About time we adopted science

IN an article in the National Geographic magazine, Frank Vivianno said furrows of artificial light and electric fans are the key to climate-controlled environment in greenhouse farms set up in the Netherlands, enabling crops to grow around the clock and in every kind of weather.

“They’ve almost completely eliminated the use of chemical pesticides on plants in greenhouses, and since 2009 Dutch poultry and livestock producers have cut their use of antibiotics by as much as 60 percent,” Viviano said.

“These climate-controlled farms enable a country located a scant thousand miles from the Arctic Circle to be a global leader in exports of a fairweather fruit – the tomato. The Dutch are also the world’s top exporter of potatoes and onions and the second largest exporter of vegetables overall in terms of value.” More than half the nation’s land area is used for agriculture and horticulture.

The indoor farms provide optimal growing conditions for farming and harvest yields as much lettuce as 10 outdoor acres and cuts the need for chemicals by 97 percent.

Water, nutrients, and fertilizers are delivered to the plants in measured amounts, according to a timetable. There is practically no water wasted and it is not necessary that an irrigation should be nearby to provide the needed water.

The Philippines is largely agriculture and what boggles the mind is our inability to adopt the scientific method for large-scale farming. Let’s forget the hoary practice of planting vegetables and fruits in open spaces that could be wiped out by typhoons, drought, or insects.

Maybe with a little help from the government and the private sector, loans could be provided to our farmers so that some of them could start largescale greenhouse farming, scattered in various available lands. Get the experts from the University of the Philippines in Los Baños to select the best seeds and let them study the best soil.

That way, our dependence on imported onions, garlic, tomato, ginger, etc., could finally be addressed. We could be net exporters of produce also.