AGGIE UPDATES

Tarlac is now leading okra producer in RP
JERRY PADILLA

TARLAC CITY – Tarlac province is now the leading producer of quality okra in the country as okra planters in the province sold 3,637 tons of the exotic vegetable in 2006, agriculture officials said.

“Tarlac is expected to maintain or even increase okra export sales as more agricultural land here has been planted to okra,” said Provincial Agriculturist Edwina Tabamo. Tabamo, together with Tarlac Gov. Victor Yap, led a recent seminar here on the proper use of agricultural chemicals on okra for the export and local markets.

Yap said the seminar, conducted under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture, aims to improve the acceptability of their okra to help boost the income of some 5,000 okra farmers in the province.

“With the use of the latest farming technologies and proper use of chemicals, we could even bring down the cost of production and further improve its viability,” Tabamo said, referring to okra farming.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap is closely monitoring the collaboration of various agencies, cooperatives, and the private sector to help Tarlac farmers sell more quality okra to Japan. Top agriculture officials and experts acted as resource persons during the seminar held at Tessie’s Grill here.
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The Department of Agriculture is encouraging the use of at least two affordable bio-fertilizer brands that increase crop yields by as much as 20 percent, as part of a long-term strategy to wean farmers away from the use of costly, imported chemical inputs.

The microbial-based fertilizers, with the trademark names Bio-Con and Bio-N, were developed by experts at the University of the Philippines campus in Los Baños, Laguna.

Bio-N is a microbial-based inoculant that is available from suppliers in 49 newly established mixing plants nationwide, while Bio-Con is a commercially produced variety that is now being tested in the corn clusters of Mindanao, the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon and Palawan .

DA Secretary Arthur Yap said experts from the UPLB and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) have recommended the use of Bio-N and Biocon as affordable, growth-boosting and environment-friendly alternatives to imported chemical fertilizers after these were screened for their effectiveness on a variety of agricultural crops.

“The use of organic fertilizers will not only increase yields per hectare but will, in the long haul, actually save us hundreds of millions of pesos because this will help reduce the use of expensive, imported chemical fertilizers in palay and corn farms,” Yap said.

He noted that Bio-N, for instance, already supplies at least 50% of the nitrogen requirements for rice, corn and vegetables, with only five 200-gram packets needed for seeds that are enough to plant one hectare of rice or corn.

Bio-N promotes shoot growth and root development in crops, increases the yields per hectare, and develops the resistance of corn to wind and certain plant diseases.

Moreover, BIO-N inoculants are environmentally safe and can eliminate the risk of ground water pollution caused by the leaching of nitrate especially in loose soils.

Biocon, on the other hand, also promotes growth, reduces the use of chemical fertilizers by 30%- 50%; with increases in yield ranging from 10% to 20%.

Yap noted that when Biocon was tested in rainfed rice farms in Koronadal, South Cotabato , the highest yield recorded with the use of this biofertilizer reached 6,583 kilograms compared with only 4,524 kilos without Biocon.

In Lawak, Tayug, Pangasinan, corn yields averaged 9.2 tons per hectare or two times higher with the use of Biocon and the reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers by 45%.

In Dalaguete, Cebu , tomato growers using Biocon earned additional incomes of up to P29,000 due to increased yields and a drop in the use of costly chemical inputs. For each hectare planted and fertilized with Biocon, yields increased to 44.9 tons as compared with lands that did not use
Biocon, which averaged only 32.8 tons per hectare.

Biocon, Yap said, is currently being used in selected areas of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Corn Program in Mindanao, Central Luzon, the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley and approved for testing by Mayor Edward Hagedorn in Palawan . It is now under evaluation by the UPLB and Philrice for use in the GMA Rice Program.