Tag: niyog

Buko is cadang-cadang viroid-free

Philippine buko is cadang-cadang viroid-free, experts confirm

by Mary Charlotte O. Fresco

BAR TODAY –April-June 2002

Around 80% of our coconut products goes to foreign market, generating US$ 741.77 million a year. This makes us the third largest producer of coconut oil and desiccated coconut in the world. Our young coconut orbuko even performs well in neighboring countries like Taiwan and Malaysia.

This was before export bans were imposed on our coconut products.

In 1998, Brazil was the first to set trade restrictions on our desiccated coconut. Malaysia and Taiwan followed years later by imposing a ban on our buko for fear that it was contaminated with the dreaded cadang-cadang viroid.

In 2000, experts from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in Albay did a series of rigorous viroid-detection process and declared that the meat and water of young and mature coconuts in the Philippines are free of the cadang-cadang viroid.

Checking the viroid Cadang-cadang was confirmed to be a viroid disease in the late 70s. Its causal agent is the coconutcadang-cadang viroid or CCCVd, which is often transmitted through pollen and seed, and contaminated farm tool such as scythe. Viroids should not be mistaken with viruses because they are much smaller and have different molecular and biological properties.

The disease is common in the Bicol region and also present in some areas in Quezon, Aurora, Biliran (particularly in Maripipi Island), Northern and Eastern Samar.

Researchers MJB Rodriguez and LP Estioko of PCA-Albay Research Center, hoping to exempt the young coconut from the ban, employed a more reliable and sensitive diagnosis for the presence of CCCVd. It is an improved molecular hybridization assay (MHA) that can be efficiently used to detect the concentration of the viroid in different parts of the nuts.

They gathered samples of young (about 6 to 9 month old) and mature nuts (a year old) from both healthy and infected palms and immediately subjected them to CCCVd analysis.

Continue reading “Buko is cadang-cadang viroid-free”

Nursery Plant Pots from Coconut Coir

Nursery Plant Pots from Coconut Coir

Plants grow faster in pots made of coconut husk with coconut dust than in soil. For example,
nursery plants like:
1. Asparagus springerie – grown in coconut husk with equal amounts of dust and swine
marine had more cuttings than those planted in rice field with swine manure.
2. Anthurium – more flowers per plant.
3. Dracaena fragrans (leafy plant) – increased roots
4. Mussaendes – longer roots (with spagnum moss and coconut) during marcotting.
5. Amherstia nobilis – faster marcotting even without the use of growth hormones.
PCARRD
Balitang Pambukid
May 1987

Tekno Tulong

Best Coconut research

From the RDE Network PCRDF Selects best coconut researches

BAR Digest, July 1999

The Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation (PCRDF) has selected this year’s three best research papers on coconut. The selection was announced at the annual convention of the Federation of Crop Science Society of the Philippines (FCSSP) last May in General Santos.

A member of the FCSSP, the PCRDF sponsored the coconut session of the annual meet.

The Best Paper Award went to Biological Studies of the Coconut Mealybug in Palawan authored by Mateo Sipagan of PCA Albay Research Center.

Second place went to Leaf Pruning Technique in Bearing Coconut Palms (CLP): Its Effect on Underplanting Young Coconuts for Pith or ‘Ubod’ Production jointly authored by Gerardo Padrones, Millicent Secretaria and Severino Magat of the PCA Davao Research Center, Bago Oshiro Davao City.

The third best paper was Up-take and Metabolism 0/2.4 Coconut Inflorescence and Calii of O. D Orense and R. Hornung. The winners received monetary prizes and certificates.

Researchers on crop science present their outstanding research papers during the Federation’s annual conventions, which are also when agricultural societies get together.

Leaf Pruning Technique in Bearing Coconut Palms (CLP): Its Effect on Underplanting Young Coconuts for Pith or ‘Ubod’ Production
by Gerardo Padrones, Severino Magat and Millicent Secretaria
(Awarded Second Best Research Paper on Coconut by the Federation of Crop Science Society of the Philippines)

The feasibility and viability of producing coconut pith or ubod from young coconuts planted either in a single or double plants per hill under pruned (CLP maintaining 18 younger leaves of upper crown) or non-pruned bearing palms was studied at 1he Philippine Coconut Authority-Davao Research Center. Bago Oshiro Davao City. Results showed that the number of leaves produced by young coconut was significantly affected by leaf pruning with higher number of leaves produced under pruned coconut than those under non-pruned coconut. On the other hand, nut and copra production of bearing palms was not significantly affected by leaf pruning.

Significantly, bigger girth and more number of leaves were produced from single planting (SP) of young coconut per hill than double planting (DP) scheme. Consequently, longer and heavier fresh weight of ubod (average of 6.8 kg/palm; range 3.3-10.7 kg) was obtained from single planting than that from double planting scheme (average of 5.9 kg/palm; range 2.8-9.4 kg) on the first year of ubod harvest. However, on a per ha basis, yield of ubod from single planting was lower than double planting mainly due to the number of plants per hill. The total ubod yields for single and double planting were 4.9 t and 8.9 t/ha.

Under the Davao growing condition, cost and return analysis of ubod production in single plant per hill scheme indicated a total net income of P68, 624 per ha in 4 years with a return on investment (ROI) of 163%. In double planting scheme, average ubod yield valued at P129, 030 or an average of P32, 258/year/ha with an ROI of 180%. Considering copra plus ubod production from these two planting schemes, the cumulative net incomes and ROI obtained were P180, 736; P242, 389.6 and 202%; 203% for single and double planting respectively.

Based on the results of this study with modest fertilizer application of ammonium sulfate plus common salt (NaCl), underplanting of one or two young coconuts per hill at 3×3 m distance between spacer of bearing coconut palms harvested at three years from field-planting is more profitable and viable production scheme to increase farm productivity even without leaf pruning of old plants. The farm income with this coconut-based production is increased by 160% to 210% compared to coconut monocropping.