonly seen with natural infections of anthrax.

Anthrax can also be inhaled (aerosol) in contaminated dust from the environment or animal products (e.g., hides, wool). This form of the disease is the most severe and can lead to death. Fever, coughing, severe chest pain and difficulty in breathing may occur. Early treatment with antibiotics is important.

People can become infected orally by eating undercooked meat of infected animals. Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and severe, bloody diarrhea may occur.

Who should I contact if I suspect anthrax?
In animals – Contact your veterinarian immediately. In humans – Contact your physician immediately.

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Discussing the pros and cons of an undervalued currency is mind-boggling and one realizes that we need to study it further.

I recently attended a “talakayan” on this topic and it is a very interesting discussion of the issue—how foreign exchange rate affects all of us.

For example, on one hand, a weak peso meaning at Php46.00 exchange rate, when it strengthens means exchange rate goes lower to Php4o.00. Well, it all depends on the place where you are coming from. Exporters and OFWs will be affected immensely. Because peso proceeds through dollar remittances or export sales will yield lesser pesos. A US$1,000 remittance will give hpP40,000 instead of Php45,000. Php5,000 less.

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Walcom Group kicks off the Philippine launching of its feed cost saving strategy – “a-project” at the 3rd International Animal Health, Genetics and Nutrition Congress (INAHGEN), held at SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, Philippines from 3rd to 5th of February. Mr. Yang Lei, Marketing Director of Walcom Group Limited led the launching and technical presentation among the guest and visitors.

The a-project will support feed enterprises to control feed cost especially when feed ingredients price are fluctuating and are in short supply. “Keeping pig feeds price affordable while maintaining quality is the target of the a-project, and it can be done by improving the utilization efficiency of raw materials,” said Yanglei.

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Numancia, Aklan – The Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC), is one of the 14 regional consortia of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) opened its 39th Farmers’ Information and Technology Service (FITS) or Techno Pinoy center on December to, 2009 at the Numancia Town Hall in Poblacion in this town.

Leading the launch of the center were Numancia Mayor Elverita Templonuevo, and Dr. Alicia Lustica of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Templonuevo expressed gratitude to WESVARRDEC and its partner member institutions for the opportunities given to them. “Indeed, dreams do come true. After six years, the dream of the Municipality of Numancia to have a FITS center became a beautiful reality,” Templonuevo said.

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Dr. Rolando T. Dy’s jewel of a book intelligently connects the dots and explains how the food that lands in our dining tables is intricately linked to countless farms all over the world.

Dr. Rolando T. Dy has spent more than 30 years of his life writing papers and giving lectures on agribusiness development in different parts of the world. As a consultant for various international and local organizations, he has keenly observed how agribusiness has evolved and affected the lives of peoples in the planet. Just when one thinks that with all his achievements, there is probably nothing else that he has done to further enhance his scholarly pursuits, the agribusiness expert, who humbly describes himself as the barrio boy from Davao, has surprised his followers by writing his first book.

Launched last December 8, 2009 at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) where he is concurrently the Executive Director of the Center for Food and Agribusiness, Dr. Dy presented to the members of the academic and business communities his latest achievement: a new book entitled “Food for Thought/ How Agribusiness is Feeding the World (With Special Focus on the ASEAN).” Published by UA&P in cooperation with the Comprehensive Initiative for the Trans-forma-tion of Organizations (CITO) Foundation, the book, all of 258 pages, has been described as “first of its kind that takes a broad look at agribusiness and reveals the extent of the sector’s global reach and significance.”

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In recognition to his outstanding contributions in agricultural science, Dr. Caezar P. Mamaril, DA-PhilRice’s senior consultant, was conferred the 2009 Excellence Award, the highest honor given by the Philippine Federation of Professional Associations (PFPA).

Dr. Mamaril, a soil scientist, led the development and commercialization of the minus one element technique (MOET) kit offering a reliable, low-cost, and easy alternative technique for diagnosing soil nutrient status. MOET determines nutrient deficiency based on the actual performance of rice plants. This technique benefits farmers and agricultural technicians especially those in the remote areas who barely have access to soil laboratories.

Dr. Mamaril joined PhilRice in 1996 as part time agronomy and soils research consultant after retiring from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) where he worked as agronomist since 1972.

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The story is told about a country leader who divorced his wife because she could not bear him his child. Medical investigation later revealed that the fault did not lie with the wife but with the leader who was sterile. This story, whether true or not, is a good analogy on who Filipinos should blame for the mass poverty in agriculture, a phenomenon that accounts for 70 percent of the total poor and the basis of the statement that poverty in the Philippines is agriculture-driven.

Many of the country’s economic leaders blame farmers for their impoverished state. They say that farmers are lazy, lacking in education and capital, stubborn, and resist the adoption of modern farming technology.

In the course of writing the book “Eradicating Mass Poverty in Agriculture” the author’s investigation revealed that the fault for the massive poverty in agriculture does not lie with the farmers, but with the economic leaders who adopted the free-market policy for agriculture. This policy place many farmers under a harsh competitive environment called near perfect market competition that subject them to a perpetual cost-price squeeze phenomenon, wherein prices received by farmers are persistently equal to or sometimes even below production cost. As a consequence, farmers who rely mainly on agriculture for their livelihood generally earn low income, with many of them earning below the poverty threshold.

