mortiz085

Refocusing Agriculture: Excerpt from my Convocation Speech at the 45th Founding Anniversary of Visayas State University (VSU)-Alangalang Campus, Leyte, Philippines on 09 Sept 2016. By V.B. Asio Your theme “Agrivolution: refocusing farming for food and nutrition security” is very timely and very relevant. When I was an agriculture student in ViSCA in 1980, the agriculture battle cry was: we need to increase crop yield by increasing the yield per unit area and by cultivating new lands because of rapidly increasing population . Population of the country at the time was only 48 million. The hot research topic was farming system, which slowly became cropping system, then sustainable agriculture or ecological farming, and now organic agriculture. If you examine these farming strategies, they are closely related. But the last, which is organic agriculture, has become very narrow in scope and very impractical in many aspects. But where are we now? Now more than 30 years have passed, with a st...

The gently rolling topography which typifies a large portion of the volcanic landscape in Claveria makes it ideal for intensive large-scale vegetable production. The widely grown vegetables include cabbage, beans, tomato, sweet pepper and eggplant. The breathtaking volcanic landscape of Claveria, Misamis Oriental But the strongly weathered soils which range from Oxisols in the lower slopes (about 400 to 600 m above sea level or asl) to Ultisols in the upper slopes (about 600 to 900m asl) are a major constraint to vegetable production in the area. Oxisols (also called Ferralsols) and Ultisols (also called Alisols and Acrisols) are clayey, reddish, acidic and nutrient-poor soils although they generally have good physical properties like good structure and moderate to high porosity. As in other volcanic landscapes, the oldest and most infertile soils (Oxisols) are formed on the older and stable lower slopes. Dr. Apol & Nelds Gonzaga, Ruby Gabaca, Dr. Steve Harper & myself in fro...

Prof. Neal Menzies , professor of soil and environmental science and head of the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the prestigious University of Queensland, Australia, visited the Visayas State University (VSU), Leyte, Philippines from September 16-19, 2014.  The purpose of his visit was to attend, as a collaborating scientist, the meeting of the ACIAR (Australian Center for International Agricultural Research) - funded Soils Project (Soil and Nutrient Management Strategies for Sustainable Vegetable Production in Southern Philippines- SMCN/2012/029) attended by scientists from the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Dr. Stephen Harper and Ms. Zara Hall) and partners from the Visayas State University, University of the Philippines Los Banos, Bureau of Soil and Water Management, Landcare Foundation Philippines Incorporated, Misamis Oriental State College of Agriculture and Technology (MOSCAT) and the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF).  Prof. N...

Arsenic (As) is a heavy metal that is well-known as a poison and a carcinogen. Its average concentration in the soil ranges from 5 to 6 mg/kg which is generally related to rock type and industrial activity. Arsenic contamination of paddy soils is widespread and elevated arsenic levels in rice grains is now a hot issue in many parts of the world. Martha Rose Shulman wrote in the New York Times (15 April 2013) that “it is clear that the levels of inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products are high, and that we and especially children, babies and pregnant women should limit our intake of rice and rice products.” According to Bogdan and Schenk (2012) in their recent study published in the highly respected Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH), flooded rice may contain high arsenic concentration compared to other grain crops. In fact, aside from arsenic-contaminated drinking water, rice is the largest food dietary source of inorganic arsenic. This is because t...

The Visayas State University (VSU), through the Philippine Higher Education Research Network (PHERNet) of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), is spearheading a research project on enhancing farm productivity and environmental quality in climate change vulnerable marginal uplands in Eastern Visayas. As part of the project activities, the university will organize a National Conference on Development Initiatives in the Philippine Philippine Marginal Uplands, with the theme, "Enhancing farm productivity and environmental quality of Philippine marginal uplands: A scan of the past and a look into the future." The conference will be held on 22-24 October 2013 at VSU, Baybay City, Leyte.

Abaca plants Abaca ( Musa textilis Née), a relative of the edible banana ( Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana ), is a native to the Philippines. It is grown primarily for its fibers which are utilized by the pulp, cordage and fiber craft industries. Studies have shown that the specific tensile strength of abaca fiber is comparable to or even higher than that of fiberglass (Bledzki et al., 2007;Sinon, 2008). Dr. Marlito Bande and co-workers, in a paper to be published in the international journal Industrial Crops and Products 42:70– 77 , reported on the optimum light, nutrient and water requirements of abaca to attain optimum yield. They also discussed how these parameters affect fiber recovery and fiber quality under field conditions.  They showed that abaca planted under 50% shade had significantly (p < 0.01) higher fiber yield than those planted under the other shade/light treatments (30% and 40% of full sunlight using polypropylene shade nets) since the plants pseudostem u...

“There is a need to integrate science and local knowledge. Both are vital and can be brought together only by participation” emphasized Prof. Dr. Franz Heidhues in his concluding remarks during the International Scientific Conference on Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountain Areas held at the University of Hohenheim, Germany on 16-18 April 2012. As can be seen from the figure below, scientific knowledge becomes more relevant when it is combined with local knowledge (Barrios and Trejo, 2003). Precision & relevance of scientific and local knowledge   Ethnopedology is the study of the local knowledge on soil and land systems of rural populations, from the most traditional to the modern. Ethnopedological research covers a wide diversity of topics centered around four main issues: (1) the formalization of local soil and land knowledge into classification schemes; (2) the comparison of local and technical soil classifications; (3) the analysis of local land evaluation...

by Dr. Cezar P. Mamaril Senior Consulting Expert of Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) Los Ba ñ os, Laguna I would like to share my thoughts about current challenges and opportunities in agriculture that institutions like Visayas State University (VSU) should be concerned. I could not over emphasize the fact that we are facing the problem of producing sufficient food to feed the ever increasing population of our country. Last census reported that our population is increasing by 2.3 percent, while our food production (particularly rice) is increasing by about 2.5 percent. The minimal growth difference between population and food production is not sufficient to provide the other requirements of small farmers to live a decent life. I hope the current census will show a decline in population growth so that we will have a better breathing space. (If you have not yet been interviewed by the census takers, you better do so otherwise you may not get your ration of rice!). Further...