BEWARE OF JATROPHA PODAGRICA

 Some People Think It's KOREAN GINSENG!

A plant booth at the Iloilo Provincial Captiol ground is displaying potted jatropha pudagrica which the owners and the vendor sells off as KOREAN GINSENG.

As an agronomist, I was alarmed because J. pudagrica is as lethal as its more popular cousin, the J. curcas or kasla/ tuba tuba in Ilonggo. Its nuts and sap contain curcin a phytotoxin similar to ricin found in castor bean. You may look up the info on the following links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatropha_podagrica, http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/plant/jpoc.htm, and

http://www.plantoils.in/portal/jatropha/abo/cha/cha.html

Podagrica is a native of tropical America and had spread around the world as an ornamental. It gained some popularity or rather notoriety in the mid-1980s when some unscrupulous plant traders saw their similarity to the Korean ginseng root and passed podagrica as ginseng.

We first encountered podagrica in the early 1980s when I was duped into buying a growing plant for a hefty P500.00 where the dollar exchange rate was about 1:16. Not content with the seller's information, I dug into the archives of UP Los Banos when I had a chance to study there. I also saw a specimen growing in the herbarium and immediately I inquired from the person in charge to confirm my research. Podagrica indeed is a cousin of j. curcas and contain the same levels of curcin.

To quote http://www.plantoils.in/portal/jatropha/abo/cha/cha.html: Poisoning from ingestion of the seeds of the Jatropha plant is well known in veterinary practice and autopsy findings include, severe gastro-enteritis, nephritis, myocardial degeneration, haemagglutination, and subepicardial and subendocardial haemorrhages as well as renal subcortical and subpleural bleeding.

In some instances, one gets poisoned with as few as three seeds eaten. The plant's swollen body or vasculum emits sap which contains curcin. This swollen body of the plant is popular among the uninformed users who extract the sap by putting this inside a liquor bottle and pouring in brandy or whisky, steeping the roots and body for a few weeks before drinking it just like the practice with Korean ginseng.

“One study found a high mortality rate in mice fed 50% and 40% J. curcas. The important symptoms of poisoning included diarrhoea, inability to keep normal posture, depression and lateral recumbency. The degree of the pathological changes observed in the small intestines, liver, heart, kidneys, and lungs was related to the level of Jatropha in the diet. The most marked pathological changes were catarrhal enteritis, erosions of the intestinal mucosa, congestion and haemorrhages in small intestines, heart and lungs and fatty changes in the liver and kidneys.”

The Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health should look into these things where exotic plants and animals are introduced into the city and province as ornamentals and pets without some studies as to their effects and implication not only to the environment but to the health and economy of the people.

By the way, the said booth was also advertising their peanut products to contain ginseng. We hope that they had bought Korean Ginseng powder to add to their peanuts and did not extract the sap of the podagrica. If it is the latter, DOH and DTI should act on this and order the said enterprise to cease and desist from further adding podagrica as a major ingredient.

As Aesop once wrote: a little learning is a dangerous thing!

CLIMATE GOING HAYWIRE

Rains in March, long dry spell from June to August, cold days and nights from January to April when before it should have been October to January! These are only few of the phenomena that we are suffering from. We farmers are at our wits end because we planted according to cropping patterns we were familiar with for the last 20 years. Now suddenly our watermelons and mangoes were hit and we are losing millions of pesos.

Agricultural Technician Ramon Sacenal is a case in point. As a technician of the Office of the Provincial Agriculture Office, he knows his cropping patterns like the back of his hand. For years he is also a watermelon farmer, leasing rice land for the second crop (from October to May) to plant watermelons. He and his wife, a rice retailer co-invest in watermelons where Ramon takes out a low interest loan either from GSIS or from his cooperative. In previous years, this venture was highly profitable but this yer, he lost a lot of money. At the maximum fruiting stage in late January to mid-February this year, rains did not let up and severely damaged Ramon's crop where he expected a gross return of at least 5 times his investment. He followed up with a squash crop but again the rains did not stop so the squash plants were infested with mosaic disease that attacks when the air is humid and the leaves do not dry up at certain times of the day.

Mr. Sol Ahumada, another PAO technician, invested in his family's mango trees where he usually induces the flowers between November and December for a nice crop sometime in March or April. As usual, the flowers bloomed like crazy since Sol is the province's mango expert but since rains continued to fall in January to February, a major part of the fruits either fell or was attacked by both pests and diseases.

Sugarcane farmers meanwhile are rejoicing. Tonnage of their cane harvests is high but the purity or sweetness is affected. Nevertheless, they still enjoy a prosperous season mainly because of the price and demand for sugar. So does the rice and corn farmers. The availability of water has encouraged them to plant a relay crop without fear of water stress since even until now, rains fall regularly.

