What could be considered a curse in the Philippines could be a gold mine somewhere else.
Like the notorious and much-maligned Golden Kuhol, for instance. We were talking to Dr. Ravindra C. Joshi, a science research specialist, during a recent occasion in Los Baños. He was so excited telling us that in Korea the Golden Kuhol is a highly prized commodity.
The Koreans have made Golden Kuhol a gourmet food. Packaged frozen snail meat is being sold at $ 40 to $ 50 per kilo. There’s one restaurant, Snail Doctor Restaurant, which serves numerous recipes of the Golden Kuhol. It includes sizzling kuhol, soup with egg, chicharon kuhol, dinuguan kuhol and many others.
He said that farmers are growing the Golden Kuhol inside greenhouses with water and vegetables. The mollusks are fed with vegetable scraps from the market as well as with commercial pellets.
If you look inside the greenhouses, Dr. Joshi said, you will see the walls pink with millions of snail eggs.
Well, that’s one instance where a problem becomes an opportunity.
By the way, Dr. Joshi says that the Koreans are also using the Golden Kuhol to control weeds in their rice farms. They don’t use any herbicide. They find Golden Kuhol to be more efficient than ducks in controlling weeds.
The Golden Kuhol is a native of Argentina. However, it is not a big problem over there. A bird called Snail Kite is reported to be an efficient predator of the snail.
In Vietnam and Thailand, Dr. Joshi says, they make liquid fertilizer out of Golden Kuhol. In Indonesia, on the other hand, they convert the shells into souvenir items.
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AGRI-KAPIHAN THIS SUNDAY. There will be an Agri-Kapihan this Sunday, Feb. 26, from 8 to 11 a.m., at the parking lot of radio station DWWW, 23 E. Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon City. One of the speakers will be Mrs. Lourdes Rivera who will talk of meat processing.
The Agri-Kapihan is open free to the public. It is a project of the radio program "Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura" which is aired every Sunday from 4:30 to 7 a.m.
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OPEN TO FARM VISIT. Teresa Orchard & Nursery in Teresa, Rizal (0917-997-6194) is open to visitors on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. At this time, visitors will be able to see Abiu, latexless jackfruit and sweet sampalok in fruit. Starting to flower are selected varieties of rambutan and durian.
The farm propagates only selected varieties such as imported mangoes including Golden Queen from Taiwan, R2E2 and Bowen from Australia, Valencia Pride, Southern Blush, Leonida from Florida, and certified strains of carabao mango.
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