MS Divinagracia shares pantat hatching technique

On November 17, 2010, CPU TGP Team members led by RACG representative Prof. Hope G. Patricio and RMISG representative Engr. Aries Roda D. Romallosa revisited the pantat hatchery of MS Luel Divinagracia in Sitio Bulod II, Brgy. Pulao, Dumangas to document his unique way of hatching pantat through actual demonstration.

It all starts with choosing the ideal gravid pantat that is about to lay the eggs and the male pantat. The pituitary gland of the male pantat is removed, crushed and mixed with sodium chloride solution. The mixture is then injected to both sides of the upper dorsal fin of the gravid pantat. The newly injected females together with other males are placed in a basin with water covered with screen. The basin is then placed in an area where people usually pass by so that the male pantat will thrush around bumping the pregnant pantat. This bumping loosens the eggs making it easier to squirt them out.

This unique way of hatching was developed by MS Divinagracia after observing other hatcheries and by trial and error method when he was just starting in the business. Mr. Divinagracia is the Magsasaka Siyentista of FITS Dumangas. (Hope G. Patricio, RAC Representative, Central Philippine University)

MS Divinagracia in his catfish hatchery, catfish skull about to be opened, and injecting the solution to the gravid pantat.

ASU convenes FITS centers

By Salvacion Villasis
RAC Representative
Aklan State University

The Aklan State University (ASU), partner member agency (PMA) of Western Visayas Agriculture Resources and Research Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC), convened the staff of the Farmers’ Information and Technology Services (FITS) Centers in Aklan and Antique for the First Quarter Meeting, Consultation-Workshop and WESVARRDEC Monitoring on February 24, 2011 at the ASU Conference Hall, Banga, Aklan.

ASU Techno Gabay Team Leader Dr. Clyde Abayon led the team including Dr. Lelisa Teodosio, Regional Management Information System (RMIS) representative and Regional Applied Communication (RAC) Representative Salvacion R. Villasis and alternates, Prof. Carmenchita M. Tumaca, Mr. Louie G. Garcia and Mr. Arthur E. Jizmundo. The PMA team met with FITS Managers, Technology Service Specialists, Information Service Specialists and Magsasaka Siyentista from Altavas, Banga, Ibajay, Nabas, New Washington and Numancia in Aklan and Libertad in Antique.

Regional Techno Gabay Coordinator Dr. Anna Mae Relingo spearheaded the WESVARRDEC monitoring. She emphasized that documentation of FITS Center activities be enhanced. She encouraged the FITS Centers to maximize social networking such as having facebook accounts which serves as venue in disseminating the activities of FITS Centers, promoting MS products and technologies and be updated also of WESVARRDEC activities.

Relingo shared to the group the last quarter report of Techno Gabay, wherein she acknowledged the important contributions of FITS Centers. RTGP Staff Nicolas Banquero talked about the Techno Gabay Awards and Regional Techno Gabay Summit and TechnoMart. Dr. Abayon discussed to the group the submission of accomplishment report for 2010, and business plan for the year.

MS Rafael Monfort and farmer pal discover coco sugar

By Vishia Mae Dominic J. Tolcidas

RAC Representative

OPA FITS Negros Occidental

“Not all that is sweet comes from sugarcane,” said sugar planter Rafael Monfort of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental after he discovered coco sugar and the wonders coming from coconut, the tree of life. For Monfort, making coco sugar out of fresh toddy adds to coconut’s many uses. coco sugar is not only sweet but even more nutritious than cane sugars.

According to Monfort, coco sugar holds a lot of promise to coconut farmers who plan to embark on an agri-business venture. Coco sugar serves as a healthy sweetener but also a low-calorie food product fit for health enthusiasts and diabetics because of its low glycemic index. It’s high time that coco sugar become the most important sweetener next to muscovado sugar. “What’s interesting is that coco sugar makes more money than muscovado,” Monfort added.

For his involvement in research and technology development particularly on organic farming, Monfort was named Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) of the Farmers’ Information and Technology Services (FITS) Center based at the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) in Negros Occidental.

To increase farm productivity and income, MS Monfort applies science-and-technology-based innovations and uses local, available and indigenous materials and farm wastes. Through eco-friendly and sustainable farming, Monfort achieves reduced production cost and good quality produce

Monfort belongs to the pool of volunteer experts composed of Ramon Peñalosa, Rolando Suarez, and Elmor Juanitas who were appointed by the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC) in 2006.