Marginal wetland farmers who plant a portion of their land to kangkong (Ipomea aquatica) as a daily source of income are happy these days too. Ordinarily, their kankong stands stop growing starting January but even this April, they continue to harvest daily because of the rains. Their income stream from kangkong is still regular.

This erratic climate creates confusion. It also makes people hesitate to invest especially in farming. For the big farmers, it may be okay to take the risk, but for the marginal ones, to invest in a crop may mean hunger for the family in the next few months.

Erratic weather also creates fear of flood in the case of La Nina and brush fires during El Nino. Typhoon Frank is a case in point. In just 48 hours, the volume of rains that poured into Iloilo Province and City was equal to the volume that could have poured in 30 days that resulted to a flood never experienced before.

Worse things are to come yet, according to scientists. The gravity of damage done to earth has caused major changes in the climate patterns where regular weather occurrences cannot be plotted anymore. Even nature has started to cope. Plants that normally thrive in wetland conditions have started to survive with the least moisture. The sweet potato variety that I plant for its leaves can already survive with the least watering although I have to contend with its smaller leaves and tougher stems. My upland kangkong grows vigorously in wet conditions. I have lost my fig bushes because of the wet soils but my other fruit trees are doing well with a more than ordinary soil moisture.

One has to cope with these drastic changes. Like the organisms, plants and animals that coped and survived since the age of the dinosaur, we have to adapt and make major changes. Climate change is here and like the old saying, nothing is permanent except change.

DO DAY AGAINST DENGUE

Before Dengue has reached epidemic levels in Iloilo Province, Governor Arthur Defensor, Sr. has launched another Do Day Against Dengue and enlisted all sectors of society so that we may be able to contain the disease. The program which shall be led by the municipal governments, calls for a regular search and destroy operations on the possible breeding places of the Aedes Egyptii. The catholic church meanwhile signified its cooperation by agreeing to ring church bells province-wide at the designated time to create awareness and initiate the activities.

Let this Do Day be a comprehensive drive against the enemy, the virus and its vector, the Aedes Egypti mosquito. What we will search and destroy are the breeding areas of the mosquitoes and larvae which in this case are pools or even droplets of clean water. Let us also give the enemy a closer scrutiny, its life cycle, and, its niche in the ecosystem.

Information says that the Dengue virus becomes active and is carried by the said mosquito after seven days from the time it had bitten an infected person. Eggs of the mosquito is produced in about two days after mating. It is the female Aedes which bites because it needs the protein from the blood to develop the larva. The larva hatches in about 2 days more and will pupate in about 4 days. A set of male and female may lay up to 900 eggs.

Like any organism in the ecosystem, mosquitoes are also a part of the whole food chain. While the female feeds on animals (which include humans), the male feed on digestible plants, especially fruits. And like other animals, they too have their own predators. The adult are food for larger insects like spiders, dragonflies, frogs, toads and bats. The larva are fed on by fishes especially small ones like gobies, killi and guppies.

Any species multiply when food is available and when predators are absent. Mosquitoes react the same way. When the larvae in stagnant water are left to survive until the pupa stage and no other species feed on them during this period, the whole species multiply exponentially. So a pair of Aedes will become hundreds of Dengue-carrying horde in just a few days if left uncontrolled, simply because we thought that we humans have the burden to control their population. We seem to have forgotten that we are just a cog in the whole ecosystem. That for us to survive, the whole environment we live in should be self-sustaining and dynamic.

We also thought in the that the solution to the Dengue epidemic is simplistic or can be reduced to the basic equation where we alone are the key actors. We seem to have forgotten to enlist nature into our comprehensive fight against the dreaded disease. We forgot that for us to win over the horde of mosquitos that seem to have defeated us, we should have to mobilize our allies which are not of the human kind.

Maybe we should start evaluating our whole environment. Where have we gone wrong? In the process of striving for the so-called progress and development, haven't we destroyed our ecosystem? Look at how frogs, toads, lizards, swallows, sparrows and bats disappeared. For many, toads are just pesky jumping creatures. Bullfrogs are tasty beer partners. Bats are feared creatures because of the dracula fiction. They are also tasty food to some. So we have put it upon ourselves to exterminate them all.

Dragonflies are a tragic collateral damage in our effort to produce more food. A dragonfly kills about 30-50 mosquitoes daily. They die off because they have ingested poisoned insects or were directly hit by the chemical sprays when they foray for food.

A spider web can catch a substantial number of insects including mosquitoes everyday. Where insect population are many, the density of spider population explode exponentially too. But spiders too have become a hot commodity. What used to be a child's game has become a million peso gambling pastime. Thousands of spiders are gathered daily from May to September for spider fighting where aficionados bet thousands of pesos per fight. Incidentally, the spider season coincides with the period where Aedes Egypti is most prevalent.

