Dr Abe V Rotor
The long search for more efficient production systems may end where biology, ecology and agriculture converge and complement one another. Biology provides the principles for understanding life; agriculture applies such principles in the production of crops and animals; while ecology establishes the environment-friendly conditions. Muscovado sugar is produced, together with other native confectionary products (politipot, sinambong, kinalti, panocha), by cooking sugarcane juice. Muscovado is recommended over refined sugar.
This complementation concept has led this author to the work of a Japanese scientist, Keihichi Odaira, who is the proponent of a four-dimensional process called Yojigen. In a capsule, this theory is made up of four pillars, namely
1. Take advantage of living creatures as producing machines.
2. Look for more than one product from a single process.
3. Take advantage of any material as a source for the next process.
4. Remember that the value of a given process can be greater than the sum of its parts.
Over the years, this writer has witnessed Odaira's Yojigen apply his theories on agriculture, reviving the old school of Farming, the Natural Way. Let us look at its application under Philippine conditions.
1. Take advantage of the functions of the living creatures as producing machines.
Plants grow and produce food by photosynthesis, a function of both genetic and environmental factors. This means that a potentially high yielding crop can be enhanced by favorable agro-climatic conditions. This is the principle of plant breeding and agronomy, so with animal husbandry.
In agronomy, time and space elements are crucial. Proper crop sequences and rotations take advantage of this principle. Wherever feasible, rice is often followed by cash crops like corn, legume and vegetables. When a farmer decides to practice crop rotation, he is able to identify the proper technology involved, as well as market suitable crops.
As producers, livestock animals should be maintained only during the most economical period in their life cycle. For example, pigs are kept from six to seven months, attaining a weight of around 80 kilos. After this period, the feed conversion ratio becomes economically inefficient. This is true with cattle raised and fattened for not more than three years. For poultry, marketing is programmed with both feed efficiency ratio and the desired weight and size of the broiler.
The principle of inter-cropping follows this postulate. Banana is intercropped with coconut in Quezon and Leyte. Coconut-banana-vegetables are combined on upland farms in Cavite and Camarines Norte, while coconut-lanzones-coffee is common in Laguna.
These schemes illustrate the maximization of plant function through proper combination and sequencing. Other examples illustrate the application of this assumption are the following:
- Combined rice and fish culture in Central Luzon.
- Integrated corn production and beef cattle fattening in Mindanao.
- Upland agriculture or KABSAKA in Iloilo, combining two or more upland crops on a given piece of land.
- Corn and peanut intercropping in Isabela.
- Ipil-ipil-black pepper-coffee intercropping in Batangas and Laguna.
2. Look for more than one product from a single process
In rice milling, rice bran is a by-product used as a main feed component. The idea is, to be able to efficiently use both the principal and its by-products. In Mindanao, pineapple pulp and peelings from the cannery are fermented into vinegar, or fed directly to livestock. In the banana industry, rejects are converted into catsup, or cattle feed. Sugar is fermented into wine, or made into vinegar. The production of nata de coco can be combined with vinegar making, creating a three-stage process wine, vinegar and nata manufacture.
All about the Ilocos Basi wine and vinegar produced by indigenious technology. Fermentation is a universal process in the production of many products including patis (fish sauce) to toyo for soya bean. Photo: Bannawag Magazine staff in a light moment. Bannawag is the largest Ilocano weekly magazine.
There are enterprises engaged in integrated rice production and piggery. The idea is to make use of the grain by-product for meat production. On a larger scale, there is need for a complex of rice milling, feed milling, storage, and transportation facilities in one location.
3. Take advantage of any leftovers as a resource for the next process.
The idea behind this concept is the recycling of waste. A biogas digester processes piggery and poultry waste into two products: Cooking gas and sludge used as organic fertilizer. Corn stalks and peanut hay, harvesting leftovers can be fed to livestock as forage. Rice hay may be used as mulch.
Mushroom culture depends largely on the availability of suitable substrates such as rice straw, banana leaves, and sawdust. According to Prof. Odaira, aside from being used as fuel, peat is also a good material for growing mushroom. Peat, after all, is an accumulation of cellulose materials (mainly lignin) spared of decomposition under anaerobic (living, active and occurring in the absence of oxygen) and waterlogged condition. Such material is plentiful in swamps such as the Sab-A Basin in Leyte.
Chicken manure is applied in fishponds to increase algal growth which in turn is forage to milkfish or tilapia.
4. The value of a given process can be greater than the sum of its parts.
As a common practice, farmers and homesteaders plant cover crops such as kudzu (Pueraria javanica), Centrosema pubescens and giant spineless Mimosa to suppress obnoxious weeds on ranches and orchards. Cover crops, aside from being effective in controlling weeds, is also forage for cattle and other large animals. Their residues, when incorporated with the soil, add to its fertility. It also reduces the rate of evaporation of soil moisture, thus controlling soil erosion and loss of soil nutrients.
Through effective weed control, the farmer has a better chance of meeting his farming schedules, while reducing the risk of brush fire. Conserving soil moisture, especially when rainfall is sufficient enhances seed germination and survival. Beneficial soil organisms thrive best in soil with high organic matter. These include the earthworm and nitrogen-fixing bacteria that help maintain a good crop stand.
Here’s another example to illustrate this principle. The idea of burning is to get rid of farm wastes quickly. But by burning, the potential nutrient value of the straw, both as feed and as a source of organic matter, is lost. Rice straw is very useful to farmers as mulch, for mushroom production, and as well as composting material.
Many advantages are derived from these practices. First, mulching increases crop yield. It also doubles the production of garlic and onions. Mushroom can be a lucrative business, while composting contributes to soil fertility. Crops grown on soil with high organic matter do not only produce higher yields but also have higher food value.
This author would like to add a fifth postulate to Odaira's Yojigen.
5. Capitalize on the natural qualities of living things in their respective environments. (AVR)
We know of certain natural properties of organisms in their indigenous locations. The sweetest mangoes grow in Zambales, the sweetest lanzones in Paete (Laguna) PHOTO, the largest and juiciest pineapples are found in Bukidnon. No bangus (milkfish) anywhere can beat the Bonoan (Dagupan, Pangasinan) breed. Sarangani (Mindanao) ranchers boast of their beef as among the best-tasting.
Benguet vegetables, like lettuce, cabbages and cauliflower, are distinctly superior over those grown on the lowland areas. Garlic grows best in the Ilocos region, bulb onions in Bongabong (Nueva Ecija), kapeng barako in Batangas, and peanuts in Jones (Isabela).
By analyzing Yojigen, one is led to know, in simple and discreet ways, the many gifts of nature.
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