Conclusion
ECONOMISTS have emphasized that only a strong innovation ecosystem could boost the performance of the country’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
Citing the US National Science Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) defined innovation ecosystem as referring to the “economic dynamics of the complex relationships between actors or entities whose functional goal is to enable technology development and innovation”.
The “growth of the innovation ecosystem requires that two distinct but interdependent systems—the knowledge economy [driven by fundamental research] and the commercial economy [driven by the marketplace]— work together to move innovation from laboratory to marketplace,” as USAid report said. According to the report, the working together of these drivers allows “a fraction of profits from business” to be “channeled to support research activities, either directly or through government spending”.
“In turn, investments in research generate innovation-induced growth in the economy, creating greater profits in the commercial sector through new products and services,” the report said. “When new profits are reinvested in research activities, the cycle becomes self-reinforcing, and sustained technology-led economic growth is the result.”
While the Philippines reflected a “positive momentum” in its stride to develop an innovation ecosystem, the USAid report noted “several issues” still needs to be addressed “for a more smoothly functioning innovation ecosystem to emerge” in the country.
Innovation awards
TAKING cue from findings of assessments like that of the USAid, the Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation (BCYF) launched its Innovation Awards (BIA).
The BIA, according to BCYF Chairman Antonio Yap, seeks to honor Filipino innovators.
They are, Yap said, people who focus on how things could be done better. “The search for something better on a continuous basis is what defines individuals and organizations,” Yap said.
Yap’s group also searched for these searchers and arrived at 104 nominations. Seven were nominated for the agribusiness category, 60 for government service, 25 for small and medium enterprise and a dozen for technological-vocational education. The number was trimmed to less than 10 finalists, who included retired Philippine Navy Col. Troy Bumagat for the agribusiness category.
New battle
BUMAGAT is now embarking on a new challenge to fight poverty through sustainable agribusiness.
Based on documents he provided the BCYF, that battle started in March 2011, when he established Trophy Farm Supplies. It was six years ago when he operated his first tunnel ventilated building for broiler production in the town of Montebello, Kananga, a first-class municipality in the province of Leyte.
He entered into a contract growing arrangement with San Miguel Foods Inc. with a capacity of 36,000 birds. The initial venture experienced a rough sailing when his produce came below the standards of the conglomerate, Bumagat said. To turn things around, the alumnus of the Philippine Military Academy introduced innovations in poultry raising, such as the UV-Light Filtration System. With an initial investment of P19,000, he built the UV system composed of four units of sediment-carbon filtration system and an ultraviolet tube. With moderate exposure to the ultraviolet radiation, Bumagat believed that chickens, like human being, can also benefit from it.
“I surmised that what could be highly applicable to humans can also be applicable to chickens. I attached the system to my main watering line and medication equipment to guarantee that all liquids running through the watering lines and directly into the chickens when they drink to the ‘nipples’ is 99.9 percent bacteria-free,” explained Bumagat in his summary presented to the BCYF screening committee.
The introduction of the new system yielded a positive result when the mortality rate dropped from 5 percent to 2 percent. Moreover, it was smooth sailing when he did not experience any water-related problems in his succeeding grows from that time to the present.
“San Miguel asked me to share my UV-water filtration technology to other contract growers in the Visayas region and I have supplied several other large-scale poultry farms in Region 8 with the same setup.”
Fuel challenge
BUMAGAT said one of the challenges in the fledgling years of Trophy Farm was the high cost during the brooding period, the first 14 days of the chicken inside the poultry building. He explained that in 2011 the buildings consumed 10 50-kilogram tanks of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which cost P2,700.
Hence, he developed a “gasifier”, which was redesigned from a heater originally used for cooking. He also used ipa (rice husk) as fuel.
“This has drastically reduced our brooding expenses by as much as 70 percent, with only three 50-kg LPG tanks utilized per grow,” Bumagat claim. “My total investment per gasifier is only P1,200, or P6,000 for the five units of gasifiers inside the building.”
At present, Trophy Farms has four poultry buildings with a total capacity of 130,000 birds. It has 30 employees.
Bumagat said he continues to pursue innovation to address the potential threats of broiler farming focusing on zero waste. He has been converting the wastes incurred in his poultry production into organic fertilizer since 2012, enabling his business to provide the fertilizer needs of sugar, rice and vegetable growers of Ormoc, Leyte, Biliran and Samar.
Other finalists
OTHER finalists vying for the BIA, the awarding ceremonies of which would be held on February 20, include Jayvee Tyron Uy, governor of the Compostela Valley, and the Department of Science and Technology (Dost) Mimaropa Region 4B and oneStore.ph. All three are competing for the government service category awards of the BIA.
Uy is being nominated for wielding his authority to cascade a nutrition-security program for the whole Compostela Valley province. The governor is credited for mandating the construction and operation of a central kitchen that serves iron-fortified rice (IFR) to 820 of 105,000 schoolchildren in the province of 750,000 people.
Uy is also credited for mandating all government units under the province to use IFR. Likewise, he has asked all retailers to sell IFR as “added option”.
The Dost-Mimaropa region, on the other hand, is being nominated for its innovation in the use of solar energy in the DOST offices in the provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.
Finally, oneStore.ph is nominated for its innovation in the use of digital technology.
oneStore.ph is an e-commerce web application that allows micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) assisted by the DOST to sell products online.
“We help MSMEs widen the scope of their target market,” an article on the portal said.
According to Pacita Juan of the Asean Women Entrepreneurs Network (Awen), social enterprises like oneStore.ph some of the BIA finalists have grown also because of the Internet and technology.
“But what most social enterprises lack is the formal structure to accept impact investors,” Juan said, when asked how innovation has impacted social enterprises.
“They need to incorporate or establish a company to be able to take in equity from impact investors,” Juan, Awen chairman, said in an electronic mail.
Reena Francisco, operations director of social enterprise ECHOstore, added they harness social media for marketing.
“Social media is our only way to promote our products to the general public,” Francisco said in an e-mail. “So the use of technology is very vital for the sustainability of our business model.”
Image credits: Amid | Dreamstime.com