Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Starting Your Own Broiler business
Dr. Raymond de Asis, a respected veterinarian, briefs on the basics of starting a backyard broiler business.
Heis a veterinarian, and animal science expert who operates his own broiler business to shed light on the ABCs of broiler production.The 32-year-old broiler expert is a master’s degree holder of animal science major in nutrition and minor in biochemistry from the University of the Philippines in Los Banos. It was also in the same state university where he obtained his doctor of veterinary medicine in 1988. Dr. de Asis is an active member of the United Broilers Association (UBRA).
The following are excerpts from our interview:
Before deciding to put up a broiler business, I suggest that you determine how much capital you have or can borrow. The amount of capital you have determines how big your broiler business can be. Understand also that a broiler business could be considered as a high risk business because the farm gate prices of broiler can change at any given day. At present, many are encouraged to put up a broiler business due to the high farm gate prices, but remember that this is not guaranteed to extend to the time when you are ready to market. My dad always told me that when he was just starting to set up his business, it was quite easy to predict when the farm gate price of broiler would be high. That was the time when there were only few broiler raisers, and not too much external factors were then affecting the market.
Just to give you an idea of the amount of capital needed, allow me to give you some figures. A day-old-chick (DOC) today costs between Php20 and Php23 per chick. Feeds could cost from anywhere between Php18 and Php22 a kilo. For the duration of the growout, the broiler chick could take in around 33.5kgs of feed per bird. Medication, vaccination, and supplementation would cost us between P1.00 to as high as P7.00 per bird. Add to that-labor, electrical, farm rental (if renting) which is around P10 per bird. For backyard broiler raisers, this would be lower because you can remove labor cost and, to some extent, electrical cost. All in all, each bird would cost its roughly between Php9o-Php130 to raise a bird to its ideal market weight. Of course many factors can affect this figure. This is just an estimate.
For your startup business, you have to add equipment and building cost. Equipment would include infrared gas brooders for the chicks, feeders in three (3) sizes (small, medium, large), drinkers and industrial electric fans. This would cost its anywhere between Php40 and Php100 per bird. Building cost would depend on the building material used-weather they’re steel, good lumber or coco lumber. This would cost us from Php40-Php150 per bird.
Once you have the capital needed, you need to look for a site where to place your broiler house. The site should not be located anywhere near an existing broiler, layer, game fowl farm. This minimizes the risk of transferring diseases during outbreaks.
With regards to the building design, if possible, the length of the broiler house should run from east to west. This prevents direct sunlight from penetrating the side walls of the house which could cause heat build-up inside. Ventilation is very important. Allocate at least one (1) square foot of floor space per bird. If constructing an open-sided type of housing, elevate the house about 1.5 meters from the ground. This ensures proper circulation of air helps ease the collection of fecal matter underneath the house after each harvest. The building should be rat proof, bird proof and cat proof. Trees could be planted on the sides of the house to provide shade during hot season and can also serve as protection from storms or weather disturbances. The roofing should be the monitor type and high enough to provide better air circulation inside the broiler house.
Now that you have constructed the house, it’s time to prepare the house for the arrival of the chicks. First, thoroughly clean the house with the use of a high pressure washer to remove dust, fecal matter or any debris left inside it. After that you have to disinfect the house including all the equipment inside it. There are a lot of disinfectants in the market-just take note of the precautions in using it. Safety of our personnel always comes first.
Day-old-chicks (DOCs) can be sourced from a number of companies including the big ones like San Miguel, Robina Farms, Vitarich etc. A number of local cooperatives can also provide DOCs.
Just take note that where you get your chicks. The company or person you got them from should have a good track record.
Keep a good record of your farm operation. Take note of the daily mortality and daily feed intake. List down all vaccinations and medication procedures undertaken. Monitor daily the appearance and performance of the flock. The first two weeks are very critical because this is the stage when the chicks are most vulnerable to diseases and stress factors such as temperature fluctuations. Monitor weekly their weights so that you can be accurate in predicting when our birds are ready for market. Too big a bird (2.olcg above) could be harder to market than an average sized bird (1.6 to 1.9 kg live weight). So before you even purchase our DOCs, take note of the market demands in your area whether they prefer large or averaged-sized birds.
Many diseases can affect the flock. Nowadays, viral disease outbreaks are kept at a minimum due to good vaccination and medication practices. Some of the diseases we vaccinate against include New Castle disease, Infectious Bursal disease, Mycoplasmosis ( in some farms), coccidiosis (again in some farms), Infectious Bronchitis and many others.
The most common diseases of poultry though, affect the respiratory and digestive systems of the broiler. Signs/symptoms often observed include rales, sneezing, unformed or foul smelling fecal matter. Many of these diseases have overlapping signs and symptoms so it is very important that if changes are observed in the behavior, appearance, or growth characteristics, the matter should be reported to a qualified veterinary practioner so that an appropriate course of action be taken.
Some important performance indicators worth looking into include FCR, mortality rate, harvest recovery rate, average body weight.
To get the feed conversion ratio (FCR), just divide the number of kilogram of feeds by the total body weight of the whole flock (class A birds only) after harvest. This is a good indicator of the efficiency of your operation. This is interpreted as the number of kilograms of feed needed to be consumed by the bird for it to gain one (1) kilogram of body weight. The lower this ratio, the better.
Mortality rate is just the percent of birds that died throughout the duration of the growth cycle. Aim for a mortality rate of not greater than 5% of the total population including the extra birds.
Harvest recovery rate is the percentage of birds that we were able to market. This should not be lower than 90%. A good target is in the range of 93%-96%.
To get the average body weight, simply divide the total number of kilos that were marketed by the total number of birds that were sold. A good average would be around 1.6 to 2.0kg.
Good luck on your broiler business venture!
You Have To Need to Know About Swine Flu
Are there medicines to treat swine flu?
Yes. CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza) for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with swine influenza viruses. Antiviral drugs are prescription medicine (pills, liquid or an inhaler) that fights the flu by keeping viruses from reproducing in your body. If you get sick, antiviral drugs can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster. They may also prevent serious flu complications. For treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started soon after getting sick (within two days of symptoms)
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Should I take Tamiflu as a precaution if I’m not sick yet?
No. “What are you going to do with it, use it when you get a sniffle?” asks Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University Langone Medical Center and author of “Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.” Overusing antiviral drugs can help germs become resistant to them.
Tamiflu and Relenza will not work for colds, other types of flu, or other viral infections. These medicines may be used for other purposes.
Your health care provider needs to know if you have any of the following conditions: kidney disease; live in nursing home; lung or breathing disease, like asthma; serious medical condition; an unusual or allergic reaction to zanamivir, lactose, other medicines, foods, dyes, or preservatives; pregnant or trying to get pregnant; and breast-feeding.
You should also report to your doctor or health care professional as soon as possible if you are suffering from any of the following side effects: abnormal behavior; allergic reactions like skin rash, itching or hives, swelling of the face, lips, or tongue; breathing problems; confusion; fast, irregular heart beat; feeling faint or lightheaded, falls; fever; hallucinations; other ear, nose, or throat infection; and seizures.
Meanwhile, side effects that usually do not require medical attention are cough, diarrhea, headache, nasal congestion, nausea, and vomiting. However, consult a doctor if these continue.
How long can an infected person spread swine flu to others?
People with swine influenza virus infection should be considered potentially contagious as long as they are symptomatic. It is possible for up to seven days following illness onset. But children, especially younger children, might potentially be contagious for longer periods.
Is there a vaccine for swine flu?
There is no vaccine available right now to protect against swine flu. The seasonal influenza vaccine will likely help provide partial protection against swine H3N2, but not swine H1N1 viruses.
I got a flu shot, so am I protected, right?
Health authorities say that seasonal flu shot (which addresses different strains of flu) will not protect us from swine flu. It’s because seasonal flu shot was developed to combat strains that are not related to the swine flu strain.
What can I do to protect myself from getting sick?
We can help prevent the spread of germs that cause respiratory illnesses like influenza. Practice the following every day to protect your health:
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• If you get sick with influenza, stay home and limit contact with people keep from infecting them. Avoid touching your eves, nose or mouth to prevent spread of germs.
What should I do if I get sick?
If you are sick, stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible to keep from spreading your illness to others.
In children, signs that need urgent medical attention include
• fast breathing or trouble breathing
• bluish skin color
• not drinking enough fluids
• not waking up or not interacting
• being so irritable that the child does not want to be held.
• flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
• fever with a rash
In adults, signs that need urgent medical attention include
• difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• sudden dizziness
• confusion
• severe or persistent vomiting
Can I get swine influenza from eating pork?
No. Swine influenza viruses are not spread by food. Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 71°C (160°F) kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.
What are the stages of the spread of disease?
The WHO developed a plan to respond to any health emergencies. Each stage represents a different level of response. For example, Stage 4 means that the disease can no longer be contained inside any specific country, therefore governments must take steps to handle community spread of the disease. As of press time, the WHO has raised its pandemic alert for swine influenza to phase 4. If the situation gets worse, and the WHO raises the alert to stages 5-6, it indicates that the swine flu has become pandem
What plans are in place?
Nearly 150 countries, including the Philippines, have flu contingency plans in place, covering everything from hospital and travel to internal2onal cooperation. Many governments have also started stockpiling anti-viral drugs, which are not a vaccine but would lessen some of the symptoms. Regulations have also been drawn up covering surveillance reporting and communication. The aim is to ensure there is good information available on which decisions can be based.
Where can I get further information?
Further information on swine flu can be found in websites of leading health and research organizations around the world. These websites include
• The CDC’s Travel Notice page
• World Health Organization’s Disease Outbreak page
• A Google Swine Flu map
• CNN keeps a map updated, too
• DOH website
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Poultry Outlook 2009
To further shed light on the development and outlook of poultry industry, we recently talked to Aziz Sacranie, the Technical Director of the Poultry Division of Alltech, a leading animal health company. Sacranie used to teach poultry science at the university college in the UK before he worked in multinational agricultural companies. Since the early ’70s, he has been traveling and observing the poultry business in the Asia Pacific region and is very familiar with the development of the Philippine poultry industry. He has visited companies like Purefoods, Vitarich, San Miguel and RFM and has helped in the management and the poultry divisions of the said companies.
