Agriculture Business Week

A new technique in sugarcane production promises to be a most timely development as it could tremendously increase yields, especially at this time when some of the local harvests will have to go into the production of biofuel.

The technique is subsurface drip irrigation. It is not really new because it is now being done in India but it is something very new in the Philippines. For the first time in the country, the technology is being used on 12.64 hectares at the Gamboa Hermanos Multi-Purpose Cooperative Farm in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. The sugarcane farm has a total area of 1,200 hectares.

Both the managers of the farm as well as the supplier of the subsurface drip system, Netafim of Israel, are very excited about the superior stand of the sugarcane crop in the demonstration farm. At the age of only five months, the canes already weigh two kilos each, according to Ted de la Torre, the agriculturist in charge of the  subsurface-irrigated crop. At this early stage, if the canes are to be harvested at the end of the fifth month, the possible yield was computed at 199 tons cane per hectare. That’s about double the usual yield of sugarcane grown under the conventional system using overhead sprinklers for irrigation. Surely, the yield could still increase tremendously since the plants still have another five or six months before harvest.

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Posted on January 8th, 2009 under Organic, Soil. Tags: Biofuel, Cane, Drip, Ethanol, Irrigation, Sugar. Comments: None

Interest in sweet sorghum is fast increasing. New investors are getting into the commercial production of this crop which has multiple uses. The government in the last few years has come up with a national program for the production of sweet sorghum as a source of ethanol for biofuel. Besides biofuel, however, there are many other important products that could be realized from sweet sorghum.

We just had a recent interview with Dr. Heraldo Layaoen, the team leader in the research and popularization of sweet sorghum as a new crop for farmers all over the country. Dr. Layaoen is a vice president of the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City, Ilocos Norte.

One of the big new investors in sweet sorghum production and processing, he said, is Wellington Chanlim of Bantayan Island, Cebu. Besides running the biggest poultry operation in the Visayas (if not in the country) with one million layers, Mr. Chanlim is also engaged in large-scale piggery, feed milling, organic fertilizer production, egg tray manufacturing and power generation.
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Posted on December 31st, 2008 under Other Crops. Tags: Biofuel, Sorghum, Sweet Sorghum. Comments: None

In three years, chickpea(Cicer arietinum L.), a very nutritious legume and a potential source of biofuel, would become on alternative high-value crop of the Cordillera Administrative Region(CAR).

The farmers in North Luzon are now learning the latest technology on chickpea production through the P9-million Philippine Chickpea Project of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), Benguet State University (BSU), and the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR).

According to Dr. Myer Mula of DACAR and Dr. Fernando R. Gonzales of BSU, the proponents of the project, the project aims to promote the cultivation of chickpea, or garbanzos, as an alternative commercial crop over the next three years because it will have a significant niche in the food economy of the households, especially in the Cordillera where the daytime temperature of 70°F - 80°F and the night time temperature of nearly 65°F is suitable for the production of edible legumes like chickpea. In doing so, its commercial production would stabilize and sustain the livelihood productivity of CAR.

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Posted on November 28th, 2008 under Going Green, Other Crops. Tags: Biofuel, Chickpea. Comments: None

San Pabloc City-based Rasza Agro Produce Corporation (RAPC), a manufacturer of coconut oil products in Laguna, has become the Department of Science and Technology’s first private sector technology licensee to commercially produce coco-methyl ester (CME), a diesel fuel additive from coconut. The non-exclusive licensing agreement was recently entered with the Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI).

The licensing agreement allows RAPC to produce CME for five years starting November last year. It was signed by Dr. Nuna Almanzor, ITDI director and Romulo M. Awayan, RAPC president. Under the agreement, ITDI provides the technical assistance required for the establishment and operation of a CME plant in Laguna, while RAPC will provide the necessary investment for the land, building, equipment, and working capital for the operation of a CME facility. It will also handle the marketing of the products.

The CME biofuel produced by the technology developed by ITDI has zero sulfur content which reduces hydrocarbon, soot and particulate matters when used in engines. DOST says that it has lesser greenhouse gas emission and is biodegradable. It also has superior lubricity and detergency properties, safe on storage, and is non-toxic. It operates on conventional engines and can be used alone or blended with diesel.

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Posted on October 23rd, 2008 under Going Green, Other Crops. Tags: Biofuel, CME, Coconut. Comments: None

Tacloban City-Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) Chairman Renato S. Velasco, Ph.D. has commended the people of Basey, Samar for their collective efforts to jumpstart jatropha planting in Eastern Visayas.

He visited the municipality of Basey in Samar to grace the First General Assembly of The Baktas Kabud’wason Association, an organization of Basaynons pushing for jatropha cultivation. He said that the group is one of the most organized in the Visayas, and that 50 barangays of Basey are now planting jatropha.

“Basey now has some 71,424 shrubs planted in 28,000 hectares, distributed in 32 out of its 51 barangays,” says Teodorico D. Porbus, Baktas Kabud’wason Association president.

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Posted on October 13th, 2008 under Going Green, Other Crops. Tags: Biofuel, Jatropha. Comments: None

Our favorite tree answers back to vehicle owners who cry out for cleaner environment and economic development.

The coconut is called ‘The Tree of Life’ because of the wide and ostentatious variety of products, not only with what its fruit, but even what its roots and bark, can furnish. Even the leaves play significant role to this moniker; not to mention components like carbohydrates, protein, calcium, phosphorous, icon, sodium, potassium, magnesium, copper, sulfur and chlorine that drinking the fresh coconut water entails. The tree provides food, shelter and fuel, making it one of the country’s contributory dynamics to its economic growth.

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Posted on August 1st, 2008 under Other Crops. Tags: Biofuel, Coconut. Comments: 2

In a bid to decrease the country’s over dependence on fuel, various research institutions started to focus their leads in studying and identifying some of the most cost-effective and environment-friendly energy source to produce biofuels. Biofuels, such as bioethanol, biodiesel and biogas, are renewable fuels that are generally produced from agricultural crops or organic matter.

This effort to find alternative bio-source is also in accordance with the recent passing into law of the Biofuel Acts or SB 2226 and the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s drive towards energy independence. The law requires that “a minimum of 1% biodiesel by volume shall be blended into all diesel engine fuels sold in the country subject to domestic supply and availability of locally sourced biodiesel component.” Violators are penalized with one to five years imprisonment and a fine ranging from Php1 million to Php5 million.

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Posted on July 21st, 2008 under Ornamental, Special Report. Tags: Biofuel, Flowers, Sunflower. Comments: None