Filipino talent may steer Japanese shipper to long-term growth

YASUHIRO MORIZONO, Nikkei staff writer

NYK Line is fostering future captains and chief engineers in the Philippines.

TOKYO -- Many Japanese companies are keen to globalize their payrolls. They see this as their ticket to surviving ever fiercer international competition, though finding the right people can be a challenge.

     Nippon Yusen, a major Japanese shipping company known as NYK Line, is convinced it has found a treasure trove of talent: the Philippines.

     The company recently promoted a Filipino employee to the post of captain on a liquefied natural gas carrier. The 37-year-old had worked as an NYK Line sailor for nearly two decades. Now he is responsible for transporting LNG from Qatar to Japan.

     The company entered the LNG shipping business in 1983. It sees the fuel as its cash cow of the future. It has had Filipino captains and chief engineers on other types of vessels, but never before on an LNG carrier, which is considered a top-level gig. In another recent first, a Filipino landed a chief engineer post on an LNG ship. 

     Koichi Akamine, NYK Line's senior managing corporate officer, admits he "never imagined we would have a Filipino captain and a Filipino chief engineer."

Diverse to a point

Japan's shipping sector has long been more diverse than certain other industries. This is because shippers were hit by globalization and its undulations very early. After the Plaza Accord was signed in 1985 to correct the U.S. dollar's excessive strength, the yen shot up against the greenback.

     This had a major impact on shipping companies' cost structures, pushing them to make drastic job cuts. Japanese sailors bore the brunt of those cuts. Since then, the industry has been determined to curb expenses, the result being a reliance on workers from countries where labor costs are lower.

     In the case of the Philippines, sailors there are considered highly skilled. They are also proficient in English and generally willing to accept long voyages. NYK Line established a sailor training and management company in the country in 1989. A quarter-century on, Filipinos now account for 75% of NYK Line's roughly 20,000 sailors. 

     Despite the international makeup of crews, transport companies have been slow to bring non-Japanese into the management fold. But times change.

     NYK Line is now not only hiring in the Philippines, it is actively nurturing future captains and engineers.

Seafaring studies

In 2007, NYK Line set up a nautical college near Manila. The four-year boarding school's curriculum is a mix of academic study and shipboard training. There is a strong emphasis on discipline. 

     The first group of graduates emerged in 2011. The annual number of grads is expected to increase from about 120 now to 180 in 2017.

     The LNG business is a pillar of NYK Line's growth strategy. It is expected to generate stable profits over the long term. The company currently has a fleet of 67 LNG carriers and plans to add over 30 more within the next five years. 

     Filipino employees are sure to play a major role in seeing the company's strategy through.

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10 plants Manilans can grow for their kitchen

by Zac Sarian

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In these times of belt-tightening, it makes sense for people to grow something for their own kitchen. Even Manilans who may have limited space where they live can grow their favorite plants for home use.

Here are some that are very easy to grow. And useful, too.

105.  OREGANO. This is an herb that is prized for its culinary and health attributes. It provides pleasing flavor to foods and at the same time it is claimed to have curative properties, not only for humans but also for farm animals. This plant can be easily propagated by means of cutting. It can be grown in an ordinary pot or similar container. Soil that is rich in organic matter is best for growing. Situate the plant in partial shade.

106.  LEMON GRASS. It is easy to grow lemon grass in a pot or in the ground. Propagation is by division. It is widely used in cooking sinigang or nilagang karne; it is used as stuffing for lechon; it is provides flavor in juice drinks; it is claimed to have anti-cancer properties. In farming or gardening, it is planted to repel insects attacking surrounding crops.

107.  PECHAY AND OTHER LEAFY GREENS. You can grow pechay and other leafy greens in discarded basins, pots, or even in soda bottles. Dr. Eduardo Paningbatan Jr., a scientist from UP Los Baños, has come up with a technique to grow healthy leafy greens in halved soda bottles, including pechay, lettuce, mustard, and many others. He has a special liquid nutrient for the plants. The plants in soda bottles can be hung in any appropriate place around the home.

108.  TENDER CAMOTE TOPS. Zacamote is a sweet potato that was developed purposely for its tender tops. It is very nutritious and also very easy to grow. It can grow in the ground or in a container. Cuttings are very quick to root. Cuttings planted in a rich soil will be ready for initial harvesting in a mater of two or three weeks. This columnist can share free planting materials to those who visit our farm in Teresa, Rizal.