Excerpts :
How has the poultry industry evolved in Asia over the last 10 years?
I think it has come from being mere small producers to a consolidated type of production. In other words, the global poultry industry has developed in this format. You have a situation where many people think that there’s money to be made in poultry so they say, we’ll go poultry farming. They start going into that and they find that their margins are very narrow. This means that they have to increase their number of units. However, because you have the volume, you have a larger profit share. This means that if you’re going to be big, you have to consolidate. So the small companies don’t survive. And this has been the trend across Asia and even globally. In some countries it’s slower, in other countries, it’s faster.
What about in terms of technology?
I think over the last 10 years technology has been geared towards genetic improvements. This has been phenomenal. If you’ll look at the growth rate, if you look at the Feeds Conversion Rate(FCR), it has just come down. However, the industry has not been able to get the full genetic potential. So I think the next thing I would say that happened over the last ten years has been that Asia has gone to a closed house farming. In other words, they put their chickens inside their house an they’re controlling the environment there. MOst of the broilers and parent stock are now in kept in houses that are tunnel ventilated with evaporative cooling system in order to bring the temperature down. What does that mean? It means we can improve our livability. This means less heat stress. It means that we can put more birds per square meter.
What are your observations about the poultry business in the Philippines?
In the Philippines, you’re still in the broiler phase, you’re still not really down there. But there’s a huge potential in the Philippines for companies to improve performance and improve profitability through volume production by using this kind of housing. The technology is there and it’s not a difficult technology. The companies that are using it to their benefit. There a few of them. A lot of breeder farms are in control environment houses but in broiler production, most of there are still open house. So you have seasonal problems.
Let’s talk about the changes that happened in poultry nutrition?
The breed has changed. Genetic potential has changed. Therefore the nutrients required also changed. Imagine this, in 1960, if you look at the incubation period of a broiler chick, it’s 21 days and then it took 56 days to get to market weight or maybe longer. Today, for the same weight, it only takes 42 days. So when you think about it, 50% of the chick’s life is in the embryonic stage or in incubation. So the kind of nutrition that you give them, is you have to think about the survivability of the embryo as well as the survivability of the chick that is going to the farm. So I guess the greatest understanding we’ve had is how do we feed the parent that will allow us to transfer nutrients into the chick so that the chick will be viable and it will hatch out and it won’t die on you on the way to the farm. So our understanding of neo-natal nutrition has improved in a great way. The other area that we have understood better nutritionally is how to ensure the integrity of the intestinal tract. Again, if you consider that the biggest organ in a chicken’s body is the gut. So if you can look after the gut, you can look after everything. So we have a better understanding of the gut. How to develop it, how to maintain it, how to prevent damage to it.
And your forecast for the poultry industry?
I must say there is a bright future for the chicken industry but like I said, it has to consolidate in order to remain viable. We have to keep the prices at its lowest as possible. You have to keep the prices at its lowest as possible. You have to use economies of scale in order to actually produce this.
Production and Market Trends Affecting the Broiler Industry :
- Increased production of commercial sector
- Competition among big supermarkets driving margins in the sector. Per capita consumption is low compared to other countries
- Emphasis on convenience and ease of preparation - chicken rotisseries, processed chicken products
- Relative price of other protein substitutes
- Supply and disease concerns of other meat products
World Broiler Market in 2008 :
- Total world production is projected to grow 2% and exports are Total world production is projected to grow 2% and exports are expected to grow 4%.
- China is forecasted to import 9% more as domestic pork supply in China is forecasted to import 9% more as domestic pork supply in the country is tight. Since poultry is widely substituted for the country is for pork meat and poultry meat, prices are lower compared to pork, the country and poultry meat prices are lower compared to pork, the country is seen to bring in more poultry meat. The Beijing Olympics is also seen to bring in more poultry meat. The Beijing Olympics is also expected to spur demand.
- Russian imports will remain unchanged especially with their customs regulations which raised minimum prices of poultry.
_ Japanese importation will also remain constant. Preferred supplier is now China due to it lowered prices for grilled yakitori.
- EU importation from Brazil will also decrease due to quantitative restrictions imposed by EU on Brazilian salted chicken meat.
Declinig Soil and Water Quality :Worries Scientists
Scientists are getting wary on the declining quality of soil and water all over the world due to the continuous application of inorganic fertilizer. They noted that while inorganic fertilizer application is responsible for 40 percent of the world’s total production output, this practice has also led to ecological impact that ultimately threatens man’s existence.
In a recent symposium at BPRE, the participants claimed that 60 percent of the applied inorganic fertilizer contaminates the environment through run-off, seepage, percolation and volatilization. It contaminates the underground and surface water, and causes soil and water acidity, salinity and eutrophication. At the same time, water contaminated with nitrate when taken in causes blue baby syndrome both on humans and ruminants.
Teresita S. Sandoval of the Bureau of Soil and Water Management (BSWM) said that based on data from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and BSWM, water quality for agriculture poses no serious threat yet. However, she pointed out that this information may not reflect the true picture because of limited samples. Some aspects of sampling needed to establish the quality of a particular body of water over time and space were not adequately satisfied.
The news on the country’s agricultural lands is also bleak. Dr. Nenita E. dela Cruz, soil science professor at the Central Luzon State University (CLSU), said that most of the country’s cropland soil is virtually dead. She claimed that chemicals have killed beneficial microorganisms that can produce organic mater. Monoculture or no-mix farming has aggravated the situation.
In the symposium, Japanese scientists said that silicate minerals like quartz porphyry or bakuhan-seki stone, can reverse the fast deterioration of soil and water quality. As a soil amendment, it can enhance the growth and development of plants and could be a potential system for producing mineralized water.
The Japanese scientists also said that quartz porphyry has been found to improve the physiological and ecological characteristics of wheat, soybean and komatsuna vegetable.
The yield increased and harvest maturity in soybean was significantly prolonged. Plant height and number of branches per plant also increased. Addition of quartz porphyry also minimized further acidification of the soil.
The bad news is that quartz porphyry is not available in the Philippines and, hence, importing it would be expensive. The good news is that the locally available bio-organic fertilizer Durabloom is an alternative to quarts porphyry. Durabloom has millions of microorganisms that completely decompose chicken manure, its base material.
This bio-organic fertilizer, produced by Novatech Agri-Food Industries, is environment- and user-friendly. Unlike other organic fertilizers, it does not emit any obnoxious odor. The microorganisms in it restore the microflora in depleted soils. For instance, canes in the fields on the slope of Mt. Salimbalin, Pangantucan, Bukidnon grew bigger and longer than the canes in nearby fields. And this is due to the application of Durabloom.
In other parts of Mindanao where yields have been declining, corn, sugarcane and banana applied with Durabloom are now producing high yields.
Desperately Seeking Compost (For A Happy Earth)
<i>Metro Manila and other cities in the Philippines are in a quandary over garbage. The landfills are filled and full to the brim like running-over septic tanks. Concerned citizens in landfill areas are led to barricade the entrance with their own selves. Some time back in Rodriguez, Rizal, the mayor even led a human barricade.
Years ago, I suggested to the barangay captain of the barangay where I live that a barangay composting center be set up. The barangay captain replied, saying, “mahirap, e,” meaning, it would be difficult. With a dash of political will, however, anything is possible.
In 2008, I again trekked to the barangay office with the same suggestion that a barangay composting center and a materials recovery facility be established in accordance with Republic Act 9003, or the Solid Waste Management Act. To the new barangay captain and to the kagawads heading concerned committees, I presented a letter aimed at introducing a waste management scheme to each barangay constituent, together with my research and supporting papers and information materials related thereto, for the barangay council’s consideration. Two months passed, however, and I have yet to hear about waste management being tackled by the barangay before its constituents.
I tried composting twice in the backyard, but the compost was not harvested, and the pits were filled and packed. Also, my mother opposed the idea. condoning every act of the househelp in mixing biodegradable waste with recyclables, and just handing them over to the dump trucks. At each instance. I squirmed with guilt within, feeling that the trash handed over to the eco aides were my home’s representatives in the dumpsites and that we added to the burdens.
To break in the idea again with the househelp, I motioned to the male househelp in my home about a different composting scheme that we could pursue in the backyard. This time, there will be a sectioning of the soil area where compost yield will be deposited for about a week until the pit is full. In this method, we dig deeper pits with a pick, and remove the rocks, stones, broken bottles, plastics, and whatnots that litter the soil, and incorporate biodegradable spoils in sequential manner until the whole plot is filled up.
In desperation, I frantically explained to the househelp the urgent need for our home to resume its composting activities as not merely a civic duty, but as a spiritual exercise. Lo and behold, my mother, who was often opposed to my ideas, suddenly conformed to the composting suggestion.
Included in the compost are fruit and vegetable peelings, fish and chicken innards, gizzards, and bones, fish scales, spoiled food, leftover food unsuitable for cat or dog fare, used cooking oil, animal or vegetable fat, wet newspapers, tissue paper, scratch papers, fallen leaves, small twigs, swept dust, cat poop, and other biodegradable matter (and as of late, panty liners and sanitary, napkins, after the plastic backing has been peeled, washed, dried, and included in the plastics pile). And, lo, a dramatic decrease in household waste began to liberate my mind from the cloud of guilt. And we no longer have flies around the house, and no fly lost even inside the abode.
Truly lucky is the home with members who are conscientious and mindful in their role as responsible stewards of the environment. This, too, is my hope for my barangay, and for all barangays in the Philippines, that each will have its own operational, and self-sustained ecology center. May we all strive for cleaner, healthier, and better place for one and all.
Fish culture Made Possible in Upland Areas
Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya - Well known for its native handicrafts and upland veggies, this landlocked and mountainous province may soon add fish to its array of indigenous products.
Fish? That’s right.
According to Dr. Jovita Ayson, regional director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Office in,Cagayan Valley, Nueva Vizcaya’s topography, and climate - similar to the country’s summer capital, is not a hindrance for the large-scale production of fish.
