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Monday, May 30, 2005
Focus on organic farming, vegetable growers urged
ONE of the most productive farmers in the region has revealed his deepest secret in growing healthy vegetables is the presence of small wasps in his farm.
Roger Gualberto, Vegetable Industry Council of Southern Mindanao (Vicsmin) chair, has urged vegetable growers to use diadegma semiclausum, an effective biological control against diamondblack moth (DBM), an insect destroying cabbage fields in the country.
With the very strict implementation of the "pesticide-free vegetables" rule imposed by importing countries, Gualberto said local growers should focus on organic farming if they want to continue to penetrate foreign markets.
One of these techniques in organic farming, he said, is the use of diadegma.
Diadegma, as defined by Department of Agriculture (DA) 11 plant pathologist Marilou Infante, is a small wasp about one centimeter in length. The female wasp lays a single egg inside the body of the DBM. The egg then develops into a larva, and eats the tissues and organs of the DBM, until the host dies, as it reaches the pupal stage.
"The diadegma then extricates itself from the DBM's empty shell or 'exuva' and takes its residence inside the silken cocoon of its host. Five to eight days later, a new diadegma wasp emerges and the new life cycle goes on again," Infante said.
Through this strategy, Gualberto said his production has never declined.
Gualberto discovered this best farm practice when DA 11 regional executive director Roger Chio gave him 450 diadegma cocoons in 2003, which he immediately released into his 2,500-square meter cabbage farm in Davao del Sur.
At present, Gualberto, together with his co-vegetable farmers in Kapatagan, are running their own diadegma laboratory in order to support the entire diadegma requirement of the vegetable farms there.
"When your farm is growing cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and pechay, using diadegma as an organic pesticide will really help. And aside from that, your strict foreign markets will never shy away," he said.
Gualberto was guest speaker of DA 11's series of lectures on best farm practices last week. (JMM)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (May 30, 2005 issue)
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