GOOD morning fellow believers, how are you today. We do not liked to be fooled, but it happens so often, that it might seem as if we do. Far too many people fall for crooked schemes that cost them money, endanger their health, or waste their time. It often happens to elderly people when they trust the very persuasive person who comes to their door selling a too-good-to-be-true product.

It happens when a shyster tells a couple that he's from the bank and they need to withdraw money and give it to him to fix a bank error. It happens when a person has health problems and boys hundreds of peso's worth of bogus medicine.

It can also happen to us in spiritual matters. We can be fooled by deceitful presentations that make guarantees far beyond what God has clearly promised, but this is nothing new, so, how doe we protect ourselves from those who make religious claims that Gods word does not support? By being rooted and built up in Christ Jesus, and established in the faith, as we're taught.

Let us pray -
Christ is all we need, his truth complete,
The world will try to add, subtract, distort
Cling to what you know, and trust God's word
Don't let yourself believe a false report.

Feeding on God's truth will keep you from swallowing a lie.

Our topic - Rice hull, or "IPA" was at one time a big problem of ricemillers, especially in big rice producing areas, it was usually considered a waste product that had to be thrown away. We used to see big piles of rice husk along the highway.

There was very limited uses for rice hull in the past, but today, rice husk is becoming increasingly useful as new uses are being popularized. One product that is becoming increasingly popular is the carbonized rice hull, CRH for short. To produce CRN, raw rice hull is burned without air so that it will not turn into ash.

CRH is sterile and is free from disease organisms. This makes it an ideal litter for brooding chicks. There are a number of benefits from using CRH for brooding chicks instead of the usual raw rice hull. Being sterile CRH minimizes disease contamination.

Also, it readily absorbs the moisture in the manure so the litter doe's not get moist and not attractive to flies. When the litter is treated with an enzyme (biosec) formulated by a Dr. Sumaong, the usual odor from the manure is eliminated.

At the same time, the enzymes break down the nutrients found in the manure so that when brooding is over the litter would have become an organic fertilizer that is ready to use on crops. Dr. Sumaong explains that biosec is a combination of live but immobilized beneficial microorganisms and digestive enzymes.

Once applied the beneficial microorganisms multiply very rapidly, inhibiting the growth of disease-causing organisms like E. Coli, Salmonella and others. The enzymes on the other hand, break down the food nutrients in the manure into simpler forms that could be readily absorbed by plants.

It has been noted that the chicks grown on CRH letter grow faster and are more uniform in size, they are also healthier because CRH doe's not allow the proliferation or harmful organisms that often cause respiratory diseases and diarrhea.

At the Philippine Rice Research Institute, (PhilRice) in Nueva Ecija, there's a showcase of a pigpen where carbonized rice hull, about one foot deep serves as flooring instead of the usual cement floor. The pigpen doe's not have to be washed with water everyday, in fact it doe's not get washed for the entire growing period of four months.

The manure and urine from the pigs get buried in the carbonized rice hull. The usual foul smell is eliminated by this method, and after the pigs are sold, the litter is collected and used as organic fertilizer for vegetables, rice and other crops.

CRH is also very useful in rice farming. Twenty bags of CRH combined with organic fertilizer or compost may be applied in one hectare. It could be plowed in during land preparation. This will make the land not only more porous for better plant growth, it will also enable the soil to retain the moisture much longer, thus, when there is a prolonged dry spell, the rice plants will be able to survive the rainless period longer. Rice grown in fields enriched with CRH also produce more profuse tillers, this will mean higher yield because there are more stems that will bear fruit.

Well there you are farmers, its what I call food for thought.

Take care, see you next week.