Food Crisis Series 30 Be Sure the Food You Eat is Safe

 Food Crisis Series 30

Be Sure the Food You Eat is Safe

Dr Abe V Rotor

Pinapaitan and kilawin (goat's meat cooked with grass cud extract or papait, and medium rare, respectively) are a specialty among Ilocanos.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Auntie Basang was fond of seafoods. She would meticulously clean any marine fish, crab, shell or seaweed, and warn any onlooker, “Watch out for kuret.” 

The innocent-looking parasitic crab lives between the gill blades of big fishes and crabs, and who would think of it as a deadly creature? Herbolarios at that time were quick to attribute sudden deaths among seafood eaters to kuret, and it must be for this reason that the term gained notoriety. 

 "Di ka pay la coma ma-kuret!" (May the kuret get you!) is a cruel joke and it is actually a curse. "Sin contrition," the town 's religious folk would add to emphasize the sure and quick nature of kuret poisoning. 

There was an actual case of crab poisoning in Zamboanga del Norte. The culprit is one of the many poisonous crabs found on Philippine rocky shores. All the five members of a family died soon after eating "kumong kumong" (Zozymus aennus L). The description fits the kind of crab that claimed the lives of a Japanese couple a few years earlier. 

Crab poisoning

Crab poisoning is characterized by numbness of the lips, tip of the tongue and paralysis of the limbs, which the victim experiences fifteen minutes to a few hours after ingesting the poison. Intense vomiting ensues. Reddish swellings on the abdomen appear. Breathing becomes difficult, and soon the victim becomes unconscious. Respiratory failure follows. Death takes place in four to six hours, earlier among children. Other than local remedies like induced vomiting, there is no known effective antidote to crab poisoning. 

"Even dogs and pigs which eat the scraps are not spared," the old folks claim. 

There is another kind of poisoning that shows the same deadly punch: mushroom poisoning, and it too, has no antidote. In Gatid, Sta. Cruz (Laguna), this writer encountered patches of wild mushrooms suspected to be Amanita, a deadly kind. Some books say if you find the stipe (stem) wearing a ring, and the gills are black, it is believed to be poisonous. The best advice is not to take chances. Eat only the known edible species.

Ethnic Food 

There are poisonous plants and animals that occur naturally. But there are ethnic societies who have learned to remove the poisons they contain, thereby eating the foods without apparent harm. One example is nami (Dioscorea hispida), a relative of ubi and tugui'. Hispidine is the poisonous material that can be extracted by means of repeated washing. Some natives use dogs to test the safety of the produce. 

The field of ethnobotany and ethnozoology covers interesting studies on how the natives deal with poisonous plants and animals as food. These may be from snakes and puffer fish to wild gabi and cassava. 

There is a technique in cooking cassava (Manihot utilissima) to minimize its cyanide content. The tuber is cleaned and cut into pieces, then boiled with the pot cover removed to allow the deadly cyanogas to escape with the steam. 

By the way, storing cassava tuber should be avoided because the cyanide that is concentrated in the bark spreads onto the tuber. This is noticeable by the yellowish stain on the tuber. However, this is not readily noticeable in the case of the yellow or glutinous varieties of cassava.

Fish Allergy

The blood of the tangingi fish is first drained before it is cut and cooked. There are people who are allergic to this kind of fish. A case of fish allergy involved an 11-year old boy, the author's youngest son, who ate a lot of talakitok fish eggs. Four hours after eating, he could hardly breathe, his eyes were virtually shut, reddish spots swarmed all over his body. He was immediately given an antihistamine injection. It took him one week to recover. 

Symptoms of food poisoning from natural toxins appear to have similar patterns, with mortality rates dependent on the kind and amount of poison involved. When Red Tide first appeared in the early 1980s, in Maqueda Bay in Western Samar, there was very little knowledge about Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP). This poison accumulates in tahong (green mussel) and talaba (oyster) without causing them harm. There were reported deaths due to eating tahong during the red tide season. The poison affects the nerves, muscles, and probably the brain. 

