A few practical farming ideas

By Zac B. Sarian Published: August 22, 2013

INDIAN GOOSEBERRY The Indian gooseberry also known as Aomla or simply Amla is a prized fruit plant in India because of its reputed medicinal properties. The fruits come in big clusters and are processed into many products like juice, jam, candy and several more. One of the growers in Jalgaon, India is the Jain Group of companies which has food processing plants aside from other businesses. Now the Indian gooseberry is observed to grow very well in the Philippines, like these grafted trees growing in container.

Here are a few creative techniques that should be of help to people who are in the business of farming. These are ideas from successful agri-people we have met in the course of our job of writing about agriculture.

HARVESTING HOT PEPPER A few years back, Benito Magaling of Lipa City planted two hectares to the Django finger pepper developed by East-West Seed Company.

What did he do so he could harvest two tons of fruits everyday as required by his buyers? First, he divided the two hectares into seven sections. Each day the harvesters picked the fruits from one section so he had a daily sale of two tons from September to January.

He had to harvest the two tons in the morning so that he could deliver in the afternoon to his buyers in Divisoria and at the Tanauan market.

How did he do that? Well, he hired 20 women pickers. Each one had to harvest just 100 kilos which can be easily done in half a day because the plants are really very fruitful.

Simple isnt it? He just paid his pickers about P170 for their labor. At the time of our interview, Magaling was selling his pepper at P50 a kilo. So he grossed P100,000 everyday from his two hectares.

PICKERS ASSIGNED OWN ROWS We learned another practical technique in harvesting hot pepper from Ernesto Romero of Talavera, Nueva Ecija. Several years back, he planted quite a big area to the tingala hot pepper which was a money maker for him for many months.

The harvesters are like regular employees who do the harvesting on a long-term arrangement. The pickers are paid by the number of kilos they harvest so they have to harvest fast.

The problem is that when the harvesters are in a hurry to pick the fruits, they could break some of the branches of the plants. To avoid that possibility, Romero assigned specific rows for each picker to harvest. That way, Romero swore, the pickers are really careful in harvesting from their assigned rows.

FERTILIZING FRUIT TREES We also interviewed a medical doctor who is based in Manila but who is running his own durian farm of about six hectares in Mindanao.

The doctor only visits his farm only about a couple of times a month. After all, the most important activity he would like to supervise personally is fertilizing his trees. He does that two times a year.

When it is time to fertilize, he buys all the fertilizers and tools needed by his workers. Then he hires at least ten workers to apply the fertilizers in just one day.

He explained that if he only lets his worker to do the fertilizing, it could take him several days to do that. And the doctor could not stay that long in the farm because of his medical practice in the city. He had also heard of the woes of some farm owners whose workers did not really apply the fertilizers they were supposed to apply. Instead, they sold some of them to other farmers. To avoid the possibility, he had to hire the ten workers to do the job fast.

GERMINATING ATIS SEEDS I remember a friend who bought big atis fruits in Vietnam so he could germinate the seeds and plant them in his farm.

He was so frustrated because the seeds have not germinated after five months. He was so envious when we told him ours were already six inches tall.

What did he do wrong? He must have planted the seeds too deep. It is also possible that he planted the seeds in a soil that is not sterilized. Fungal attack will kill the seeds.

What we did was to nip a bit of the butt end of the seeds with a nail clipper before sowing them in the sterilized germinating medium. The nipping allows moisture to seep inside so germination is fast. Instead of using a nail clipper, another technique is to rub the end of the seed on sand paper.

The same technique could be applied to other hard-coated seeds like those of guyabano and chico.

REMOVE LOWER LEAVES OF FRUITING VEGETABLES One very doable technique if you are planting eggplant, okra, pepper, tomato and some other fruiting vegetables is to remove the old leaves below. Those old leaves are no longer functional. They dont contribute to photosynthesis. They could harbor insects or fungi that could damage the crop.

There you are. These are just a few practical tips you can adopt in your own farming.