Food EvolutionLike Page January 26 at 1:40pm Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who has been involved with goat, game fowl and chicken breeding, said the fulfillment comes with creating something better by mixing good parent stocks. Department of Agriculture MannyPiñol Why farmers should learn genetics - Food Evolution Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who has been involved with goat, game fowl and chicken breeding, said the fulfillment comes with creating something better by mixing good parent stocks. FOODEVOLUTION.COM.PH

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who has been involved with goat, game fowl and chicken breeding, said the fulfillment comes with creating something better by mixing good parent stocks. Piñol bred the Manok Pinoy, a new strain of backyard meat chicken which grows to market size in three months. But he said it was in game fowl breeding where he encountered tough and difficult challenges because of “unseen and invisible qualities” like gameness, accurate cutting and intelligence. He said one can only see a rooster’s fighting skills three years after it is bred. If it doesn’t work, the breeder starts over. “For me, the ultimate joy as a breeder is not in the fighting of the roosters but in creating something beautiful by just using your imagination.” Piñol said farmers can use knowledge on genetics to make sure that he produces the trees with the sweetest fruits and trees that are prolific fruit-bearers. He said the farmer can identify the best fruit trees and make them the source of his scions or seed nuts. For those raising chickens, he said the poor egg producers and those with thin bodies could be culled. “When the farmer learns this, farming becomes an exciting thing and every day that comes along is a new moment of discovery,” he added.