Ayson said this during the launching of the fish condominium, a component of the `Fish for Upland Dwellers’ project here last March 12. The project is part of the priority thrusts under BFAR Director Malcolm L Sarmiento, Jr.
“This demo project shall help us create income opportunities for fish farmers. It will also enable us to address nutritional needs of our constituents as according to the DOH, upland dwellers are prone to fish protein deficiency,” Ayson said.
This innovative fish culture project entails use of recycled metal drums opened and welded on end to form a chamber where fish can be cultured. One module consists of nine such chambers laid out in horizontal manner and stacked in three tiers with angle bars as frame.
According to project leader Dominador Abalos, the project, stocked with 3,000 African hito fingerlings, can produce approximately 1,000 kilos of fish after 6 months culture period. Projected net income is P50,000 at farm gate price of P110. Feed cost is P40,000, while depreciation cost of the structure is P9,200 per year.
The number of fish stocked per chamber ranges from 300 to 400 pieces. This is to enable the implementors to determine the optimal stocking density of fish in such culture system.
A salient feature of the project is its use of the free-flowing water from mountain streams. Outlets of this free-flowing water can be seen on the roadside when one traverses the Maharlika highway here.
“Unlike other fish culture technologies having high stocking density and limited space, our project does not use energy consuming aerators and water pumps to maintain water quality, thanks to the year-round water from the mountains,” the project leader said.
“Nueva Vizcaya’s mountainous feature makes it very difficult and expensive to construct fishponds, particularly in the highlands. This technology allows us to culture fish in constrained and marginal areas,” he added.
Abalos also said that potential production from the project is almost equal to a 1,000-square meter fishpond, and that the technology can also be applied in urban areas. The cost of the structure can be eliminated by arranging the drums in a cascading manner such that it rests on and follows the sloping contour of the land.
Sta. Fe Mayor Florante Gerdan expressed his support and appreciation of the project during the launching activity which was held in line with the celebration of the 14th Kalainguya Festival and Sta. Fe town fiesta.
To maximize exposure of the technology, BFAR R02 has allocated one similar module for Diadi town this province.
Tips on Growing Hybrid Rice
Harvest as much as 12 tons per hectare (t/ha) this dry season with hybrid rice.
It’s the best time to grow hybrid rice due to longer sunshine hours. Drier condition also reduces the occurrence of bacterial leaf blight (BLB) disease, and this is favorable to some hybrid varieties with relatively weaker resistance to BLB. So this period, farmers can realize a much higher yield with hybrid rice than with inbred rice varieties, which yield 4t/ha only.
Hybrid rice is grown like the way inbred varieties are grown, but hybrid rice requires greater attention in seed and seedling management. This is because a lower amount of hybrid seeds is recommended per hectare. A lower number of hybrid seedlings is also recommended due to the high production cost of hybrid rice.Here are pointers on how to grow hybrid rice.
Seed and seedbed preparation. For every 2 kg of seeds, prepare a seedbed measuring 40 square meters. Each bed must be about 1 m wide, of any length, and raised to a height of 4 cm to 5 cm.
Soak the seeds for about 12 to 24 hours in clean water until these swell. Some seeds will float. Do not remove them. Change the water every 5 to 6 hours. Drain the water, wash the seeds, and incubate them for 24 to 36 hours until a white dot this is part of the root comes out from the seeds. During cooler months, incubation may take longer. Sow the incubated seeds on the seedbed at 50 g/m2.
After preparing the seedbed, apply 1 to 1.5 bags of organic materials like compost, carbonized rice hull, and dried chicken manure for every 40 m2 seedbed. This will loosen the soil, and make pulling of seeds easier. This will also prevent root damage, thus reducing transplanting shock.
Once the seedbed is prepared, sow 20 kg of pregerminated hybrid seeds at a rate of 50 g this is about a handful-for every square meter. This will prevent seeds from clumping together, which will result in small and weak seedlings due to the competition for nutrients and other growth factors.
Transplanting. This method only requires 20 kg of hybrid rice seeds per hectare, while direct seeding needs roughly 40 kg to 80 kg of seeds per hectare.
Transplant 21- to 25-day-old seedlings at 1 to 2 seedlings per hill. Plant at a distance of 20 cm x 15 cm during dry season and 20 cm x 20 cm during wet season. Replant missing hills within 7 days after transplanting.
These recommended planting distances will prevent the seedlings from overcrowding, and result in the production of healthy seedlings with uniform growth and strong roots. Maintain the plant population and achieve higher yields by practicing timely replanting of missing hills.
The modified dapog, on the other hand, is an alternative way to raise hybrid seedlings. There’s no need to pull seedlings in this method. Hence, the seedlings will not be subjected to much stress. The seed requirement for this is 15 kg/ha.
Irrigation. Maintain soil saturation within one week after transplanting. Gradually raise the water level to about 2 cm to 3 cm at tillering stage. This technique will help the plants produce sufficient tillers and ensure good anchorage.
Achieve 3 cm to 5 cm water depth every irrigation time until one to two weeks before harvest. Drain standing water, if there’s any, one week before the expected harvest for easy harvesting. and preservation of grain quality.
Fertilizer application. For basal, apply four to six bags of 14-14-14 depending on the results of soil analysis or minus one element technique. Additional nitrogen requirements will be determined using the leaf color chart. If potassium (K) is deficient in a sandy loam soil, apply half bag of muriate of potash (00-60) at particle initiation. If both nitrogen (N) and K are needed at panicle initiation, apply two bags of 17-0-17 per hectare. Otherwise, apply N and K fertilizer separately.
Spray 0-0-60 for three times starting at 50% heading then every other day at a rate of 2 kg/ha per tank load of knapsack sprayer per spraying. Twelve tank loads of knapsack sprayer will be used in a hectare of ricefield. A total of 6 kg 0-0-60 will be used for the entire spraying .time.
Harvesting. Harvest the crop when 80%-85% of the grains is clear, firm, and straw-colored even if the rest are still in hard dough stage.
“Farmers may opt to plant our public bred Mestizo varieties such as Mestizo 7, the newest public hybrid variety that recorded a maximum yield of 10.6t/ha with 107 days maturity,” says Thelma Padolina of the Plant Breeding Division of the Philippine Rice Research Institute.
The government encourages farmers to plant hybrid rice, which is identified as one of the interventions to significantly increase rice production and to eventually attain rice self sufficiency by 2013. Hence, the government provides seed subsidy from 2008 to 2013. It gives a subsidy of P1,500 for hybrid seeds that cost P3,500 per 18 kg/bag.
Seeds of Future Reversal
Encouraging people to invest in agribusiness can be more meaningful if they can be provided with some basic facts.
The domestic broiler industry has undergone a complete circle of starting from loose small farms into the entry of feedmilling companies, becoming integrators by supplying the day-old chicks, feeds, and going into contract growing, and into chicken dressing plants, and retail and institutional selling. And now, except for one or two integrators, the industry is being dominated by small regional players outsourcing their requirements from other small industry players.
Over the years, the likes of Robina Farms, Gen. Milling Corporation, Vitarich Corporation, RFM Corporation, had either completely been out of the industry, or had scaled down their operations that they are no longer their old self and having very little or negligible influence in the industry.
Robina Farms, which pioneered into a truly integrated operations, from day old broiler chick to dressed chicken sold in supermarkets, and to barbecued chicken sold by company owned stores, is no longer active in the industry. Vitarich went the same way, to include a start up operations on chicken food business.
Of the old integrators, it is only San Miguel (who absorbed Purefoods’ chicken operation by way of corporate merger) that has survived this change. And is joined in the industry by upcoming Bounty Agri-Ventures which is also into integrating the whole production cycle.
Added to this is the recent news from the livestok sector that a big meat integrator is also shedding off its piggery operations and opting to get their requirements from the open market or independent piggery farms.
This brings to mind a big piggery farm in Iloilo who also ventured into an integrated piggery operations, complete with state-of-the-art equipment, but had to scale down their operations as the cash flow was not there to sustain its big scale program. And there was another one being established in the Bicol area but was put on hold for some business reasons.
The move from being an integrated operations into small scale player operations is primarily an economic decision. This of course is influenced by the purchasing power of the ultimate consumer. It is a measurement of the cost of delivering the goods to the table versus what the consumer can afford to buy. Apparently, the small players are in a better position to do so as big integrators had fallen on the wayside and unable to prove their competitiveness.
Under a normal economic model, an integrated operations can operate at lesser cost and can deliver products more efficiently.
The chopping off of a continuous operations done in different locations will result into inefficiencies in the system as additional cost will be incurred as products are moved from one place to another. While we can guess reasons behind such a “disintegration” of the industry, our agri-bureaucrats should be able to identify the real reasons for such. Nearby countries are showing success in integrated operations with Thailand leading the way, making strong inroads in the export markets. Far-away Brazil chicken exports are of the same category.
A simplistic reason why the integrators cannot compete is because their overhead expenses had grown so big. This is an off-the-cuff remark that cannot bring light to the situation. Or that the broiler industry is no longer an attractive investment area that a shift to other businesses was made.
What precipitated this shift from fully integrated operations to a situation similar to what we had twenty years ago?
Is it a shift that can sustain dressed chicken supply in the market? Or we can simply import when the domestic supply runs out?
For this reason, domestic dressed chicken (or any other edible food, for that matter) products are always threatened by imports from other countries. And that, inspite of our being an avian-flu free country, we have not been able to fully exploit this as our chicken exports has not exhibited a substantial increase over the years. To a great extent, we have been limited into exports of value-added or specialized chicken products and not on the whole chicken carcass.
The same can be said of our livestock (piggery) operations.
Our inability to export pork products has always been justified by reason that we are a “foot and mouth disease” country and such, efforts to exports should not be on the top priority agenda. Fighting and eradicating the disease is the priority thing and we have been into it all these years, making very little headway.
But then, one should look at the competitiveness of the piggery sector against the world. Given our cost structure, our ability to export pork on a commercial basis is in question as imports can, at any time, out-price our domestic production.
