Want More Nutritious Food and Income? Plan a Mixed Legume-Leafy-Spice Home Garden

Home Garden, How to Do It by Dr. Mike in the Philippines

Traditional home gardens in northern Philippines range from 20 to 100 square meters. Planted normally are a mixture of sweet potato, yam, corn, beans, and a tree or two of avocado, pomelo, and guava.

Sounds good but not so good. It is important to have a plan in developing a home garden. These tips can help you:

A. In the garden,
1. Consider where the sun rises from because you should not plant crops that will shade other crops. Do storey planting where shorter plants are fully exposed to sunlight before the taller ones. (eg. pechay, eggplants, corn). Thus, crop orientation is important.

2. Look at your soil. Does it need more fertilizer?. Reddish to brownish soils indicate lack of NPK nutrients. if you don't know how to get soil sample, the most appropriate thing to do is increase your NPK levels. What will you use? Use organic fertilizer for basal application. If you intend to plant green leafy vegetables, use compost made out from nitrogen fixing plants and trees (eg. centrosima, caliandra, alnus). If you will plant fruit-bearing veggies or tuber-producing crops, increase potassium and phosphorus basal fertilizer.

It is also important to know if your soil needs to be watered regularly or not. How will you know? Get a handful of soil from your tilled garden, close your fist on it until you make a lump, raise your hand and drop it on the ground. If it does not break freely, your soil is too soggy, you don't need to water every other day. But if the soil breaks freely into many parts, then your soil is too dry, water every other day.

Now examine your soil. Do you have earthworms, century bugs and tiny critters/ if yes, you have a good soil. If you don't see anything moving or crawling, you do a damn "dead soil", that's not too good.

3. Protecting your plant is of utmost important. But remember, if you have the right to produce, you have the responsibility to produce safe and nutritious crops. Always consider the need to make the environment safe and clean and the rights of consumers. Never try to poison both. Ordinarily, the main pests of vegetables are slugs, snails and caterpillars (of many different insects), are the worst enemies.

To rid of slugs and snail especially in your seedbeds, put a cup of beer in a can and place it at the edge or rim of your seedbed. These attracts the pests and fall into the can. In the morning, dispose the pests. For caterpillars, put 15 to 20 cigarette butts in a liter of water and let them stay there for a week. The nicotene and tar of the cigarette butt mixes with the water eventually. Use this to spray against caterpillars.

Okay guys, more next time so drop by.

Michael the Gardener

Staying Home: Father and Son

Staying Home: Father and Son
By Michael A. Bengwayan

Writer, Journalist - Philippines


Yesterday as I was pulling our cows to the barn with my 18-year-old son at our small house in Longlong, La Trinidad, Philippines, he told me, “Dad, school days are near and it rains every day. What a time to start school.” I stopped and wondered. What a time indeed.
Even for me who has to end my vacation and go back to work. It will be days involving deadlines, uncooperative sources or spats with editors—I grouse and rant thinking about it.

For more than a month, I did nothing but stay home with my son. We worked from eight to five laying poles to stretch hog wires to keep off stray dogs from the garden.

More than that, we talked. Talked like we never did before. He talked about how his math teachers seemed uglier and meaner than usual. How the school restrooms smelled more and more like ashtrays and that the world was fast coming to an end before he reached college.

I told him of the funeral pyres in Baktaphur, Nepal where they burn the poor corpses with a handful of rice straw and kick them down the river only to be ripped apart by waiting monkeys. Of working with the Harijans in Pune, Maharahstra, India where dead children are peddled for a bite of food, and of the dead and the dying in our own Mindanaoland where Muslim children are raised as young guns to fight invisibly against war-tested Philippine troopers.


My work calls for me to travel around the Philippines and some countries most of the time. When he was born, I was in Ireland finishing a PhD; I stayed in other countries as he grew and every time I came home, I knew we both hankered for talk.

We talked and said that cynicism was our fault and the rest was the fault of the generation that lay before him (me included). Maybe the world would be better off had it not been for people who went ahead of him, he said. I could only nod in agreement, knowing indeed, there is truth to the innocent thought he passed.

In between gasps and a drink of water I glanced at my son. Fast growing, eager to go out and face the world, whatever the world has to give. I never thought of it much, as work has always preoccupied me.

For many of us, work lays claim to our time and emotion, possessing us completely as any spouse or child. But those of us who think we have hard jobs can learn a lot from those who really do.

