Agriculture Business Week

In the wake of the outbreak of Fusarium wilt or Panama disease, which is affecting some Cavendish banana plantations in Mindanao, government agencies that have to do with agriculture are mobilizing their resources to help address the problem.

Large amounts of funds have been announced to have been allocated by government agencies to be used to address the banana disease problem. These are the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), and the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research.

In the case of PCAARRD, an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), it has been addressing the needs of the smallholder banana farmers. For instance, one ongoing PCAARRD project centers on the “Adoption of Science and Technology-Based Integrated Crop Management and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in Lakatan and Cardaba.” The project was launched even before the Fusarium disease was played up in the newspapers and other media.

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Posted on February 14th, 2013 under Fruits, Special Report, SPOTlight. Tags: Banana, Cavendish, Disease, Fusarium. Comments: None

Learn to bake one of the best loved healthy cakes.

We’ve asked local coffee shop owners what are the top five bestselling cakes and always, the classic banana cake would land on the list. Of course we weren’t surprised. Banana cakes are well-loved because they are healthy (as compared with other super sweet cakes), yummy and easy to make. Try this favorite recipe and earn more!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups shortening
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups mashed bananas
7 cups sifted cake flour
t tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

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Posted on July 15th, 2010 under Fruits, Income Booster. Tags: Banana, Banana Cake, Cake. Comments: None

Banana and cacao have something in common – they grow best when under shade. Thus, simultaneously growing these crops between coconut trees offer an alternative source of food and income for coconut farmers.

In Quezon Province, Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD’s) Techno Gabay Program supports two concurrent Science and Technology-based Farm (STBF) projects on banana-coconut and cacao-coconut.

A group from PCARRD headed by Dr. Arturo S. Argafiosa together with Mr. Gil Flores of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) visited the project sites in Quezon on January 19 to monitor the STBFs’ progress.

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Posted on June 19th, 2010 under Fruits, Other Crops. Tags: Banana, Cacao. Comments: 1

Saba, Lakatan, and Bongolan bananas could be considered additional or alternative to Cavendish fibers as source of raw materials for textile manufacture.

In the study conducted by a senior science research specialist at the Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) on the potential of fibers from the trunks of six banana cultivars—Saba, Lakatan, Bongolan, Pakil, Saksik, and Tordan—for textile production, Saba shows potential for high fiber yield based on this cultivar’s low residual gum content. Ms. Marites S. de Leon, the researcher, explained that the residual gum content is one of the major considerations in assessing cellulosic fiber’s suitability for textile use. She stressed that fiber with very high gum content will not be economically viable for textile use because such fiber will require higher pretreatment inputs to attain the desired gum content level which results in low fiber yield. Among the six cultivars, Saba fibers have residual gum content close to that of the Cavendish fibers, which have been identified as suitable for textile purposes. The residual gum content of Bongolan and Lakatan, although significantly different from that of the Cavendish, is still within the acceptable gum content range.

In terms of strength, results of the study show that Lakatan was the strongest among the six cultivars, with mean tensile strength even higher than that of the Cavendish.

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Posted on April 5th, 2010 under Fruits, Textile. Tags: Banana, Bongolan, Fiber, Lakatan, Saba, Textile. Comments: None

One piece of good news is that the banana that looks like a dwarf version of our Saba banana is now being tissue-cultured for commercial planting.

Now christened Mama Sita banana, it was introduced from Thailand a few years back through the initiative of the Mama Sita Foundation. The imported plants were planted in a demo farm consisting of several hundred hills in the property of Dr. Benito Vergara who is most active in a research and development project on fruit crops supported by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

When we visited the plantation earlier this year, the plants were fruiting very well and the fruits were about ready for harvest. After the fruits were harvested, a panel of tasters evaluated the ripe fruits. The mature ones that were not yet ripe were processed into chips. Now, Dr. Vergara is convinced that Mama Sita banana has a good commercial potential. He says that it could be cooked like Saba, best as fried. It can be eaten raw like a latundan. It is also excellent for making banana chips. During the last garden show in Los Banos, the banana chips were the bestseller in commercial booth of Dr. Vergara. All sold out, according to him.

