Three researchers of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) won major awards at the close of the national congress and general meeting conducted by the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences (ISSAAS) held at the MMSU’s Teatro Ilocandia, September 21-23. 

James Paul T. Madigal, research assistant of the MMSU’s Bioethanol Project won first place for his paper on Yeast and Bacterial Profiling of Nipa Sap Fermentation in Cagayan and Quezon Provinces, while Rodel Utrera and Milen Inocencio of the research directorate reaped second and third places, respectively, for best paper awards category.

Madigal’s study identified yeast and bacterial community involved in natural fermentation of nipa sap from two selected sites in the country.

Yeast and strains were purified and categorized into four groups based on their banding patterns generated by microsatellite fingerprinting. The application of selected isolates from this study as supplemental starter cultures in bioethanol production from nipa sap could be further investigated.

Also, Inocencio’s study on the Production of Ilocos Norte Black Garlic and Evaluation of its Physico-Chemical Properties serves as baseline information for garlic as medicine against cancer, diabetes, and hypertension, among others.

Black garlic (BG), a delicious and exotic product from fresh garlic, which is a sought-after food supplement and an ingredient of expensive culinary recipes in Japan and other countries, is now locally produced in Ilocos Norte. BG is an aged white garlic that is produced from the perfect mixture of heat and humidity for about 30 days without any additional treatments and additives. It is sweet with hints of balsamic vinegar or tamarind, but no strong offensive flavor of the original fresh garlic.

According to MMSU President Shirley Agrupis, BG contains more nutrients than the fresh garlic (FG). Its antioxidants are 17 times higher than the FG and its amount of free amino acid is also 1.5 times richer than the FG. It also contains 18 other amino acids needed by the human body.

Compared with the FG, black garlic is 19 milligrams (mg) richer in sodium, 529 mg richer in potassium, 27 mg richer in manganese, and 0.4 mg richer in iron.

Also, essential mineral contents in BG are higher than the FG. Its isoleucine content is higher by 154 mg, luecine by 471 mg, lysine by 112 mg, methionine by 134 mg, histidine by 174 mg, phenylalanine by 278 mg, and tryptophan by 319 mg.

For non-essential elements, BG is higher than the FG in alanine by 582 mg, asparagines by 531, glutamine by 1,522 mg, glysine by 497 mg, proline by 444 mg, serine by 268 mg, tyrosine by 211 mg, and S-allyl cysteine (SAC) by 158 mg.

Meanwhile, ISSAAS national congress aimed to showcase completed researches in agricultural sciences for commercialization. Revolving around the theme, Agriculture Innovations towards Sustainable Growth, the activity hoped encourage science researchers and stakeholders on the holistic approach to research problems and to promote the progress and development of science and technology through research and publication for regional agricultural development.

Organized by agricultural scientists, technical experts, and scholars in Southeast Asia, the conference aimed to strengthen cooperation among member-countries and unify groups of professionals from them with common interests on agricultural development in the region.

Aside from the researchers of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), state universities and colleges (SUCs), and delegates from Japan, the activity was participated in by municipal agriculture officers from various towns of Region I.

Served as the keynote speaker was Senator Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, who talked about the situation of the garlic industry in the region and in the country.

Among other things, the senator lamented the condition of the commodity which is suffering a major setback in the last nine years because of the continued decrease of hectarage and low disregard of farmers on the improved technologies that lead to substantial yield.

In the national level, for instance, of the average total production of 8,231 metric tons of garlic bulbs in the last 10 years, the yield went down to 7,778 then it continued to slide down to a low 5,341 and 5,436 metric tons in the last five years.

According to the experts at Ilocos Norte’s Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPAG) in Laoag City, there are many reasons why the production of garlic, one of the most lucrative agriculture business ventures in the province, is declining.

This is because garlic hectarage in the province has become a major factor in the productivity drop. Farmers in the province are only allotting a small portion of their land for garlic which is not a perennial crop in the Ilocos region. The crop is only best planted between October 15 to later part of November.

For other varieties such as Mindoro 1 and Cabuyao, late planting can be done until December 15 only to avoid total production failure due to crop’s vulnerability to bulb rot diseases and photosensitivity.

Also, there had been a steady increase on the price of production inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides in the last few years and the insufficient supply of quality planting materials.

The scenario was also affected by the unabated influx of foreign garlic products from Taiwan and other unknown ASEAN regions by unscrupulous agricultural traders and middlemen which almost killed the price of the local produce. -(By REA)