I wondered how the people I saw working against nature in Quezon to pull out dying and dead victims from the typhoon's wrath get the strength to do so. I wonder how some people counsel rape victims, investigate murder scenes, operate on dying patients, then have the energy to cheer their kids' local basketball team on Saturdays. I now wondered how, my son, battered an defeated with his sepak takraw team go home and smile to say, “The game was great dad!”

If the rest of us can't keep the stress of work from oozing over and staining the rest of life, how can they? More to the point: If they can, why on earth can't we?


When we separate the perspective of our silent privacy to that of working for life, we lose perspective. Other people build walls and maintain distance. My good friend Dr. Charles Cheng sometimes calls me to have coffee with him. We don't talk much. He asks how my day was, I ask him the same question in return. Then we let the dying minutes pass with no word exchanged. He has a bad day. I keep mum. Keeping up walls is the secret to coping with the pain when we feel defeated, lost, and unsure.

This is a lesson for me whose work is not a matter of life and death, but has the ability to use us up nonetheless. The only way to get the work done is to come up for air periodically. To turn off the computer, even on a deadline, and be there for your wife when she comes home tired from work. To say hell with the writing job you're organizing in your mind even as your editor keeps calling you, and smile to your children when they arrive home.

So we can all go out again tomorrow and do it all again.

I am happy I spent my vacation with son.

“I had a nice vacation with you, Dad,” my son says pulling the last cow inside the barn. “So did I,” I said. “Let's go home, dinner is waiting.”



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Michael Bengwayan is a journalist based in Manila, the Philippines. He specializes in environmental, developmental, and related issues.

Organic Gardening Threatening Bees in Luzon, Philipines

The apiculture industry in north Luzon is in danger of declining because of organic gardening. Does this sound crazy? Read on. This is because organic gardeners are cutting all visible wild sunflower plants (Tithanium diversilfolium) which they widely compost for fertilizer. As a result, the bees in this region that depend heavily on nectar and pollen produced by the sunflowers, have difficulty foraging for food.

The Cordillera Ecological Education, Training, Research and Information Center (PINE TREE) is helping remedy this problem.It is planting sunflower cuttings in the mountains especially where there are no farmers. I am calling for people concerned to help us in this regard.

Michael

NGO Leads Fight to Conserve and Protect Petroleum Nut

NGO Leads Fight to Conserve and Protect Petroleum Nut
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1209357937787&pagename=Zone-English-HealthScience%2FHSELayout

By Michael A. Bengwayan

Director - PINE TREE


Petroleum nut is believed to be the country's most promising biofuel treasure.

A petroleum-rich tree native to the Philippines and believed to be the country's most promising biofuel treasure is being conserved as it has the potential to provide rural energy and to reduce global warming.
The tree, which is native to only a few provinces in the Philippines and a few other countries in the world, is in danger of falling into the hands of biopirates to enrich only a few profit-oriented multinational companies.

The tree called "petroleum nut" or resin cheesewood and scientifically called Pittosporum resiniferum produces inedible fruits that are octane rich, even richer than the oft-boasted shrub Jatropha curcas of India, which is now being planted in millions of hectares by biodiesel advocates all over the world.

Tree Threatened by Biopirates

To prevent the depletion of the tree from its natural habitat by deforestation or from joining the long list of pirated botanical treasures of the Philippines, a non-profit organization called PINE TREE set up by the New York City-based Echoing Green Foundation, is leading the battle to save the tree and put its ownership right where it belongs - into the hands of the indigenous tribes of the Cordillera region.

PINE TREE is an educational, training, research, and information center on ecology.

"We fear that if we do not put rightful claim to the tree as well as start germplasm protection, collection, and production, biopirates will grab the tree and file patents on the use of its properties," said Richard Botengan, PINE TREE’s program leader, who is based in Canada doing liaison work for the NGO.

The Philippines, one of the most critical "bio-hotspots" in the world is losing its natural richness not only by natural habitat destruction but also by biopirates.

