Agriculture Business Week

Vegetable farmers in the mountainous areas of Carranglan, Nueva Ecija can now bring their produce to the road side fast and easy, as an agricultural tramline was turned over recently by BPRE Executive Director Ricardo L. Cachuela to the municipal government.

The agricultural tramline is an alternative transport system that facilitates efficient delivery of agricultural products at reduced cost from production areas to the market.

Carranglan Mayor Luvimindo Otic received the agricultural tramline in behalf of his constituents and expressed his gratitude for its establishment in his municipality. “This technology is badly needed in our place,” he said.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Farming, Vegetables. Tags: Farming, Veggies. Comments: None

Bohol used to be a big importer of a lot of vegetables such as tomatoes, cabbage, eggplant, squash and others mostly from Northern Mindanao. These days, some are still sourced from outside the province but that may not continue sooner than most people think. It won’t be surprising if the is and province will soon become an exporter of its own high quality vegetables, especially to the big market in Cebu.

The reason is that growing high-yielding hybrid vegetables is becoming increasingly popular in the province as more and more farmers are discovering that there is big money in growing such varieties.

The increasing popularity of high yielding vegetables can be gauged by the volume of sales of planting materials in the last few years. One seed firm, East-West Seed Company, for instance, has tremendously increased its sales in the last three years. For example, the company sold only P400,000 worth of seeds in 2006. In 2007, the value topped P1.2 million while this year the company is well on its way to sell at least P2 million worth of seeds. Of course, East-West Seed is just one of the suppliers of vegetable seeds in the province. At least three other seed companies are also selling their own varieties there.

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Posted on October 15th, 2008 under Vegetables. Tags: Bohol, Mindanao, Veggies. Comments: None

Many farmers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are practicing Palavamanan or integrated farming. Among them are the farmers in Barangav Sultan Kudarat, Pigcawayan, Shariff Kabunsuan. They are ever grateful that such a technology was introduced to them because if not for it, their farm income would not increase.

Indeed, these farmers have all the good reasons to say so since they are now earning much from vegetable production. “What PhilRice and JICA taught us is beautiful because it has helped us improve our livelihood,” says 55-year-old Maudti Ali.

Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) introduced the Palayamanan concept to the Muslim farmers through a technical cooperation project in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of ARMM (DAF-ARMM). Among the agencies cooperating in the implementation of the project is the University of Southern Mindanao through its Pagkain Para sa Masa program.
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Posted on October 13th, 2008 under Rice, Vegetables. Tags: Mindanao, Palaymanan, PhilRice, Veggies. Comments: None

Talk about Quezon City and one would think of cars, buses, trains, and tower-high, classy buildings. It seems that there’s no room for farming, but there are few who succeeded and one of them is Bernabe Atenta.

Using only chicken dung as fertilizer, he has been raising pechay, mustard, lettuce, beans, spinach, and other vegaables in the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman Stud Farm. Mang Bebe as his neighbors and friends call him. is proud of his profitable vegetable garden because if not for it, he wouldn’t afford the education of his children. His daughter Amelita is now a nurse, his son Joel has a degree in computer science, and his daughter Maribel is taking up tourism.

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Posted on October 1st, 2008 under Vegetables. Tags: Farmer, Gardening, Veggies. Comments: None

Cabbage Farmers may as well plant either tomato or garlic around their cabbage crop to reduce damages caused by diamondback moth (DBM), Hellula, cutworms, and other harmful insect pests. This practice is called companion planting.

Lucrecia Cocson and Lagrimas Flojo, researchers of the Mariano Marcos State University [MMSU] in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, found in a three year study that companion planting with tomato or garlic results in higher marketable yields and, hence, higher net income from cabbage.

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Posted on September 28th, 2008 under Vegetables. Tags: Cabbage, Disease, Garlic, Pest, Veggies. Comments: None

On our way to users of Durabloom bio-organic fertilizer in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon, we passed by several farmers loading large squash fruits in a cargo truck bound for Cagayan de Oro City.

The size of the fruits attracted us to take some photos and interview the farmers who said the variety they used could yield 13 to 30 tons a hectare. That’s great! Given the current farm gate price of P3.50 a kilo, the farmers get a gross income of P45,500 to P105,500 per hectare.

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Posted on September 27th, 2008 under Vegetables. Tags: Squash, Veggies. Comments: None

A big vegetable seedling production facility was launched in San Rafael, Bulacan last July 30, attended by more than 300 farmers from different parts of the country.

This is the one-hectare seedling nursery of East-West Seed Company which can produce 1.5 million ready-to-plant seedlings every month, according to Dr. Mary Ann P. Sayoc, company general manager.

The main purpose of the facility is to produce ready-to-plant high-value crops for the convenience of commercial farmers as well as small-scale hobbyists who may not be proficient or don’t have the time in germinating the seeds. At the East-West Seed nursery, the seeds are grown under sophisticated facilities which ensure the germination and development of healthy seedlings.

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Posted on September 26th, 2008 under Vegetables. Tags: Seeds, Veggies. Comments: None

Taiwan houses the world’s largest repository of vegetable germplasm.

Did you know that all vegetable seeds in the world are in a safe place? A place where you can access them at anytime. In case the great flood of Noah’s fame happens again, we are secured. We still have the seeds in a gene bank at the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), now the World Vegetable Center in Tainan, Taiwan.

Recently, I had the chance to visit the facility. They have the world’s largest collection of vegetable germplasm.

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Posted on September 25th, 2008 under Vegetables. Tags: Veggies. Comments: None

Philippine traditional medicine attributes many medicinal properties to ampalaya(bitter gourd).

Perhaps not too many people know that there are natural weapons against diseases which can be grown right in the garden or farm. One such weapon is the wrinkly green vegetable with a distinctive bitter taste called ampalaya. Known in the science world as ‘Momordica charantia,’ it is called bitter gourd or bitter melon.

In terms of nutritional contents, the fruits and leaves of the ampalaya are reportedly rich in minerals and vitamins, notably iron, calcium, phosphorus and Vitamin B. In the Philippines, it is prepared into various dishes: it be stir-fried with ground beef and oyster sauce, or with eggs and diced tomato. A very popular dish from the Ilocos region is the ‘pinakbet,’ which consists mainly of ampalaya, eggplant, okra, string beans, tomatoes, lima beans, and other various regional vegetables stewed with a little bagoongbased stock.
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Posted on September 19th, 2008 under Vegetables. Tags: Ampalaya, Bitter Gourd, Veggies. Comments: None