April 2023
Day 1, 23 April 2023:
Visit Egg Chicken Farm to assess chicken manure used by Cavendish
banana plantation as organic fertilizer
Visit Cavendish banana plantation to see the bananas affected by
Panama disease and moko disease
Plantation using both organic fertilizer from chicken manure, chemical
fertilizers and chemical pesticides
Soil is not rich. Looks very dry and compact. A portion of the
plantation is affected by both Panama and moko disease
Visiting Egg Chicken Farm in Ozamis City
Visiting Cavendish banana plantation in Ozamis city
Day 2, 24 April 2023:
A Visit to Manolo
Visit to Chrysanthemum plantation
Visit to government research institute in Manolo
(Nomiarc - Northen Mindanao Research Centre)
Took them two years to turn land from depleted soil to current
state using organic fertilizer
Visit to government research institute in Manolo
(Nomiarc - Northen Mindanao Research Centre)
Summary of our visit to Nomiarc:
• Nomiarc does research on agriculture to address
problems of farmers
• They also experiment with treating soil using organic
methods. Their trial of turning depleted land into organic
land over 2 years is not fruitful.
• The yield of crops on the treated and organic land is not
productive
• They welcome us to do trials on their land and will spread
the use of our products if the trials are successful
Day 3, 25 April 2023:
Manolo County
The owner of the tomato plantation is facing tomato leaf curl virus. The tomato plant at his plantation is below the normal height of 1.7m. He has about 3 hectares and would like to expand if not for the problem. Tomatoes can be harvested after 60 days.
The owner of this sweet bell pepper plantation is known as a big farm owner. He has 7 hectares growing this crop and looking to expand. He has the same problems as the tomato plantation. After 100 120 days harvest is 10,000 kg per week and 1.5 million Peso per week. After one year they will do crop rotation and rest the land for a few months.
The owner of the sweet bell pepper is very eager to try our product. They have an association of Big Land Owners and he wishes to recommend our product to the other land owners not just within his county but to other counties as well.
Visited the Municipal Office of Agriculture in Manolo. Met with Ms Gemma Cenia and her assistant to understand more about the agricultural industry in Mindanao. Was informed 2,600 hectares of Cassava and 3,000 hectares of Corn has been affected. Her assistant told us her own sister that owns 20,000 hectares of banana plantation in Davao has only 8,000 hectares left because of disease in the soil. They welcome us to help the industry and would like to introduce us to the mayor who is a big supporter of agriculture especially new technologies.
Day 4, 26 April 2023:
Visit to Nomiarc HQ
Being introduced to Assistant Chief, Research Division, Willie D. Nacabalan and Lito lapoot, Chairman of soil and agriculture department at Nomiarc
Visiting a Korean high tech greenhouse research facility inside Nomiarc
Meeting with Don Pablo:
Summary of visit to Nomiarc HQ and discussion with Don Pablo:
• Mr Lito Lapoot, Chairman of soil and agricultural research agreed to enter
into an MOA with us. They will identify 2 doctoral candidates to do soil
research on diseased soil and do laboratory testing of various nutrients in
the soil and microbial activity. They will work with us to test our products
and to do a further test after a trial period to ascertain the effectiveness of
our product. They also agree to expand their facility to help us with
inoculation of our product to animal waste. They will also validate and
endorse our products to the whole of Philippines after successful trials at
their facility.
• Don Pablo is the youngest in an association called BILO (Big Land Owners).
He is highly influential and connected and part of the success of this visit
has been due to his introductions to other big land owners and the people
at Nomiarc. We look to his assistance in future to help us expand our
business.
Day 5, 27 April 2023:
Exploring Sugar Cane opportunity in Bukidnon
The 3 different types of waste generated after burning sugar cane waste. The sugar cane waste itself is used as a raw material to create power. The waste on the left is Hydrated Lime, the one in the middle is Sugar Cane Ash and the last one is known as Mud Press. All three types of waste is mixed with chicken manure to produce organic fertilizer after composting. A truckload of this organic fertilizer can be sold for about 15,000 to 20,000 pesos. A truckload is about 13 tons.
The province of Bukidnon has about 60,000 hectares of sugar cane plantations and there is a large company called Busco which manufactures sugar from the sugar cane.
Before planting, they use the 3 by products from burning of sugar cane waste and mix with chicken manure to compost and prepare the land. At the start of the planting they use 20-30 bags of organic fertilizer with each bag about 400 pesos. Commercial inorganic fertilizer is also applied in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd month with 1st month applying 100% P, 2nd month 50% N and 3rd month 50% N plus 100% K. In total about 600 kg of NPK fertilizer is applied. In addition they apply Bio Microorganism 2 times a year with 200L per hectare.
Milk Fish Farm Opportunity
The owner, Rodale started raising milk fish fingerlings in land enclosed ponds in 2005 and in 2013 also started rearing milk fish within fish cages in the sea
They buy milk fish fry for their ponds and it takes about 2-3 months to rear from fry to fingerlings. 1 hectare can produce about 60,000-70,000 fingerling of about 4 inches. They sell 8 peso per piece for fingerling. The fry is purchased at 30-40 sentimo per fry. One peso is 100 sentimos. The fry to fingerling survival rate is about 50% in the pond due to the poor quality of the water in the pond as the bottom of the pond is heavily infected due to several reasons. There is a strong smell from the ponds left to dry which is how they prepare the ponds for the next season. They practice rotation of the ponds.
The owner sells most of his fingerlings and the rest are transferred to cages in the sea. There they are grown to about 500g and harvest in 4-5 months if water is clean. If water is not clean and also coincide with cold season it takes 8 months.
We are told that the FCR (food cost ratio) at Davao is high at 2.5-3 because the production cost of fish in fish cages is 130-140 pesos per kg in Davao and mortality rate is relatively high at 10-20%. Selling price of fish in fish cages in Davao ranges 120-178 per kg so sometimes the harvest can be at a loss. The fish in the cages are fed the same feed as the fingerling, which cost about 40peso per kg. Fish cage survival rate in Cebu and Palawan area has a lower mortality rate of 1.5-2%. Due to better water quality there. Selling price of Milk fish in Cebu and Palawan is about 200 peso per kg while production cost is about 100-110 kg because the FCR is low.
However, Cebu produces only about 5% of the quantity of milk fish produced in Davao. Davao has thousands of hectares of fish ponds for fingerlings. Mr Rodale has 25 hectares in Davao and 16 hectares in Palili. Cebu has about 5 million people while Palawan has about 1 million people but land area is about 3x of Cebu. Usually 25,000 fingerlings can be stocked in a 12x12 sqm cage. If the water quality is not good they can only stock 16,000 sqm. The oxygen level at Davao apparently is not good hence they only stock less milk fish resulting in higher FCR.
CP group is apparently rearing Vanamae prawns around this region. They have about 100 hectares of land doing it and we are told they have a problem of white spots in their prawns. We are exploring with the owner the possibility of rearing prawns as well.
Exploring Milk Fish Farm opportunity
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