History of Biopiracy

"The project helps reduce global warming, and the local peoples have a sustainable source of income."
The rape of the Philippine forests is nothing new, but the plunder and theft of its rich biodiversity has just begun. Its forest resources, minerals, agricultural and medicinal plants, and indigenous knowledge are being looted by monopoly companies that make millions of dollars patenting and selling plant germplasm, even to those who used to own it.
The first case of foreign biopiracy in the Philippines involved a soil collected and isolated from a cemetery in Iloilo by Filipino scientist Abelardo Aguilar, then working for the American company Eli Lilly. An organism in this soil was found to produce an antibiotic, named Ilosone in honor of the province of Iloilo, a well known drug popularly known as erythromycin. Aguilar never received a single cent from his company even after the Philippine government's intervention.

After this first brush with biopirates, more Philippine plants became prey. Two important ingredients of the Filipino diet, namely the "ampalaya" (Mamantia mordica) and "talong" (Solanum melongena), are now the exclusive property of the US National Institute of Health (NIH), the US Army, and the New York University. These parties are conducting intensive studies on the three crops for their potential in curing HIV and thrombosis. The crops are under the US patent numbers US 5484889, JP 65011089, and EP 552257.

Tree to Reduce Global Warming


"Our project trains local peoples to plant petroleum nut and lets them engage in carbon deals."
PINE TREE has planted more than 5,000 seedlings of three endemic petroleum nut varieties from different germplasms that are in its seedbank. These trees will be planted in communal forests to ensure the continuous existence of the tree for years to come.
"Right now, PINE TREE has set up nurseries and is propagating thousands of petroleum nut seeds and cuttings from four endemic varieties. These trees will be planted in ancestral forests of the indigenous peoples to ensure the continuous existence of the tree for years to come," added Botengan.

In 2007, PINE TREE won the prestigious Toyota Environmental Award from the Toyota Motor Company. The award, amounting to USD75,000, is given to a non-profit organization from any country that can present the best program to protect biodiversity while promoting technology for the rural poor. PINE TREE bested more than 500 organizations from 78 countries worldwide.

The award is now being used to preserve, protect, conserve, and mass-produce petroleum nut, not merely because of its oil potential but also as a carbon sink.

Stressing that those to benefit first and directly from the project should be the indigenous peoples, PINE TREE staff is training local villagers to plant, care for, manage, and extract the oil from the tree. The oil will be used for cooking, lighting, heating, running small machines (like water pumps and grinders), and drying.

PINE TREE says conservation of the tree is critical as it is only found in some four to five provinces.
PINE TREE has slated the first training program for villagers on June 4-7, 2008 to benefit 150 farmers, at the National Training Center of the Agricultural Training Institute (NTC-ATI) of the Philippines.
Dobbels Wallang, project assistant of PINE TREE said, "Our project trains local peoples to plant petroleum nut and lets them engage in carbon deals. By this, the project helps reduce global warming, it lessens pressure on forests, which are usually cut for fuel wood, and the local peoples have a sustainable source of income."

Under the Kyoto Protocol, pollution-emitting companies can be taxed higher, fined, or closed. But if these companies are able to finance reforestation and afforestation projects in developing countries that absorb the carbon dioxide they emit, they are allowed to operate because of their corporate responsibility to reduce global warming and to promote countryside development.

Carbon trading deals involving tree planting in developing countries will provide greater benefits than just improving the environment. They could sharply reduce poverty among the rural poor and provide businesses with an inexpensive way to offset their carbon emissions.

Fuel Potential


By chemical analysis, petroleum nut is better than India's Jatropha curcas.
By chemical analysis, petroleum nut is better than India's Jatropha curcas. According to Joseph Gonsalves, consultant of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and author of "An Assessment of the Biofuels Industry in India" published in 2006, Jatropha has a low octane rating of 43. Octane is a hydrocarbon found in petroleum. The Octane rating is how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites.
Chemist Sheryl Lontoc of the Chemistry Department of De La Salle University (DLSU), which is assisting PINE TREE says that their chemical analysis of petroleum nut reveals that it has an octane rating of 54. According to Lontoc, this means the fuel from the tree has a higher potential of running engines, and by all indications, petroleum nut is far better than Jatropha curcas. Fossil fuel has an octane rating of 91.

According to studies made by the Forest Research Institute of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of the Philippines, petroleum-nut oil contains 46 percent of gasoline-type components such as heptane and dihydroterpene.

A single tree can yield 15 kg of green fruits, which can produce 80 cm3 of oil. The residue, ground up and distilled with steam, can yield 73 cm3 more. Planting the petroleum nut trees would yield 45 tons of fruit or 2,500 gallons of petroleum oil per acre per year.

