Agriculture Business Week

Federico’s Bignay Wine from Victorias City in Negros Occidental bagged the top prize in the Best Bignay Wine category of the Tropical Wine Competition hosted by the Department of Science and Technology South Luzon Cluster on November 11, 2009 at SM City Sta. Rosa City, Laguna.

Federico’s Bignay Wine bested six other finalists in its category which drew entries from several regions in the country. Dielle’s Bignay Wine from National Capital Region and Goyena’s Bignay Wine from CALABARZON placed second and third, respectively.

Federico’s Bignay Wine is produced by Federico’s Island Wine which produces all-natural and organic wines made from wild berries. This bignay wine has a rich, fruity flavor and aroma. It is clear and dark plum in appearance and has 13 percent alcohol content achieved through natural fermentation.

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Egg Incubator :

Egg Sorter :

Egg Machines by Abellar Equipment :

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Alatone Plastics Inc :

Swine Cage :

Retail Area :

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PhilRice Booth :

PhilRice Books

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Have visited the Agrilink, Aqualink, Foodlink 2009 last October 10, 2009.

Here are some of the pictures :

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The issue of under investment in agriculture comes to a head, especially now that AFTA CEPT gets to be a reality in our midst.

Much has been said about the under-investment in Philippine agriculture (as compared with other nearby countries). And this is now taking toll at our competitiveness.

As a basic principle, when a needed investment is not made, productivity is affected. Things are still done which could have resulted in a lower cost input.

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Southeast Asia’s largest publicly listed food, beverage, and packaging company San Miguel Foods, Inc.’s (SMFI) recently signed with the Foundation for Resource Linkage and Development (FRLD) to formalize their support and participation for this year’s Agrilink, Foodlink and Aqualink.

And this year, the triple events that serve those three major sectors will underscore the benefits of focusing on enterprises that promote sustainable local food production and focus on the Filipino market.

In times of economic crisis, reduced prices and demand, multiplied with increasing costs in production, marketing, transportation expenses and changing consumer attitudes affect producers and manufacturers alike.

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Fish Stocking and Stocking Rate
Stock fish either early in the morning or late in the afternoon when the water is relatively cool. Acclimatize the fingerlings before stocking them. To do this, float bags of fingerlings in water where the fish is to be stocked, thereby allowing the water on the bags to float on the pond for 30 minutes. Determine the water temperature of both bag and pond waters with a thermometer. A difference of more than 30°C may cause eventual death of stock. Open the bags and introduce water gradually from the pond to the plastic bags until the temperature is almost the same. Let the fingerlings get out freely from the bags.

The number of fingerlings to be stocked in a cage varies from 10 – 15 pieces per cu m to reach a size of 100g each in 150 days without supplementary feeding during summer months. Use the same density at the start of the rainy months up to early part of summer. However, the growth rate is lower during rainy months because the water is cooler and there is little presence of natural food in the water.

Management in Cages
Tilapia in cages require minimal care and maintenance. Aside from occasional intrusion of predators, mechanical damage to the net screen and poaching, no serious problem can be expected.

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To help bring Philippine agricultural products at par with international agriculture standards, the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards (BAFPS) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) is promoting the “Good Agricultural Practices” or GAP Program.

This is one of the seminars of the recently concluded 5th Agriculture and Fisheries Technology Forum and Product Exhibition Fair organized by the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR).

Dr. Clarence Agustin, representative from BAFPS, conducted the seminar on the second day of the four-day activity. Farmers, students, researchers and other participants listened intently as they were made aware of the importance of GAP.

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The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has discovered new parasitoid insects which could prove to be of great importance in the country’s continuing battle against Brontispa longissima which has previously attacked more than 1.6 million coconut trees nationwide, this is according to PCA Administrator Oscar G. Garin.

“Our research center in the Davao City has identified two indigenous small insects that parasitize Brontispa by laying their eggs in the larva or pupa of the pest” Garin highlighted in the recently concluded Brontispa In-House Evaluation and Action Planning held in Quezon City.

The administrator revealed that the PCA-Davao Reseach Center conducted a Field Release Evaluation where a total of 1,948 parasitoid adults were released in infested barangays in Region XI and parallel laboratory tests.

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The country’s biggest and most prestigious annual international trade show on agribusiness, food and aquaculture is poised to bring in the world’s latest livestock and dairy technologies and solutions to boost the global competitiveness of the local industry.

This was announced by the Foundation for Resource Linkage and Development (FRLD), organizers of Agrilink, Foodlink and Aqualink 2009 slated at the World Trade Center on Oct. 8-10.

