MANILA, Philippines – Ramon Uy of Bacolod City does not only make the now-well known RU shredders used in shredding materials for vermicomposting. He has also designed several other agricultural equipment. One of them is an essential oil distiller that is currently used for extracting oil in lemon grass grown by organic farmers who are his cooperators.

The extractor costs a fortune but that is not the worry of farmers. Ramon has installed one facility costing P1 million in Cauayan, Negros Occidental middle of last year. The farmers could not afford to buy that so the machine is used for toll extraction of lemon grass oil.

The scheme works this way. The farmers grow lemon grass the organic farming way. They don’t use any chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Instead, they use vermicompost or organic fertilizer to grow their plants. When they are ready to harvest, they bring their harvest to the distilling machine. Uy’s technician operates the distiller in the presence of the farmer. After three hours, the distilling is finished and the farmer receives the payment for his oil. That’s because Uy buys all the oil extracted at P1,500 per liter.

Usually, the distiller is filled with 250 kilos of lemon grass. This usually yields 1.3 liters of lemon grass oil with a value of P1,950. There’s also another income from the water that was separated during distilling. It is called hydrosol and is used for making mouthwash and skin preparations. This byproduct gives the farmer an additional income of more than P300. By the way, the farmer also provides the wood for fuel. But that is usually worth only P100. The farmer can gather that from his own farm.

For a community to merit establishment of one distiller, there has to be at least 10 hectares planted to lemon grass. Lemon grass could be grown not as a monocrop but as a side crop. It could be grown at the edges of corn or sugarcane plantations. It could be grown among fruit trees and forest trees. It can also be grown in vegetable farms. Of course, it could be the main crop in an area.

Growing lemon grass for Ramon Uy could be profitable says Dante Estarmoso who is in charge of the lemon grass distillation project. If it is a mono crop, one can plant 10,000 hills in a half hectare. Suckers are used for planting, each costing 25 centavos.

The first harvest can be done five months after planting. With good soil, each hill can produce half kilo of leaves after five months, according to Estarmoso. After the first harvest, the second harvesting can be done after two months and every two months thereafter. With proper care, each hill can produce 600 to750 grams of leaves. The plant can be ratooned for 12 to 15 times.

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TALK ON EXOTIC FRUIT TREES AT HORTICULTURE 2011 — We have been invited by the Philippine Horticultural Society to speak on exotic fruit trees on January 31 starting at 2 p.m. at the Manila Seedling Bank in Quezon City. This is at the Horticultue 2011, the annual garden show of the PHS which will run through February 7. Many other speakers on different timely topics are scheduled during the entire show.

The PHS show is one of the major garden shows in country. This year, attendees will discover new varieties of ornamentals as well as the old favorites displayed in the exhibits and also available in the commercial section.

In our lecture, we will delve on growing the recommended varieties of fruit trees such as the different varieties of pummelo – the Magallanes from Davao, the varieties from Thailand, the Nam Roi and Da Xanh from Vietnam and others. We will discuss the doable techniques in inducing off-season fruiting in exotic fruit trees.

We will also discuss the opportunties in growing fruit trees in containers. What are the varieties suitable for container growing of fruit trees? These include the imported varieties of makopa, mangoes, sweet sampalok, Bangkok santol, balimbing, chico, Perante orange and many others.

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COFFEE BOARD HOPEFUL ON DA SUPPORT — The Philippine Coffee Board hopes to get continued support from the Department of Agriculture for its “Filipinas! Gising at Magkape Program” (PGAM) which has reached out to coffee farmers all over the country. Started in 2008, the program has conducted trainings and rehabilitation efforts in Benguet, Mountain Province, Cavite, Iloilo, Negros Island, and many parts of Mindanao.

“I hope we will still get the P100 million allocated for the industry in the budget,” says Chit Juan, program director of the PGAM and co-chair of the private sector-led body. “We submitted our proposal to the new HVCC director and are crossing our fingers we can continue with the plan to do new plantings of coffee for 2011,” she continues.

The Philippines has been importing coffee from Vietnam and Indonesia for soluble coffee and also to augment needs of specialty coffee roasters. We have imported no less than 40,000 metric tons per year for the last two years as consumption has gone up to 68,000 metric tons and production is still at a dismal low of 23,000 metric tons despite renewed efforts to encourage coffee production, according to Juan.

“The farmers have awakened, and are starting to plant new coffee trees,” says Nicholas Matti, PCB chair. “In Iloilo and Negros, we have the cooperation of local governments and cooperatives,” he adds.