BSU grads show way in vermi- composting, silk deflossing

AGGIE TRENDS

A.I. Marzo and JS Tabangcura

TUBLAY, Benguet- At least 10 percent of farmers of Barangay Basil here still practice vermi-composting, according to Basil barangay captain Lito Mateo.

He said through collected fund from vermi-composting, they were able to maintain production of vermicast or the product of vermicompost to continuously supply farmers. Farm expenses and exposure to chemicals were also lessened.

For one, Basil Elementary School utilizes vermicasts to maintain their vegetable gardens.  They even shared these with the Barangay Health Center for their vegetable patch. Vermicomposting has been part of the school’s practice since then and they are fully supported by the parents of their pupil and the barangay local government.

They help pupils in collecting grasses and other materials to be composted. The barangay LGU also lent their shredder to the school for quicker processing of the compost.

Mrs. Menis and Mrs. Domingo, both teachers of the school said that in the past, they seldom practiced green manuring. They  admitted when they started to teach organic farming inside their classes, they experienced difficulty in explaining and demonstrating it because they only based their lesson on their instructional manuals.

Incidentally, one of their new co-teachers who is a Benguet State University graduate had knowledge on basic composting. He then taught them these technologies.

“The pupils know, when we tell them that we will be making vermicast, they take the initiative to gather cow dung and place it in pails,” said Domingo.

Meniz and Domingo said their pupils appreciate vermicomposting because they no longer need commercial fertilizers.

Studies on vermiculture and the advocacy of its practice began in BSU in the 1990s by Dr. Rogelio D. Colting. In the 2000s, Prof. Alex Fagyan and the late Dr. Jose Balaoing studied the use of indigenous highland earthworms and the African night crawler in vermiculture. The duo advocated vermiculture through various trainings for farmers and groups even reaching as far as Butuan City.

In 2013, the BSU Extension Office facilitated the educational trip of Grade 4 to 6 pupils from the Basil Elementary School to the BSU Organic Demo-Farm focusing on vermicomposting.

Soil fertility is important in agriculture and vermi-composting as a natural way of re-nourishing the soil has always been a part of Benguet State University’s advocacy in line with organic farming.

Vermicomposting is the use of earthworms in producing fertilizer that has the potential to improve soil aeration, texture, nutrient status, and water retention capacity because of its high organic matter content.

Vermiculture also improves the tilth of the soil promoting root growth and nutrient absorption of macro and micronutrients.

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Deflossing is the removal of silk waste that appears outside the cocoon. In Benguet, silkworm farmers defloss by hand which is laborious and time-consuming.

Only the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFIDA) Regional Satellite Office in Wangal, La Trinidad utilizes a hand-driven cocoon deflosser with the capacity to defloss 0.75 kilograms of cocoon per hour.

While scouting for possible thesis topics in various agencies, the hand-driven deflosser caught the attention of Lester Clyde B. Angel, then a student of Agricultural Engineering at BSU.

With his classmate, Joanna B. Cadao and their adviser, Mirafel T. Afuyog, they came up with the research “Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of a Motorized Cocoon Deflossing Machine.”

The research was awarded best paper in both the 3rdBSU student congress and the 2nd Regional Student Research Congress under the Science and Technology Category.

The Motorized Cocoon Deflossing Machine that resulted from the research was able to defloss 1.11 kilograms of cocoon per hour. It is made up of angle bars, spiked rubber mats, stainless round bar, galvanized iron, stainless iron rod, GI sheets and a 746 Watts (1HP) motor as the prime mover. The motorized deflosser cost P15,212.63 to fabricate with an estimated life of ten years.

During the design conceptualization, the following were considered. First, the materials to be used must be locally available for easier and cheaper procurement and the machine must be easy and safe to operate. Easy operation will also minimize time spent in deflossing and the number of people needed to operate the machine.  

Angel shared that current students at the BSU-CEAT are continuously modifying the motorized cocoon deflosser to improve it.

The latest modification is that the cocoons can now be loaded continuously, no longer per batch.

Cadao explained that the earlier version of the machine deflosses five grams of cocoon per batch to avoid damage since silkworm cocoons are very fragile.

People interested on the machine may visit the College of Engineering and Applied Technology.