Agriculture Business Week

A two-year old coffee tree nursery is set to share Nescafe technology to farmers in Sultan Kudarat, the leading coffee producing province in the country.

D and R Farms, owned by Dr. Dante Eugenio and managed by Edgar Eugenio, is scheduled to harvest some 200,000 rooted cuttings of Robusta coffee from which Nescafe, the country’s leading instant coffee brand is made. Edgar, a retired pharmaceutical executive is a graduate of coffee specialist course at the Nestle Experimental and Demonstration Farm (NEDF) in Tagum, Davao del Norte.

“We are excited about the renewed interest of farmers in coffee,” Says Edgar. “In Kalamansig alone, our starting order last year was for 50,000 seedlings.”

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Posted on August 15th, 2009 under Coffee, Farming. Tags: Coffee, Nescafe, Seed, Seedlings, Sultan Kudarat. Comments: 11

A lady scientist has emphasized the need for the establishment of working seedling hunks for seaweeds to address the low supply of high quality planting materials, which is one of the major problems faced by the local seaweed industry today.

Dr. Rhodora V. Azanza, marine science professor at the Marine Science Institute-University of Philippines Diliman said that unlike other major commodities such as rice and corn, there has been no infrastructure focusing on the reproduction of farmed seaweed in the Philippines that will serve as a ready source of raw materials for seaweed growers.

In her paper presentation to the members of National Academy of Science and Technology at the recent round table discussion, Dr. Azanza said that seedling banks are important in the mass propagation and storage of planting materials of commercially farmed seaweeds as being practiced in other countries like Brazil and Japan.

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Posted on July 6th, 2009 under Aquaculture. Tags: Seaweed, Seedlings. Comments: None

Sowing the right amount of seeds results in strong and healthy seedlings. Hence, rice experts recommend the use of 40 kg certified seeds of an inbred variety or 20 kg hybrid for one hectare.

This 40-kg technology disproves the common belief that more seeds planted per hectare ensure enough and healthy seedlings.

According to experts, 1 kg of palay seeds is equivalent to approximately 40,000 seeds, thus, for 40 kg seeds, there are approximately 1,600,000 seeds. If two seedlings (20 to 25-day old) per hill are transplanted at a distance of 20cm x 20cm, a hectare would require some 500,000 seedlings.

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Posted on February 23rd, 2009 under Rice. Tags: Rice, Seedlings, Seeds. Comments: 1