Agriculture Business Week

In the past and up to now, more Filipinos are raising chickens. But in recent years, farmers have realized that raising ducks can also be a profitable venture because of their eggs. Ducks’ most important product, the balut and penoy (boiled incubated duck’s eggs), are sold daily throughout the archipelago for their delicious flavor and nutritive value.

There are several other reasons why duck raising is a good business venture. “Among the avian species, duck is considered as the most versatile because it can subsist under a wide range of climatic and nutritional conditions,” pointed out the Laguna-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

Not only that. “Duck raising is inexpensive, requires non-elaborate housing facilities, and little attention, and less space for rearing compared to chickens,” PCARRD said. “Moreover, ducks are shown to be relatively hardy, resistant to common avian diseases, and subsist on a variety of feeds.”

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Posted on August 12th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Balut, Ducks, PCCARD, Penoy. Comments: 1

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

In a triumphal end to a challenging year, PCARRD’s partners in livestock R&D made the news for their outstanding performance in knowledge generation, technology transfer and research management and governance.

Leading the pack is this year’s recipient of the PCARRD Tanglaw Award – the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) based in Munoz, Nueva Ecija. The Tanglaw Award recognizes an institution for generating new knowledge, promoting science, grounding initiatives in partnership with local and foreign agencies, disseminating technology and creating livelihood. The PCC received the award during PCARRD’s 36th Anniversary Celebration on November 7 at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila in Makati city.

The Center is credited with the carabaos increased body size and mill, production and the dissemination of good breeder animals. As a research agency under the Department of Agriculture, it led high-end livestock research focusing on reproductive biotechnology to increase the genetic quality of breeding animals.

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Posted on April 27th, 2009 under Livestock, Technology. Tags: Carabao, PCCARD, Technology. Comments: None

Three forms of Agricultural Publications aimed at helping agribusiness entrepreneurs have been released by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PGARRD), based in Los Banos, Laguna.

These consist of seven PCARRD Investment Briefs, Profitability Analysis series on 10 selected commodities, and five Regional Farm Primers.

The PCARRD Investment Briefs series are titled as follows: (1) Invest in Goat Farming, (2) Invest in Three- or Four-Way Cross Slaughter Pig Production, (3) Invest in Lakatan Production, (4) Invest in Sinta Papaya Production, (5) Invest in Orchid Production, (6) Invest in Organic Pole Sitao, Squash and Tomato Production, and (7) Investment Opportunities in Agricultural Inputs.

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Posted on April 12th, 2009 under Fruits, Livestock, Special Report. Tags: Books, PCCARD, Publications. Comments: 1