109.  LAGIKWAY. This is a native shrub which is very easy to grow in a container or in the ground. It is also very easy to multiply by cuttings. The young leaves are used in cooking broth dishes. The leaves can be used to wrap fish pinangat. The leaves can also be made into tempura.

Lagikway is commonly grown in Quezon and in many places in the Visayas and Mindanao. We have seen households in Dinagat Island which have a few plants in their yards.

110. ALUGBATI. This is a favorite of Ilonggos for cooking their mungo dish. It is about the easiest plant to grow in a container or direct in the ground. Cuttings are usually used for propagation. However, seeds are also used. Young shoots from seed-grown alugbati are said to be very delicious. Simple stir-frying is a fast way of cooking alugbati.

111.   PANDAN MABANGO. This has a number of uses in the home. Its leaves are used in cooking rice to make the rice aromatic. It is also used to flavor meats as in pandan chicken. Also buko pandan.  It is also used as air-freshener in air-conditioned cars. Propagation is easy by separating suckers. This plant will tolerate even waterlogged conditions.

112.  CALAMANSI. This is a very useful small fruit for making juice drinks, for adding flavor to pansit, for enhancing the flavor of the soy sauce used for dipping fried or broiled fish and meat.

You can have enough supply of calamansi fruits if you grow a couple of grafted trees in containers. Just provide adequate organic and chemical fertilizers. Situate the plants in full sun. Spray Power Grower Combo to induce heavy flowering and fruiting.

113.  INDIAN BLACK PEPPER. You can also grow theeee Indian variety of black pepper – Paniyur. This produces long fruit spikes that are very pungent. Rooted cuttings can be attached a tree trunk. It can even attach itself to a concrete wall that is partially shaded. If you want a dwarf fruiting black pepper, marcot a fruiting branch. This will remain low-growing and fruitful in a pot or similar container.

114.   MIRACLE FRUIT. Plant something that is a curiosity in your home. Grow the Miracle Fruit in a pot or container. This is a very decorative plant and there is also something mysterious about its berries. If you chew its thin flesh and then you eat something sour, that something sour will taste very sweet for at least 30 minutes. Examples: sour mango, calamansi or some other sour fruits will taste sweet after chewing the miracle berry’s flesh.

There you are, don’t say that if live are in Manila you can’t grow anything because of limited space. If there is a will, there’s no way you cannot grow something of value.

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Hot Moro sauce sells like hot cakes in Tawi-Tawi, Sabah

Julie S. AlipalaInquirer Mindanao

Simunul’s pride. Hot Moro a chili product produced by Simunul farmers in Tawitawi.

BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—Hot Moro sells like hot cakes here and in neighboring Sabah in Malaysia.

But that has nothing to do with human trafficking.

According to Simunul Mayor Nazif Ahmad Abdurahman, Hot Moro is the label of a homegrown dried, crushed or powdered chili product.

Abdurahman said Simunul farmers started planting different varieties of Philippine chili three years ago to meet the high demand in the province’s 307 islets.

“With us Muslims, whatever tribe we may be, our meal is not complete without chilies,” Abdurahman said in an interview.

More profitable

Hadji Faisal Malande, a farmer and now the general manager of Simunul Economic Enterprise (SEE), said farmers started by intercropping chili with coconut.

“Then they realized that they make more money from chili than coconut,” he said.

At the Simunul port, buyers wait for farmers to bring their freshly harvested chili, locally known as lara. These are immediately shipped to Sabah, Malaysia.

In mainland Bongao, a kilogram of fresh chili is priced at P300. During lean months, the price goes up to P700 per kilogram.

Need to organize

Simunul, an island town with a land area of 10,390 hectares, has 14 barangays (villages) and a population of 38,239.

According to Abdurahman, Simunul’s sandy loam soil is ideal for chili farming. Three months ago, the local government of Simunul started processing their chili, bringing in more profits for the farmers,

“All we need to do is to organize the farmers. Right now, it’s a loose group of farmers,”the mayor said.

Numbering about 200, Simunul farmers produce 800 kg of chili per month, Malande said.

P500 per bag

A bag of chili seeds is priced at P500.

“Besides, we can use mature dried fruits for seedlings. We sell 75 percent of the produce and keep the 25 percent for seedlings,” Malande said.

At the first international business conference held last week by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Malande, Abdurahman and other chili growers showcased their Hot Moro chili to visitors. That earned good feedback from regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

Hataman has committed to pour in P1 million for chili production in Simunul.