Our major bays have had experiences with red tide crippling the shellfish industry for sometime. The Department of Health, in cooperation with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, ban harvesting and selling of marine shellfish when the Red Tide season is severe. This usually happens late in the summer when the early rains wash down nitrates and phosphates coming from the uplands on their way to the sea. High sunlight intensity and long days favor the bloom of these microorganisms. During this period, the shellfish ingest the microscopic dinoflagellates (Pyrodinium bahamense compressa) (PHOTO) in seemingly unending appetite. In biology this is called luxury feeding, a compensation mechanism among sessile organisms to store as much energy in their bodies while there is food available. 

Symptoms of Red Tide Poisoning 

1. Numbness is felt on the lips and tongue. 

2. Speech is affected. 

3. Numbness extends to the hands.

4. There is difficulty in breathing. 

5. If the poisoning is severe the victim suffers of general paralysis 

6. Cardiac arrest ensues.

An antidote to red tide poisoning has been developed by the Department of Health. But in remote areas, like Samar in the Visayas region, a folk remedy is to induce vomiting and excretion of the toxin by giving the patient a lot of coconut extract (gata). 

Reference: The Living with Nature Handbook by AVR, UST Publishing House, Manila

Food Crisis Series 31: Golden Homesite Plan of Ed Nanquil

 Food Crisis Series 31: 

Golden Homesite Plan of Ed Nanquil 

The homesite supplies food for the family and immediate community. It provides a healthy environment for growing up and for spending the golden years of life.  It is a workshop, a place to learn, enjoy, reflect and meditate with nature.   

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Golden Homesite Plan was submitted by Mr Ed Nanquil to Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School on Air) as an assignment.  Its vivid presentation touches six (6) interrelated lessons, namely:

 

1. Homesite 1000 sq m area or equivalent to 1 mu, average farm size in China extensively cultivated to sustain more than the needs of the family, but for the market as well. Recommended particularly for those preparing to retire, and retirees, thus the name - Golden Homesite. 

2. Integration - horizontal (crops by season spread year round), and vertical (multi-storey cropping, thus a 1000 sq m area is equivalent to 2000 up to 5000 sq m effective area, depending on the "layers" of crops raised at a given time. Depends greatly on multiple cropping and crop rotation technology, and non-cash inputs.  Tri-commodity approach (crops, animals and fish) .

3. Self-sufficiency target in food of farm products (fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry and livestock), as well as garden products (flowers and herbals). Model applies to both urban and rural setting. 

4. Agro-ecology - unity and harmony of farming and environmental conservation,  underlying principle of sustainable productivity. Include recycling (composting), natural farming (least use of chemical-based input, and non-GMO plants and animals), optimum, instead of maximum utilization of the land, thus allowing it to fallow or rest.  

5. Bahay Kubo concept functionally modified to meet present conditions. Reliance on local resources (bamboo, nipa, coco lumber), homesite and house design (trees as windbreak and shade, pond cools the surroundings, natural ventilation).  Homesite is also a wildlife sanctuary, helps restore threatened and endangered species of plants, birds, others. 

6. Strengthen family bond, restrains migration to the city, upholds Filipino dignity and promotes indigenous culture. The homesite provides a healthy environment for growing up and for spending the golden years of life, it is a workshop, a place to learn, enjoy, reflect and meditate.   

Acknowledgement: Mr Ed Nanquil. (Sorry for misspelled name in earlier publication.)   More power to you!

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) Dr Abe V Rotor and Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Food Crisis Series 32: Are you living an austere life? A Self-evaluation, 25 items

 Food Crisis Series 32: 

Are you living an austere life?

A Self-evaluation, 25 items

Dr Abe V Rotor

Austerity is practiced where there is not much money, so that money is spent only on things that are necessary. It is a condition of ​living without ​unnecessary things; a ​practice,​habit, or ​experience of living with limited resources. Austerity is a necessary economic tool of survival - and recovery - during difficult times such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, as a policy guide of governments. On the brighter side, austerity is regarded as a virtue in the light of freeing oneself from the clutches of ostentatious and luxurious living.

Austere living keeps families closer, bonding them into a clan, a collective way to enjoy life with the least amenities, devoid of ostentatious show of wealth. Answer Yes to items you are presently practicing and/or those which you agree with.

A typical Filipino clan 

1. You would rather buy things in bulk (paint, cooking oil, rice), or by the dozens (eggs, soft drinks) for ready supply at home, particularly these days when prices are increasing and supply is unpredictable.

