Agriculture Business Week

A multi-purpose processing machine that performs the functions of a crusher, juice extractor and a mill was awarded Most Outstanding—Invention (Tuklas Award) and the WIPM Gold Medal and Certificate Award during the 2009 National Invention Contest awarding ceremonies held last November 20 at the Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay City.

The research team, which is based in the Polangui Campus of Bicol University in Albay, is composed of Engr. Arnulfo Malinis, Engr. Eleanor Balute, Engr. Estrella Calpe and Engr. Herminigildo Lizano. In addition to a plaque, medal and certificate, the team took home P150,000 cash prize.

Malinis explained that the development of such machine helps address the need for appropriate postharvest processing facility for agricultural products in the countryside to enable farmers to add value to their produce and make it possible to sell these products at higher prices.

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A multi-awarded agricultural engineer at the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE) has developed a state-of-the art but low-cost computer vision system (CVS) for analyzing the quality of milled rice.

He is Dr. Manolito C. Bulaong. In his CVS, an ordinary scanner serves as the “eye” of the system. It replaces the expensive digital cameras used in the conventional CVS for image acquisition. The image processing software, on one hand, extracts the shape and color patterns from each grain image.

The artificial neutral network (ANN) meanwhile acts as the “brain” of the system. It recognizes the shape and color patterns from each grain and learns the quality category it belongs.

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A rice hull furnace (RHF) equipped with an automatic fuel feed system or ram-fed mechanism is now ready for commercialization in the Philippines. Pilot testing of the furnace was successfully conducted in Macalamcam A, Rosario, Batangas using a 5-ton flatbed paddy dryer.

Technical assistance and supervision during the installation and pilot testing was provided by  Engr. Pat Borlagdan Ph.D., Asst. Scientist, Post Harvest Section, Grain Quality, Nutrition and Post Harvest Center, IRRI with the help of Mr. Luis Soliban Jr. farm manager of the IRRI cooperator/owner of the flatbed dryer.

The idea of a rice hull furnace with an automatic husk feeding and ash removal system was initially conceptualized in 1996 by IRRI in collaboration with the Institute of Agricultural Engineering in the Tropics of Hohenheim University, Germany, and the Center for Agricultural Energy and Machinery of Nong Lam University (NLU), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This was the general tone of an article written by Diplomate Ag. Engr. Martin Gummert, Senior Scientist and Post Harvest Development Officer of IRRI entitled “New Rice Husk Furnace Takes Off in  Vietnam”, Ripple newsletter Jan-Feb 2007 issue published by the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC).

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This organic egg promotes growth, restores vitality and helps keeps us away from diseases.

Eggs are an essential and versatile ingredient for many baked goods, a key ingredient to so many delicious and nutritious dishes, and of course, great for breakfast.

But nowadays, people are now nary chicken eggs in the market open grass) like becoming conscious about the food they eat. Maybe this is why there were an increasing number of folks claiming to have organically grown eggs. They also believe that it is healthier to eat organic eggs than to have ordinary chicken eggs in the market because organic ones come from chickens that are treated with hormones (antibiotic free) and so our body should be safe from chemicals.

Organic egg, they said, is from free range chicken (raised on open grass) like native chicken.

They eat seed, grains, grass and other plants…unlike the commercial chickens fed with feeds made up of animal and fish byproducts which cause that fishy taste in their eggs. But these are not always true.

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If pundits say public policy must strike a balance between the pursuit of economic goals and protection of the environment, it is therefore a must to invest in technologies related to climate change.

Perhaps aside from the word “love” and terms like “developmental agenda,” the words “climate change” is already beginning to be one of the most abused terms in the English language. So much so that it is already starting to sound like a cliche in daily conversations. But the truth is, whether it’s abused or a cliché, we cannot escape the fact that the continuous changes in weather patterns is one thing that we all have to take seriously. We either do something about it or we perish. Complacency is not an option if we want to survive as members of the human race.

Centuries of abuse and neglect in our natural resources have already taken its toll in our dying planet. The recent aftermath of typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” which caused billions of pesos worth of damage to our agricultural sector is a concrete manifestation of this, not to mention the thousands of lives lost. We can develop new breeds of plants and animals, build roads and bridges, discover new farming methods and improve our food processing and marketing systems, but without addressing the issues of climate change, everything that we have worked on to improve our quality of life will go to naught. As mortals, we will always be at the mercy of Mother Nature.

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The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) found in a study that using a mechanized harvesting, handling, and drying system in breeder seed production lessens labor and risk of seed contamination.

Led by Engr. Ricardo Orge, the researchers harvested, threshed and bagged breeder seeds in special jute sacks using mini-combine, a machine designed by PhilRice with harvesting, reaping and threshing functions. Then they transported the filled sacks to the drying area with a trailer and dried the seeds while inside the sacks.

“[In this mechanized postharvest system,] it would only take 9-10 hours from harvesting up to the time the seeds are dried to final moisture content of 12 percent. [But in the conventional method], it would take 27 hours per hectare,” says Engr. John Eric Abon who is one of the proponents of the study.

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Drying is a very imperative postharvest operation as it reduces the risk of incurring postharvest losses, especially during the rainy season.

