Agriculture Business Week

Founded as a nutritional ingredient manufacturer in 1961 by R. WW and Mary Nelson, Kemin Industries, Inc., is a private company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. It produces ingredients and invents processes that provide nutritional and health solutions for humans and animals.

Grain Storage Practices (GSPs) is the primary mechanism developed by Kemin Industries to control and reduce hazards in cereals. All GSPs recommend the use of suitable and approved preservatives (e.g. Myco Curb range of nutricines) to prevent heating and mold growth.

Grains are seeds from cereal plantsmembers of the grass family, Gramineae. They constitute the bulk of the high-energy (carbonaceous) feeds. Some contain as much as 85% carbohydrate (starch) and 6% fat. Most harvested feed grains have relatively little moisture, about 10%, and are not as variable in composition as forages. Representing more than 60% of the total tonnage of concentrate feed, corn is, by far, the most widely used high-energy feed in the United States and elsewhere.

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Posted on January 3rd, 2009 under Other Crops. Tags: Cereal, Disease, Grains, Pest, Spoil. Comments: None

Some local folk consider suso(cerithedia cingualta) as a delicacy, but this mollusk is claimed to be a pest for brackishwater bangus when its population increases, preventing the formation of lablab mat or lumut that serves as food for bangus. This condition is blamed for the low production rate of bangus in brakiswater ponds.

Suso, however, becomes abundant only in ponds in mangrove areas. They thrive in disturbed and polluted sediments such as in fishponds where other species are excluded or killed. There, they live their entire life cycle, with the adults laying their eggs throughout the year.

Since bangus ponds are built mostly in mangrove areas, the food-rich environment that favors bangus growth and development likewise favors the growth and development of suso.
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Posted on December 28th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Bangus, Milkfish, Pest, Suso. Comments: None

The Philippine Coconut Authority(PCA) is optimistic that the invasive coconut pest Brontispa  logissima or coconut leaf beetle(CLB) can be controlled before year ends.

After it entered the country, Brontispa is now considered as a serious pest that ravages coconut and ornamental palms in the Philippines and Asia Pacific. It affects the palm when both the larvae and adults of the beetle inhabit the developing spears where they feed on leaf tissues but spare the harder veins and midribs. They cause decay and drying of affected parts which prevent the tree from bearing fruits. When the infestation reaches the pith, the palm eventually dies.

The eggs of Brontispa are difficult to detect because they are inserted in between leaflets, that’s why there is a need for thorough inspection of planting materials intended for transport to uninfested areas.

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Posted on December 9th, 2008 under Other Crops. Tags: Brontispa, Coconut, Disease, Pest. Comments: None

To prevent the coconut leaf beetle (Bronstispa longissima), or CLB, from spreading in the visayas, the National Coconut Research Center-Visayas (NCRC) based in Visayas State University (USU) is conducting studies to identify effective but least hazardous pesticides and viable biological control agents.

Tasked by the Department of Agriculture and the PCA-8 to conduct studies on CLB, the NCRC believes that in order to contain the pest immediately, pesticides should be applied in farms where infestations are severe. But Dr. Bimbo T. Mandras, VSU entomologist and NCRCV affiliate scientist for pest control, suggested that only pesticides with shorter residual toxic effect should be used.

This is because pesticides are costly, harmful for the environment and human health, and its application would affect the coconut farmers economically because they would be prohibited to harvest coconuts from pesticide-treated trees for six months.

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Posted on November 30th, 2008 under Other Crops. Tags: Brontispa, Coconut, Disease, Pest. Comments: None

To lessen the cost of storing seeds, PhilRice has been developed alternative technologies for preserving the quality of seeds and protecting them from storage pests.

These are the admixture seed treatment machine (STM) and the sealed storage enclosure for hybrid rice and other seeds (SACLOB), which both utilize locally available materials and were developed by a group of engineers led by Engr. Ricardo F. Orge.

STM
Admixture seed treatment is a method of treating or saving the seeds from storage pest attacks by combining the chemicals applied in the process. The STM, on the other hand, is designed to optimize the use and efficiency of these chemicals by ensuring the application and absorption of the right volume and solution for the seeds.

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Posted on November 23rd, 2008 under Technology. Tags: Pest, Seeds, Technology. Comments: None