2. You keep these tools and materials which you personally use now and then in various handiwork such as house repairs and gardening: a pair of pliers, hammer, set of screw driver, nails and screws, GI wires, electrical tester, and the like.

3. You would rather have your laundry and ironing once a week rather than daily or every other day, scheduling it usually on a weekend, thus saving precious water and electricity, and getting more helping hands from the family.

4. As a general policy of any state, the government should pursue a self sufficiency program in food, particularly staple (rice and corn) as the best way to insure food security, even if there is adequate supply in the world market.

5. In economics, austerity is when a national government reduces its spending in order to pay back creditors. Austerity is usually required when a government’s fiscal deficit spending is felt to be unsustainable. Austerity must cut down spending on development projects (countryside development funds from pork barrel), welfare and other social programs (subsidies and charitable expenditures).

Simple dining

7. The best way to save money is to set aside immediately a part of your salary, say 20 percent, and budget strictly the 80 percent. This is more effective than setting 20 percent after having budgeted and spent 80 percent of your salary.

8. You participate in the informal economy just like the farmer’s wife who goes to market to sell farm products and comes back with various household supplies. This is contemporary barter system. This is entrepreneurship on the grassroots.

9. Food supplementation reduces our dependence on conventional food, discovery of new food sources like seaweeds, wild food plants, as well as the discovery of new ways to prepare food comes at the heels of austere living. Hamburger from banana flower (puso), roasted rice for coffee or roasted corn, papait vegetable, sea cucumber, kuhol, the many uses of gabi, substitution of wheat flour with rice flour. Substitution of staple food with root crops (camote, cassava) to save on precious rice.

10. Postharvest losses reduces our supply, in fact to one-half, that by saving even only 10 percent of what is wasted, would be sufficient to fill up our annual deficit in rice and corn. Austerity is reducing our waste on all levels – production, post production, food preparation.

11. Austerity is the most practical weapon to fight obesity. It means avoidance of junk food, moderation in eating, and consumption of natural food. It is also favorable to health. Less kidney trouble, liver ailment, cardiac problem, high blood pressure. It means less hospital cases, cancer, ulcers, less alcohol consumption, etc. Austerity means natural beauty, good fit, good stride, and happy disposition.

12. There are more and more good schools in the provinces and chartered cities. We would rather send our children in these schools for practical reasons.

13. Grains would rather be used directly as food and lessen the amount of using them in producing animal protein by feeding the grains to poultry and animals. By doing this we maximize the value of food and make them available to ordinary people.

14. Israel as an emerging new state adopted an austerity program lasting for 10 years (1949-1959). When USSR collapsed, Cuba adopted an austerity policy (1991 onwards) to be able to survive as an “orphaned socialist” state. Austerity is aimed at attaining self-reliance at a time of crisis.

15. Private banks or institutions like IMP may require a country pursues an austerity policy if it wants to re-finance loans that are about to come due. The government may be asked to stop issuing subsidies or to otherwise reduce public spending. We call this as “IMF conditionality.”

16. People’s power – the cry of the first EDSA Revolution – fizzled out because the newly acquired empowerment was not used put to proper use as evidenced by unsuccessful cooperative movement, agrarian reform which turned out to be confrontational between right of property and right of tillage, rampant and blatant graft and corruption in the government, declined productivity in agriculture and industry, spread of poverty. 

17. Family planning refers to limiting the number as well as proper spacing of your children. If there is a sin of commission or omission, there is also a sin of neglect – and if that neglect is within the knowledge of the sinner, and the consequence is the ruin of the lives of those under his care as parent, atonement is almost unthinkable.

18. It is easier to meet our needs than our wants to most people although to many, affluence is pursue even before needs are met.

19. Youth today are torn between choices of white collar jobs and blue collar jobs. They are lured to easy education – diploma mill, and on the modern method of leaning on the computer which actually does not offer an “end course” that makes one a professional like a doctor, lawyer, agriculturist, and the like. Austerity calls for a re-definition of courses that are functional in nature and p[practical in application, and relevant to the changing times.

20. Limits to growth come like a moving vehicle suddenly running out of fuel, its tires worn-out and flat, engine conking out, while the road is getting rougher, narrower and steeper. Austerity is applying the brakes before all of these happen. It is anticipating the limits to growth, before it turns against you.

