The Hortivar Project

UNIVERSITY SPEARHEADS PLANT DATABASE FOR HORTICULTURAL SCIENTISTS AND FARMERS

Plant information and farming techniques for specific crops or plant varieties are oftentimes difficult to find. Cultural requirements of plants often change from one place to another since climate, pests, and soil vary from place to place. Different farm practices and planting techniques vary from place to place, like for example, the different cultural practices for coffee plants in Cavite is different from those in other areas.

With these problems at hand, the Rizal Technological University (RTU) at Mandaluyong City has initiated the move to document the farming practices of Filipino farmers and the plant varieties they use in an electronic database, called HORTIVAR. The project is being funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO), located in Rome. As of present, RTU as the principal HORTIVAR Partner, has already trained a lot of other possible HORTIVAR partners here in the Philippines like Isabela State University, Benguet State University, Bureau of Plant Industry in Baguio, and Tarlac College of Agriculture. By the way, the database actually has an international coverage, and it has a lot of members from different countries around the world as well. HORTIVAR is FAO's database on performance of horticultural cultivars in relation to agro-ecological conditions, cultivation practices, the occurrence of pests and diseases and timing of the production. It covers six categories of horticultural crops, namely: fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers, ornamentals, mushrooms, herbs and condiments.

The Database allows users to identify cultivars and cropping practices adapted to their specific requirements and environment. It is an easy tool for quick retrieval of information related to horticulture cultivars around the world. It also has a digital picture database so that the appearance of the plant can be identified. It has a standard methodology of data recording of cultivar trials, with a source of data analysis and extrapolation. The database output can be made as a template for educational purposes in college and universities. The plant data entries also shows the HORTIVAR partner who encoded the data their contact information, thus, growers can consult plant researchers and resource persons through email. It is also a tool for quick retrieval of information on seed sources or planting material.

The project addresses the needs of crop producers, the public and private sector, seed companies and also horticultural research centers for information management related to horticultural crop cultivars in different agro-climatic environments. Most of the description and cultural requirements of these Philippine grown vegetables and fruits are now available at Hortivar.

Anyone can actually participate in the HORTIVAR project in two ways. One could be just an ordinary researcher, who looks for plant information (data retrieval), or as a resource person or partner who enters plant data into the database (data entry). Access and use of the database is FREE of charge. Anyone who has background in computing or knows how to access the internet can retrieve data from the HORTIVAR Website by searching through the sorted files according to various parameters such as crop species, cultivar, country of origin, geographical references, pest resistance, eco-zone and production systems.

People living in remote areas in the Philippines can access the plant database, as long as they have electricity and an internet signal. The database is also accessible through CD format and printed format. It is time to help our farmers by providing the much needed information for them to produce food crops of our ever growing population.

HORTIVAR team at http://www.fao.org/hortivar

For more information, contact us at

The Plant Biotech Project
c/o Research & Development Center
Rizal Technological University
Boni Avenue, Mandaluyong City
Philippines

Email: rdc_rtu@yahoo.com or
plantbiotech_rtu@yahoo.com
Landline (+632)534-8267 Local 135
Fax (+632) 534-9710.