So, have we noticed that swallows, bats and other small birds seem to have disappeared in the last 30 years or so? Have we asked ourselves why? Maybe it's the chemicals that we use to control the insect pests which incidentally are the main sources of food for these birds and bats. Maybe we have grossly destroyed their habitats in search for more land to grow crops or cleared the forest for timber and later on for hillside farming. Whatever reason we have, the bottom line is that in the name of progress, we have destroyed other species which could have helped us control these mosquitoes.

Several months ago when I first wrote a similar piece, I received feedback that some local Sanggunians have made resolutions banning the gathering of spiders for whatever purpose. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources likewise tightened its watch over these illegal activities. Good! But we should go one step further: there should be a wider program where even the imprudent use of agricultural chemicals should be monitored and sanctioned so that we can somehow reduce the damage done to mosquito predators. Also, we should encourage environment regeneration and farm integration so that we transcend from the mono-culture or mono-crop system which is doing more harm than good.

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River 15

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River 15: "By Peter G. JimeneaHole of Justice The internet enabled me to overcome the self-censorship of local papers which used to publish my columns...."

CATFISH GROWING TIPS FROM THE INTEGRATED FARMER

1. Buy your fingerlings from a reliable source. Be sure that the sizes are uniform so that you will minimize shooters or the fast growers which will cannibalize the other fingerlings. Use high quality catfish feed which has the right amount of protein and amino acids;
2. Alan no longer size his fingerlings but he feeds them ad libitum so that the fingerlings will not prey on the others;

3. 

   Catfish pond is surrounded by cardaba banana which were originally
   

    

   tissue-cultured
   

   
   

   
   

   Once the fingerlings reach a size were they can already eat chicken entrails and other protein sources, add these to their diet but they should first be cooked. Make friends with people who have sources of entrails and other protein sources. Use farm surplus as friendship tokens so that you can establish long term friendship that will allow you to get preference in limited supplies like chicken entrails;
4. Up to marketable or harvestible size, feed the catfish ad libitum so that they will no longer move about and “walk” during heavy rains;
5. Harvest when they have achieved 300 to 500 grams since after that the conversion rate is slow;
6. It is best to practice all in and all out then dry the ponds to avoid remnants feeding off the new batch of fingerlings;

HOG FINISHING TIPS FROM THE INTEGRATED FARMER

1.  Decide on which segment of the industry you will enter into, like finishing or piglet production. Allan chose finishing hogs because of the nature of his farm where he wants to spend more time in other crops and also use farm wastes to feed them. Have the right population so that you can sell regularly and earn money for family needs as well as for added investment in the farm;
2. Buy piglets only from reliable sources known for their fast growing breed. Choose crosses like Duroc x Large White for hybrid vigor. Choose healthy piglets which are of standard size and weights as per their age. They should also be fully vaccinated so that you will no longer spend for immunization;
3. Feed the pigs with the right ration until maximum growth stage is reached then you can add fruits and other high carbohydrate feeds to hasten finishing and add weight to the pigs. Added feeds from fruits and vegetables grown on the farm lessen the cost of commercial ration;
4. Compute the growing period of the finishers so that you can sell them at the right time without added feed expenses and thus maximize net income from the finishing operation;

PAPAYA PRODUCTION TIPS FROM THE INTEGRATED FARMER

1. Use only high quality seeds from the authorized retailers and distributors. Don't use F2 seeds of hybird papaya because they will be heterozygous and are susceptible to pests and diseases such as ring spot virus, mealy bugs, etc.;
2. Start seeds in seedling trays and transfer them to seedling bags at the right time for fast and maximum growth;
3. Fertilize regularly with the right kind of fertilizers so that the plants grow well and start flowering and fruiting as scheduled. Allan uses a mix of 16-16-16 and Urea during the maximum growing stage and 16-16-16 and 0-0-60 during the fruiting stage. He fertilizes about 50 grams per tree every 10-15 days;
4. Inspect plants daily for growth, water stress, pest and disease infestation and weed intrusion so that corrective measures are immediately undertaken. He floods the papaya fields weekly just before water stress manifests;
5. Isolate diseased and pest-infested plants as soon as detected to avoid spread of diseases and pests. Quarantine diseased areas and disinfect immediately;
6. Harvest when fruits are mature green with just streaks of yellow on the bottom so that they will keep longer. Fruits that are ripe and from diseased plants should immediately be removed from the field. Allan gives the ripe fruits to his finisher pigs and disposes of the left over peels so that fruit flies are controlled;