FRLD president Antonio V. Roces said new technologies from at least four continents would be exhibited at Agrilink by the International Livestock and Dairy Exposition (ILDEX), one of Asia’s most influential agriculture and dairy trade fairs.

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Farmers in flood-prone areas has a reason to be glad, and it’s the release of the first submergence-tolerant rice in the country.

Called Submarino 1, NSIC Rc194 is IR64 infused with submergence tolerance gene (Sub 1), which the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University Of California-Davis discovered from Indian rice variety FR13A. It was released on July 7 during the 27th Council Secretariat Meeting of the National Seed Industry Council.

“Submarino 1 is a non-genetically engineered rice plant that can survive, grow, and develop even after 10 days of complete submergence at vegetative stage,” says Dr. Nenita V. Desamero, PhilRice plant breeder and team leader of the on farm testing of submergence rice.

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How much budget is really allocated for agriculture on a yearly basis?
I was told that there are two schools of thought in the AFMA budget. First is that the AFMA budget is the additional budget of Php20B for the first year of AFMA implementation and Php17 billion every year thereafter for six years and on till 2015 according to AFMA extension law. According to this school of thought, the AFMA budget is being provided in the form of what was called the GATT budget of the pre-AFMA period. Hence now, people refer to the figure which is the DA budget consisting of budgets of the DA bureaus and attached agencies and corporations.

The second school of thought is that all of the DA’s budgets-the budget of the Office of the Secretary, the bureaus, attached agencies and corporations-and what is called Agriculture and    Fisheries Modernization Program (AFMP) budget-are all AFMA budget. According to this school of thought, the intent of AFMA is to overhaul all agricultural and fisheries programs and so all of the budget going to the DA and the so called AFMP budget are all AFMA budget. Moreover, the budget for AFMA activities of other AFMA-implementing departments and agencies like the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Commission on Higher Education, agricultural and fishery state universities and colleges’ local government units and the National Nutrition Council are likewise AFMA’ budget. Because-of the conflicting interpretations on what should be the AFMA budget, the experts commissioned by COCAFM to assess the implementation of AFMA after five years suggested that rather than harping on the failure of government to provide for the requirements of AFMA, monitoring should focus on how the budget is being used instead.

How do we correct these lapses in the implementation of the law?
The implementation of laws is the job of the executive committee. What we do here is legislation and pointing out the lapses in the budgetary process. But there really is a big gap between government policies. We have good laws on the implementation of the budget. They say here is a budget for water or water impounding dams, farm to market roads but wherever we go, there is a big lack. All senators and congressmen put farm to market roads in their respective districts, but you don’t know where these go. Well a classic example of the misuse of funds is the fertilizer fund scam. That’s Php800M but it goes down the drain because of corruption. How many more fertilizer fund scams are there that we haven’t found out? So it’s really a misallocation of the budget.

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The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM) and of the Senate Oversight Committee on Climate Change (OCC) injects her environmental advocacy in her overall vision to empower the Filipino farmers to become financially independent and more well-informed. This is understandable as she has gone a long way in making green politics part of her legislative career and personal civic mission. She founded the Luntiang Pilipinas movement in 1998 to promote public awareness on the environment and to enjoin multi-sectoral participation in addressing environmental problems. It has since established hundreds of forest parks with more than two million trees nationwide. For her unfaltering crusade for the environment, Loren was given recognition in the year 200o by the World Economic Forum, which named her one of the Global Leaders for Tomorrow. She was also awarded by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) in 2001 as a UNEP Laureate. Loren’s name has been included in the Global 50o Roll of Honor for being in the frontline of global environmental action. In 2004, she became an Awardee for the Environment by the Priyadarshni Academy in Mumbai, India. In 2008, she was appointed as the Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia and the Pacific by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

By her own admission, Senator Loren Legarda is still a newbie in agriculture, an arena which recently expanded her domain to her growing list of priority concerns. But she is a fast learner. She continuously consults with agriculture experts and farmer leaders. She reads and absorbs tons of documents on our current food situation and easily spots gaps in our agricultural policies. She also makes it a point to spend time in the countryside to really feel the pulse of what’s happening to the state of our farms and seas.

Such laser-like focus on her newly assigned role as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food has made the hardworking Senator conclude that in order for the agriculture sector to grow, there ought to be a paradigm shift in the way we attack our farming and fishing activities. She emphasized that environmental issues, her signature cry that goes as far back to her long years as a broadcast journalist, should not be viewed in isolation with agribusiness development. “We have to integrate into our national development agenda disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. These have to be studied, understood and discussed. Farmers can just dream of having bountiful harvests but if a strong typhoon comes and destroys all of their crops, what would happen to them?”

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