Agriculture Business Week

As farmers quest for farm technologies that will significantly increase productivity, crop production practices continue to change. Yet plant diseases remain a big problem, limiting yields.

An effective disease management involves good agronomic practices such as balanced and appropriate fertilization, crop rotation, tillage, and weed control. But plant disease prevention and identification are still the best and first line of defenses against the onslaught of diseases.

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Posted on November 3rd, 2010 under Plant. Tags: Disease, Pests, Plant. Comments: None

In a rat damage survey conducted in the Victorias Mill District (VMD) in Negros Occidental in 1988, it was found that uncontrolled rodent damage to sugarcane would amount to P269 million per crop year.

Today, sugar losses could be three times bigger, based on the prevailing sugar price. But such loss can be prevented and substantial savings can be derived with the periodic District-Wide Rodent Control Program.

Implemented in the VMD since 2001, this 10- to 12-day control program is started by Federico C. Barredo, coordinator of the Victorias Mill District Development Council (MDDC), Foundation, Inc.

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Posted on September 25th, 2010 under Other Crops. Tags: Pests, Rats, Sugarcane. Comments: 1

Pummelo has a good market potential. That’s because it is not only delicious and nutritious, it is also not perishable, hence it can be transported to distant markets. Local production, however, is insufficient and one big reason is pest infestation.

Good thing there’s a simple way to control infestation of pummelo, and that is bagging. Bagging is actually not new. This is done in other countries but usually for the control of fruit fly, which is not a major pest in the Philippines.

The major pest in the country that infests pummelo is Citrus Rind Borer (CRB). In fact it is considered as the most destructive pest as infestation has reached as high as 60 to 80 percent. Pesticide application is still the common way to control CRB, but this is expenssive and harmful to the health.

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Posted on May 13th, 2010 under Fruits. Tags: Disease, Fruits, Pests, Pummelo. Comments: None

Not many have noticed that there was a decrease in mango harvests from Central Luzon this summer. Mango growers from Bulacan and Nueva Ecija, however, felt the difference with this season’s harvests ailing behind the expected yield. The culprit is the pest called cecid fly or gall midge. These flies caused infestation in mango arms across the country and are also known by many names such as “saksak walis” or “kurikong” in Luzon, and “buti,” armalite,” “Gloria-gloria,” or “Nora-nora” a the Visayas and Mindanao.

The adult mango cecid fly resembles a mosquito and commonly lays its eggs on young mango leaves. The larvae, which develop from eggs, mine the leaves producing dark green circular galls or swelling of tissues along the leaf blade. When he adults emerged from these galls, the paves produced circular spots of holes, which are sometimes mistaken as fungal infection. Under heavy infestations, the leaves wrinkle and become yellow.

The infestation, however, affects the fruits more. When hit early, young mango fruits fall off from the tree. Fruits that remain produce circular brown scablike spots, which are randomly distributed on the fruit’s surface. Infested fruits retain these scabby lesions till they are up for harvest, thus affecting their quality and commanding a lower market price.

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Posted on April 19th, 2010 under Fruits. Tags: Cecid Fly, Disease, Fruits, Kurikong, Mango, Pests. Comments: 1

A new chemical is being introduced in the market to protect corn seeds and seedlings in the field from the usual pests that attack them.These include ants that could nibble on the seeds, crickets, white grubs, cutworms and seedling maggots.

The crop protection chemical is a liquid that comes by the name of Sheller FS 350. One bottle containing 250 ml is enough to treat 18 kilos of seeds that will plant one hectare. This is applied on the seeds before planting.

Here’s how to do it. Place the seeds in a big basin that can contain 18 kilos of seeds. Then mix 250 ml of Sheller FS 350 with 100 ml (about 10 tablespoons) of foliar fertilizer. The foliar fertilizer will provide the needed nutrients for the seedlings’ good growth. The solution is then poured into the seeds for planting. Mix the seeds and solution thoroughly until all the seeds are moistened. After that, the seeds are dried under the shade (air-dried). Air-drying only takes about 30 minutes, then the seeds are ready for planting.

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Posted on March 28th, 2010 under Corn/Maize. Tags: Chemical, Corn, Pests. Comments: 2

A revolutionary product has been developed by an American firm, SenesTech, Inc., which will virtually sterilize the female rats so that they will not reproduce. The product is called ContraPest that is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, a non-toxic product that can dramatically decrease rat population in rice fields.