People for manpower turning overpopulation, unemployment
Industrial growth turning out pollution
Agriculture causing erosion, siltation; invading wildlife
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Austerity brings awareness, it gives us time to plan out, to review our goals.
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21. Hi-tech is expensive and it is the consumer who ultimately pays it. It is to the people the users of Hi Tech charge its cost. Austerity calls for a moderation in technology. Austerity and innovative technology are compatible. Innotech is people’s technology.

22. Modeling of successful projects such as coops (farmers multipurpose cops), agro-eco center (Cabiokid), Kabsaka, Sta. Barbara, Iloilo), mangrove farming, seaweed farming, Irrigators’ association, Dr. Parra of Iloilo – these must ride on Filipino trait of gaya-gaya. Gaya-gaya put to good use. Peer teaching and learning is effective among the masses, and should be complementary with formal education. Austerity opens a gateway to look into models we can adopt under our local conditions.

23. “Necessity is the mother of invention," so “crisis is the sphinx of survival.” (Story of the Sphinx.) What is it that walks on all fours in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?”) Crisis is Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. It rewards the strong, eliminates the weak, humbles the proud, deepens the soul, and elevates the spirit. - of those who can make it.” Crisis is the time to test man’s soul.” Soul is the ultimate of man’s capacity to survive. (Thesis of Victor Frankl – A Search for Meaning)

Reference on living close to nature written by the author

24. You practice the 8Rs in Waste Management: Reduce, Recycle, Refurbish, Renovate, Restore, Reserve, Revere (and Rotor – Rotate). These 8Rs are vital tools in living an austere life.

25. The more closely related supply and demand cycle in a given community, the more self-reliant the community is. This means that in that community, people produce what they consume; consumption motivates production and vice versa. This according to Dr. Anselmo Cabigan is a basic tenet of austerity, because the self-reliant community becomes less dependent on external factors and the vagaries of the larger environment.

When does Austerity come in? Wartime, recession and depression (US), epidemic, high inflation, queuing for food, disaster, embargo (N Korea), new settlements, poor harvest, political turmoil, religious conflict, El Niño, cyclone (Burma), earthquake (China).

All questions are answered with Yes. You may use these items as your ready guide and reference for the home, school, and community outreach program. ~

Food Crisis Series 33: Farming is a Way of Living, a Mode of Life

 Food Crisis Series 33: 

Farming is a Way of Living, a Mode of Life

Dr Abe V. Rotor

Farming - A Way of Living  in acrylic by AV Rotor AVR

“Farming is a way of living,” says the dean of farm management in the Philippines, Dr Felix D. Maramba, quoting Eugene Devenport who said that farming is not only a business, but a mode of life. “Sometimes the business is the prominent feature, so successful that life seems to run on one long sweet song. Sometimes the business runs so low that life is a bitter struggle.”

The farm and the family home is intertwined; in fact they are one.

Anything that affects the farm as a business also affects directly as a home. The farm operator is the head of the household and the bulk of the farm work is done by the members of the family. The farmer is the farmer 24 hours a days, on weekdays as well as on Sundays and Holidays.

The children are brought up in close contact with nature. They develop an appreciation of the manifestations of the Creator through living things and their order. The farm boy does not have to wait until he is grown up before he can work and share family responsibilities. He is brought up early in the family business. In this way he will learn the value of industry and a sense of proprietorship early in life. The work habits and resourcefulness developed by farm children are kept throughout their lives.

This old school of Dean Maramba may not be the model progressive farmers are looking for today, but definitely the better farmer is the entrepreneur who grew up with farming and pursued training in technology and farm management, and has gain the confidence and skills in transforming the traditional concept of a farm into an agribusiness and therefore, he has a better chance in dealing with the complexities of world of the agriculture and business.

Make the correct decisions in farming.

Farming is no easy task. It is full of decisions - decisions based on socio-economic principles, and guided by rules of conduct and natural laws and of society. These are 10 guidelines in decision making.

1. Surplus labor resources of typically large rural families should be directed to labor-intensive projects, such as integrated farming.

2. Hillside or upland agriculture requires the cultivation of permanent crops, preferably through mixed cropping, such as intercropping of coconuts with orchard trees and annual crops.

