Kenaf a good substitute ingredient for cattle feed

TARLAC CITY – Some 20 kilos of leaves from the plant kenaf were shipped from this province this week for laboratory analysis in Tokyo. Should it pass Japanese standards set for its large-scale production, Tarlac will be initially annually producing 100 million tons of what is now being regarded as an alternative to the cattle feed ingredient blamed for the spread of the "mad cow" disease in Europe.

At the same time, the firm, SIJ Tarlac Enterprises, Inc., gave to Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, a native of this province, a proposal for President Arroyo to include in her Dec. 2 to 5 visit to Japan an agenda for the said country to prioritize the Philippines in the sourcing of its needs for kenaf.

SIJ Tarlac, owned by Mitsuo Kanetaka, is a subsidiary of the Japan-based SI Japan Co., Ltd.

Virgilio Fernandez, one of the local firm’s directors, said that their production of the kenaf variety, Tainung-II, is intended for this province to capture a significant portion of the cattle feeds market in Japan.

He said that Kanetaka, who earlier left for Japan for the laboratory testing of the kenaf they have harvested from a one-and-a-half hectare land in Barangay Paraiso here, is "one hundred percent sure" that they will pass the "rigid requirements" of the plant analysis.

Once SIJ Tarlac gets the go signal from Japanese importers, Fernandez said that they intend to go full blast in producing kenaf soon.

He added that their initial area of production will be on a 1,000-hectare property in Barangay Estrada in Capas just right beside the brick factory of former rebel leader, Bernabe "Kumander Dante" Buscayno.

The firm’s annual 100 million-ton target of exporting kenaf would only be for Japan. Fernandez said that they intend to later expand their market in Europe and the G-7 (Group of Seven) countries.

Solution to ‘mad cow’

Fernandez explained that the kenaf variety they are planting has been found by scientists as a solution to the "mad cow" virus, which devastated Europe’s cattle industry last year until early this year.

According to him, kenaf is now being used as an alternative to the meat-and-bone ingredient, the cause of the "mad cow" virus, that was previously used in manufacturing cattle feeds.

Angelito Cortez, Central Luzon chief of the regional plant quarantine service of the Department of Agriculture, was here to supervise the packaging of the kenaf leaves shipped to Japan and the issuance of its phyto-sanitary certificate by the government agency.

Source of livelihood

Fernandez disclosed that SIJ Tarlac intends to make farmers in the province as "partners" in the large-scale production of kenaf, which he described as a "high-yield cash crop" suitable during the off-season of the country’s rice planting season.

He said that the firm intends to pursue this objective by tapping farmers’ cooperatives and introducing agricultural producers to the "practicality" of producing kenaf, such as its low-cost farm inputs but high-rate on return-of-investments when it comes to exporting the plant to cattle feeds companies abroad.

According to him, it only takes 50 days to grow and harvest kenaf, while it needs less water that it could even be planted in lahar-affected areas. Fernandez further pointed out that the kenaf they have planted bloomed flowers, which means that the soil in Central Luzon is "very suitable and nutritious" for the plant.

Aside from Tarlac, he disclosed that provincial officials in Nueva Ecija and Aurora have already expressed their desire to introduce kenaf to their farmers.

Fernandez added that the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita is similarly interested in involving its farm-workers in the venture, and apparently eyes exporting kenaf, too, to other countries.

He said that the seeds they used in planting kenaf were imported from Texas.

Fernandez added that Kanetaka is initially investing $1 million in this agricultural undertaking, while SI Japan and the Japanese government may later infuse more capital for the expansion of its production in this city, the 17 towns of Tarlac, and other provinces in Central and Northern Luzon.