IF THERE is an economically viable plant that can be grown in the backyard or farm, it's the lowly malunggay (scientific name: Moringa oleifera).

"Malunggay can save lives, increase incomes, generate millions of jobs, utilize vast tracts of idle agricultural lands, make the Philippines globally competitive, impact local and international market, and help attain socio-economic equity," explained Alicia Ilaga, director of the biotechnology program of the Department of Agriculture.

View photos of anti-Charter change rally from around the country
For minute updates follow Sun.Star on Twitter

Since malunggay is an excellent source of nutrition and a natural energy booster, the agriculture department is promoting its massive cultivation throughout the country. In Central Mindanao, commercial malunggay production has gained the support of farmers, according to a report filed by Bong Sarmiento.

His source of information is the Department of Trade and Industry, which said that at least 15,000 hectares are targeted to become malunggay plantations.

Quoting Nelly Nita N. Dillera, he reported that "nearly two dozen farmers from the provinces of South Cotabato and Sarangani have committed about 158 hectares for moringa production."

"These farmers come from agrarian reform communities," said Dillera, who is regional business development chief of DTI. "Moringa is suited to Region 12 because we have sandy loam type of soil."

Studies have shown that the malunggay tree is highly resistant to drought and needs little care. It is fast-growing and lives for average of 50 years. Each tree can produce approximately 10,000 seeds a year.

"The tree is easy to grow, attaining tremendous height in a few months or even weeks if planted on good soil that is more or less loose and containing plenty of organic matter," said Mac T. Ilaga, a former agronomy professor at the University of Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB). "If its trunk attains the girth of a human body and cut to a man's height, it will produce profuse shoots loaded with eighty or more pods to a single tree."

If malunggay is planted on a plantation scale, growers must start the crop from seeds. "Pods from fruitful trees must be picked when fully dried," Ilaga suggested. The winged seeds from the pods are air-dried for a few days and sown without delay. The wings may be clipped with scissors and then "awakened" by soaking in water overnight.

These are then washed and spread on a shallow trench lined with cloth. On top of the seeds, another piece of cloth must be laid and the whole setup is moistened regularly until the seeds break open. Only the seeds that break open should be sown individually in plastic bags containing a mixture of vermicompost and partly decomposed rice hull in a fifty-fifty proportion.

When sown during the dry season, "daily watering with a sprinkler is suggested to accelerate growth of the seedlings which should be ready for transplanting when they attain a height of one and one-half foot tall and their stems are slightly less than the size of lead pencil," Ilaga said.

An investment briefing prepared by the DTI Central Mindanao said that a moringa plant can bear seeds in around six to eight months after planting. However, a farmer has to wait three more months for the seeds to ripen and be harvested. After the 11-month first harvest, succeeding seed production cycle is six months.

The matured seeds of malunggay is a good source of moringa oil. "Malunggay seeds are 36 percent oil. Using biotechnology, pure oil can be extracted from the seed," said Danilo P. Manayaga in a statement.

Manayaga is the president and chief executive officer of Secura International, a 100-percent Filipino biotechnology firm. It pioneered the extraction of oil from malunggay seeds four years ago.

According to some experts, moringa oil has the potential of being the next major source of biofuel after coconut. The Biofuels Act of 2006 mandates the use of biofuel (that mixture of volatile, flammable hydrocarbons derived from plant material or animal waste and used as fuel), which is "added or blended to petroleum fuels to enhance or alter chemical or physical properties and improve performance or usage of the fuels."

Republic Act 9367 mandates the use of a minimum of one percent biodiesel blend within three months of the passage of the law and a minimum of two percent blend within two years (May 2009). For bioethanol, at least a 5 percent blend should be achieved by May 2009 and a 10 percent blend by May 2011.

Currently, there are two types of biofuels available in the Philippines: bioethanol and biodiesel. Bioethanol can be produced from sugarcane, cassava, corn, sweet sorghum, and other starch and sugar-bearing crops. Biodiesel is derived from plant oils like coconut, soybean, sunflower, palm oil, and malunggay.

"Time is crucial," said the team of graduating masters in business administration students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. They recommended that the Philippine government focus on the development of biofuel from malunggay seeds.

"You need to act now, or some other country will do it," the MIT students urged. As a potential biofuel source, malunggay has a "low iodine value better than diesel and low cetane (ignition) number that is better than both coconut fat and diesel," they pointed out.

Their study showed that with a 10-hectare farm producing moringa oil, a farmer can earn as much as P2 million in revenue during the first year, P3 million in the next three years, and P4 million in the next four years.

Given this estimate, the annual income from planting malunggay appears more profitable compared to planting corn which would earn the farmer P1,440,000 or coconut with P814,000, still based on the MIT students' research.

Early last year, Secura International started to export malunggay seeds and moringa oil to countries like Brazil, South Africa, and Australia.

Moringa oil may also find its way to other Asian countries.
"Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are interested in malunggay and the appetite for its oil intensified after they learned its use as an alternative biodiesel," Manayaga said.

Secura International also targets Japan and South Korea as its next biggest markets for moringa oil. "Because these markets are very near to us, we can deal with them and provide their requirements," Manayaga explained.

Aside from seeds, another possible source of income for the farmers is the leaf meal. While harvesting the oil from the seed, farmers can also tap the protein-rich leaves as feed meal. Malunggay leaves have lutein at 700 milligram per kilo of dried leaves.

"Imagine if we produce the oil, then we'll also have the meal," Manayaga said. "We won't anymore have to import soybean meal so cost of production will go down for pork and poultry, which will become cheaper (in the market)."

Malunggay is one of the world's most useful, yet often overlooked, plants. The "natural nutrition for the tropics" is how the Florida-based Education Concerns for Hunger Organization described malunggay. For centuries, people in India, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand have been eating malunggay leaves as a part of their food.

Malunggay leaves are excellent sources of vitamins A, B, C, D, E, amino acids, cysteine, and minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, iron, and magnesium. Nutritionists claims that gram for gram, malunggay has seven times the vitamin C found in oranges, four times the vitamin A found in carrots, four times the calcium and two times the protein found in milk, and three times the potassium found in bananas.

In the Philippines, malunggay is a well-known recipe for many delicious and nutritious viands. Its leaves are for soups with either chicken, fish, sautéed with beef, mongo and sardines; blanched as salads; tasty for bola-bola, torta, and others. Its fruit pods and pulp are cooked as dinengdeng or law-uy and can also be sautéed.