3. Coastal and river swamplands should be preserved as wildlife sanctuaries, and should be managed as an ecosystem, rather than an agricultural venture.

4. Wastes can be recycled and converted into raw materials of another enterprise. Farm wastes and byproducts of processing can be processed biologically into methane, organic fertilizer, and biomass for vermiculture.

5. Productivity of small farms can be increased through pyramidal or storey farming. Batangas and Cavite farmers are well known for storied multiple cropping.

6. Poor soils can be rehabilitated through natural farming, such as green manuring, crop rotation and use of organic fertilizers, all integrated in the farming system. Corn-peanut, rice-mungo are popular models of crop rotations.

7. Cottage industries are built on agriculture, guided by profitability and practical technology. It is time to look at the many agro-industries, from food processing to handicrafts.

8. Tri-commodity farming maximizes utilization of resources, such as having an orchard, planting field crops, and raising fish and livestock on one farm.

9. Cooperative farming is the solution to economics of scale, these to include multipurpose and marketing cooperatives of farmers and entrepreneurs.

10. Since the number of days devoted to farming is only one-third of the whole year, livelihood outside of farming should be developed. Like a sari-sari store, a small farm cannot afford to have too many hands. Other opportunities should be tapped outside of farming by other members of the family.

Get rid of waste by utilizing them.

Agricultural byproducts make good animal feeds, as follows:

• Rice straw, corn stovers and sugarcane tops, the most common crop residues in the tropics, contain high digestible nutrients, and provide 50% of the total ration of cattle and carabaos.

• Rice bran and corn bran are the most abundant general purpose feed that provides 80 percent of nutritional needs of poultry, hogs and livestock, especially when mixed with copra meal which is richer in protein than imported wheat bran (pollard).

• Cane molasses is high in calorie value. Alternative supplemental feeds are kamote vines for hogs and pineapple pulp and leaves for cattle.

Here is a simple feed formula for cattle: Copra meal 56.5 kg; rice bran (kiskisan or second class cono bran) 25kg; molasses 15kg; Urea (commercial fertilizer grade, 45%N) 2.0kg; salt 1.0kg; and bone meal 0.5kg. Weight gain of a two-year old Batangas cattle breed fed with this formulation is 0.56 kg on the average,

These are byproducts which have potential feed value: These are byproducts or wastes in the processing of oil, starch, fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. The abundance of agricultural by-products offers ready and cheap feed substitutes with these advantages.

• It cuts down on feed costs,
• reduces the volume on imported feed materials,
• provides cheaper source of animal protein,
• provides employment and livelihood, and
• keeps the environment clean and in proper balance.

Protect nature through environment-friendly technology.

One example is the use of rice hull ash to protects mungbeans from bean weevil. Burnt rice hull (ipa) contains silica crystals that are microscopic glass shards capable of penetrating into the conjunctiva of the bean weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus. Once lodged, the crystal causes more damage as the insect moves and struggles, resulting in infection and desiccation, and ultimately death.

This is the finding of Ethel Niña Catahan in her masteral thesis in biology at the University of Santo Tomas. Catahan tested two types of rice hull ash, One is partly carbonized (black ash) and the other oven-burned (white ash). Both were applied independently in very small amount as either mixed with the beans or as protectant placed at the mouth of the container. In both preparations and methods, mungbeans – and other beans and cereals, for that matter – can be stored for as long as six months without being destroyed by this Coleopterous insect.

The bean weevil is a cosmopolitan insect whose grub lives inside the bean, eating the whole content and leaving only the seed cover at the end of its life cycle. When it is about to emerge the female lays eggs for the next generation. Whole stocks of beans may be rendered unfit not only for human consumption, but for animal feeds as well. It is because the insect leaves a characteristic odor that comes from the insect’s droppings and due to fungal growth that accompanies infestation. There are many kinds of vegetables you can choose
for backyard and homelot gardening.

Let’s aim at unifying agriculture and ecology into agro-ecology. This is what practical farming is all about. ~

Food Crisis Series 37: Stop pests from robbing our food! Practical pest control and Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

 Food Crisis Series 37: 

Stop pests from robbing our food!  Practical pest control and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) 

"Pests rob us by as much as 50 percent of the food we should be getting!" 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Part 1a - Garlic is effective and safe pesticide

There's a universal belief that garlic drives evil spirits away. Well, this time it's insect pest that it will drive out of your garden. Here are five ways to do it, entomologists (experts on insects) tell us.

