Agriculture Business Week

Are you missing the green goodies that you used to have on your dinner plate because of the low supply and consequent high cost of vegetables, fellow city dweller?

Do as other people are doing – plant your own vegetables at home. But do so in ways that enable you to avoid wasting your time and money. Where and what to plant in are the most important things to consider. If, like most of us, you don’t have space in your backyard for even a small garden plot, flower boxes and pots and other containers have proved indispensable to home planters.

More critical is what to plant in – meaning soil, growing medium or substrate. Home gardening advocates advise us to avoid using soil from garbage dumps and similar sites where soil may be fertile but not sure to be safe and clean. Such soil may harbor harmful microorganisms and contains toxic heavy metals, especially lead. Lead, experts say, is the deadliest and most abundant pollutant in our cities. They also tell us that our busy city streets are so polluted that windblown dust from these thoroughfares transport lead and other heavy metals like mercury, chromium, cadmium, and arsenic to contaminate plants that we eat. That’s why experts also advise us to keep plants away from roadsides.
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Posted on February 15th, 2010 under Vegetables. Tags: Vegetables, Veggies. Comments: None

You don’t have to have a degree in agriculture to succeed in farming. In the course of our long journalistic career; we have met a lot of men and women who didn’t even go past high school but who are most successful in their own brand of farming.

One of the latest we met is Santiago ‘Agoy’ Arcilla, 54, of Tanza, Cavite. After finishing high school in 1974, he joined the Philippine Navy as a storekeeper. Eight years later, he was promoted to disbursing clerk in the Navy’s finance center in Fort Bonifacio with a salary of about P8,000 a month.

With a growing family of his own, however, he soon realized that with that princely sum of P8,000 a month, it would be impossible to send his children to college. Thus, on June 16, 1996, at the age of 41, he decided to retire early with nothing in mind but to go into farming.

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Posted on June 22nd, 2009 under Farming, Vegetables. Tags: Farming, Retired, Retirement, Vegetables. Comments: None

Malunggay (Moringa spp.) is not only one of the world’s most useful plant; studies show it is also the most nutritious. This lowly crop is grown for human food, livestock forage, medicine, dye and water treatment.

Based on the research conducted by Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), 100 grams or one cup of cooked malunggay leaves contain 3.1 g protein, 0.6 g fiber, 96 mg calcium, 29 mg phosphorus, 1.7 mg iron, 2,820 mg betacarotene, .07 mg thiamine, 0.14 mg riboflavin, 1.1 mg niacin, and 53 mg ascorbic acid or vitamin C. It also has antioxidant activity ranging about 71 percent with aetocopherol (vitamin E) equivalent of 45.

DOST also noted that malunggay leaves are an incomparable source of the sulfur containing amino acids methionine and cystine, the natural minerals that humans are often lacking of.

The following suggested cultural practices were developed at Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) in the Taiwan lowlands. Growers may modify the practices to suit local soil, weather, and pest and disease condition.

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Posted on March 20th, 2009 under Vegetables. Tags: Malunggay, Vegetables, Veggies. Comments: None

The Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE) advises farmers to prevent the deterioration of perishable crops like fruits and vegetables. The products must be of good quality even before harvest. This is because production practices have a tremendous effect on crop quality. This quality must be maintained through appropriate postharvest handling as they reach the consumers.

BPRE specialists tell us that recommended postharvest handling technologies and practices can no longer cure prior damage and injury suffered by the harvest. Farmers must understand that respiration, loss of moisture, and microbial growth induce quality deterioration of perishable crops. Thus, these must be minimized to attain optimum shelf life of fruits and vegetables.

During respiration, sugars, fats, proteins and other food reserves in the product are converted into metabolic energy needed to keep plant tissues alive and functioning. Since respiration uses oxygen and produces carbon dioxide and water vapor, the respiration rate of a product determines its transit and postharvest life. The higher the rate of respiration, the faster the product losses moisture, and the faster it deteriorates.

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Posted on February 19th, 2009 under Agri Tips, Fruits, Technology, Vegetables. Tags: Detrioration, Fresh, Fruits, Packing, Perishable, Technology, Vegetables. Comments: 1

Anao, Traloc used to be famous as a pioneer in ilang-ilang production and processing. Today the town is also becoming popular for its pandesal enriched with squash. The bakery of Tito Rey Quindara has been producing a best selling pandesal which consists of 70 percent wheat flour and 30 percent squash.

Toto Barcelona of Harbest Agribusiness tells us that it all started with the techno-demo and training farm project on high-value crops of the Department of Agriculture’s Region 3 headed by Fernando Lorenzo. Some 40 attendees were trained by technicians of Harbest on the basics of commercial production of high-value vegetables using simple and doable technology.

One of the trainees was Romeo Constante of Brgy. San Jose, a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW). With a small capital, Constante planted 2,000 square meters to the Phoenix solo squash, a variety from Taiwan that weighs two to three kilos per fruit. Its golden flesh is thick and with a superior flavor.

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Posted on January 28th, 2009 under Vegetables. Tags: Bread, Pan de Sal, Squash, Vegetables, Veggies. Comments: 2

Perhaps, nothing could make inventors happier than to witness how their inventions have helped people.

This is what unsung Filipino inventors Alfonso Puyat and Engineer Walther Alvarez must have felt when the Villa family’s farm in Nueva Ecija expanded after they dared to adopt the unpopular technologies that these inventors developed.

Ricardo and Nenita Villa used to harvest 100 to 120 cavans per hectare from their 45-hectare rice farm in San Fernando Norte, Cabiao. But when they learned that Fernando Gabuyo of San Jose City was averagely harvesting more than 300 cavans per hectare from hybrid rice, they became curious and wanted to harvest more.

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Posted on December 7th, 2008 under Farming. Tags: Farm, Organic, Rice, Technology, Tilapia, Vegetables. Comments: 5