Abdurahman said the chili growers planned to acquire more equipment like a grinder, crusher and solar drier.

Originally posted: 3:01 pm | Monday, June 23rd, 2014

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Turning farmers into entrepreneurs

by Zac Sarian
June 18, 2014

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We have often seen seed companies putting up demo farms to teach the farmers how they can grow the seeds that they are distributing. That is also being done by government agencies in teaching farmers how to grow rice or corn properly.

Now, we have been told that a supplier of chemical inputs and seeds is changing its strategy. Instead of just teaching the farmers how to plant their hybrid rice, it is going to teach them to become farmer entrepreneurs.

That is a good idea because that will make the farmers exploit the opportunities that are just sitting around. That could make them more competitive in the marketplace.

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WILD FINGER BANANA – This a hand of Cavendish banana that is usually referred to as ‘wild finger’ in the trade. It is a case of the individual fruits or fingers not properly aligned. The variety that produces a lot of wild fingers is being avoided by planters because it is the cause of rejects in the export market. Hands with wild finger have to be ‘clustered’ or separated into clusters of at least five fingers per cluster in order to be accepted in the export market, according to an export manager from Davao del Norte.

What are some of the things that could be taught to the farmers so that they will regard farming as a business?

RECORD KEEPING – One of the things that could be taught to the farmers is keeping records of many things. A record of the date they plant a certain crop, for instance. A record of how many days a certain crop will be ready for harvest. A record of how many bags of fertilizer (at how much) were applied to the rice crop during one season. And so on.

The farmer could record all the cash expenses and then the total sales. With that record, he could easily tell if he is making money or is losing money.

He could make comparisons of his expenses and income from different crops that he is growing. Then he will know which crop is more profitable to grow. Then he will know what crop he should focus his efforts on.

One person who has kept his records on actual production cost and total sales of his organic pig production project is Jess Domingo of Alfonso Lista, Ifugao. As a topnotch accountant who gave up his corporate job to become a farmer entrepreneur, he kept track of his expenses on feeds, weanlings, labor, electricity and water.

Because of his accurate recording and computation of expenses, he readily saw that organic pig production is very profitable. The reason? He has come up with a fermented feed formulation that costs almost three times less than the cost of the commercial feed in the market. Now he is ready to expand his organic piggery.

Because of Domingo’s actual recording of the cost of producing a piglet for fattening, he breeds his own sows so he can produce his own piglets for fattening. By his own computation, it costs him only about P675 to produce a piglet for fattening. If he were to buy from an outside source, he would be paying about P2,500 per piglet. That means he actually saves P1,825 per piglet by producing his own weanling for fattening.

MARKETING – Marketing strategies are what the experts can teach the farmers. Timing of production for an identified market can result in a profitable farming operation.

For instance, the farmer is aware of a big farming expo which could be staged by the government or by the private sector. Just like Agrilink which is usually held in the first or second week of each October. This is a market where the farmer can produce ahead of time what he could sell during the big event.

One example is Ernesto Abalos who prepared for his bestseller last year. He produced a lot of Paraoakan chickens, mature and small ones. He prepared a lot of roosters for sale because he anticipated that gamefowl breeders would like to purchase some for their own breeding operations. And he was right.

He also prepared a lot of female layers because he knew raisers of native chickens are looking for Paraoakan for free-range raising. He was after those who want to produce native chicken for meat. And also for eggs because there is a growing market for native chicken eggs.

VALUE OF CLUSTERING – Farmers could also be taught about the value of what is often termed as clustering. The farmers form a cluster (or a cooperative) so that all of them will benefit. As a group, they can more easily ask for assistance from the Department of Agriculture, for instance. As a group, they can procure their inputs at more reasonable prices. Suppliers of inputs provide discounts for volume purchases. As a group, they can also market their produce together so that they can ask for the right price.

VALUE OF SAVING AND INVESTING – The trainors can also teach the farmers the value of saving and investing what they earn.

We remember a couple who got married right after finishing high school and were given a one-hectare land to cultivate by the parents of the groom. They planted corn and saved all the income from their first crop. For their daily needs, the man purchased ice candy from the town and peddled the same in his barrio.

The saving was used to rent a piece of land so they can produce more corn and save more money. When they had saved enough, they bought more land. Some owners also mortgaged to them their properties, which eventually became their own also.

After several years, the couple had become owners of more than ten hectares. And they also became financiers. Townmates who needed money to buy inputs went to the couple for loans payable after harvest. Then they also became distributors of farming inputs which they supplied to the farmers who went to them for a loan.