1. Plant garlic among your garden plants, say mustard, tomato, pepper, okra, beans, and let it grow with them. Here is a caution though. Don't plant it too close to the crop so as to avoid its allelopathic effect (chemical secretion from its roots to compete with nearby plants).

Garlic serves as natural repellant of insects that would otherwise attack these crops, as well as ornamental plants. You can even harvest the bulbs at the end of the season. By the way, fresh garlic leaves are used in the kitchen like those of its relatives, kutchai (Allium tuberosum) and onion (Allium sepa). Try on fried eggs, batchoy and mami.

2. Hang garlic bulb on trellis and viny crops like patola (Luffa), ampalaya, cucumber, sitao, batao, and the like. Garlic exudes a repelling odor that keeps destructive insects at bay. Now and then crush some cloves in the open to refresh the garlic odor.

3. Make a spray solution direct from its cloves. The simple method is to soak crushed garlic cloves in water for a few minutes, then spray or sprinkle the solution on plants attacked by aphids, mites, caterpillars, and other pests. Adjust strength of solution to the severity of infestation. This may serve as a local disinfectant where there is no available approved chemical spray or fumigant.

Other than its repellent properties, garlic is also anti-bacterial and anti-viral. It could be for this that it was used to ward off the Bubonic Plague carrier - a flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) during the Dark Ages in Europe. It's no wonder people at that time believed in the power of this species of the Lily family in driving away evil spirits. Effectiveness of eating garlic precisely to control corona virus lacks direct evidence in modern medicine.  

4. This is another method. Soak approximately 100 grams of chopped garlic cloves in about 50 ml of mineral oil (turpentine or kerosene) or cooking oil for 24 hours. This is then slowly mixed with 500 ml of water in which 20 grams of powdered natural soap (Perla or Ivory) has been dissolved. Soap serves as emulsion to make oil and water miscible. Stir the solution well and strain it with an old shirt or nylon stocking, then store the filtrate in an earthen or glass container and keep it in a cool, dark place.

This serves as mother stock, ready for use, diluting it one part to twenty parts of water, or down to one part per hundred. It is reputed to be an effective insecticide against most common garden pests. It can be sprayed or sprinkled liberally on practically all plants, including ornamentals and orchids.

5. Garlic is planted as "trap crop." In spite of its repellant properties garlic is not pest-free. There are insects that attack it, such as thrips (Thrips tabaci), flea beetle (Epitrix), white flies (Bemesia), and some plant bugs (Hemiptera). Just allow the standing garlic plants to attract these insects, thus saving other crops from being attacked by the same insects. Then rouge the infested garlic plants and burn together with the pest.

Garlic can save us a lot of money, and eliminates the hazard to health and environment caused by chemical insecticides. It is an ancient practice in the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and ancient China, a key to natural and sustainable farming and a balance ecosystem.

Let's revive this simple practice today.~

Part 1 b - Two ways to ward off houseflies and midges 

Lighted candles drive flies away.

Houseflies - Musca domestica  (photo) are the most popular uninvited guests during a party, especially if it is one held outdoor. Before they build into a swarm, light some candles and place them strategically where they are most attracted. Candle smoke drives away houseflies and blue bottle flies (bangaw), keeping them at bay until the party is over. For aesthetic reason, make the setup attractive by using decorative candles and holders, especially one that can withstand a sudden gust of wind. Otherwise, just plant a large candle or two, at the middle of the serving table. If your guests ask what is this all about, blow the candle out momentarily and they will understand.

Hang a fresh branch of a tree or shrub near lighted bulb or lamp to keep midges (gamu-gamu) away from food and guests. 

Have you ever been pestered by tiny insects that are attracted by light during an outdoor dinner? These insects make a complex population of leafhoppers, mayflies, and other species of midges. Winged termites and ants often join the swarm. They are most prevalent at the onset of the rainy season in May or June and may last until the rice crop is harvested. In the province this is what you can do to control them and save the dinner party.

