Author: Yvette Natalie Tan
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Social entrepreneur partners with farmers in a bid to decipher the rice supply chain
Rice is one of the world’s most important crops, with at least three billion people relying on it worldwide. According to the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO), as of 2018-2019, the Philippines ranked eight in the top rice producing countries in the world, producing 15,025,640.73 tonnes in the said time span. Yet, as anyone who follows the news will tell you, this doesn’t seem to be enough to feed the country, which must rely on imports for it to be rice-secure.
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108 orchid species found on Mt. Busa, southern Mindanao
It’s well known that the Philippines is a biodiversity hotspot, its 7641 islands holding a vast array of flora and fauna, many yet unrecorded, all of them rapidly disappearing. But despite this being common knowledge, the importance of this doesn’t usually hit home until a new species is discovered.
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Organization taps local SMEs to help support Caramoan seaweed farmers
Farming is a precarious venture, as it is (mostly) subject to the elements, not to mention market forces.
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Apiary in the City: Bee farm in the middle of Iloilo City consistently produces sold-out premium honey
Honey has been an important food source since the dawn of mankind. It is delicious, nutritious, and has a long shelf life. Humanity’s love for honey continues to this day, with beekeeping being a popular hobby and source of livelihood that can be cultivated in the city or province, as long as there are sufficient flowering plants nearby where bees can gather food.
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Iloilo beekeeper offers artificial insemination for queen honeybees
Two Bees Apiary in Iloilo City is a small urban apiary with aout 16 hives. Aside from being a beekeeper, its owner, Wilfrido “Jonji” S. de Jesus Jr., runs an artificial insemination (AI) lab for European honeybees (Apis mellifera), one of the handful in the country. He ventured into AI around 2018 after encountering difficulty acquiring queen bees for his colonies after the importation of Apis mellifera was temporarily halted a few years ago.
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Grow ube clones from bulbils
Ube, or purple yam (Dioscorea Alata), has long been a favorite Filipino flavor. The last decade has seen his common but popular tuber achieve worldwide recognition as one of the most recognized flavors associated with Philippine cuisine.
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Fair, nutritious, and sustainable: how the Participatory Guarantee System makes organic certification accessible to small farmers and all consumers
Organically grown vegetables mean many things: naturally grown, synthetic chemical-free, safe, sustainable. Unfortunately, it can also mean other things: expensive, inaccessible to small farmers and consumers on a tight budget. The Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) is hoping to change this.