The big domestic pork market, protected by import restrictions, has provided the life support for the local piggery farms. And that their survival is on the line whenever opening of markets to imports are on the table for discussion. This is where our competitiveness shall be put to test. We should be able get a real view of the broiler industry, or any other sector similarly situated to measure ourselves against the world.
A benchmarking study is an alternative course of action to give us a direction to take. Encouraging people to invest in agribusiness can be more meaningful if they can be provided with some basic facts which is too expensive for them to generate. This will also enable our agri-planners the elbow room to move in making their “grand agri-plans” workable over the years.
A true maxim in agriculture (and in life) is that we reap what we sow.
Are we now planting the seed of fortune reversal to come in some future time?
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Bamboo:The Grass of Hope
Bamboo is known as the world’s tallest grass. But recently, it has received a new name, “the grass of hope.” More and more people around the world are now beginning to see bamboo in a different perspective. Although bamboo has been part of their art and culture, it was only recently that Chinese leaders took the plant seriously and are now building a massive bamboo industry.
The Philippines is following suit. “Bamboo has proven to be vital resources in terms of their contribution to the national economy and ecological stability of the country,” Environment Secretary Lito Atienza was quoted as saying.
A master plan for the development of bamboo as a renewable and sustainable resource showed that there are 39,000 hectares to 52,000 hectares of bamboo stands in forest lands, government plantation, privately-owned plantations, and natural stands all over the country. “I think during the 1930s, we have around 200,000 hectares of bamboo plantations,” revealed Romualdo Sta. Ana, president of the Philippine Bamboo Foundation.
All over the globe, there are 91 genera and about 1,000 species of bamboo, generally known as kawayan in the Philippines. “We have seven or eight commercial species which are massively grown in Iloilo, Davao, Bukidnon, and some parts of Luzon,” informed Sta. Ana.
Bamboo is the most diverse group of plants in the grass family, and the most primitive sub-family. It is distinguished by a woody culm, complex branching, a generally robust rhizome system, and infrequent flowering.
Thomas Edison supposedly used a carbonized bamboo filament in his experiments in developing the light bulb. Alexander Graham Bell also used bamboo for his first phonograph needle. “You can eat, wear, and build with bamboo,” said Michael Block.
In terms of exports, the bamboo’s potential remains in the areas of furniture and handicrafts, whose global market grows at an average of US$8-billion annually. “We’re not talking here of raw bamboo for export, but finished products made from bamboo. From roots to tip, you can make soap, medicines, cosmetics, furniture, bricks, clothing, paper, floor tiles, wall panels, drinks, vegetables-even surf boards from bamboo,” said Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz.
Why is there a sudden craze for bamboo these days? “Bamboo is seen as a green product and a renewable resource in the developing world - more and more buyers are taking a closer look at bamboo as raw material,” Cruz added.
The exports of bamboo furniture in the Philippines rose from US$625,000 to US$1.2 million in the mid-’80s until the mid-’90s.’ Both bamboo furniture and handicrafts racked up US$438 million from 1991 to 2000. Total exports of bamboo furniture in 2000 were recorded at only US$3.2 million.
Bamboo, once considered the poor man’s timber, is now a fast growing industry and the Philippines stands to benefit from it if more people understood what the stakes are, said noted Filipino architect Francisco Bobby Maosa, whose bamboo designs include the Coconut Palace.
Next in line is bamboo shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground), which have been traditionally used as vegetable food in China, Japan, Korea, and in many other Asian countries. Some of the most popular species of bamboo used for food are “kawayan tinik” (Bambusa blumeana), “bayog” (Dendrocalamus merrillianus), “bolo” (Gigantochloa levis), giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper), and “kayali” (Gigantochloa atter). Just a health warning: shoots of some species contain toxins that need to be leached or boiled out before they can be eaten safely.
“With the increasing awareness on the many health attributes and recipes one can make out of bamboo shoots, it is now gaining popularity within the broader population and in the global market,” reports Nimfa K. Torreta of the Department of Science and Technology. “There is also a worldwide interest on bamboo shoots because of the growing population of Asian ethnic origin around the world who have particular preference and taste for Asian food.”
Bamboo shoot has a huge potential for market. Export of bamboo shoot from Thailand in 1994 was pegged at US$29.50 million. Japan has a steady market of 250 tons per month while Australia imports 6,000 tons to 12,000 tons of canned bamboo shoots annually.
There’s more to bamboo than just furniture and food. Its role in the construction field is equally substantial. Hundreds of millions of people live in houses made from bamboo. In Bangladesh, where 73 percent of the population lives in bamboo houses, bamboo provides pillars, walls, window frames, rafters, room separators, ceilings, and roofs. In Costa Rica, building with bamboo withstood earthquake which buildings with other materials were unable to.
Throughout rural Asia it is used for building bridges, from the sophisticated technology of suspension bridges to the simpler pontoon bridges. Bamboo scaffoldings employed on the high rise structures of Tokyo and Hong Kong. Building with bamboo in Costa Rica withstood earthquake which Costa with other materials were unable to.
Bamboo is also used for musical instruments of all three types: percussion or hammer instruments, wind instruments, and stringed instruments. The Bamboo Organ of Las Pinas has pipes made of bamboo culms. In Java, Indonesia, 20 different musical instruments have been fashioned of bamboo.
Capitalizing on this current trend and without much effort and capital needed, bamboo production could be a very promising livelihood opportunity for Filipinos. There is a lot of future in bamboo, said Sta. Ana. However, it is not as appreciated yet in the country.
As trees are fast disappearing in various parts of the world and with the concern of environment growing, timber are getting scarce day by day. This is due to long period of time taken by even softwood to attain maturity. So, a substitute or if that is not possible, an alternative, has to be found. Bamboo is the answer for this.
Bamboos can be extensively grown in a wide range of habitats, from lowland to mountain forests in both dry and humid tropics, even on wastelands, swamps and dry, or regularly flooded river banks.
Sta. Ana pointed out that bamboo is the fastest means of re-greening the country’s forests. It takes only three years for bamboo to grow, as opposed to trees that take years before its wood can be used for construction and other purposes. Bamboo matures in four to five years and growers and farmers can enjoy multiple harvests in 20 years.
Environment Secretary Atienza said bamboo, along with rattan “must be used, whenever applicable, in the ongoing rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems and idle production areas.” He added that both plants could be planted along riverbanks and coastal areas under reforestation activities u f the environment and natural resources department.
“God can be realized through all paths,” Ramakrishna once said. “All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.”
He harvests From the Same Mango Trees Twice aYear
Normally, mango trees will bear fruit only once a year. But one fellow who grows mangoes in Libungan, North Cotabato, can make two harvests from the same mango trees twice a year. And both harvests are considered off-season so he gets a very good price for his two crops
The fellow is Francisco “Frank” Sacdalan, a retired accountant whose passion these days is farming, particularly mango production. He operates four mango farms with a total area of more than 40 hectares, two of which he owns while two others are leased. Many of the trees are 16 to 20 years old but there are 63 trees that are at least 50 years old. These old trees are really big and very productive because they are adequately fertilized and judiciously pruned.
At the recent National Mango Congress in Tagbilaran City, he detailed how he produced two off-season mango crops in 2007 from the same trees. He revealed that although he had owned the two farms for many years, it was only starting four years ago that he took over the management of the trees. In previous years, a contractor took charge of production under a sharing scheme of the harvests.
How did he manage to produce two off-season crops in one year? First he treated the mango trees with Paclobutrazol in October 2006. This chemical hastens the maturity of the mango leaves so that they can be induced to flower just three to four months from the time of treatment. Normally, he said, you will have to wait for eight months for the new leaves to mature and are ready for flower induction.
The trees treated with Paclobutrazol (brand name is Cultar) were sprayed with flower inducer in February. He harvested the fruits in June which is considered off-season since the main crop in Luzon was already over. Immediately after the June harvest, he induced the trees to flower again. There was no need to apply Cultar again. The crop was harvested in late October, another off-season crop.
Of course, Frank does not induce the trees in the four farms that he operates all at the same time. Harvesting would be problematic because of the huge volume. Some are timed for harvest in February, which is also considered off-season because supply of fruits during this time is still scarce.
He particularly cited one crop from 500 trees that he harvested in February 2008. He harvested 142 tons, about 60 percent of which was export quality. He was able to sell the harvest at a very good price of P31.50 per kilo so that he grossed P4.4 million. He revealed that his cost of production was P1.7 million so that he made a profit of P2.7 million from that one crop.
Of course, not all harvests are that profitable. There was a harvest of 127 tons in September last year from about 200 trees that are 23 years old. One food processor had contracted the harvest for P29 per kilo. Before the fruits were harvestable, however, the buyer had begged off because his buyers from abroad had stopped remitting payments due to the financial meltdown in the United States.
Two other buyers had subsequently offered to buy at P24 per kilo but before harvest time came, they also had to beg off due to lack of funds. He was eventually forced to ship the harvest to Cebu where he got P20 per kilo. Actually, he said, he got a price of only P18 per kilo because the shipping had cost him P2 per kilo. He made only half a million peso profit from that crop which he considered not so profitable because it cost him P1.5 million to produce.
What’s good about Frank is that he is an accountant and he records all his expenses and incomes. That’s why it is very easy for him to know if he is making money or not from his operations.
He observes that it takes good management to make money from mango production. He offers a number of pointers to make mango farming profitable. One is to schedule the harvesting at a time when prices are usually high. One way to do it is to treat the trees with Cultar.
He also recommends that the trees be judiciously pruned. The top of the canopy should be open and the weak branches cut off. Exposure to the sun of the inner branches will result in higher fruit production.
The trees should also be adequately fertilized so that even if they are made to bear two off-season crops in one year, they will be able to sustain their good health. After a double harvest in one year, he rests the trees for another year so that they can recover their strength.
He follows a schedule of spraying his flowers and fruits to protect them from pests and diseases. He bags the fruits when they are 55 days old or about pullet-egg size. That way, he saves money because he does not have to spray pesticide on the bagged fruits. The bagged fruits have a cleaner appearance; hence they usually fetch a better price.
