Agriculture Business Week

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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Tomatoes can be kept field-fresh for three weeks without using cold storage, according to the researchers from the Laguna-based Philippine Horticulture Training and Research Center (PHTRC).

One economical alternative is to use the Evaporative Cooling and Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) Technology which prolongs the storage life of fresh tomatoes under ordinary condition using locally available materials.

Developed by the team of Gloria Masilungan, Dr. Edralina Serrano and Kevin Yap, Evaporative Cooling and MAP Technology utilizes coconut coir dust and polyethylene (PE) plastic packaging and a suitable crate or container for storing tomatoes.

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This unique and “friendly” machine has been proven to ease out farm operations and for first time, it’s now available in the Philippines.

Time and again, the state of our country’s farm mechanization has been the subject of many talks and debates in various agricultural symposia and/or training seminars. While we all agree that our agricultural engineers should be supported by both the government and private sector, we also allude to the fact that in order for the farm machinery industry to grow, we have to keep ourselves abreast with the latest technologies from advanced countries. Our recent trip to Southern China made us open our mind to a wide array of agri machines that really help the Chinese farmers save on labor cost, increase productivity and ease out the difficulty of back-breaking farming toil.

One particular machine caught our attention-the brush and grass cutter that is also convertible into a rice cutter. This three-in-one farm machine, we were told is primarily a grass cutter with a long shaft and could easily be carried by the farmer anywhere. At only 7.5 kilos, it is considered handy because of its light weight. This, however, is inversely proportional to its heavy duty features. For one, the machine’s blade cutter is changeable with a nylon/string for cutting the softer or finer types of grass. It could be adjusted if the farmer intends to cut the wilder, thicker grasses like our native talahib.

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Rice farmers in Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Pangasinan and Pampanga whose newly-harvested rice crops were damaged by Typhoon “Ondoy” are reaping the benefits of the flat bed dryers distributed to them through irrigators associations by the Bureau of Post-harvest Research and Extension (BPRE), which is attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

According to BPRE, 335 units of flat bed dryers were distributed to irrigators associations in Region 1 and Region IV-B. These dryers can dry a volume of 6,080 tons of wet palay daily. A total of 1,188 units of the drying machines have already been installed in practically all producing regions of the country, the BPRE said.

It said in Nueva Ecija alone, a total of 88 units of flat bed dryers were distributed to rice farmers.

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With its vast production of highland semi temperate vegetables, Benguet province is dubbed as the salad bowl of the country. Moreover, the high-value crops produced here have a great potential in the global market.

This is why cold chain facilities are very imperative in Benguet. And good thing that the province has been provided with reefer trucks and cold storage for this continuous refrigerated handling of veggies from farms to markets. For all we know, nobody wants to buy withered vegetables, right?

The P8 million Benguet Cold Chain was established in Wangal, La Trinidad; Benguet. With financial support from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Department of Agriculture (DA) and with assistance from the Bureau of Postharvest and Research and Extension (BPRE), the government of Benguet set it up primarily to cater to the demand for fresh veggies, especially in high-end markets.

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It is not unusual when a farmer from Luzon or from Visayas relocates to Mindano for good. What is quite unusual is when a Mindanaoan goes to Luzon and settles there to do his brand of farming.

That’s exactly the case of Jose Paquibongan, an agriculturist born in Bohol but who stayed in Mindanao for several years after graduating from college. Mindoro farmers he has been helping consider him a Mindanaoan rather than a Boholano. Joe finished an agriculture course at the Bohol State College in Bilar in 1984. Immediately after graduation, he went to Mati, Davao Oriental, to help a relative manage a diversified farm where they had coconut, coffee, cacao, guava and farm animals like hogs and goats.

For a number of years, he also worked as rice technician of the Farm Systems Development Corporation in Tagum, Davao del Norte. That was a government agency which was dissolved after President Corazon Aquino took over the helm of the government.

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Alltech’s new technology uses DNA and nutrigenomics to pinpoint an animal’s needs.

At first glance, the new gene chip developed by Alltech, looks like your ordinary memory card. But more than storing thousand bits of information, this small chip uses DNA and nutrigenomics to pinpoint an animal’s needs. As what was explained to us, it would take only one drop of a cow’s blood or saliva to reveal a lot of information on a cow’s potential to produce milk or meat.

In the recently concluded 22nd AsiaPacific Lecture Tour, Alltech’s founder and President Dr. Pearse Lyons sat down with members of the press and excitedly told about what this new technology can do. Dr. Lyons received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University College Dublin, Ireland. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham in the UK, he worked in the alcohol industry in Ireland, the UK and the USA . He founded Alltech in 1980, and today the company is a leading animal health company with group sales approaching $500 million.

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Farmers can save an average of P2,480 per hectare (ha) on the cost of seeding with the improved drum seeder, a lightweight and hand -pulled machine developed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) for easy and efficient dispensing of rice seeds into the field.

This was found in the study led by Ronell Malasa of the PhilRice Socioeconomics Division that was conducted in Iloilo, Mindoro Oriental, and Nueva Ecija. The saving resulted from the immense reduction of seeding rate from 113 kg/ha in broadcast seeding to only 51 kg/ha in the drum seeding. The number of tillers also increased from 11 in broadcast seeding to 16 in drum seeding.

“This [finding], says Malasa, establishes the potential of the drum seeder to contribute in increasing yield, [for] the more tillers, the higher possibility of producing grains.”

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The National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at University of the Philippines Los Banos (BIOTECH) counts a microbial based fertilizer as its most successfully marketed technology.

Bio-N, a nitrogen supplement for rice, corn and vegetables, is a microbial-based fertilizer composed mainly of living bacteria isolated from the roots of talahib (Saccharum spontaneum).  “Through government support, we have been able to create more than 60 mixing plants for Bio-N to date,” says Dr. Jocelyn T. Zarate, BIOTECH researcher.

With the mixing plants mostly owned by farmers cooperatives in a kind of franchise arrangement with BIOTECH, the technology becomes available to more farmers in the country. “That is to say, farming cooperatives can purchase a single, pack of Bio-N, mix it in the mixing plant, and produce about 20 more packs of Bio-N that they can sell at P60 each,” Zarate says. “So the cooperatives, which shell out around P500,000 per mixing plant, including training and setup, can keep on earning from the Bio-N.”

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