To reduce postharvest losses and expand the livelihood opportunities of farmers, the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE) provides them access to grain drying facilities through its project Sustain-ability of Community-Based Grain Drying Center Established as Public Investment.

BPRE has situated a flatbed dryer at the Hinagyanan Integrated Farmers’ Association in Barangay Bonot, Calabanga, Camarines Sur. The dryer can dry grains from 31 percent to 14 percent moisture content in 6 to 8 hours. It has an indirect-fired multi-fuel biomass furnace, which utilizes rice hull and corn cobs as fuel.

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Sundrying is the traditional method of processing a commodity. The risk with this, however; is that dust and microorganisms enter the commodities being dried, resulting in low product quality.

This is the reason why the Kababaihang Masigla ng Nueva Ecija (KMNE), processor of agricultural and fishery products, acquired the Multi-Commodity Solar Tunnel Dryer (MCSTD).

Adopted by the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE) from the Hohenheim University in Germany to maximize solar power in postharvest operations, MCSTD is a good alternative to sundrying. It is developed for the production of quality dried agricultural products, which is the goal of KMNE.

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Aerial spraying is recognized as a method or standard means of pest control, crop management, and fertigation as expounded in agricultural modernization.

As early as 1968, the Philippines already had 10 aircrafts used in aerial spraying of export bananas, the Cavendish variety. Yet Russia that time already had 7,000, while the United States had 5,700, and these aircrafts were used in spraying cotton and corn among other plantation crops.

For so many decades now, no country that has experienced aerial spraying has banned the practice. And with the advent of modern research, safer and more modern pesticides are being formulated and introduced commercially worldwide. Hence, we do not have to fear the large-scale use of pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers through aerial spraying to control the dreaded fungal diseases of bananas, particularly the Black Sigatoka.

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A multi-purpose processing machine that performs the functions of a crusher, juice extractor and a mill garnered the Most Outstanding Invention (Tuklas Award) and the WIPO Gold Medal and Certificate Award during the 2009 National Invention Contest awarding ceremonies held at the Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay City.

The research team, which is based in the Polangui Campus of Bicol University in Albay, is composed of Engr. Arnulfo Malinis, Engr. Eleanor Balute, Engr. Estrella Calpe and Engr. Herminigildo Lizano. In addition to the plaque, medal and certificate, the team took home P150,000 as cash prize.

Engr. Malinis explained that the development of such machine helps address the need for appropriate postharvest processing facilities for agricultural products in the countryside to enable farmers to add value to their produce so they can sell these products at higher prices.

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Following a successful tie-up with a businessman in the commercialization of bamboo charcoal briquettes, the Ilocos Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (ILARRDEC) of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) has now started to promote its bamboo technologies in the local government level to further boost bamboo production and utilization in Region I.

ILARRDEC director Dr. Stanley Malab said during PCARRD’s 37th anniversary last November that the City of Alaminos in Pangasinan is now advocating the production and utilization of bamboo in its local industries, ranging from food establishments to the tourism sector.

The project is called “Science and Technology Intervention for the Promotion and Commercialization of Engineered Bamboo: Academe, LGU Partnership Model.”

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Upland farming wouldn’t be grueling with the agricultural tramline system. It’s a ropeway for fast, easy, and cheap transport of produce from farms on the mountains to the nearest roads.

It reduces hauling cost to as much as 60 percent and transport time from hours to just minutes. So farmers could sell vegetables and other perishable crops fresh and in good shape and this mean’s extra profit.

Compared to farm-to-market roads which are far more expensive to construct and maintain in the upland, tramline has lower investment cost. Its design is also simple, hence it is easy to construct, operate, and maintain.

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A revolutionary product has been developed by an American firm, SenesTech, Inc., which will virtually sterilize the female rats so that they will not reproduce. The product is called ContraPest that is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, a non-toxic product that can dramatically decrease rat population in rice fields.

The product is not yet available in the market but Dr. Timothy Vail, vice president of manufacturing and regulations, and George Siegel, vice president of business development for SenesTech, visited the Philippine government officials in Manila recently to discuss field testing and regulatory registration of the technology so that the product can be manufactured and marketed in the Philippines. The product will then be sold throughout  Southeast Asia to address the major problem of rice field rats.

During the visit, Sunil Sutlani, president of Indian Drug Distributors Inc., was appointed as an exclusive agent to act on behalf of SenesTech in order to make formal applications to the Philippine FDA and associated government agencies for compliance testing that will lead to regulatory approval of the product.

ContraPest is not a poison. It will not kill the rats that will eat it. But the female rat that will eat ContraPest will not be able to give birth because it causes reproductive infertility.

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What can good packaging do for your product?

To the microentrepreneurs of Samar provinces, good packaging not only enhances the market value of their product. It also gives them the opportunity to become competitive as it results in higher product quality and longer shelflife.

This was proven by Norma Dela Cruz who owns and manages NC Dela Cruz Home of Pili Delicacies in Brgy. Kinabranan, Allen, Northern Samar. She is among the processors of delicacies made from pili nut which is claimed to be abundant in Eastern Visayas.

When Secretary Estrella F. Alabastro and regional officials of the Department of Science and Technology visited her production area recently, she proudly showed her products, which were improved through the adoption of mechanized processing equipment and appropriate packaging materials and labeling under the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP).

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