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Posted on March 25th, 2010 under Fruits. Tags: Banana, Fruits. Comments: 6

One piece of good news is that the banana that looks like a dwarf version of our Saba banana will now be propagated for commercial planting.

Now christened Mama Sita banana, it was introduced from Thailand a few years back through the initiative of the Mama Sita Foundation. The imported plants were planted in a demo farm consisting of several hundred hills in the property of Dr. Benito Vergara who is most active in a research and development project on fruit crops supported by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

When we visited the plantation earlier this year, the plants were fruiting very well and the fruits were about ready for harvest. After the fruits were harvested, a panel of tasters evaluated the ripe fruits. The mature ones that were not yet ripe were processed into chips. Now, Dr. Vergara is convinced that Mama Sita banana has a good commercial potential. He says that it could be cooked like Saba, best as fried. It can be eaten raw like a latundan. It is also excellent for making banana chips.

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Posted on November 10th, 2009 under Fruits. Tags: Banana, Dwarf Banana. Comments: 3

In the banana producing areas in Mindanao, the growers have a problem with their so-called “rejects” which are either too small or too big for the export market.

One big plantation alone may have 15 tons of rejects every day. There are some businessmen who buy the rejects dirt cheap (P500 per truckload) but they can buy just a small fraction.

One company that is taking advantage of the availability of cheap off-size bananas is Perfect Milling, a feedmill in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, managed by Aerol Conde. Thanks to the off-size bananas, Aerol can produce high quality feeds at a lower price than the competition. He said that his feeds (for swine and poultry) are at least P40 per bag cheaper than the leading brand in the market.

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Posted on September 9th, 2009 under Fruits, Livestock. Tags: Banana, Feeds, Fruits, Pigs/Hogs, Swine. Comments: 1

Ex-NPA chief Bernabe Buscayno of Talaga, Capas, Tarlac and Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan are both producers of organic bananas. The methods of these close friends, however, are very different. Catacutan is into the scientific, while “Kumander Dante ” practices what he calls primitive banana production that he learned from the natives when he was in the boondocks.

Buscayno started venturing in banana production in 2004. But before this, he was producing rice. He had even established a rice farmers’ cooperative after then President Corazon Aquino granted him a reprieve. The co-op unfortunately fell apart because the 2,000 members were affected by the Mt. Pinatuba eruption in 1991.

Buscayno was encouraged by his friend who was working at the Lorenzo Farms in Davao to plant banana instead of rice as the return of investment with banana is more substantial. He was convinced of its potential and so he ordered 4,000 tissue-cultured  seedlings from the Lorenzo Farms. He bought cavendish, lakatan, and latundan varieties at P30 each.

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Posted on August 19th, 2009 under Fruits, Organic. Tags: Banana, Fruits, Organic, Tarlac. Comments: 6

Smallhold banana growers in Isabela gave more reasons to continue planting banana the natural way now that they have proven that improved farming technology can do wonders for them.

And why not? Their naturally produced bananas have found a sure market. One is Japan, which requires 3,500 boxes of Bongulan banana weekly. A box contains 13 kilograms (kg), so that’s a total of 45,500 kg a week. The bigger market is Korea that buys from them 685,000 kg a week or roughly 52,692 boxes weighing 13 kg per box.

This was learned from Dr. Biley Temanel of Isabela State University (ISU) during the recent General Membership Assembly of the National Research Council of the Philippines. He said that the opening of the export market for Isabela banana growers is the result of the marketing agreement forged with the Center for Organic Farming and Integrated Rural Development or CORDEV which now serves as their marketing outlet.

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Posted on July 20th, 2009 under Farming, Fruits. Tags: Banana, Farmers, Isabela. Comments: None

The banana plant has always been a source of fiber. Its shoots and leaves are commonly used in producing fiber, but its trunk usually goes to waste as it is difficult to extract fiber from it.