The woman was also able to put up her own little grocery in their barangay. They have become farmer-entrepreneurs.

Actually, there so many other things that the farmers can be taught so they will become successful farm entrepreneurs.

For your retirement and other real estate needs, please visit http://www.gregmelep.com.

What’s new in fertilizers

by Zac Sarian
June 20, 2014

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The good thing about scientists is that they continue to come up with products for the farm that make farming easier and more profitable.

Did you know, for instance, that you can now incorporate in the corn seed that you plant the fertilizer it needs for its early growth stage? Now, you don’t have to apply basal fertilizer before planting the seeds. This simplifies the work of the farmer. Which could mean less work and expense, and the fertilizer could be more effective, too.

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ROMAINE LETTUCE GROWN IN AN ABOVE-GROUND BED – At the Costales Nature Farms, crop production is maximized by utilizing every available space. Just like this long bed of Romaine lettuce. The beautifully growing lettuce plants are planted in a long bed constructed about a meter above a waterway along the boundary of the property. The bottom of the planting bed is lined with plastic to hold the rich organic growing medium. The farm is famous for its leafy salad greens that it supplies to an upscale restaurant chain in Metro Manila. It is also producing organic pork, eggs and poultry meat.

Cristoper Pile, a good friend who used to be with a seed company, explained to us the latest developments in fertilizers. He is now a ranking technical man of a big fertilizer company, Yara Fertilizer Philippines.

Yara Vita Teprosyn is the name of a liquid that is used to coat the corn seeds for planting. Only 150 ml is needed to coat the seeds for one hectare. The coating contains 14.6 percent nitrogen, 24.3 percent potassium and 29 percent zinc. This has a starter effect which is very important in corn production. An international seminar we once attended stressed that the first 45 days of the corn plant is the most important stage of growth so that the best care should be provided at this stage.

ANOTHER NEW FORMULATION — Mila Actyva is another new formulation that Yara has introduced in the market, especially for rice, according to Pile. He emphasized that the current practice in conventional rice farming is for the farmer to mix together different fertilizer formulations for topdressing rice. He could mix 14-14-14 with urea and 16-20-0 to achieve a balanced fertilization.

With Mila Actyva, the three major fertilizer elements are incorporated in each grain. And the interesting part is that Mila Actyva’s nitrogen content comes in two forms which is advantageous.

The first is in nitrate form. This means that the nitrogen is available to the plant immediately. The second is in ammonium form. This has to be converted into nitrate form before the plant will be able to absorb it. This will serve as the food of the plant after the nitrate form has been exhausted. This means the rice plant has a steady supply of nitrogen from start to a later stage.

The phosphorus in Actyva is also in three forms so that the supply to the plant is continuous. The first form is orthophosphate form which is the form that is readily absorbed by the plant.

The next is polyphosphate form which is available after the orthophosphate is finished. The last form is the dicalcium phosphate form which is the latest to be made available to the plant.

Cris Pile claims that the Actyva does not make the soil acidic. Also, compared to urea, Actyva is much better because in the course of applying urea in the field, about 50% of the nutrients is lost to the atmosphere.

By the way, Cris Pile will soon be writing about balanced crop nutrition in the monthly Agriculture Magazine published by the Manila Bulletin which is edited by yours truly.

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DON’T MISS THE AANI FARM TOUR — Participants in the AANI Farm Tour on Sunday, June 29, will visit three interesting destinations. First to be visited is the modern Alaminos Goat Farm of Rene Almeda and his sons Totie and Art in Alaminos, Laguna.  The farm boasts of a fine herd of Saanen milk goats as well as purebred and crosses of Anglo Nubian and Boer breeds.

The other destinations are the  Mapecon plant also in Alaminos, Laguna and the Ato Belen Farm in San Pablo City.

Attendees can reserve at the AANI store at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City or at the AANI Weekend Market at the FTI in Taguig City.

For your retirement and other real estate needs, please visit http://www.gregmelep.com.

Promising variant vs banana wilt

by Zac Sarian
June 13, 2014

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Researchers and farmers are particularly paying attention to one tissue-cultured variant of Giant Cavendish banana that is being field-tested in Mindanao against the very destructive Fusarium Wilt of Cavendish banana.

This is the GCTCV 106, one of seven variants from Taiwan that is under trial in ten farmers’ fields in Davao City and further north. Last June 10-11, we joined the monitoring team from the government institutions that visited test-farms planted to the variants in August 2013 which have begun to bear fruit.

