Make sure to get a copy of the May issue of Agriculture Magazine which is now off the press. This is the monthly magazine published by the Manila Bulletin and edited by yours truly.

Featured on the cover is the life story of Chen Wun-Yu, the indefatigable plant breeder from Taiwan who founded Known-You Seed Company, the biggest firm of its kind in that country. Mr. Chen is best known as the fellow who was responsible for developing the first commercial variety of seedless watermelon in 1961 while still working with the Fengshan Tropical Horticulture Research Station in Kaohsiung in the southern part of his country.

In 1968, Chen Wun-Yu gave up his government job and put up Known –You Seed Company which has now become a really big company producing not only seedless watermelon seeds but also many other outstanding varieties of .watermelon, melon, honeydew, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, cucumber, ampalaya, cabbage and so many other high-value crops.

You will also read about the pioneering efforts of Victor and Susan Mendoza at producing export-quality Tilanggit in Bustos, Bulacan. Two-month-old tilapia are processed into the boneless counterpart of the danggit usually produced in the Visayas. The fish are dried under very hygienic conditions in the multi-commodity solar tunnel dryer developed by the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension.

Then there is the story of Valencia City in Bukidnon which was declared the “First Organic City in the Philippines”in 2007. There, Elly and Baby Mabao, who are also into other businesses, pioneered in the commercial production of vermicompost, followed by some 150 households who are also producing various amounts of vermicompoast every month. They sell their organic fertilizer to crop farmers at only R5 per kilo, according to the story written by Rafael D. Guerrero III.

Other stories include those of a nurse, Rhoderick Gray, who is more interested in farming and business than practicing his own profession in Umingan, Pangasinan; Atty. Gerardo Viloria of Balaoan, La Union who operates a mountain farm in Santol, La Union; organic strawberry production in Benguet, and many others.