Agriculture Business Week

Dr. Jayson Canson is an opthalmologist and plastic surgeon who loves farming. Despite his buys schedule practicing his medical profession, he is undertaking his own farming projects in a portion of St. Martha Farms in Teresa, Rizal, where his parents run a 70,000 head poultry contract breeding operation and a Pangasius hatchery.

Piggery is a pet project of the medical doctor. He has a number of breeders which are selected. One acquisition is a Pietrain sow with a small percentage of Duroc blood. This particular sow gave birth to 23 piglets, 21 of which survived. Some of the piglets were distributed to other mother pigs for nursing.

He also does his own experiment, one of which is crossing the native pig with the white imported breeds. One of the offspring of the native pig was made into lechon during the farm’s Christmas party last year.

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The farming systems and Soil Resources Institute(FSSRI) of the University of the Philippine Los Banos(UPLB) has bagged the 2009 Global Development Marketplace(DM2009) competetive grant.

This competitive grant for innovation in development is administered by the World Bank and sponsored by the World Bank Institute, Global Environment Facility (GEF), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With the theme “100 Ideas to Save the Planet,” the competition challenged participants to come up with an idea from their own communities to help save the planet and its people from the effects of climate change.

There were over 1,700 project entries from all over the world. Out of these, 100 finalists from 47 countries, including 8 from the Philippines, were invited to World Bank’s headquarters in Washington DC to present their projects. And the FSSRI and 3 other Filipino groups were among the 25 participants chosen to receive grants of up to $200,000 each.

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Everytime I visit the Kaohsiung, the prefecture in southern Taiwan, my first impulse is to enjoy the fruits in season. In fact, my father-in-law is always ready with a few pieces, especially with my favorite Taiwan orange – Liu Ding, which is available almost all year round except for the winter months, and lately, their very juicy am, sweet makopa. This last Christmas break was no different.

Taiwan is now well-known the world over for its tasty fruits. Not imported but all locally-grown. My son, Julius, enjoyed the sweet Indian Jujube, juicy Gem Makopa and Carambola offered by Dr. Kan-Shu Chen, director of the Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Branch, during our recent visit. All these were developed through research and years of field improvement in production management technique and postharvest handling procedures. The Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Branch is one of;two principal research stations among eleven of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI).

HISTORY AND MANDATE
A developed agricultural foundation, an island-wide educational system and the railway system are what the Taiwanese are thankful for to the Japanese colonizers of 50 years. Towards the end of its occupation, the Japanese established the Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Station in 1940. Initially the improvement of pineapple and vegetable production were its primary mandates. In 1981, the station was reorganized according to the Scientific Technology Development Plan issued by the Executive Yuan (equivalent to our Executive Department). The research sections were restructured into four departments, namely: tropical fruit trees, vegetable crops, plant protection, and management, and utilization department. Since then, it has become an important research center under the TARI.

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Remember the Oakwood Mutiny? The group of soldiers Magdalo protested against the irregularities in the army but they got caught, detained and charged with coup d’ etat.

Captain Laurence Louis B. Somera of the 1st Scout Ranger Regiment, Special Operations Command of the Philippine Army is one of them. Though he was granted conditional pardon by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after being detained for more than four years, he was discharged from the military.

He was really disheartened by this as he had been with the military for almost 17 years. Next to his family, his military service matters to him the most.

Today, the 39-year-old captain is very happy with his new engagement and that’s farming.

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At 29, Romeo Yapit is awarded Outstanding Young Farmer of the Philippines. No doubt that’s quite an achievement.

This enterprising young farmer of Purac, Sinait, Ilocos Sur started fanning in 2002. He had to stop his schooling as he had to support his family for his father had a heart attack. He was a second year mechanical engineering student then.

Thinking of a marketable crop that would not consume much soil nutrients, Yapit observed that planting different vegetables year round and watermelon after rice was profitable.

This might be the solution, he told himself. So with the help of his brother Jerome, Yapit planted their 8,000 square meter land to various vegetables including eggplant and tomato. And he has been right; his strategy has worked out.

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Here’s a unique real estate venture. Lot buyers use only up to 20 percent of the land area for the house they will build and the rest of the property will be utilized for growing food crops or ornamental plants.

Interesting?

That’s the contract that the Manila East Lakeview Farms (MELF) makes with buyers of its lots in its development area in Barangay San Guillermo in Morong, Rizal. The contract also requires buyers to submit in the soonest possible time their detailed development plan, and to immediately fence their lot.

A division of Prime East Properties Inc., MELF has sold 55 to 60 percent of the initially developed 36.6 hectares of the consolidated 300 hectares of hilly land in San Guillermo, says farm manager Bobby Mandac.

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Rolly Lagaya, the successful poultry farmer from San Jose, Batangas shares with us his “innovative” tale of success.