Frank was the most-applauded resource person at the mango convention. lie freely shares his experiences so that other growers may be able to produce profitable mango crops, too.
The fellow is Francisco “Frank” Sacdalan, a retired accountant whose passion these days is farming, particularly mango production. He operates four mango farms with a total area of more than 40 hectares, two of which he owns while two others are leased. Many of the trees are 16 to 20 years old but there are 63 trees that are at least 50 years old. These old trees are really big and very productive because they are adequately fertilized and judiciously pruned.
At the recent National Mango Congress in Tagbilaran City, he detailed how he produced two off-season mango crops in 2007 from the same trees. He revealed that although he had owned the two farms for many years, it was only starting four years ago that he took over the management of the trees. In previous years, a contractor took charge of production under a sharing scheme of the harvests.
How did he manage to produce two off-season crops in one year? First he treated the mango trees with Paclobutrazol in October 2006. This chemical hastens the maturity of the mango leaves so that they can be induced to flower just three to four months from the time of treatment. Normally, he said, you will have to wait for eight months for the new leaves to mature and are ready for flower induction.
The trees treated with Paclobutrazol (brand name is Cultar) were sprayed with flower inducer in February. He harvested the fruits in June which is considered off-season since the main crop in Luzon was already over. Immediately after the June harvest, he induced the trees to flower again. There was no need to apply Cultar again. The crop was harvested in late October, another off-season crop.
Of course, Frank does not induce the trees in the four farms that he operates all at the same time. Harvesting would be problematic because of the huge volume. Some are timed for harvest in February, which is also considered off-season because supply of fruits during this time is still scarce.
He particularly cited one crop from 500 trees that he harvested in February 2008. He harvested 142 tons, about 60 percent of which was export quality. He was able to sell the harvest at a very good price of P31.50 per kilo so that he grossed P4.4 million. He revealed that his cost of production was P1.7 million so that he made a profit of P2.7 million from that one crop.
Of course, not all harvests are that profitable. There was a harvest of 127 tons in September last year from about 200 trees that are 23 years old. One food processor had contracted the harvest for P29 per kilo. Before the fruits were harvestable, however, the buyer had begged off because his buyers from abroad had stopped remitting payments due to the financial meltdown in the United States.
Two other buyers had subsequently offered to buy at P24 per kilo but before harvest time came, they also had to beg off due to lack of funds. He was eventually forced to ship the harvest to Cebu where he got P20 per kilo. Actually, he said, he got a price of only P18 per kilo because the shipping had cost him P2 per kilo. He made only half a million peso profit from that crop which he considered not so profitable because it cost him P1.5 million to produce.
What’s good about Frank is that he is an accountant and he records all his expenses and incomes. That’s why it is very easy for him to know if he is making money or not from his operations.
He observes that it takes good management to make money from mango production. He offers a number of pointers to make mango farming profitable. One is to schedule the harvesting at a time when prices are usually high. One way to do it is to treat the trees with Cultar.
He also recommends that the trees be judiciously pruned. The top of the canopy should be open and the weak branches cut off. Exposure to the sun of the inner branches will result in higher fruit production.
The trees should also be adequately fertilized so that even if they are made to bear two off-season crops in one year, they will be able to sustain their good health. After a double harvest in one year, he rests the trees for another year so that they can recover their strength.
He follows a schedule of spraying his flowers and fruits to protect them from pests and diseases. He bags the fruits when they are 55 days old or about pullet-egg size. That way, he saves money because he does not have to spray pesticide on the bagged fruits. The bagged fruits have a cleaner appearance; hence they usually fetch a better price.
Frank was the most-applauded resource person at the mango convention. lie freely shares his experiences so that other growers may be able to produce profitable mango crops, too.
Farmer-Scientists Are "Forced to Become Rich"
Dr. Romulo G. Davide can truly take pride in his formula for making farming more profitable. He quips that the Farmer Scientists Training Program that he started in 1994 “forces the farmers to become rich.”
He is not, of course, bragging. The fact is that it is now hard to count the thousands of beneficiaries of his program who have attained economic independence, thanks to FSTP. The program has taught the farmers how to produce higher yields not only from their corn crops but also from various vegetables, root crops and farm animals that they have been taught to integrate in their corn farming.
One proof that the FSTP has been a rousing success is the fact that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has issued late last year an Administrative Order which mandates the adoption of the program in various parts of the country.
Truly, countless farmers have become much richer after 15 years of implementing the program. In Dr. Davide’s hometown of Argao alone, more than 2.000 farmers have tremendously increased their annual incomes, not only from planting corn but also from improved varieties of vegetables and other crops. Farm animals like cattle, goats, chickens and others have also augmented their incomes.
In 2007, FSTP conducted a survey to assess the impact of the program on the farmers’ annual incomes. The survey showed that farmer-scientists in Brgy. Bayabas, Argao, have increased their farm incomes many times over. For example. Dionisio Aballe made P800,000 from selling various vegetables and root crops like cassava and camote. Another barriomate, Joemar Agrabio, sold no less than P500,000 worth of vegetables that he grew that year.
Aside from vegetables, other Argao farmers made money from farm animals like livestock and poultry. For instance, Besaida Geverola of Brgy. Bayabas, made an income of P315,000 from her vegetables and livestock. Some farmer scientists in Argao have acquired their own trucks which they use to transport their farm produce to Cebu City, their main market. Motorcycles have also become a common sight as a means of transportation for the residents, even in the remote barangays.
Of course, it is not only in Argao where the farmers, have become much richer because of the improved farming techniques they have learned from the experts. Similar increases in incomes have been observed in the areas where the program has been adopted. These include all the other towns and cities of Cebu province, certain towns in Bohol, Siquijor, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Mindoro and Compostela Valley in Mindanao.
In the 2007 survey, one of the things they wanted to find out was how much higher corn production the farmers had achieved. A total of 855 corn planters cultivating some 865.93 hectares were surveyed from 174 barangays in Cebu, Siquijor and Negros Oriental. The survey found out that the farmers produced a total of 964.51 tons as surplus production, meaning beyond what they set aside for their own consumption. They sold the surplus production at P10 to P20 per kilo in the form of green corn for boiling, whole grains and as milled corn grits. The total value of the surplus production amounted to P10.66 million.
It may be recalled, that the farmers used to harvest only 500 kilos of white corn per hectare. These days, it is not unusual for the farmers to harvest four to six tons per hectare.
What are the things that the farmers do to achieve high yields? One of them is to plant hybrid seeds as well as improved open-pollinated varieties. Another is the application of bio-organic fertilizers like Durabloom and Bio-N, as well as inorganic fertilizers. In Duero, Bohol, a farmer planted corn in a very poor soil. He got only 280 kilos per hectare without fertilization. In a similar area fertilized with Durabloom, the yield was practically four times - 1. 1 tons per hectare. In other places where the soil is much better, the yield of fertilized plants produced much higher yields. In Alegria, Cebu, for instance, the plants fertilized with a combination of Durabloom and chemical fertilizers yielded 4.3 tons while the unfertilized plants yielded only 1.4 tons.
The improved varieties of corn have also contributed much to the high yields obtained by the farmer-scientists. For instance, the old Tinigib variety which the farmers used to plant could produce only 500 kilos per hectare, sometimes 1,000 kilos or one ton. That’s too low compared to the yield from hybrids obtained by farmers in Alegria, Cebu, in 2007. For instance, the hybrid variety GSI-40 produced 6.1 tons per hectare. In Monpeller, farmers planting IPB Var 4 got 6.6 tons per hectare; 6.4 tons from GSI-40; and 6.4 tons from Pioneer White.
Through experiments the farmers have conducted, they have learned that planting just one seed per hill is better than the usual practice of planting three or more seeds per hill. In Loon, Bohol, UP Var 4 gave 3.16 tons per hectare when one seed was planted per hill; 2.92 tons from 2 seeds per hill; 2.25 tons per hectare from 3 to 4 seeds per hill; and only 1.9 tons per hill from the 4 to 5 seeds per hill.
Even the number of times the land is plowed affects the yield of corn. Farmers in Cebu City observed that the land plowed two times yielded 8.10 tons per hectare while the land plowed only once yielded 5.10 tons. On the other hand, the land not plowed but hand-weeded gave 4.8 tons per hectare while the unplowed and unweeded gave 4.7 tons per hectare.
There are many other improved practices that the farmers have learned to increase their productivity as well as their incomes. Dr. Davide observes, however, that there are places where the FSTP had not been as effective. For instance, too much politics is the usual problem. He says that when the municipal officials don’t belong to the same political party, farm and livelihood programs usually suffer because no funds are appropriated for such programs. The same is true when the municipal mayors don’t appreciate the importance of agriculture because they don’t have backgrounds in agriculture like lawyers, architects, doctors and the like.
Dr. Davide also observes that some mayors misuse their Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA). In some cases, he said, mayors and barangay chairmen do not use enough IRA funds for food production and livelihood projects to reduce poverty and hunger among farmers. Instead, they spend more for personnel and infrastructure and generate more savings -for higher Christmas bonus in December.
Despite these problems, however, the Farmer-Scientists Training Program is one program that is really a great success. It has been sustained during the last 15 years and continues to make more and more farmers richer than ever.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Soil Erosion: A Different Kind of War
The world is losing an equivalent of five to seven million hectares of farmland through erosion each year.
There are wars and there are wars. In Mindanao, there is a battle between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the government’s military troops. But there is a kind of war that has been here since time immemorial and yet no one notices the conflict. It is called soil erosion.
“Soil erosion is an enemy to any nation - far worse than any outside enemy coming into a country a conquering it because it is an enemy you cannot see vividly,” declares Harold R. Watson, recipient of the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for peace and international understanding. “It’s a slow creeping enemy that soon possesses the land.”
Watson knows. He was the former director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC), a non-government organization based in Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. When he came to the Philippines in the 1960s, he was already sounding the alarm of deforestation and soil erosion.
But people only laughed at him. They told him, “We’re never going to run out of trees!” That was before several presidents, other Asian governments, the United Nations - and countless farmers - recognized the value of his insights. A few hundred years ago, at least 95%of the Philippines was covered by tropical rainforest. However, the country lost one third of its forest cover between 1990 and 2005. Although the current deforestation rate is around 2% per year, a 20% drop from the rate of the 199os, deforestation continues unabated.