                                  Midge or gamu-gamu  

Cut a fresh branch or two, complete with leaves that do not easily fall off. The finer the leaves are, the better - sampaloc, madre de cacao, kamias, - or simply any source that is available, including shrubs and vines (kamote, mungo, corn, etc.) Hang the branch securely at the dim part above or close to the fluorescent bulb or Coleman lamp. Be sure not to obstruct the light. Keep away from the food and guests. Observe how the insects settle on the branch and stop flying around.

Insects are attracted by light, especially when there are only a few in the area. An outdoor dinner is ideal for them, attracting those even in distant fields. On arriving at the scene they become disoriented, for which reason they keep flying and flying around the light. With a foothold nearby for them to roost, the insects would gladly cease from their aimless search. Since the Coleman lamp was invented, more so when Thomas Edison came up with a brilliant idea that led to the manufacture of the incandescent light that soon “lighted the world,” nocturnal insects - from midge to moth – have been disturbed of their natural sense of bearing on celestial lights as they travel in darkness. Rizal romantically attributed the death of a moth - lost in its path and singed into the lamp - a heroic act. ~

Part 2 - IPM (Integrated Pest Management)

"IPM is a sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health and environmental risks."

Pillars of Integrated Pest Management

One of the primary missions of IPM is to help growers produce profitable crops using environmentally and economically sound approaches. These IPM tools contribute to a system that produces high-quality, safe, and affordable foods and other agriculturally related products. For many growers, IPM helps balance pest management with profitable crop production and environmental protection. IPM also reaches beyond agriculture to include pest management in landscape and home settings.

Pest management alternatives

IPM incorporates several pest management strategies to maintain crop profitability, minimize pest selection pressures, and minimize environmental impacts. Once a pest exceeds the economic threshold or reaches a threatening level, it is necessary to determine the best way to prevent unacceptable yield losses. Economic thresholds integrate the crop value and management costs with biological information on the relationship between pest injury and yield. The cost, safety, benefits, and risks of employing various management strategies are weighed and evaluated.

Cultural (agronomic practices)

• Selecting plant resistant varieties (Example: Growing resistant varieties of rice reduce incidence of tungro; wheat for reducing severity of wheat stem sawfly.)

• Crop rotation (Examples: rotation of rice and sweet potato crops reduces infestation of s potato beetle – Cylas formicarius.  Levels of Sclerotinia sclerotium, white mold, are reduced by crop rotation to non-susceptible hosts; common hosts of Sclerotinia in North Dakota are dry beans, sunflowers, soybeans, and canola.)

• Cultivation, tillage practices (Example: Cultivating row crops reduces herbicide applications.)

• Variation of planting or harvesting dates (Example: Delayed planting of sunflowers until late May or early June reduces sunflower stem weevil and sunflower beetle densities.)

• Plant spacing (Example: Narrower row spacing favors development of plant diseases due to environmental conditions within the crop canopy. More moisture on plant surfaces and higher relative humidity favors conditions for infection, such as with white mold in soybeans.)

• Fertilization level (Examples: A crop with balanced fertility levels has greater capacity to resist disease organisms and a greater capacity to compete with weeds. Too much nitrogen fertilizer in crucifers like cabbage and cauliflower predispose them to Pythium debaryanum and other kinds of bacterial and fungal diseases. )

• Sanitation (Example: Cleaning out storage areas or grain bins helps prevent infestations of stored grain insect pests, like rice weevil – Sitophilus oryza.)

• Planting pest-free seed (Example: Planting disease-free seed or using seed treatments with a fungicide will help protect germinating seed and seedlings from seedling blight.)

• Planting trap crops (Example: A trap crop consists of a field margin planted to an early maturing sunflower that surrounds the remaining sunflower field area. The margins flower earlier than the remaining field interiors and attract the red sunflower seed weevil first. As a result, the trap crop concentrates the weevils in a smaller area reducing the cost of insecticide and time required for control.)

Mechanical

• Cultivation (Example: Clean tillage between field rotations decreases the establishment of new weeds, especially perennials.)

• Hand weeding (Example: Removing weeds by hand is only practical for use by the home gardener, organic grower or researcher, although sugar beet growers will often hire labor for hand weeding.)

• Exclusion using screens or barriers (Example: Banding trees with Tanglefoot to control cankerworms.)

• Trapping, suction devices, collecting machines (Example: Walk-through fly trap removes horn flies from range cattle; apple maggot trap in home orchard.)

