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[av_heading heading=’URBAN FARMER ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY JULIO P. YAP JR.
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Production of quality seedlings
THE availability of quality seedlings is crucial to attain good growth and better performance of the different vegetable crops.
Healthy seedlings produced in a well-managed nursery could result to a better yield and expected to give a more realistic profit.
At present, broad-minded farmers and agriculture entrepreneurs have shifted to the production of seedlings as their source of income.
Realizing that it is more manageable and practical, a couple in Barangay Sapang Pahalang, San Rafael, Bulacan, has engaged in the production of quality seedlings as a commercial activity.
For the husband and wife team of Jimmy and Meriane Alcantara, the success of a production method will greatly depend on the kind of seeds they will be sowing and the farm input they will use.
They thus established a vegetable nursery in their backyard for growing young vegetable seedlings until they become ready for planting into the farms of their clients.
Based on their experience, the couple developed their own planting medium and uses an organic fertilizer that provides a better germination and growth during the process of seedling production.
The couple decided to use Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer for cultivating the different varieties of vegetable seedlings like, pepper, tomato, eggplant, and papaya in their less than 500-square meter backyard.
The organic fertilizer they are using resulted in the better quality of the seedlings which they produce.
The product was introduced to the couple by Bernie Villaceran, a farm technician from the Global Green Organic Fertilizer, Inc., makers of the Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer.
The technician explained to them that damage to agricultural crops could be prevented or minimized with the proper application of the organic farm input.
The seedlings that were sprayed with Amino Plus became more resistant to diseases and stresses.
When sprayed, it effectively adheres to the plant’s surface and provides quick supplementation.
The couple has also devised a system to protect the seedlings during the rainy season by improvising a greenhouse which is very simple and practical to use.
Today, the Alcantaras have increased the capacity of their nursery, which they said could produce thousands of quality seedlings at any given time – depending of course on the number of seedling ordered by their clientele.
Through the innovation they have devised, and through the input which they regularly use, the Alcantaras emerged not only as a commercial seedling producer but also became role models for the other traditional farmers in their area.
The couple became practical techno-agent in their locality that supplies quality seedlings.
The Alcantaras also share their technical know-how to the local farmers on how to properly take care of their vegetable crops by using the Amino Plus Foliar Fertilizer./PN
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