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MONITORING FIELD TRIAL PLANTINGS OF PROMISING BANANA VARIANTS – A monitoring team visited banana plantations in Mindanao to check on the performance of selected tissue-cultured Cavendish banana variants that are being field-tested for their resistance to the very destructive Fusarium Wilt disease. This disease, also called Panama wilt disease, is progressively infecting banana plantations in Mindanao. It is not only destructive to Cavendish bananas but also to lakatan and latundan varieties. Photo shows Gretchen Nas (front, left) interviewing Jayson Milan of the GEA Farm in New Corella, Davao del Norte. With her are team members from the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) headed by Prof. Belly Dionio and Dr. Lorna Herradura of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) in Davao City.

SHORT-STATURED — At the De los Reyes farm in Tamugan, Marilog district in Davao City, Maximo Cosgafa is very impressed with the performance of GCTCV 106. Aside from its high resistance to Fusarium Wilt, it is short-statured compared to the Grand Naine variety that is currently grown commercially.

The fruit bunch is just about breast-high so that harvesting is very convenient. So is maintenance of the banana plants. Another good characteristic of 106 is that it has very good bunch and hand formation. The individual fruits or fingers are well arranged, which means there are less rejects in the export market. The so-called ‘wild fingers’ or hands with fingers that are not aligned have to be made into clusters of at least five fingers to be accepted in the export market.

The same observation was made in the plantation of the Mampising Carp Beneficiaries Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MCB-MPC) in New Corella, Davao del Norte. The GCTCV 106 plants are short-statured and also produce bunches and hands with very good formation.

INFESTED FIELDS — We also visited the 80-hectare banana plantation of GEA Farm, also in New Corella. The seven banana variants were planted in areas that were previously abandoned due to heavy infection with Fusarium Wilt. Just the same, the seven variant varieties showed very minimal infection.

Actually, GCTCV 106 is the third variant to be observed as very promising by the researchers and planters. Earlier, No.219 and 218 were field-tested and were considered very good candidates for commercial planting.

GCTCV 219 was the first to be planted in commercial scale in farmers’ field through the efforts of Dr. Agustin Molina of Bioversity International and the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Department of Agriculture. Bioversity International is a global research organization that is very much involved in bananas aside from other crops.

At the GEA Farm where 4,000 GCTCV 219 plantlets were planted more than two years ago, the second generation plants are said to be showing a high degree of tolerance or resistance to the Fusarium wilt. Out of the 4,000 second generation plants, only one incidence of Fusarium Wilt infection has been observed.

GCTCV 218 will soon be planted in bigger areas through the funding of the Philippine Council For Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD).

Meanwhile, the PCAARRD is funding the further field trial in farmers’ fields of the seven GCTCVs, including No. 219 and No.218, with a P35-million budget. It is being implemented with the joint efforts of the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) in Davao City and the Bureau of Plant Industry also in Davao City.

Aside from the Nos. 219, 218 and 106, four other variants are included in the field trials in ten farms. These are Nos. 105, 119, 215 and 247. In this particular research project, the purpose is to discover “Science and Technology Management Approaches Against Fusarium Wilt on Cavendish in Mindanao.”

THREE COMPONENTS — Aside from adaptability trial of the variant plants, the second component is the development of biological control strategies. The third component is assessment and distribution of Fusarium Wilt incidence. It has been reported that at least 5,000 hectares of Cavendish plantations have been affected by the disease and 3,000 hectares of which have been totally abandoned.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GCTCVs — Since the resistant variants can be planted in wilt-infected soils, the small farmers who cannot afford to buy new land for planting bananas can plant their farms with the resistant variants. They don’t have to buy or rent new areas to grow their banana crops.

Although the multinational companies do have the funds to relocate their plantations, they too can be benefited by the resistant variants. Among those who are deeply involved in the implementation of the field trials of the seven variants are Dr. Jocelyn E. Eusebio of PCAARRD’s crops research division; Dr. Lorna Herradura of the BPI who heads the field trials, and Prof. Belly Dionio of USEP who heads the biocontrol component of the project.

At the Mabini Campus of USEP, Cecirly G. Puig showed us greenhouses where plants that were intentionally infected with Fusarium Wilt are being grown in plastic pots using different biocontrol agents either singly or in combination with one another.These biocontrol agents are trichoderma, VAM (vascular arbovascular mycorrhiza) and EM or effective microorganism.

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