mortiz085

By Dr. Luz Geneston Asio Department of Agronomy, Visayas State University The highlands in the middle of Cebu which extends from the city in the east to Balamban/Asturias in the west, presents a beautiful mixture of protected landscapes with good secondary forest cover, and crop production systems consisting of orchard particularly mango, annual crops, vegetables and cut flowers.  Beautiful views of the Cebu Highlands The very beautiful scenery reminds visitors of Baguio City or some foreign places like Indonesia or Taiwan. Clearly observable even on distant undulating slopes are the mango trees which are adapted to the agroclimatic conditions of Cebu.  Mango trees are abundant in certain parts of the landscape Cebuanos are widely known to be corn eaters. This explains why corn is the most widely grown grain crop in the highlands. On red acidic soils from igneous rocks as well as on dark calcareous soils from limestone, nutrient deficiency symptoms (N, P) are clearly observabl...

By Luz Geneston Asio, PhD Department of Agronomy, VSU, Baybay City, Leyte Eastern Samar has been consistently ranked as one of the poorest provinces in the country (www.faq.ph). A major reason for this is the low agricultural productivity due to several reasons: frequent typhoons, lack of government support, lack of political will, old farming methods, and many others. During our one-week field work in the province this July, we travelled to interior barangays, observed crop production practices and technologies, interviewed farmers and technicians to get a picture of the real reasons for the low rice productivity of the province. A poor rice farmer in San Jose village in Borongan City Very striking across most of Eastern Samar is the widespread occurrence of uncultivated or only partly cultivated alluvial lands particularly near river systems. Such lands generally have great potential for intensive and highly productive rice production due to their generally flat topography. But most...

by Johannes R. G. Asio Institute of Tropical Ecology and Environmental Management (ITEEM),VSU, Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines Introduction Dipterocarp trees ( Dipterocarpaceae ) have crucial ecological roles such as in the prevention of landslides, sequestration of atmospheric carbon, and biodiversity. They are also economically important in terms of timber production. These native trees are also adapted to a variety of climatic conditions and geographic locations (e.g. areas prone to heavy typhoons, marginal lands). However, the sustainable management of dipterocarp forests is still poorly understood due to the limited studies conducted on the subjet. This is particularly so in terms of the ability of these forest trees to thrive in marginal lands like those naturally contaminated with heavy metals and those soils with very low nutrient status such as ophiolitic and serpentinite areas (Corlett&Primack, 2006; DENR, 2012; Appanah, 1998; Walpole, 2010). Ophiolite rocks are widespre...

Every time we buy vegetables in the market, we do not doubt the quality of these farm products. We think they are clean, safe, nutritious and good for our health. But the worsening environmental pollution due to the overuse and misuse of agricultural chemicals such as pesticides, the improper waste disposal, the manufacturing industry, and the transportation system may be affecting the quality of the food crops we eat everyday. Specifically, heavy metals most of which are toxic to humans at elevated concentrations, are starting to contaminate the vegetables we love to eat. The scientific principle is simple: a contaminated soil will generally produce contaminated crops. An interesting and very relevant student research conducted a few years ago revealed such alarming reality. Conducted to determine and compare the Pb, Cu and Zn contents of Alugbati ( Basella rubra ), Ampalaya ( Momordica charantia ), Kalabasa ( Cucurbita maxima ), Kangkong ( Ipomoea aquatica ), Pechay ( Brassica ra...

Researchers from the Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, Belgium, in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Tropical Ecology and Environmental Management of Visayas State University in Leyte have published scientific evidence of a strong link between ecological quality and macroinvertebrate communities and diversity in rivers in Leyte. In a paper published this year (2017) in the prestigious journal Ecological Indicators , Vol. 77 and pages 228-238, Marie Anne Eurie Forio and colleagues assessed the macroinvertebrate communities, diversity, and ecological quality of 85 rivers on Leyte island. Specifically, they evaluated the biological (macroinvertebrates), chemical, physical and hydromorphological characteristics. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and multivariable linear regression (LRM) were performed to relate the environmental variables and macroinvertebrates. Eurie Forio and Daphne Radam during the field sampling in Ca...