In 2009, MS Monfort (seated left, in right photo) saw the other potentials of coconut along with his business partner, Lope Consing, also of Cadiz who happens to be the owner of Marfori Consing Farms in Mati, Davao Oriental.

Together they diversified the 200-hectare land planted to copra by setting aside two hectares of the farm for coco sugar. In February 2010, they produced their first coco sugar using old-fashioned and laborious cooking methods with the assistance of the Philippine Coconut Authority. Marfori also became the first farm to produce coco sugar in Davao Oriental. Marfori’s coco sugar under the Marfori and Glow labels are now on sale in Bacolod and specialty stores in Manila.

According to Monfort and Consing, as soon as they are granted permit by the Bureau of Food and Drugs, they will export to the United States and Europe where there is a distinct market for the commodity.

CapSU hosts 5th annual students research confab

By Niño S. Manaog

University Extension Associate

Capiz State University

On March 7, 2011, all roads led to the Capiz State University (CapSU) Roxas City Campus where the University’s Research, Development and Extension Center (RDEC) hosted the 5th Annual Research Symposium for Students.

Anchored on the theme, “Mainstreaming the Active Participation of Faculty and Students in Research amidst Climate Change,” the annual symposium gathered some 28 Social Science research papers and 10 natural, biological and development research papers produced in the nine CapSU campuses across Capiz.

According to CapSU Research Director, Dr. Federito Launio, event’s lead convenor, the symposium was led by CapSU RDEC not only to help disseminate new knowledge and technologies to the community and give due recognition for the students exemplary projects. The symposium would also help “quench the thirst” for information and technology needed by the public.

In the Social Research Category, Marynille Joy de la Cruz’s “Reading Readiness of Grade I Pupils: An Analysis” of CapSU Mambusao won the Best Paper over 17 entries. Other winners in the category were: “Course and School Interest of 4th Year High School Students in Selected Secondary Schools of President Roxas, Capiz” by Virnelli Baril of CapSU Pontevedra, first runner-up; “Acceptability of Personnel Information System” by John Michael Beramo, et.al. of CapSU Pontevedra, second runner-up; and “Level of Competency in Spelling of Grade VI Pupils in the District of Sapian” by Mae Den de la Cruz of CapSU Sapian, third runner-up.

In the Natural, Biological and Development Research Category, the “Development and Acceptability of Banana Paste Candy Using Different Levels of Coconut Toddy Sugar” by Jean Bautista of CapSU Mambusao was declared Best Paper. Other winners in the category were the Quality and Acceptability of Pickles Made of Papaya and Watermelon” by Allen Vilbar, Jonelyn de Cafe and Nicole Ann Leonor of CapSU Sapian, first runner-up; Acceptability of Homemade Cookies Made of Taro Flour by Rona Habulan, Lailanie Cordero and Jeneline Carpio of CapSU Dumarao, second runner-up; and “The Utilization and Acceptability of Snails into Different Delicacies” by Hyacinth Lumagbas of CapSU Pilar Campus, third runner-up.

For the Social Research category, the panel of judges were Dr. Herminia Gomez, Dr. Adelfo Virtudazo, Dr. Ella Aurelio, Dr. Dina Reyes and Prof. Vivian Alejaga; while the student researches in the natural, biological and development category were evaluated by Dr. Raul Ticar, Dr. Jocelyn Dagudag, Dr. Serafin David and Prof. Diony Cahilig.

The “Acceptability of Oryza sativa with Screw Pine Extract as Native Delicacy” by Bobby Saldo and Aimee Bartolo of CapSU Roxas City was declared Best Poster among only eight entries.

Meanwhile, three papers under natural, biological and development category were automatically declared official entries to the regional tilt. These were the “Bleeding Efficiency of Pigs Slaughtered at Passi City and Roxas City” by John Lee Quinoveva of CapSU Dumarao; Mini-Hydro Powered Turbine” by Francis Rodel Degala and Al Paolo Fabiana of CapSU Roxas City and the Development of Temperature-Controlled Switch” by Regie Bartolo, et.al. of CapSU Roxas City.

In her message, CapSU President Editha L. Magallanes urged the CapSU faculty and staff to widely engage in research and development studies in the face of necessity for technologies in this time of climate change and global warming. Magallanes zeroed in on research tapping indigenous natural resources to address problems in ordinary communities.