The product is not yet available in the market but Dr. Timothy Vail, vice president of manufacturing and regulations, and George Siegel, vice president of business development for SenesTech, visited the Philippine government officials in Manila recently to discuss field testing and regulatory registration of the technology so that the product can be manufactured and marketed in the Philippines. The product will then be sold throughout  Southeast Asia to address the major problem of rice field rats.

During the visit, Sunil Sutlani, president of Indian Drug Distributors Inc., was appointed as an exclusive agent to act on behalf of SenesTech in order to make formal applications to the Philippine FDA and associated government agencies for compliance testing that will lead to regulatory approval of the product.

ContraPest is not a poison. It will not kill the rats that will eat it. But the female rat that will eat ContraPest will not be able to give birth because it causes reproductive infertility.

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Posted on December 1st, 2009 under Farming, Technology. Tags: ContraPests, Pests, Rats. Comments: 5

Let’s continue our discussion on pests that devour leaf tissues. As a refresher, we consider these pests as significant since they could effectively reduce the plant’s ability to produce more food via photosynthesis and lower the corn’s defenses from stress and diseases.

I promised last month that we will write on three more corn defoliators. I really thought it was important to have these three included so our farmers can distinguish them from the major ones like the Asiatic corn borer (ACB). As we all know, Bt corn is specific only to specific Lepidopterans (family of moths and butterflies) such as the ACB, the true armyworm, and pink stemborer (Sessamia inferens). This has been observed and confirmed in the field by Pioneer agronomists. However, we don’t have a firm conclusion for the rest such as common cutworm, black cutworm (described in last month’s article), corn earworm, and semi-looper. In fact, Bt corn growers should expect them in their field every now and then since they are non-target pests.

COMMON CUTWORM (Spodoptera litura Fabricius)
In young seedlings, the common cutworm is one of the most common pests. Oftentimes, farmer ignore them because they are sensitive to chemical control, damage is assumed to be minimal, and they are usually gone by the time the plant reaches mid-whorl. But let’s not discount the possibility of the common cutworm to emerge as a major pest.

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Posted on June 4th, 2009 under Corn/Maize. Tags: Corn, Defoliators, Disease, Pests. Comments: None

More often than not, people buy chemicals to control pests and diseases. But there are ways to control them without spending too much.

While vegetables can easily be grown in most parts of the country, many people surprisingly do not grow or consume enough of them. As Generosa T. Medrena, senior science research specialist of The PCARRD Monitor, points out, “The average per capita consumption of 12.4 kilograms of green and yellow vegetables is far short of the recommended allowance of 32.4 kilograms per year.”

Scientists believe that the low vegetable consumption can be traced to the lack of knowledge of their health benefits. Many people do not know that vegetables are inexpensive sources of natural vitamins, minerals and proteins. In addition, many fail to maintain vegetable gardens in their home yards because there is a general lack of know-how about simple, practical home-gardening methods.

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Posted on May 7th, 2009 under Organic. Tags: Disease, Organic, Pesticides, Pests. Comments: 13

Farmers who are not yet practicing integrated pest management or IPM may as well follow the innovators to enjoy the numerous benefits from it. It is a lot easier and cheaper than you think.

IPM may be defined as an agro-ecological method of sustaining the long-term benefits of rice production through the use of different techniques on managing of rice insect pests and diseases without causing any damage to the environment.

For a start, learn the interactions of the rice crop with biotic factors, the agroecosystem, and the crop management system to understand the destructive potential of pests, according to PhilRice experts. Remember that pest management is an integral component of rice production.

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Posted on April 25th, 2009 under Rice. Tags: Disease, IPM, PalayCheck, Pests, PhilRice, Rice Bug, Tungro. Comments: None

Infestation of stemborers can result in a yield loss of as high as 50 percent.

According to Rolando San Gabriel, PhilRice training specialist, stemborer adult population peaks from April to May and October to November.

Stemborer damage during vegetative stage is manifested by yellow, dead, young leaves or dead tillers called deadhearts (which can be easily pulled from the base), while damage during reproductive stage is manifested by whiteheads or emergence of whitish and unfilled panicles. Severe stemborer damage causes a decrease in the number of reproductive tillers. To prevent deadhearts and whiteheads, proper management practices must be integrated.