Physical

• Heat (Example: Burning surface residues, soil pasteurization.)
• Cold (Example: Cold storage of potatoes to prevent storage rot.)

Biological

• Augmentation of natural enemies (Example: Simple sugar solutions can be used as artificial honeydew to promote aggregation of adult lady beetles in aphid infested crops.)

• Introduction of parasites or predators (Example: Releasing biocontrol agents (Aphthona flea beetles) to control noxious weeds (leafy spurge).

• Propagation of diseases of pests (Example: Bacterial agents (Bacillus thuringiensis) for natural control of insect pests like Colorado potato beetle or European corn borer.)

• Protection of biological agents (Examples: spiders, preying mantis. Raising ducks on ricefield to control golden kuhol – Pomacea caniculata.)

Chemical

• Herbicides, Insecticides, Fungicides
• Miticides or Acaricides 
• Nematicides, Mollusicides
• Rodenticides, Avicides (maya)
• Biological pesticides (Examples, Bacillus thuringiensis bio-insecticide, insect molting inhibitors)
• Defoliants (2-4,D Amine and 2-4,d Ester),
• Desiccants

Steps of IPM

Scouting or monitoring
The purpose of scouting is to detect the presence, concentration, and type of pests. Scouting involves a regular and methodical procedure to quantify field information needed to make sound pest management decisions. Field observations are used to make immediate IPM decisions as well as record part of the field's history for making rational decisions in the future.

Identification
Properly identifying pests is an important aspect of scouting. Natural enemies that help keep pests in check are also present in fields, so it is important to recognize these friends. For example, certain insects, such as Syrphid flies, may be abundant in a field but do not cause crop damage. Knowledge of specific insects, weeds, or diseases in a field is important for IPM decision-making. Pest levels can vary greatly from one field to another. Each individual field should be scouted thoroughly without bias even though the fields may appear similar.

Pest situation assessment

In the third step, scouts analyze information obtained from scouting and pest identification and determine the need for pest control. One question is whether or not the damage potential is more costly than the control cost. The economic threshold plays an important role in IPM decisions and is defined as when there are enough pests present to warrant treating the crop. Keep in mind that economic thresholds are developed for average conditions. In unusual situations, such as drought stress, thresholds may have to be altered. Furthermore, economic thresholds may not be available for certain pests, so assessment may have to be based on general guidelines about the pest population.

Implementation

Once the management strategy (or strategies) has been selected, it should be employed in a timely manner. Cultivation or using herbicides on weeds, for example, must be done at the proper stages of development of the weed and the crop for greatest impact. IPM integrates several different pest management strategies when feasible.

Evaluation

Did IPM work? Compare the pest activity before and after implementation of IPM strategies. Review what went wrong and what went right. Was the pest properly identified? Was the field sampling unbiased? Was the choice of control based on sound judgment or outside pressure? What changes to the system would make it better?

IPM benefits

New products and innovative methods
New IPM products and methods are developed and extended to producers to maximize yields. Potato growers use a forecasting model to make accurate predictions of early and late blight development for specific potato production areas

Reduced crop loss through improved timing and efficiency of IPM strategies
For farmers this means producing high-quality, affordable products. For society, it means maintaining safe and ecologically sound environments. Calculating growing degree days and determining economic thresholds during field monitoring has resulted in successful prediction, detection and economic control of this pest.

Judicious use of pesticides decreases environmental impacts
As researchers develop environmental friendly ways to manage pests, IPM practitioners have helped farmers reduce unnecessary pesticide use.  Minimized use of pesticides has allowed the return of indigenous edible species growing in ricefields like dalag, hito, martiniko, ulang, kuhol and others

Increased partnership
IPM Programs are being incorporated by growers, crop consultants, and industry into crop production systems, and have increased collaboration between private and public stakeholders. Farmers’ Cooperatives and Irrigation Associations are the best local institutions to adopt IPM. This has been shown by the Farmers Associations of Taiwan, communes in China, and Moshav in Israel.
 

The success of IPM depends on community awareness and action, through media such as the use of posters (left), TV-Radio, Inrternet, magazines and newsletters, and commemorative stamp (Trichogramma wasp for biological control in DPR Korea). 

Living with Folk Wisdom, UST-AVR 2008 ~