Well not anymore. With the multi-fiber tandem stripper, one could produce per hour about 1,000 kilograms of banana fiber from banana trunk.

Designed and fabricated by Engr. Hospicio Luarca Agustin Jr. of Midsayap, North Cotabato, this machine can also extract fibers from pineapple, ramie, kenaf, and other fibercrop at the same rate. That’s because it is spring-loaded so it can be adjusted according to the softness or hardness of the fiber crop, Agustin said.

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Posted on July 8th, 2009 under Fruits, Textile. Tags: Banana, Fiber. Comments: 23

The premiere traditional rope fiber of the world continues to generate jobs and earns millions of dollars for the country. But how can this be sustained?

Abaca (Musa textiles Nee) belongs to the banana family (Musaceae) and is indigenous to the Philippines. Abaca fiber is superior over all other fibers of its class because of its great strength and its resistance to the action of water. Thus, it is the cordage of choice for ropes used in oil dredging or exploration, navies and merchant shipping (PCARRD, 2008).

Due to the importance of abaca industry to the country, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), one of the five sectoral councils under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), has allotted a total of Php142 million research funds for its rehabilitation.

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Posted on April 28th, 2009 under Other Crops. Tags: Abaca, Banana, Fiber, PCCARD. Comments: 22

The banana companies in Mindanao can make additional income from their banana stalks after harvest by processing them into fibers for the manufacture of paper. Normally, banana stalks are left to the elements to rot and be wasted after the fruits are harvested.

Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis and Rolyson B. Simpliciano, a biology professor of MMSU and her student, respectively, have found that the edible Pleurotus mushroom could be used to remove the lignin material from banana stalks and produce fibers for handmade paper making.

This could be considered a breakthrough since the banana industry produces voluminous amount of stalks that are normally considered waste. Moreover, their disposal is an added burden and entails additional operations cost.

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Posted on April 16th, 2009 under Fruits, Textile. Tags: Banana, Fiber, Mushroom, Pleurotus. Comments: 7

The results of two undergraduate theses at the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) have caught our interest: an assessment of pineapple diseases in Tupi and Polomolok, South Cotabato by Irish B. Ofamia and an evaluation of plant extract formulations against Cercospora musae Zimm, which causes Sigatoka disease in banana by Lenneth P. Davao. Both of them are students of Dr. Naomi G. Tangonan, the lone university professor in USM.

In the study on pineapple, the top three field diseases of this crop are phytopthora heart rot, bacterial heart rot, and fusarium wilt. On the other hand, the postharvest diseases are black rot and fruit core rot.

Results showed almost one-fourth (23.5%) of the pineapple farms surveyed were infected with phytopthora heart rot, while over one-eighth (13.61%) had bacterial heart rot. Fusarium wilt infected only 2.28% of the farms. In the two marketing outlets, more than one-fourth (27%) of the fruits for sale were infected with black rot, while only 5% had fruit core rot.

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Posted on March 17th, 2009 under Fruits. Tags: Banana, Disease, Pineapple, Students. Comments: None

Are the older leaves of your banana plants having yellow margins and losing vigor? Do the younger leaves show the same symptoms one after the other until eventually, all the leaves wilt?

If you are you suspecting that these are just symptoms of nutrient deficiency or natural senescence, think again. These might be due to Fusarium wilt, a destructive fungal disease that can damage your banana trees. Yes, Fusarium wilt is back, so banana farmers beware!

Fusarium wilt also known as Panama disease, since it was first discovered there, is one of the most destructive plant diseases. The soilborne fungus, Fusarium oxysporum Schelecht f. sp. cubense (Foc) attacks the vascular system of the bananas and obstructs the uptake of water and soil nutrients. This results in wilting and death of the plants.

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Posted on February 15th, 2009 under Fruits, Plant. Tags: Banana, Disease, Fusarium, Fusarium Wilt. Comments: 7