Agriculture Business Week

For over nine years in the food processing business, Crispin Muyrong Jr and his wife Ma. Luz, owners of Sunlight Foods Corporation in Marikina City, have considered ubi as their bread and butter This rootcrop, which is valued for its purple-colored tuber, is a much sought-after ingredient in cakes, pastries, halo-halo, ice cream and other delicacies which make up a big chunk of the local food industry.

Crispin, a mechanical engineer, and Ma. Luz, a food technologist, have seen the big potential of ubi in food processing as they learned that fruit processing makes up 35 percent of the food processing pie followed by bakery products at 25 percent. So, in 2000 they decided to quit their respective jobs and focused on making products that the bakery sector needs.

Crispin noticed that there was an abundant supply of ubi in his home province of La Union, so he took advantage of this and processed the tubers into puree using the processing equipment he himself designed. Besides, he thought that he could help ubi growers in the area earn extra income by encouraging them to sell their produce to him.

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Posted on October 4th, 2010 under Entrepreneurs, Other Crops. Tags: Entrepreneur, Rootcrop, Ubi, Yam. Comments: 17

A manufacturer of sweet preserves is in need of additional supply of ubi tubers due to the increasing demand for high quality ubi jam and puree that it supplies to major bakeshops and food chains.

Engr. Crispin Muyrong, vice president of Sunlight Food Corporation situated in Marikina City said that the company will require a minimum of 250 metric tons (mt) of ubi tubers this year for the production of ubi jam and ubi puree, which are Sunlight’s flagship products.

The company has been getting its ubi supply from growers in Northern Luzon, CALABARZON, Palawan and Mindanao. However, Muyrong said that this year sees a decrease in ubi growers’ production due to the effect of climate change and the damage brought about by pests and diseases, especially the fungal disease called yam anthracnose.

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Posted on January 29th, 2010 under Other Crops. Tags: Ubi, Yam. Comments: 5

Researchers at the Philippine Rootcrop Research and Training Center (PhilRootcrops) of the Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay, Leyte have unveiled what could become the next potential biological control for anthracnose in ubi and other plant diseases.

Julie D. Tan, Evelyn B. Taboada, May V. Tampus, Jilly B. Regis and Rodney H. Perez have isolated and tested the endophytic microorganisms found in sweetpotato, which are recognized as source of secondary metabolites useful in biotechnology and agriculture. Initial results have confirmed that these endophytes produce antimicrobial compounds that inhibit the growth of disease-causing microorganisms in plants.

In their study titled “Antimicrobial evaluation and effects of fermentation process conditions of bioactive compounds produced by endophytic Bacillus sp. against some selected food and plant pathogens”, the researchers screened isolates of endophytes from rootcrop-based products and other related fermented food products for their abilities to inhibit the growth of some selected food pathogens. They also determined the effects of fermentation on the productivity and activity of the biocontrol compound.

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Posted on January 27th, 2010 under Other Crops, Plant. Tags: Disease, Plants, Rootcrops, Ubi, Yam. Comments: 1

Baybay City, Leyte – Research continues to unravel more medicinal properties to yam (ube), one of the country’s most important root crops.

Earlier studies have shown that yam tubers were used traditionally in herbal medicines because of their reported effects on the organ systems.

They reportedly lowered sugar levels, improved metabolism (chemical changes in the blood), prevented damage in blood vessel walls, and provided energy antioxidant defenses.

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Posted on June 16th, 2009 under Other Crops. Tags: Medicinal Crop, Ube, Yam. Comments: 1

After more than six years of collecting and evaluating tugui and ubi cultivars, Noralyn B. Legazpi, a researcher from Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte, has finally identified several high-yielding lines of these rootcrops that could be multiplied.

She started in 2003 and to date, she has already collected and evaluated 18 tugui and 34 ubi cultivars. Her objective in conducting this research is to establish a germplasm collection of these crops, which Ilocano farmers normally plant in small-scale marginal lands, and select the best among them.

Traditionally, Ilocanos consider tugui as a food. Its tubers are either boiled or cooked as main ingredient of ginataan.

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Posted on January 28th, 2009 under Other Crops. Tags: Rootcrop, Tugui, Ubi, Yam. Comments: 1

Agrarian Reform is not only about giving lands to beneficiaries. It is also about extending support services and providing product development training to beneficiaries in the rural communities for them to have alternative source of income.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has been instrumental for some rural developments by providing livelihood opportunities to a number of people and organizations in the rural areas.

One of them is the Kayabang Multipurpose Cooperative in Bayabas, Sablan, Benguet which has found a money-making venture in making ubi wine through the help of DAR-Cordillera Administrative Region. Ube wine was one of the saleable items at the recently concluded Agrilink/Foodlink/ Aqualink trade fair at the World Trade Center because it is organic, local, and healthy alternative to red wine.

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Posted on December 10th, 2008 under Entrepreneurs, Special Report. Tags: Agrarian Reform, Carrot, Ubi, Wine, Yam. Comments: 2