UPLB Research and Extension News

Already known for its world famous mangoes and pristine beaches, Guimaras Island has expanded its attractions with the putting up of a bee farm on the island.

The Pinewoods Bee Garden is the first bee farm in Western Visayas complementing the eco-tourism thrusts of the 60,460-hectare island-province.

The 1,400-square-meter farm which opened in September last year has drawn foreign and local tourists and students, according to its owner, businessman Arsenio Gaitan.

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Nov. 13 (PNA) — The provincial government distributed to local farmers bio-organic fertilizers which it developed using chicken manure sourced out from the poultry farm of Governor Amado Espino Jr. in Barangay Portic, Bugallon.

The inputs were developed in Espino’s farm where the provincial government set up a modest processing plant to readily convert chicken manure into cheap but effective bio-organic fertilizer.

The processing plant adopted the bio-technology perfected by the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB).

A member of the Philippine Inventors’ Society tells us why we should start drinking bignay tea.

In a recent study aptly titled “Antioxidant Potential and Components of Philippine Vegetables and Fruits” which was supported by the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), bignay, kaluinpit and ubi were found to be high in antioxidants after it was subjected, along with other 15 fruits and vegetables, in a research designed to determine which of them had the most antioxidant capability.

Those 15 fruits and vegetables included: eggplant, patola, tiesa, mangosteen, durian, kalumpit, alugbati, ampalaya, bago, sayote, malunggay, bignay , squash, saluyot, sitaw and ubi.

Various steps in the research process, like the preparation of crude antioxidants extracts, screening of antioxidants, and partial separation of antioxidant components, were conducted to find out which among these fruits and vegetables have the highest potentials for producing antioxidants.

The project, which was led and executed by Prof. Virgilio V. Garcia of the Institute of Food Science and Technology from the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), noted what in contemporary years has been very active goings-on for these innate antioxidants derived from plants, animals, and microorganisms.

“I WANTED to help them help themselves.”

It is what Raul Palaje dreams of doing for the farmers and their families in a small town in Isabela.

And he believes he may have started something sweet for them through the crop sweet sorghum.

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is originally from India. It is similar to grain sorghum in that it has sugar-rich stalks. It is a water-use efficient crop and ideal as alternative feedstock for ethanol production.