In 1971, Watson opened to the public the MBRLC, a research and demonstration farm. In the beginning, they floundered. “When I got here, I had no idea what the problems were up in the hills,” said the American agriculturist who grew up in Mississippi. “Farming looked pretty good on the surface.”
Soon, Watson discovered that the problem was the surface: It was washing away. Loggers - both legal and illegal - were hauling trees out of the once-lush mountains, leaving behind denuded hillsides. Tribal people and migrants were using “slash and burn” methods (kaingin) to clear and farm the uplands, and topsoil was disappearing faster than what can be replenished. The result: low production, hunger, and hopelessness.
“Most of these farmers don’t have a vision to see five or 10 years down the line,” Watson said. “Most live for one more day, and don’t lift their head up. They’re not thinking about erosion. It’s `What can I get out of the land today, right now?”‘
Soil is the single most important resource on a farmland, which is built up over time. It takes 200 to 1,000 years to form 2.5 centimeters of rich topsoil. But on the average, farmlands are losing 2.5 cm of topsoil every 16 years, or 17 times, faster than it can be replaced. “Soil is related to the earth much as the rind is related to an orange,” explains an American geologist. “It is the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface. It is the foothold for the plants we grow. Therein lies the main reason for our interest in soil.”
Soil erosion is the most common natural landscape forming process. Over thousands of years, erosion wears down mountains and deposits soil elsewhere to form plains, plateaus, valleys, river flats, and deltas. This type of erosion is known as natural erosion.
Erosion occurring at a rate that exceeds the rate of natural erosion is called accelerated erosion. Accelerated erosion can result from certain human land use practices. For soil to erode requires a combination of two factors - loose soil and a physical force that can transport the soil to a new location.
“Soil particles are loosened in several ways,” says Jim Chamberlain, a specialist in tropical forestry who has experience in the Philippines and other parts of East Asia. “The impact of raindrops on exposed soil can detach soil particles as can soil freezing and thawing.”
Soil particles may be detached from a stream bank during high water. Detached soil particles are then transported to a new location by some physical force, including water, wind, ice, or gravity. On forested lands, this force is flowing water. Wind is also an important force for soil transport on agricultural lands as in the 1930s Dust Bowl in the United States.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the world is losing an equivalent of five to seven million hectares of farmland through erosion each year. This is equivalent to the land area of Belgium and the Netherlands combined. In the Philippines, “soil erosion is now the most serious environmental problem,” to quote the words of Dr. Eduardo Paningbatan, of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos.
Soil erosion makes farmlands infertile every year. Studies have shown that loss of a few centimeters of topsoil can reduce the productivity of good soils by 40% and poor soils by 60%. “No other soil phenomenon is more destructive worldwide than soil erosion,” wrote Nyle C. Brady in his book, The Nature and Properties of Soils. “It involves losing water and plant nutrients at rates far higher than those occurring through leaching.
“More tragically, however, (soil erosion) can result in the loss of the entire soil,” Brady continued. “Furthermore, the soil that is removed find its way into streams, rivers, and lakes and becomes a pollution problem there.” This is where sedimentation and siltation occur.
In Luzon, the four major basins - Bicol, Magat, Pampanga, and Agno - are in critical condition due to acute soil erosion and sedimentation. The Ambuklao Dam reservoir had its life halved from 60 to 32 years as a result of siltation.
Lester R. Brown and Edward C. Wolf, authors of Soil Erosion: Quiet Crisis in the World Economy, argued that erosion affects crop production in two ways. “The loss of topsoil reduces the inherent productivity of land, both through the loss of nutrients and degradation of the physical structure,” they explained.
“It also increases the costs of food production. When farmers lose topsoil, they may increase land productivity by substituting energy in the form of fertilizer. Hence, farmers losing topsoil may experience either a loss in land productivity or a rise in costs of agricultural inputs. And if productivity drops too low or agricultural costs rise too high, farmers are forced to abandon their land.”
According to Brown, the immediate effects of soil erosion are economic but in the long run, its ultimate effects are social. “When soils are depleted and crops are poorly nourished, people are often undernourished as well. Failure to respond to the erosion threat will lead not only to the degradation of land, but to the degradation of life itself.”
Although more than 99% of the world’s food comes from the soil, experts estimate that each year more than 10 million hectares of crop land are degraded or lost as rain and wind sweep away topsoil. An area big enough to feed Europe has been so severely degraded it cannot produce food, UN figures show.
There are wars and there are wars. In Mindanao, there is a battle between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the government’s military troops. But there is a kind of war that has been here since time immemorial and yet no one notices the conflict. It is called soil erosion.
“Soil erosion is an enemy to any nation - far worse than any outside enemy coming into a country a conquering it because it is an enemy you cannot see vividly,” declares Harold R. Watson, recipient of the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for peace and international understanding. “It’s a slow creeping enemy that soon possesses the land.”
Watson knows. He was the former director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC), a non-government organization based in Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. When he came to the Philippines in the 1960s, he was already sounding the alarm of deforestation and soil erosion.
But people only laughed at him. They told him, “We’re never going to run out of trees!” That was before several presidents, other Asian governments, the United Nations - and countless farmers - recognized the value of his insights. A few hundred years ago, at least 95%of the Philippines was covered by tropical rainforest. However, the country lost one third of its forest cover between 1990 and 2005. Although the current deforestation rate is around 2% per year, a 20% drop from the rate of the 199os, deforestation continues unabated.
In 1971, Watson opened to the public the MBRLC, a research and demonstration farm. In the beginning, they floundered. “When I got here, I had no idea what the problems were up in the hills,” said the American agriculturist who grew up in Mississippi. “Farming looked pretty good on the surface.”
Soon, Watson discovered that the problem was the surface: It was washing away. Loggers - both legal and illegal - were hauling trees out of the once-lush mountains, leaving behind denuded hillsides. Tribal people and migrants were using “slash and burn” methods (kaingin) to clear and farm the uplands, and topsoil was disappearing faster than what can be replenished. The result: low production, hunger, and hopelessness.
“Most of these farmers don’t have a vision to see five or 10 years down the line,” Watson said. “Most live for one more day, and don’t lift their head up. They’re not thinking about erosion. It’s `What can I get out of the land today, right now?”‘
Soil is the single most important resource on a farmland, which is built up over time. It takes 200 to 1,000 years to form 2.5 centimeters of rich topsoil. But on the average, farmlands are losing 2.5 cm of topsoil every 16 years, or 17 times, faster than it can be replaced. “Soil is related to the earth much as the rind is related to an orange,” explains an American geologist. “It is the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface. It is the foothold for the plants we grow. Therein lies the main reason for our interest in soil.”
Soil erosion is the most common natural landscape forming process. Over thousands of years, erosion wears down mountains and deposits soil elsewhere to form plains, plateaus, valleys, river flats, and deltas. This type of erosion is known as natural erosion.
Erosion occurring at a rate that exceeds the rate of natural erosion is called accelerated erosion. Accelerated erosion can result from certain human land use practices. For soil to erode requires a combination of two factors - loose soil and a physical force that can transport the soil to a new location.
“Soil particles are loosened in several ways,” says Jim Chamberlain, a specialist in tropical forestry who has experience in the Philippines and other parts of East Asia. “The impact of raindrops on exposed soil can detach soil particles as can soil freezing and thawing.”
Soil particles may be detached from a stream bank during high water. Detached soil particles are then transported to a new location by some physical force, including water, wind, ice, or gravity. On forested lands, this force is flowing water. Wind is also an important force for soil transport on agricultural lands as in the 1930s Dust Bowl in the United States.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the world is losing an equivalent of five to seven million hectares of farmland through erosion each year. This is equivalent to the land area of Belgium and the Netherlands combined. In the Philippines, “soil erosion is now the most serious environmental problem,” to quote the words of Dr. Eduardo Paningbatan, of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos.
Soil erosion makes farmlands infertile every year. Studies have shown that loss of a few centimeters of topsoil can reduce the productivity of good soils by 40% and poor soils by 60%. “No other soil phenomenon is more destructive worldwide than soil erosion,” wrote Nyle C. Brady in his book, The Nature and Properties of Soils. “It involves losing water and plant nutrients at rates far higher than those occurring through leaching.
“More tragically, however, (soil erosion) can result in the loss of the entire soil,” Brady continued. “Furthermore, the soil that is removed find its way into streams, rivers, and lakes and becomes a pollution problem there.” This is where sedimentation and siltation occur.
In Luzon, the four major basins - Bicol, Magat, Pampanga, and Agno - are in critical condition due to acute soil erosion and sedimentation. The Ambuklao Dam reservoir had its life halved from 60 to 32 years as a result of siltation.
Lester R. Brown and Edward C. Wolf, authors of Soil Erosion: Quiet Crisis in the World Economy, argued that erosion affects crop production in two ways. “The loss of topsoil reduces the inherent productivity of land, both through the loss of nutrients and degradation of the physical structure,” they explained.
“It also increases the costs of food production. When farmers lose topsoil, they may increase land productivity by substituting energy in the form of fertilizer. Hence, farmers losing topsoil may experience either a loss in land productivity or a rise in costs of agricultural inputs. And if productivity drops too low or agricultural costs rise too high, farmers are forced to abandon their land.”
According to Brown, the immediate effects of soil erosion are economic but in the long run, its ultimate effects are social. “When soils are depleted and crops are poorly nourished, people are often undernourished as well. Failure to respond to the erosion threat will lead not only to the degradation of land, but to the degradation of life itself.”
Although more than 99% of the world’s food comes from the soil, experts estimate that each year more than 10 million hectares of crop land are degraded or lost as rain and wind sweep away topsoil. An area big enough to feed Europe has been so severely degraded it cannot produce food, UN figures show.
Black Soil,Green Rice
In the 1870s, scientists exploring Amazonia in South America made an unusual discovery. Working independently, James Orton, Charles, Harti, and Herbert Smith described patches of black or dark brown soils, varying in size from 5 to more than 300 hectares, within a landscape otherwise typified by highly weathered reddish or bleached soils.