For his part, Dr. Geronimo Gregorio, vice-president for research development and extension, discussed with students and faculty researchers the importance of properly categorizing the research study being pursued. More important, Gregorio stressed on the need to produce more researches for the University.

All winners and their advisers received certificates of recognition and cash prizes. The best papers and other winners from the symposium will be competing in the regional students’ research symposium to be hosted by the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) VI on March 17, 2011 at the Western Visayas College of Science and Technology (WVCST) in Iloilo City.

Meet the Upcoming Bamboo Engineer

Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) Randy D. Fancubila
of the FITS Center at Dumalag, Capiz

By Niño S. Manaog
Capiz State University

Thirty-seven-year-old Randy D. Fancubila, Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) of the Farmers Information and Technology Services (FITS) Center in Dumalag, Capiz, has many reasons to be happy about.

In 2010, the MS nominee who has been into furniture making for fifteen years, was appointed MS or farmer scientist by the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC) for bamboo and engineered bamboo technology.

Since the FITS Center’s launch in 2009, Manager Ronelyn de Tomas has proactively initiated activities and a number of exposures for the members of the Dumalag Bamboocraft Producers Cooperative, an association of some 28 bamboocraft producers led by MS Fancubila, its president. In these opportunities, Fancubila and his members actively took part in trainings and workshops on bamboo technologies held in their FITS center and across the province of Capiz.

Prior to his appointment as MS by WESVARRDEC, Ms. De Tomas already sent him to various study tours and trainings related to bamboo and bamboo technology across the region and even in other parts of the country. Said exposures inspired the sprightly bamboo enthusiast to learn the nitty-gritty of making engineered bamboo. "Gin-try kong obrahon—on my own initiative. Ti, ok man!" (I tried my hand on making it myself. And it turned out well), Fancubila quips.

MS Fancubila's sample dining table is made of engineered bamboo produced in his backyard workshop in barangay Sta. Cruz, Dumalag, Capiz.

Recently, he finished making a sample dining table from engineered bamboo slats produced in his workshop—which WESVARRDEC RTGG Coordinator Anna Mae Relingo considered very satisfactory—the MS hopes to acquire or—if possible, be granted—bamboo-processing machines needed to turn out engineered bamboo slats or planks. Fancubila showcased this and other products at the second bimonthly meeting of FITS centers across Capiz with the Capiz State University, their partner member agency.

While he claims to have pursued engineering bamboo first among his group, Fancubila says he preferred to do so for a number of reasons. For one, Fancubila knows that the use of bamboo ostensibly supports sustainable agriculture. Every bamboo node being cut for processing produces 3 to 6 bamboo shoots re-growth—the indispensable value of self-sustaining grass which offers many uses. Fancubila is also aware that by producing engineered bamboo slats, he makes available a raw material whose value is a good if not better alternative to wood—thereby adding value to the commodity.

In December 2010, Fancubila joined the WESVARRDEC’s cross-visit to Central Luzon. The WESVARRDEC contingent composed of a number of newly appointed MSs and other personnel visited the Central Luzon State University (CLSU), the Philippine Carabao Center and PhilRice, among others. There, Fancubila saw that farming and agricultural practices are serious business in central Luzon, a fact that amazed him.

Recently this year, Fancubila led the training of his own cooperative members on the project survey on bamboo node development held in their FITS Center Dumalag, which houses a bagsakan center for their cooperative’s bamboocrafts and products. This opportunity made him realize that nothing seems impossible with technology. For Fancubila, advances in development technology always “enable us to achieve faster and obtain more efficient results.”

Conducted for the same purpose was the training needs assistance led by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Capiz where Fancubila helped in identifying the priority needs of the members of the bamboo cooperative. Fancubila says their bamboo cooperative has to acquire one unit of surfacer, one thickness planer, and one jointer planer, all of which are crucial to producing and fabricating quality engineered bamboo products.

The author showcases an engineered bamboo slat displayed by MS Fancubila at FITS Center Dumalag in Poblacion, Dumalag, Capiz.

Given these constraints, Fancubila rather considers them a challenge, expressing optimism on the Science and Technology-based Farm (STBF) currently being evaluated by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD). The proposed project will surely benefit his Dumalag cooperative which fully supports and campaigns activities and trainings on bamboo and bamboo technology. Fancubila’s STBF is due for implementation anytime this year.

Though the bamboo furniture maker’s hands are full, producing engineered bamboo slats and turning out bamboo furniture, he also keeps his fingers crossed for the best things yet to come.