What can good packaging do to your product?

Biotechnology is increasingly becoming important to agriculture, especially in the light of changing climate and the need to achieve sufficiency not only in the food we eat but also in other agricultural products.

A bamboo rehavilitation and nursery establishment seminar-workshop will be conducted by bamboo expert Romualdo Sta. Ana and the MFI Farm Business Institute (MFI-FBI) from November 26 to 29 in Jala-jala, Rizal.

Mitigating the adverse effects of climate on fruit production is the subject of an interesting article of Dr. Pablito P. Pamplona which is scheduled for inclusion in the January 2010 issue of Agriculture Magazine.

Bohol recently became the first coffee-producing area in the country to receive the fruits of the partnership between the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Nestlé Philippines, Inc. (NPI), makers of the country’s most popular coffee brand, Nescafe.

A forum titled “Revisiting the Organic Fertilizer Issue in Rice” has been set for November 26 at the SEARCA Umali Auditorium at the UP Los Banos campus under the auspices of Asia Rice Foundation.

One of our listeners in our radio program wanted to know what plant he could plant in his Cabuyao property that does not need any care. Apparently, he is a busy person who does not have any time to attend to his farm.

Some 1,300 volunteers from the Aboitiz group of 20 companies recently planted close to 30,000 tree seedlings in various locations in the country in line with the Abotiz Million Tree Challenge, the planting of one million trees to offset carbon emissions from electricity and fuel consumption.

One piece of good news is that the banana that looks like a dwarf version of our Saba banana will now be propagated for commercial planting.

Flash flood, deaths of humans as well as animals, and damage to properties and many other wanton destruction of our environment are believed to be some of the ill effects of climate change.

In the radio program, Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura, which we co-host, we have been featuring a lot of agribusiness people, big and small, who are immensely successful in their projects.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap sees a bright future for coffee farming in the Philippines—despite the setbacks of the past two decades--and has set his sights on reviving the coffee industry.

Cutting trees is not really a bad thing.

Soil acidity is a common problem in many crop areas in the Philippines, especially among growers of crucifers (cabbage and the like) in upland vegetable areas.

One piece of good news we just learned is that the major breeders of Boer goats have rolled back their prices on purebred bucks in an attempt to encourage the use of purebred animals to improve the body size and meat quality of the existing native and other imported breeds in the country.

Growing ornamental and other plants like vegetables and fruit trees is also a good source of livelihood.

Make sure to get a copy of the November Agriculture Magazine which is off the press early next week.

Tomatoes can be kept field-fresh for three weeks without using cold storage, according to the researchers from the Laguna-based Philippine Horticulture Training and Research Center.

One successful agribusiness venture that continues to surge is Harbest Agribusiness Corporation owned by our good friend Arsenio ‘Toto’ Barcelona.

A seaweed-based organic fertilizer which is said to address micronutrient deficiencies, particularly zinc deficiency, in rice and other crops was one of the products showcased in the recent Agrilink trade show.