Agriculture Business Week

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.”

(more…)

There is a possibility for the grape industry in the Ilocos Region to pick up again, says Avelino “Ave” Lomboy, La Union provincial agriculturist who is considered to have led in the development of the industry in the region. However, the method of production has to be changed for optimum control of downy and powdery mildew.

Ave, 64, recalls that he started to establish a grape farm in Brgy. Urayong, Bauang, La Union in 1972. By 1980 he had already expanded his farm to 2 hectares (ha) with 3,000 vines, which were producing an average of 45,000 kg a year. At a price of P50 a kilo, his production at that time easily reached P2 million a year.

In the early 1980s, President Ferdinand E. Marcos banned fruit importation so that the country’s fruit industry could be developed. Ave and his siblings grabbed the opportunity for expansion. He expanded his personal grape farm to 25 ha and his siblings established a total of 50 ha. During the peak of grape production, he was harvesting 1,000 kg-2,000 kg daily, which he supplied to vendors in Metro Manila. Indeed, income from grape production had become very lucrative.

(more…)

The province of Ilocos Sur has finally started to honor its scions who have become highly successful in agriculture as the provincial government conferred on Dr William D. Dar, director general of the International Center for Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Father Jose Burgos Award in Agriculture during the recent Kannawidan Ylocos Festival.

Dr. Dar is now in his third term as ICRISAT director general. Before he assumed this post, he was the Philippines’ acting secretary of Agriculture, executive director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), executive director of the Bureau of Agriculture Research (BAR), and vice president for research and extension at the Benguet State University (BSU).

In his acceptance speech, which was read for him by his wife, Betty, Dr. Dar said the award validates in a way “all I struggled for during my childhood.” He dedicated his award “to all the nameless and faceless poor farmers who live under debilitating and grinding poverty,” who, he said, “are a reminder that the world we live in is harsh, yet it has the capacity to be a nurturing and caring place, which is possible through hard work and a will to think out of the box.”

(more…)

Wrapped in corn covers with festive designs, the improved salted eggs from Ilocos would he easily mistaken for Easter eggs. Nope, these are the all-time favorite itlog na maalat yet these are more delicious and have a longer shelf life.

It’s safer to eat these than the red salted eggs in the market. It has been reported that cancer-causing Sudan Red dye has been found in salted eggs from China, and this explains why some consumers are now wary of red salted eggs.

It’s nutritious, too. Compared to fresh egg, balut, penoy, and century egg, salted egg is highest in calcium (120 mg), carbohydrates (4.4 mg), ash (202 mg), and thiamin (0.47 mg).

(more…)

A food company based in Laoag City is now producing high-quality Ilocos vinegar, basi (sugarcane wine) and duhat wine.

This is the Cormel Foods owned by Anthony Abadilla who exhibited his products at the recent International Food Exhibition (IFEX) at the World Trade Center-Manila. Cormel Foods will launch a new product soon – duhat concentrate.

Sukang lloko or Ilocos vinegar is the company’s top money maker. Aside from local sales, it has been exporting its vinegar to Hawaii and Guam. It has been shipping 3,600 liters of vinegar to Hawaii annually.

The company has been helped by government agencies, particularly the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

(more…)

Last December, I visited the first dragon fruit farm in the Ilocos Region, the REFMAD Farm in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, which is owned and managed by husband and wife Rodolfo and Edita Dacuycuy from Pasuquin.

It started only in November 2006 primarily for the production of fruits that could be of help to the couple’s 23-year old daughter who is suffering from cerebral palsy as they were told earlier that fruits have some medicinal properties.

At the time of our first visit, the Dacuycuys had already established 1.5 hectares (ha) of dragon fruit farm from Central and South America. After almost one year, they have established an additional 1.5 ha, which was a forested area. They have also hired more farm workers; last year there were only three workers and now there are eight of them.

(more…)