A detailed report from Smith, a geologist, characterized these “dark earths in Amazonia” as having a top-layer of a fine, dark loam, up to 60 centimeters thick. He also described them as the best soils of the Amazon, producing much higher crop yields than surrounding soils, and speculated that they owed their fertility “to the refuse of a thousand kitchens for maybe a thousand years.” That they were human-made was indicated by the abundance of fragments of Indian pottery that “cover the ground… like shells on a surf-washed beach.”
Despite the unusual nature of these findings, they initially failed to excite many scientists. Almost a century later, however, Wim Sombroek, a renowned Dutch soil scientist, sparked international interest by including several pages on the “terra preta” (black soil) and “terra mulata” (brown soil) in his influential 1966 book on Amazon soils.
Several studies have since confirmed that the dark color of terra preta and terra mulata is caused by the incorporation, by humans, of black carbon (also called biochar) - incompletely burned organic matter such as charcoal. The soils were created by Amerindian populations 500-2,500 years ago and some of the carbon in terra preta soils dates back to 450 B.C. Their high fertility compared to surrounding soils is attributed to the high levels of soil organic matter (which includes biochar), higher nutrient concentrations, high nutrient- and moisture-holding capacity, and lower acidity. Amazingly, the soils have generally sustained this fertility to the present despite the tropical climate (in which soil organic mater tends to rapidly degrade) and frequent or periodic cultivation.
But what has all this to do with rice in Asia? Terra preta and terra mulata are limited to Amazonia, they are not used to grow rice, and they represent a technology predating modern agriculture. The answer is that people started to wonder whether this ancient indigenous technology could offer solutions to some of the problems of modem agriculture.
Poor soils comparable with soils in Amazonia can be found in tropical regions around the globe, including Asia, where they are - unfortunately for farmers - depressingly abundant. Such soils benefit greatly from the incorporation of organic matter but its rapid decomposition in the humid tropics makes this a very labor-intensive and short-lived solution.
Addition of biochar to soils has similar positive effects - it increases nutrient availability, boosts nutrient- and moisture-holding capacity, and contributes plant-available nutrients - and is reported to last for centuries. If researchers can confirm this much-delayed decomposition in modern agricultural systems, biochar could contribute to sustainable production increases in some of the most disadvantaged agricultural environments, which are frequently characterized by very low yields and widespread extreme poverty.
The delayed decomposition of biochar could also help with another, more recent problem. It is widely agreed that global climate change is related to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration. If some of the atmospheric carbon fixed by plants could be locked up in soils (a process known as carbon sequestration) instead of being returned to the atmosphere through decomposition, the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere could be slowed., And, in flooded rice soils, where the decomposition of organic matter produces methane - 30 times more than potent as a greenhouse gas than CO, = this effect would even be greater.
This sounds very exciting - but can it be done? To start with, the amounts of biochar needed are enormous. Agronomic trials have achieved good results with biochar applications equivalent to 8 tons of carbon per hectare. The top 30 cm of terra preta contains more than three times as much carbon from the biochar - an average 25 tons per hectare. Assuming a biomass carbon concentration of 36% (typical for rice straw) and carbon loss during charring of 50%, to obtain even the 8-ton level, 44 tons of dry biomass (plant matter) per hectare would need to be converted into biochar. To reach the 25-ton terra preta level, 138 tons of dry biomass is required.
In most Asian rice lands, the only feasible source for such large quantities of biomass is rice residue left over after harvest and milling. The total amount of rice residue produced each year in Asia is estimated at 549 million tons of rice straw and l 10 million tons of rice husks. Rice residue is used for several purposes (such as organic fertilizer, fuel, fodder, and building material), but its use is dwindling. Today, it is often perceived as more of a problem than a valuable resource. Worse, the most convenient way to eliminate rice residue, which is field burning, is a waste of resources and causes severe air pollution in some regions.
This leads to another question. Usually, biochar is the product of burning at low temperatures (280-500°C) and restricted oxygen supply. Consequently, local biochar production by farmers in simple earthen mounds or pits could also cause considerable air pollution. However, relatively clean biochar production from rice husks can alreadN be achieved with, for example, an improved rice husk furnace like the one pictured.
Developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), this type of furnace produces carbonized rice husks as a byproduct of the paddy drying process. Some large ricemills in Thailand have already perfected this approach. Using rice husks to produce energy and biochar simultaneously, these mills reduce their fossil fuel bill and carbon emissions, and sell the biochar byproduct to producers of’ bio-fertilizers. A similar solution under development is the use of pyrolysis - decomposition caused by heat in the absence of oxygen - of biomass for energy production where biochar is a byproduct.
These examples also show that biochar from rice residues is already used in many Asian countries. In Japan, biochar from rice husks (called kuntan) has been used in agriculture for a long time (mainly for seedbeds and as a soil amendment for upland crops and orchards). Use of biochar from rice husks as an additive to the culture medium of ornamental plants and in vegetable gardens is common and several nongovernmental organizations promote the use of it in organic farming.
It appears that biochar can increase the “greenness” of rice-based systems and that it can be integrated into existing rice production. Especially on bad soils, it offers new opportunities to sustainably improve system productivity and farmer livelihoods. Applied on a larger scale and beyond unfavorable environments, it could also reduce the negative effect of rice-based systems on the global climate. And, if the use of rice residues for energy and biochar production is combined, rice producers, rice consumers, and the environment could all profit. Much research remains to be done, but the possible prize seems worth the effort.
Meet Two Trailblazers in Organic Banana Production from Tarlac
Ex-NPA chief Bernabe Buscayno of Talaga, Capas, Tarlac and Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan are both producers of organic bananas. The methods of these close friends, however, are very different. Catacutan is into the scientific, while “Kumander Dante ” practices what he calls primitive banana production that he learned from the natives when he was in the boondocks.
Buscayno started venturing in banana production in 2004. But before this, he was producing rice. He had even established a rice farmers’ cooperative after then President Corazon Aquino granted him a reprieve. The co-op unfortunately fell apart because the 2,000 members were affected by the Mt. Pinatuba eruption in 1991.
Buscayno was encouraged by his friend who was working at the Lorenzo Farms in Davao to plant banana instead of rice as the return of investment with banana is more substantial. He was convinced of its potential and so he ordered 4,000 tissue-cultured seedlings from the Lorenzo Farms. He bought cavendish, lakatan, and latundan varieties at P30 each.
He initially planted more than 2 hectares of his 32-hectare farm at a plant density of 1,500-2,000 banana seedlings per hectare at a planting distance of 2 m x 2 m for lakatan and latundan. For the cavendish bananas, he adjusted the planting distance according to the height of the plant as these were quite tall so more spaces were needed.
However, the first impression of visitors on his banana farm is that he must be a very a lazy farmer as weeds and insect pests proliferate. There’s practically no post-planting care:
What they do not know is that Buscayno did it on purpose. When he was a rebel he learned from the natives that “the natural balance between cultured crops and surrounding vegetation that includes weeds should be maintained to produce truly organic crops.” He explained further that weeds eventually die due to lack of exposure to sunlight as the banana trees shade them. And when the weeds die, these will decompose and become natural fertilizers for the banana trees.
“Weeds have the capacity to accumulate nitrogen from the air and absorb other natural elements from the soil and its decomposition under cultured bananas assures production of truly organic crops,” Buscayno added.
Catacutan, on the other hand, prefers the scientific approach to organic farming. He bought seedlings of the same varieties from tissue culture laboratories of Tarlac College of Agriculture and Central Luzon State University. He had his land prepared using tractors.
He uses chicken dung as basal fertilizer, and he initially applies a bag of dung for every two to three seedling holes. Second application is done four months after planting, and this is when he puts additional chicken dung about three feet from the base of the plant. Post-planting care is done regularly to prevent the growth of weeds.
Like Buscayno, Catacutan does not spray insecticides. He instead smudges the plants when he observes presence of insect pests. Both of them however shun the common practice of encasing banana bunches in plastic bags as they observed that fruits tend to burn under local conditions. Hence, they opted to cover the bunches with banana leaves.
Catacutan spends about P80,000 to 100,000 per hectare, while Buscayno shells out P50,000 to P70,000 per hectare. But both of them can sell organic bananas at P25 per kilo and earn a gross income of P250,000 to P350,000 per hectare.
“A farmer can earn a maximum net income of P20,000 with rice and at least P40,000 with yellow corn. But with organic bananas, a farmer can realize an income of at least P100,000 to P150,000 per hectare,” says Catacutan.PRODUCING BANANA SEEDLINGS The biggest initial capital investment in banana production is the purchase of tissue-cultured banana seedlings. Why?
First of all the common practice in banana culture is to propagate suckers from mother plants. But this practice is discouraged because the original characteristics of the tissue-cultured mother plant degenerates; the original characteristics are best retained only in the first two suckers. So in order to have quality plants, farmers need to buy tissue-cultured seedlings, which are quite costly.
Buscayno and Catacutan thought of raising banana seedlings at a lower cost to encourage other farmers to venture in banana production. And by researching, they found out that the original characteristics of a tissue-cultured banana plant can be retained by selecting healthy mother plants as source of seedlings.
Here’s how they do it. Just before flowering, the original meriplants are cut and uprooted. The corm of the mother plants contain four to five buds-farmers call these eyes and these are separated and planted individually in black polyethylene seedling bags. In two weeks, banana seedlings would be ready for transplanting.
With this practice, they can produce and sell seedlings at half the price of the tissue-cultured seedlings and hence, initial investment cost is reduced.
Buscayno started venturing in banana production in 2004. But before this, he was producing rice. He had even established a rice farmers’ cooperative after then President Corazon Aquino granted him a reprieve. The co-op unfortunately fell apart because the 2,000 members were affected by the Mt. Pinatuba eruption in 1991.
Buscayno was encouraged by his friend who was working at the Lorenzo Farms in Davao to plant banana instead of rice as the return of investment with banana is more substantial. He was convinced of its potential and so he ordered 4,000 tissue-cultured seedlings from the Lorenzo Farms. He bought cavendish, lakatan, and latundan varieties at P30 each.