Earlier studies done by Dr. Pamela Fernandez of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos indicate that a single fruit yields 0.1 to 3.3 ml of oil, averaging about 1.3 ml. In general, the bigger the fruit, the larger the seed and the greater the oil content.

The Petroleum nut fruit has many traditional uses. These include its use as a cure for many conditions (such as skin diseases, common colds, and muscle pains) and to ease stomach pain.

In the Benguet province, the tree is called apisang, abkol, abkel, and langis in the vernacular. It thrives in Mt. Pulis, Ifugao, and in the headwaters of the Agno and Chico River Basins. It is also found in the Bicol provinces, Palawan, Mindoro, Nueva Ecija, and Laguna.

Conservation Critical

PINE TREE says conservation of the tree is critical as it is only found in some four to five provinces. "It is difficult to find the tree nowadays," said Delmar Litilit, the environmental officer of PINE TREE, "If one does, there are often just a few trees in a small forest fragment," he added.

In 2006, China told CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) that the species of petroleum nut it has should be placed on the protected species list because it is rapidly disappearing. PINE TREE believes the Philippine government should do the same sooner rather than later, the tree may go the way of the Dodo.

Sources:

Duke, James A. "Handbook of Energy Crops." (1983). Accessed 26 May 2008.

Gonsalves, Joseph B. "An Assessment of the Biofuels Industry in India." United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva. 18 Oct. 2006. Accessed 26 May 2008.



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Michael A. Bengwayan is the director of PINE TREE, a non-profit organization working on ecological education, training, research and information. He is a Fellow of the Ford Foundation, Echoing Green Foundation, and Reinhard Mohn Foundation. He has a PhD and a master's degree in development studies, environmental science and rural development, respectively.

2001 Echoing Green Fellow Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/michael-bengwayan

Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan
2001

Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan
PINE TREE

La Trinidad, Philippines

Arts, Culture, Humanities, Civil and Human Rights, Community Improvement & Economic Development, Education & Youth Leadership, Environment, Food, Nutrition, Agriculture, Non-Violence, Public Service

The Bold Idea:
Fighting poverty and environmental decay through social change.

Biography:

Post Ph.D. Public Policy, JFK School of Public Policy, Harvard University (Ford Foundation Fellow)

Ph.D. Development Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland (EU Fellow)

MS Environmental Studies, Leuven University, Belgium

MS Rural Development, BSU, Philippines

Diploma in Advanced Journalism, Kalmar University, Sweden, SIDA Fellow

Author: Intellectual and Cultural Property Rights of the Indigenous and Tribal peoples of Asia

Author: Dam the Rivers, Damn the People, San Roque Dam

Michael Bengwayan is Growing Energy on Trees

http://www.echoinggreen.org/blog/energy-from-petroleum-nuts

Michael Bengwayan is Growing Energy on Trees

Dr. Michael Bengwayan, a 2001 Echoing Green Fellow, wrote in to let us know his organization, PINE TREE was recently awarded a $75,000 prize from Toyota’s Environmental Activities Grant Program. The award will help Michael provide energy to farms and households in the Cordillera Region of the Philippines.

A remarkable twist to this community energy project is that he’ll be manufacturing biofuel from Pittosporum resiniferum (also known as the petroleum nut). This plant is indigenous to the Philippines and according to Wikipedia, the fruits (even green ones) can be used for illumination as torches or candles. The incandescent property is due to the volatile oil of the fruit, which also makes it excellent source material for biofuels.

Congratulations Michael!

2001 Echoing Green Fellow Dr. Michael Bengwayan Wins World Bank Award

http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/michael-bengwayan

2001 Echoing Green Fellow Dr. Michael Bengwayan Wins World Bank Award

Congratulations to 2001 Echoing Green Fellow Dr. Michael Bengwayan! Last week, Michael’s organization, Pine Tree, won the World Bank Ecological Award. The award, worth one million pesos, has been presented to Pine Tree to prevent further dengue infestation in La Trinidad, Benguet, in the Philippines. The organization plans to use these funds to study the production of dengue’s natural enemies and mosquito plant repellants.

Every two years, the World Bank calls for submissions from government and non-government agencies; the focus is finding an innovative project that fosters community development in the fields of environment, livelihood and good governance. This year, more than 500 agencies applied, ninety-nine made it to the finals and only thirty-one were awarded. Our congratulations go to Michael and everyone at Pine Tree!