Arapid change is now sweeping the Philippine poultry industry. The sector—which is predominantly a backyard affair—has now stepped up with nearly all farms operating at a calibre similar to that of commercial operations. Nowadays, rarely you would see small raisers sowing corn grains to feed the chickens roaming around their backyard and housing them in bamboo or wood-made cages. Minute operators now house their birds in modern fabricated domiciles and fed those using calibrated feeders and waterers. The evolution, according to pundits, is caused by tremendous competition in the market as well as the fast-paced and ever changing lifestyle of consumers.

Rolly Lagaya, owner of Lagaya Farms in San Jose, Batangas is happy to be a part of the sector’s revolution. An engineer by profession, he has established his farm together with his parents in 1975 as a mere family business. Started with 500 heads, the farm has now 200,000 birds in tow and producing 175,000 eggs per day. “Our farm’s expansion has been continuous. Whenever there’s a new technology, we always adapt it. We were the first farm in Batangas that has elevated the poultry houses. Unlike other farmers, we are always open to new technologies. We love new discoveries.”

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With the current El Nino that we are experiencing and the future dry spells that we will have brought about by global warming, a clarion call to all of us for water conservation is in order.

When we speak of water, we refer to freshwater that is not only essential for life but also a “life blood” for agriculture, industry and domestic households. Being a limited resource in our planet, water is becoming more and more precious because of our population growth, pollution and climate change.

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By adopting recommended farm methods, farmers in Agbannawag, Rizal, Nueva Ecija are able to increase rice production every season.

Thanks to the Technical Cooperation Project 3 (TCP3) of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), farmers learned of recommended farm practices, resulting in significant increase in yield and income.

The project has 40 fanner-beneficiaries. They were classified either as farmer-partners (FP) or participating farmers (PF).

TCP 3 primarily aimed to compare yield and production cost of technology demonstration farms of farmer-partners (TDF-FP) with the farms of the PFs. The FPs did all the recommended methods, while the PFs were allowed to choose farm practices they would want to do.

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Filipino farmers who are searching for a system that is not only environment friendly but improves their income as well should look no further. The answer to their quest: organic farming.

In Mindanao, at least 120 hectares of rice farms in Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao is planted to organic rice. It is an agriculture practice that is already gaining ground around the country’s second largest island as many farmers have now seen the sweet harvest of those who went ahead of them and practiced what was earlier was less popular.

“Organic agriculture is the answer,” pointed out Jessica Reyes-Cantos of the Manila-based Rice Watch and Action Network. “It won’t only retain soil productivity but it can make farming viable. If farmers will have additional income from their land they will continue to plant rice.”

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At 71, Jaime Tadeo has been living a colorful life. From being a government extension worker, he experienced being a communist, activist, convict, and given pardon.

Today, he is living a new, interesting life as an organic farmer. As aging cools his ardor and intransigence for the farmers’ cause, he realizes more threats to the rural community, and one major threat is climate change.

Tadeo believes that organic farming can mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. This is the reason why he joined another movement—a peaceful movement this time and that is Go Organic, Philippines.

It is a consortium of NGOs led by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) and the La Liga Policy Institute (LLPI). Endorsed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Go Organic promotes the use of organic fertilizers and pesticides.

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Worms, bugs and other rice pests are an enigma to many farmers as these are threats to rice production.

To most farmers, commercial insecticides and pesticides are the most effective and readily available pest controls. What they don’t realize is that these cost them added expenses not to mention the bad effects of these chemicals to health and environment.

Dr. Alfredo R. Rabena, head of the Research and Development Office of the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan City, Ilocos, has discovered a solution. He found that the leaves of kakawate tree or Mexican Lilac (Glinicidia sepium) contains coumarins, an effective botanopesticide.

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It is hard for me to believe that I am in my old age, yet this is the reality. I had been in government service for 38 years, and I had expected that when I retired, I would be happy travelling or having a brand new car What happened was the opposite.

Four months before I officially retired, I experienced a short of breath. My heartbeat and pulse rate were so low that I was rushed to the hospital. The worse was that I underwent a heart operation so I was forced to retire early.

My operation was successful. The sad thing was that most of my retirement benefit was used to pay my hospital bill and loans. Anyway, what’s more important and I should be thankful for is that I am still alive. And now, I have all the time for farming, which I have been into for years.

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Soular Organic Farm’s owners tell us how organic farming changed their lives and how they want to share the same brand of bliss with other people.

Several years ago, Editha and husband Omar ‘Jing’ Tobias were Filipinos  just dream of- Edith as an accountant-comptroller of one of the biggest diamond processors in the world and Jing as a management consultant in New York, nonetheless. They had lucrative jobs, the humbly plush address and luxurious cocktails every weekend as possible.

But the price they paid for that kind of lifestyle was higher than the cost of Big Apple living. “We moved up financially, yes. But my husband and I were away from our children most of the time. We missed countless programs at school for our children and there was even one time when our children had to set up the Christmas tree all by themselves because the two of us weren’t there,” continued Edith.

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