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Woment members of the Buhi Ecuminical Development Association, Inc. (BEDAI) are making handicraft items out of water hyacinth (more popularly called water lily) from Lake Buhi in Camarines Sur. The products include table runners, placemats, canisters, bags, slippers and wall decors.

The BEDAI members are wives of farmers engaged in the development projects of the Department of Agriculture in the municipality. The members sought the help of the Department of Trade and Industry and a local non-government organization to start a local water-lily-based small to medium-size enterprise.

Considered a weed, the water hyacinth can live and reproduce while floating on the surface of freshwaters. The plant size ranges from 6 inches to 38 inches, depending on its growing condition. It can multiply very fast and could cause infestation of large areas of water in no time, creating various problems.

Modern agriculture produces high yields, but is often not sustainable. Expensive seeds and farm chemicals eat into profit. Pesticides upset the natural balance between predators and pests, and chemical poison groundwater and rivers.

“Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are killed due to accidental poisoning by agricultural chemicals,” says Roy C. Alimoane, director of the Davao-based Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation, Inc.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization reports that three people are poisoned by pesticides every minute around the world. All in all, about 10,000 die annually due to pesticides.

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The Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation, Inc. recommends the following steps in producing our own seeds.

In Genesis chapter 1, 1 verse 30, God told Adam and Eve, “I give you every green plant for food.” And it was so. The propagation of plants is basically divided into two types: the sexual (or propagation by seeds) and the asexual (or propagation using vegetative parts or plants). Among the two types, seeds are the most important.

“Seeds are many things,” wrote Victor R. Boswell, author of The Importance of Seeds. “Above all else, they are a way of survival of their species. They are a way by which embryonic life can be almost suspended and then revived to new development – even years after the parents are dead and gone.”

No wonder, Filipino farmers who plant vegetables, beans, pulses and cereals are planting seeds for their next crop season. This is the reason why the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation, Inc., through its several years of experience, is urging farmers to produce their own seeds.

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As in previous disasters, there is no option left but to rise and start all over again.

The description of “pliant like a bamboo” is an accepted image of our people. Like a bamboo, we face each and all that comes our way, and we stand erect after each trial.

The catastrophe of the two typhoons brought havoc and destruction to many to include our farming and fishing sectors. And as in previous disasters, there is no option left but to rise and start all over again.

As in the recent typhoons, farmers in Central and Northern Luzon were generally left to fend for themselves as resources of the government were but meager measure compared to the need of the hour.

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Year-round cocoon production is now possible with the Philippines’ first sex-linked bivoltine (SLB) silkworm strain. The strain, developed by the Sericulture Research and Development Institute (SRDI) of Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU), has a special property of producing two generations each year.

In commercial cocoon production, productivity at the farmer’s level is dependent in the, production of Fi silkworm hybrids. This; in turn, is dependent on the sex discrimination of parental strains. However, the separation of male from female parents is laborious and accounts for 29% of the total labor required for egg production.

DMMMSU SLB silkworm strain simplifies sex discrimination by larval markings on their skins. Two larval markings, plain and dark double mark (DDM), are expressed by larvae produced by the evolved sex-linked silkworm pureline coded as DMMMSU SLB. All the larvae, without body markings, are males, while those with DDM are females. DDM is characterized by an eye spot marking on the second thoracic segment, a pair of crescent marking on the dorsal side of the second abdominal segment, and a pair of star marks on the dorsal side of the 5th abdominal segment, in addition to sooty grey random mosaic color all over the body.

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Pilmico Animal Nutrition Corporation supported the Aboitize’s “I take the Aboitiz 1 Million Trees Challenge” in Sitio Kawili-wili, Brgy. Cut-Cut II, Capas, Tarlac last October 10, 2009 to extend the company’s goal to promote environmental conservation as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The main goal of this environment-related project this year is to plant 1, 000 Ilang-Ilang seedlings within the area of Kawili-wili Elementary School. The project will be a positive action to the environment to prevent the recent calamities triggered by incessant rain and flooding which affected many lives.

The first and second tree planting project of the company held 2006 & 2007 took place within the vicinity of Capas National Shrine where its swine breeder and finisher farm operate in which the volunteers planted 1,000 seedlings of Mahogany each year.

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With ordinary materials, you can create and sell your own brand of special paper.

Paper is a fantastic material suitable for numerous uses, including manufacturing notebooks, books, calendars, and magazines, wrapping gifts, and wrapping items in stores. Paper is widely used in offices for writing, printing documents, and photocopying. At home, paper is used to clean, to dry things, and for many other purposes. In short, paper is one of the most versatile and common products of modern societies.

Ancient Egyptians invented the first substance like the paper we know today called papyrus. Papyrus scrolls were made by taking slices of the inner part of the papyrus stem, flattening then pounded into a hard, thin sheet. The word “paper” comes from the word “papyrus”.

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