Agriculture Business Week

The dairy farm of the Philippine Carabao Center at Central Luzon State University (PCC at CLSU) in Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija generates an average of 630 kilograms of fresh carabao manure daily. Several years back, these wastes created disposal problems due to its bulkiness resulting in air and water pollution in the area.

Today, that is no longer a problem as the center has found an alternative waste management system through the adoption of biogas technology. And the other good news is that the center saves about 25 percent on its monthly cooking gas expenses by utilizing the biogas fuel (methane) generated from the biogas facility.

The biogas project was initiated in cooperation with the Provincial Science and Technology Center by Dr. Felomino V Mamuad, who is the director of :he PCC at CLSU and is currently the PCC deputy executive director. Called “Establishment of Biogas Digester as an Alternative Efficient Waste Management System,” it aimed to reduce pollution by creating awareness on the safe and effective waste management system for the increasing volume of carabao manure in the center.

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The neighbors of Hipolito “Jun” F. Saoyao of Linapaw; Tubao, La Union used to complain about the obnoxious odor of the manure of his pigs. But he was helpless as he did not know vet how to eliminate the foul odor, and was convinced that it was inevitable in swine production.

In a seminar on livestock production and management, however, this 54-year-old farmer, municipal councilor and chairman of the Agriculture Committee of the Tubao Sangguniang Bayan has learned from Dr. Jovita Datum, a livestock expert and head of the Ilocos Integrated Agriculture Research Center, that the offensive odor of swine manure could be eliminated by adding an enzyme-based solution called Fedgrozyme to the feeds.

Fedgrozyme is developed by Berlin trained industrial microbiologist Dr. Ronaldo A. Sumaoang, who is also the president and CEO of the Novatech Group of Companies. It is manufactured by Novatech Vet and Biologicals, which also produces other veterinary and biological products.

According to Dr. Sumaoang, Fedgrozyme eliminates the odor of the manure by lessening the ammonia emitted by the manure. Likewise, the protein that is still present in the manure continues to be degraded by Fedgrozyme microbial activity. Fedgrozyme is actually a stabilized source of potent enzyme of microbial origin for animal use, Dr. Sumaoang adds. It contains immobilized biological microorganisms, organic acids, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, phospholipids, and UGF.

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Uncollected chicken manure could cause a lot of headaches to poultry growers. An owner of a poultry farm in Bulacan has never collected the chicken manure, which has mounted up to more than one foot.

For the years, the chicken manure has been creating a lot of havoc. It has been emitting ammonia and sulfides, which are dangerous to the health of the birds as well as to humans. The manure has caked and became continuously wet, as the bottom portion never got any chance to become dry. Now that the owner is thinking of improving his poultry houses, he realizes the extreme difficulty of getting rid of the manure.

In a related development, we read in a BPRE research report that unprocessed chicken manure used by many Benguet vegetable farmers contains Bacillus cereus, an aerobic spore forming bacteria, which can contaminate vegetables and cause human illnesses.

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Agri-waste could be a valuable resource.

Take the case of Cecilia Stock Farm (CSF), a large-scale piggery in Barangay Mahayag, Bunawan District in Davao City that sources its power from the methane gas emitted from pig manure.

Teresita Pascual, the CSF’s general manager said the bio-methane plant recently established in their farm can produce 300 kilowatt of electricity per day from the manure of 15,000 pigs.

Since the establishment of their farm in the `80s, Pascual said they had seen the potential of converting pig manure into renewable energy.

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After our visit to the processing plant, we also visited a poultry farm in Padre Garcia, Batangas which has started using carbonated rice husk (CRH) treated with Biosec as its litter during its last three growing cycles.

With five large poultry houses capable of accommodating 30,000 birds each, the farm follows the tunnel vent production system. Every house is totally enclosed but ventilated with air-conditioning system.

In the past when the farm was using raw rice hull without Biosec as litter, the buildup of ammonia from Day I to harvest was tremendous such that caretakers had great difficulty moving inside the poultry houses, according to Mario Forto, a computer science graduate who is the farm manager.

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At the outset, it would appear unbelievable that an Ateneo graduate who was bred and raised in the city would be able to salvage a losing poultry in Tayabas City, Quezon and transform it into a profitable broiler farm earning at least P5 million year

It seems preposterous that Albert Quiogue, 51, a former executive of the Sarmiento Group of Companies for 15 years and a former bank manager in Baguio for five years, would be able to do it.

Imagine a man who used to wear executive attire and drive top of the line cars year in and year out in the hustle and bustle of city life and all of a sudden he is brought to a barangay where deadening silence is broken every now and then by the sound of cicadas. How could he survive such situation and the obnoxious smell of chicken manure?

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He is now 77, but he is as hale and hearty as ever. He is Angel L. Javellana who used to hold a high executive position in Del Monte Philippines and now enjoying his brand of organic farming in Valencia City in Bukidnon. He calls his place Manupali Natural Farm, a six-hectare property.

Angel, who was born in Iloilo City, is a highly educated professional with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from De La Salle and a masters also in chemical engineering practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. In his earlier years he was into teaching at La Salle and for sometime, he engaged in consultancy in the United States. All along, however, he has been interested in farming. And that’s why he enjoyed very much his job as field superintendent at Del Monte from 1966 to 1979.

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It would not be a surprise if Basilan would be known as the vegetable bowl of Mindanao as soon as the farmer-cooperators of the Technical Cooperation Project 4 (TCP 4) apply the technologies they have learned in the project’s Farmer’s Field School (FFS).

One of them is Avelino de Guzman of Tabiawan, Isabela City. He is one of the participants in the vegetable production training in Luzon, which the TCP 4 sponsored. Thanks to it, he is able to make money from vegetables, which he raises along with three goats, eight ducks, and chickens in his 1.3-hectare farm.

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Ace Limpin of San Fernando City Pampanga, Christopher “Boyet” Cruz of Hagonoy,  Bulacan, and Mario Aquino of Binmaley, Pangasinan do not know each other personally but they have three things in common.

They are young, handling millions of pesos in their fishpond operations and, raking in lots of profits that most men of their age would not even have a chance to hold even for a few seconds. Most of all, they use Nova Pure PCM Aqua, a product of Novatech Agri-Food Industries, as a bio-organic fertilizer for robust lablab production.

Lablab is fed to prawns, bangus and mudcrab, which the three young men are raising.

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Are you having problems disposing biodegradable wastes or irritated by the foul stench of piggery? Then use fermented plant juice (FPJ).

Just spray it to biodegradable wastes to hasten its decomposition or sprinkle it to animal manure to neutralize its offensive odor. FPJ is a form of indigenous micro-organisms (IMO), a Korean technology that is similar to and cheaper to produce than effective microorganisms (EM) from Japan. A liter of EM costs P900 whereas homemade FPJ only costs P100 or even less.

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