The November 2012 issue of The BELIZE AG REPORT is online HERE

This Issue's Stories:

  • Fertilizer expert visits Spanish Lookout: The Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture (MNRA) in collaboration with the ROC (Taiwan) Technical Mission (TTM) held a 2-day workshop on 25-26 July on the University of Belize, Central Farm campus, to introduce the efficient and effective application of soluble fertilizer for plant use through irrigation systems.
  • Apples of Belize: Featuring the Velvet Apple and the Red Custard Apple By Mary Susan Loan of Cristo Rey Village. Generally apples are considered a fruit that grows in the land of four seasons, not in a tropical environment. Belize and other Central American countries are also "apple" producing countries. Apple varieties in Belize include: Malley Apple, Custard Apple, Rose Apple, Velvet Apple, green and purple Star Apples, Wax Apple as well as classic Red and Yellow Apples. This article will feature the Velvet Apple and Custard Apple varieties.
  • Flame Weeding: Fighting Weeds With Fire. Flaming Provides Alternative Weapon in War on Weeds. Chemical weed control in Belize is changing to flaming methods The methods of controlling weeds by chemicals and adverse expensive products, is turning in Belize, to flame throwers. The trick apparently is to flame the plot, or land and burn the weeds, about a week after you plant the seeds. Doesn't touch the seeds and new plants, but gets rid of the weeds, and the charcoal produced enhances the fertility of the soil. As in ashes. Good article in AG REPORT issue 18. with a lot more details. Written by Francesca Camillo. You can find it online. This type of operation was popular early in the last century, and of course by the Maya milpa farmer even today, here. About the middle of the last century, commercial pesticides became cheaper, easier and popular, but the cycle of cost, advantages and such are bringing FLAMING, either spot burns, or wider field operations back in vogue. A guy by the name of Charles House is leading the revolution. He sells such farm equipment from his Earth & Sky Solutions business based in White Hall, Virginia, USA.
  • Permits Simplified! An Overview of the Import Permit Application Process for Agricultural Commodities, BAHA By: Francisco Gutierrez, Technical Director, Plant Health Services: The Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA) has been designated as the competent authority for agricultural health and food safety. This means BAHA is in charge of all those aspects related to veterinary services, plant protection, quarantine procedures, and regulations for safe and wholesome foods. In essence, the role of the organization is to mitigate risks associated with these broad roles. All these services are arranged into two main categories of work: export compliance and import regulations. This article focuses on the latter aspects of our work.
  • Black Pepper in Southern Belize: Visit a Tropical Kerala (India) Spice Farm� right here in Golden Stream, Toledo District Presenting The Belize Spice Farm & Botanical Gardens By Beth Roberson. One of the delights of being a writer for the Ag Report is discovering and exploring fascinating and diverse individuals and farms within Belize's borders. One of the very richest agricultural veins we have struck is The Belize Spice Farm and its owners, Dr. Thomas Mathews and Mrs. Tessy Mathews.
  • Light Rein on Vaccination: By Marjie Olson. Here in Belize vaccines are often hard to find, or are expired, and when you own several or many horses, can be very costly�
  • BEYOND THE BACKYARD: SPUD BUCKET. Covers in detail the growing and storing of potatoes in the tropical conditions of Belize. This is knowledge under actual tropical conditions, found no place else to my knowledge in the world. We have commercial farming of potatoes in Belize, but it is nothing like they do in Canada, or Northern USA. Plenty of rice husk hulls available in Belize and apparently they make excellent storage of potatoes, in our heat conditions. ( separate article in Ag Report )
  • Blue Creek Cowboys Take the Lead By John Carr, BLPA Chairman: On July 25th, 2012 The Blue Creek Cattle Committee started a pilot testing program. This included testing for brucellosis, tuberculosis and putting identification tags in each ear. These numbers with statistics are being entered into the National Computer System located at the Belize Livestock Producers Association (BLPA) office. The Blue Creek cattle men had good corrals and only had to rope 15 head at one farm. While a few cattle had to be re-checked for some reactors, on the following tests they proved to be clean of brucellosis and TB infections. Most of us never thought our cattle had these problems, but it is a very comforting to be proven clean.
  • Pasture Planning By Maruja Vargas: Planning more pasture for next season? The choice of grass to plant depends on the animals you intend to graze there. For example, the choice for cattle is Brizantha, Humidicola and/or Mombasa. On the other hand, the top choices for horses are Tanzania, new hybrid "Aires" and Mombasa. All of these grasses have their origin in Africa. All have been tried and tested extensively in Belize. All are perennial. (The two legumes mentioned further into this article originate from South America. )
  • Increasing Yields With Sulfur By Cory Schurman, Sr. Agronomy Manager, Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers: Sulfur deficiencies are becoming common throughout the world. The primary reason is that in the past, soils received 15-25 pounds of sulfur (S) per acre, per year from emissions from the burning of coal, and from sulfur dioxide emissions in fuels. Now with coal plants having scrubbers, and with the use of lower sulfur fuels, and overall concern for environmental quality world-wide, growers are typically now getting much less sulfur in a year on each acre. At the same time yield levels have risen, increasing the need for sulfur, so growers are seeing increasing shortages of this secondary nutrient. The following is a list of the roles sulfur plays in plant growth and production.
  • BEL-CAR Updates: Corn, Red Kidney Beans, Black Eye Beans, New Bean Cleaning Equipment
  • Making Cocoa Powder in Belize By Kerry Goss of Goss Chocolate, Placencia
  • Potato Storage Using Rice Hulls By Dottie Feucht
  • What is a Rainy Day?
  • Agriculture Prices at a Glance- $$$$$ October 2012
  • NBHA BELIZE RESULTS SEPT 1st 2012
  • RAISING SHEEP IN CAYO, BELIZE By Jerry B. Stevens
  • Wild Edibles of Belize Part 2 Hamelia patens Common Names: Red Head, Firebush By Dr Mandy Tsang. Also recipes for 'Red head' berries
  • The Stinkhorn Mushroom Dr Alessandro Mascia: Stinkhorns are one of the easiest mushrooms to identify; in one form or another they resemble phallic protrusions when mature. They are different from other mushrooms in that they spread their spores with the help of flies and carrion beetles (lovely, isn't it!) which are attracted to the smelly, slimy spore mass that adheres to the tip or head. The stinkhorns' most outlandish feature, however, is the unpleasant or provocative odour of the mature spore slime, which has been variously characterized as "foul," "fetid," "compelling,"� "disconcerting,"�"nauseating," "like rotting carrion,"�and most apt and understated of all: "indiscreet."
  • Conserving Food Freshness By Dottie Feucht: To some companies in the food industry preserve connotes adding chemicals to extend shelf life but conserve means maintaining the original flavor and texture and interrupting the aging cycle by means of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), a procedure of extracting the air from a package and replacing it with the optimum combination of oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2 ), and nitrogen (N2) for conserving its content.
  • ASK RUBBER BOOTS, Snake ID: The best snake identification book that we have found is A Field Guide to the Snakes of Belize by Tony Garel & Sharon Matola, ISBN 9968-730. Rubber Boots & family have identified many snakes with this, and found their information ultra-accurate. The preface of the book expresses the writers' hopes that the field guide may be useful to identify snakes in the wild. Rubber Boots has found it useful both in the wild and, unfortunately, in our home as well.
  • Ag Briefs
  • Letters To THE EDITOR