He initially planted more than 2 hectares of his 32-hectare farm at a plant density of 1,500-2,000 banana seedlings per hectare at a planting distance of 2 m x 2 m for lakatan and latundan. For the cavendish bananas, he adjusted the planting distance according to the height of the plant as these were quite tall so more spaces were needed.
However, the first impression of visitors on his banana farm is that he must be a very a lazy farmer as weeds and insect pests proliferate. There’s practically no post-planting care:
What they do not know is that Buscayno did it on purpose. When he was a rebel he learned from the natives that “the natural balance between cultured crops and surrounding vegetation that includes weeds should be maintained to produce truly organic crops.” He explained further that weeds eventually die due to lack of exposure to sunlight as the banana trees shade them. And when the weeds die, these will decompose and become natural fertilizers for the banana trees.
“Weeds have the capacity to accumulate nitrogen from the air and absorb other natural elements from the soil and its decomposition under cultured bananas assures production of truly organic crops,” Buscayno added.
Catacutan, on the other hand, prefers the scientific approach to organic farming. He bought seedlings of the same varieties from tissue culture laboratories of Tarlac College of Agriculture and Central Luzon State University. He had his land prepared using tractors.
He uses chicken dung as basal fertilizer, and he initially applies a bag of dung for every two to three seedling holes. Second application is done four months after planting, and this is when he puts additional chicken dung about three feet from the base of the plant. Post-planting care is done regularly to prevent the growth of weeds.
Like Buscayno, Catacutan does not spray insecticides. He instead smudges the plants when he observes presence of insect pests. Both of them however shun the common practice of encasing banana bunches in plastic bags as they observed that fruits tend to burn under local conditions. Hence, they opted to cover the bunches with banana leaves.
Catacutan spends about P80,000 to 100,000 per hectare, while Buscayno shells out P50,000 to P70,000 per hectare. But both of them can sell organic bananas at P25 per kilo and earn a gross income of P250,000 to P350,000 per hectare.
“A farmer can earn a maximum net income of P20,000 with rice and at least P40,000 with yellow corn. But with organic bananas, a farmer can realize an income of at least P100,000 to P150,000 per hectare,” says Catacutan.PRODUCING BANANA SEEDLINGS The biggest initial capital investment in banana production is the purchase of tissue-cultured banana seedlings. Why?
First of all the common practice in banana culture is to propagate suckers from mother plants. But this practice is discouraged because the original characteristics of the tissue-cultured mother plant degenerates; the original characteristics are best retained only in the first two suckers. So in order to have quality plants, farmers need to buy tissue-cultured seedlings, which are quite costly.
Buscayno and Catacutan thought of raising banana seedlings at a lower cost to encourage other farmers to venture in banana production. And by researching, they found out that the original characteristics of a tissue-cultured banana plant can be retained by selecting healthy mother plants as source of seedlings.
Here’s how they do it. Just before flowering, the original meriplants are cut and uprooted. The corm of the mother plants contain four to five buds-farmers call these eyes and these are separated and planted individually in black polyethylene seedling bags. In two weeks, banana seedlings would be ready for transplanting.
With this practice, they can produce and sell seedlings at half the price of the tissue-cultured seedlings and hence, initial investment cost is reduced.
PAPAYA PRODUCTIONThe maturity period of banana is 10 months, which is quite long to realize return of investment in a shorter time. Buscayno and Catacutan planted papaya plants in between banana plants as papaya starts to yield in just six months. Harvesting is done on a weekly basis. but up to a year and a half only.
As of now, Buscayno is ahead of Catacutan in papaya production as his crop is already fruiting. He harvests 1.5 tons to 1.7 tons per week, and he sells these at P 14 per kilo.
Save Much on Seeding with the Improved Drum Seeder
Farmers can save an average of P2,480 per hectare (ha) on the cost of seeding with the improved drum seeder, a lightweight and hand -pulled machine developed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) for easy and efficient dispensing of rice seeds into the field.
This was found in the study led by Ronell Malasa of the PhilRice Socioeconomics Division that was conducted in Iloilo, Mindoro Oriental, and Nueva Ecija. The saving resulted from the immense reduction of seeding rate from 113 kg/ha in broadcast seeding to only 51 kg/ha in the drum seeding. The number of tillers also increased from 11 in broadcast seeding to 16 in drum seeding.
“This [finding], says Malasa, establishes the potential of the drum seeder to contribute in increasing yield, [for] the more tillers, the higher possibility of producing grains.”
IMPROVING THE DRUM SEEDERBased on earlier models, the drum seeder is originally developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). IRRI then introduced this to other countries including Vietnam that adopted the design with plastic drums.
PhilRice imported the Vietnamese brand, but it did not satisfy Filipino farmers for it did not completely meet their needs. Hence, its engineers and researchers worked together to improve the drum seeder.
“Since its introduction in the Philippines, PhilRice has made some modifications on the drum seeder based on the actual needs in the field,” said Leo Molinawe, co-designer of the plastic design of the Rice Engineering and Mechanization Division (REMD) of PhilRice.
One of the major problems then, added Engr. Eden Gagelonia who was one of the developers of the modified drum seeder of REMD, was “that row seedling with the seeder could not be easily done during the rainy season because rainfall displaced the rows of surfaced placed seeds. And because the seeds were placed in the soil surface, these were prone to bird and rat damage.”
So Gagelonia’s group improved the design for minimum rainfall displacement and pest damage. They attached two ground wheels at both ends to keep the rows straight and minimize slips. They added also a detachable furrow opener assembly to allow seed replacement in furrows, plus a slight soil cover to minimize damage by birds and rodents.
In 2007, PhilRice came up with a more portable and lighter model and thisis the improved drum seeder, which is made of lightweight tubing and polyethylene plastic. It has a series of perforated plastic cylinders or drums supported by two wheels, and furrowers and a soil cover. And “like the earlier models, the latest model reduces the seeding rate at 50 percent to 80 percent over broadcast seeding,” Molinawe said.
Moreover, unlike the past models, the latest model’s seeding rate can be adjusted from 20 kg/ha to 40 kg/ha to 60 kg/ha. One has just to place a rubber band over the perforations in each cylinder to regulate seeding rate.
USING THE DRUM SEEDERRogelio Badua of Brooke’s Point, Palawan attested that the improved drum seeder efficiently dispenses one to two seedlings per hill, and thus preventing seed wastage. He is also pleased with the straight plant rows, which resulted from the use of the drum seeder.
“With straight plant rows, other farm activities like weeding and fertilizer application become easy,” Badua said.
Lino Manigo of Calape, Bohol also uses the improved drum seeder to save on labor cost. The cost of labor hike during the planting season, but by using the drum seeder and a tractor, says Manigo, he doesn’t have to worry anymore about the cost.
The price of a drum seeder shouldn’t be worried about also. Considering the savings it brings and would bring, P5,500 is reasonable. Today, the drum seeder is being used in rainfed areas as well as in major rice-producing provinces, and 1,686 farmers have already bought it.
This was found in the study led by Ronell Malasa of the PhilRice Socioeconomics Division that was conducted in Iloilo, Mindoro Oriental, and Nueva Ecija. The saving resulted from the immense reduction of seeding rate from 113 kg/ha in broadcast seeding to only 51 kg/ha in the drum seeding. The number of tillers also increased from 11 in broadcast seeding to 16 in drum seeding.
“This [finding], says Malasa, establishes the potential of the drum seeder to contribute in increasing yield, [for] the more tillers, the higher possibility of producing grains.”
IMPROVING THE DRUM SEEDERBased on earlier models, the drum seeder is originally developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). IRRI then introduced this to other countries including Vietnam that adopted the design with plastic drums.
PhilRice imported the Vietnamese brand, but it did not satisfy Filipino farmers for it did not completely meet their needs. Hence, its engineers and researchers worked together to improve the drum seeder.
“Since its introduction in the Philippines, PhilRice has made some modifications on the drum seeder based on the actual needs in the field,” said Leo Molinawe, co-designer of the plastic design of the Rice Engineering and Mechanization Division (REMD) of PhilRice.
One of the major problems then, added Engr. Eden Gagelonia who was one of the developers of the modified drum seeder of REMD, was “that row seedling with the seeder could not be easily done during the rainy season because rainfall displaced the rows of surfaced placed seeds. And because the seeds were placed in the soil surface, these were prone to bird and rat damage.”
So Gagelonia’s group improved the design for minimum rainfall displacement and pest damage. They attached two ground wheels at both ends to keep the rows straight and minimize slips. They added also a detachable furrow opener assembly to allow seed replacement in furrows, plus a slight soil cover to minimize damage by birds and rodents.
In 2007, PhilRice came up with a more portable and lighter model and thisis the improved drum seeder, which is made of lightweight tubing and polyethylene plastic. It has a series of perforated plastic cylinders or drums supported by two wheels, and furrowers and a soil cover. And “like the earlier models, the latest model reduces the seeding rate at 50 percent to 80 percent over broadcast seeding,” Molinawe said.
Moreover, unlike the past models, the latest model’s seeding rate can be adjusted from 20 kg/ha to 40 kg/ha to 60 kg/ha. One has just to place a rubber band over the perforations in each cylinder to regulate seeding rate.
USING THE DRUM SEEDERRogelio Badua of Brooke’s Point, Palawan attested that the improved drum seeder efficiently dispenses one to two seedlings per hill, and thus preventing seed wastage. He is also pleased with the straight plant rows, which resulted from the use of the drum seeder.
“With straight plant rows, other farm activities like weeding and fertilizer application become easy,” Badua said.
Lino Manigo of Calape, Bohol also uses the improved drum seeder to save on labor cost. The cost of labor hike during the planting season, but by using the drum seeder and a tractor, says Manigo, he doesn’t have to worry anymore about the cost.
The price of a drum seeder shouldn’t be worried about also. Considering the savings it brings and would bring, P5,500 is reasonable. Today, the drum seeder is being used in rainfed areas as well as in major rice-producing provinces, and 1,686 farmers have already bought it.
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