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Posted on April 24th, 2009 under Plant, Vegetables. Tags: Deadhearts, Disease, Pests, PhilRice, Plants, Stemborers, Veggies, Whiteheads. Comments: None

I know, I know. The title of this issue of Tagumpay sa Palay is boring. That’s because we will explore two insects with boring names. One wonders why they named the rice bug as such. Probably because it is a bug and it feeds on rice. So there, rice bug. Genius! Any guesses why the black bug is called, well a black bug?

First, let’s talk about the rice bug. This insect is well known for its offensive smell. There arc three different species referred to as rice bugs: Leptocorisa oratoriics (Fabricius), L. chinensis (Dallas), and L. acuta (Thunberg). Rice bug is one of the most serious insect pests during the milk and soft dough stages of the rice plant. Both adults and nymphs cause damage to spikelets by inserting their mouthparts between the lemma and palea by forming a stylet sheath. Feeding during the milk stage results in unfilled grains, similar to partially sterile panicles observed in some rice hybrids, while feeding during soft dough stage results in deformed or spotted grains.

Increase in rice bug populations in ricefields are favored by presence of wild’ grasses near irrigation canals or significant expanse of weedy areas and woody vegetation. This is because alternate hosts of the insects are mostly weeds and small trees: Non-synchronized planting among farmers can also provide continuous habitat for the insects.

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Posted on April 21st, 2009 under Rice. Tags: Black Bugs, Bugs, Pests, Rice, Rice Black Bug. Comments: None

A researcher from Aklan State University in Banga, Aklan is going to study further the potential of tubli(Derris elliptica) root extract as effective acaricide for ticks of tropical cattle and brown dog.

It was after Dr. Molly Naigan has found out in an initial study that tubli root extract has an acaricidal effect to brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguinues) and tropical cattle tick (Boophilus microplus) under laboratory condition.

Dr. Naigan who is also an instructor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, has conducted the initial study in 2008 with Kathylynn Mae Fuentes, who was then a senior high school student at the Capiz National High School in Roxas City. It was titled “In vitro Acaricidal Effect of Tubli Root Extract Against Nymph and Adult Brown Dog and Tropical Cattle Ticks.”

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Posted on April 15th, 2009 under Livestock, Other Crops. Tags: Acaricide, Cattle, Dog, Pests, Ticks, Tubli. Comments: 5

Wearing a grim face, Andres Savella looks around his 1,000-square meter onion field. Disheartened, he tells himself that there’s no solution to his problem. A certain kind of insect feeds inside the onion leaves, and no amount of insecticide can kill it.

The problem of this 62-year-old farmer is the onion leafminer, a yellowish insect with a black spot on its back is suspected to have been accidentally introduced in the Philippines through imported cut flowers, according to Dong Arida, supervising research specialist at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). The insect was first collected in 1997 from onion fields in Central Luzon by Dr. Sonja J. Scheffer of the Agriculture Research Service, US Department of Agriculture. Based on laboratory-reared flies that she collected, Scheffer identified the leafminer as Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess).

The larvae of the insect eat the inner portion of the leaves, and by the time the mines are noticed, the leafminer larvae are already well protected by the leaf cuticle from insecticidal spray.

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Posted on April 12th, 2009 under Vegetables. Tags: Insecticide, Leafminer, Onion, Pests, Veggies. Comments: None

If there is a scourge of ricefields that can be comparable to the intensity and  destructiveness of the plague of locusts described in the Old Testament, it would be the brown planthopper or BPH (Nilaparvuta lugens Stal). Indeed, the Old Testament text, “Thev devoured… everything growing in the fields… Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land…” (Exodus 10:15b, NIV) can also describe severe BPH damage in a rice field.

A sufficiently large population of BPH can turn a green field into a brown wasteland of dead or dying plants as if scorched by the sun, hence the name “hopperburn”.

HOW BPH DAMAGES RICE PLANTS
Both BPH adult and nymph are respon;ible for the damage to the rice plant. They insert their stylet mouthparts into the plant tissue and suck plant sap from phloem cells. The feeding process forms a feeding tube or sheath secreted by the insect. Removal of plant sap and blockage of plant vessels result in yellowing of the rice plant parts. Complete drying of the plants may result if the BPH population is sufficiently high (200 adults per plant or 400 nymphs), a condition known as hopperburn. BPH can also serve as vectors of several plant viruses such as ragged stunt and grassy stunt. Ovipositional marks also expose plants to infection of bacteria and molds.

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Posted on April 10th, 2009 under Rice. Tags: Hopper, Hopperburn, Locusts, Pests, Planthopper, Rice, Ricefield. Comments: None