Agriculture

By Rose de la Cruz The Masungi Georeserve in Rizal is a favorite ‘grab’ for venture hunters from both government and private sector, giving the indigenous people and conservation groups a tough battle to preserve the remaining pristine and fragile ecosystem in the threatened conservation area near Metro Manila. The first formidable threat came in 2023 from no less from …

By Rose de la Cruz Bird flu (or the H5N1 strain) was first detected in China in 2013. But now another strain H7N9 is wreaking havoc in the United States, which first detected it in 2017 and had since been moving heaven and earth to contain it. According to a Reuters report written by Sybille de La Hamaide, the US …

Farmers belonging to the Philippine Tobacco Growers’ Association, led by Saturnino Distor, are pushing for the appointment of a tobacco czar who can combat the surge of illicit or smuggled cigarets into the country. Distor said “instead of our buyers purchasing more from us, smuggled products are taking a share of the market. Farmers are affected by this.” The illicit …

BEYOND ELLIPTICALBy Rose Marie de la Cruz After more than a year, I finally got to visit and interview rice farmers from Nueva Ecija about  their experiences using the biofertilizer technology of AgriSpecialist Inc. (ASI), which was granted (after six months of waiting) the certificate of product registration(CPR) for rice and corn only last January. Biofertilizer is among the prescriptions …

By Rose de la Cruz Unable to defend the wisdom of reducing tariffs on imported rice, which failed to result in lower retail prices, the government is now reviewing whether to continue implementing EO 62 (on reduced tariffs) or to raise them in time for the coming harvest season for the main crop in April. “To ensure our farmers are …

By Rose de la Cruz Decades of wanton trawling and destruction of seabeds and coral reefs mostly from commercial fishing vessels– many of them operating without permits, including those of recent years by Chinese fishing vessels– have led to the depletion of local fish stock, which necessitated the continued importation of mackerel, sardines and other species that used to teem …

BEYOND ELLIPTICALBy Rose Marie de la Cruz The swine sector, which is now reeling from the rampage of the African Swine Fever as with so many other countries around the world, would take a long time to recover from this virus. An article on Pig Site said Dr. Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian of the National Pork Producers Council in Des …

After decades of lucrative profits from exporting ores of precious metals (iron, steel, nickel, gold, copper, etc,), the mining industry claims it is not yet ready for a total ban on ore exports, which Congress is now considering passing bills to discourage ore shipments in place of finished mineral products, where the country could earn more from. In a statement, …

Executive Director Glenn Estrada of the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority said his agency is open to granting long-tenured certificate of product registration of up to 5 or 10 years just like the licenses for Land Transportation Office, but this must be based on track record of the product, consistency of ingredients and encouraging outcomes of the product on actual farms. …

By Rose de la Cruz With its immense power, the Department of Agriculture is nothing to be scared about as far as agricultural stakeholders are concerned.  Rice traders and importers do not heed the maximum suggested retail price (SMRP) of DA, neither do meat and pork traders and importers. Even its warnings on violations of current laws on imports and …