Sunday, March 11, 2012
UP IN Barangay Baganihan in Marilog District in the uplands of Davao City, a group of farmers are being introduced to new varieties of strawberries as the City Agriculturist’s Office (CAO) envisions the development of high-value crops producing area in the city’s biggest administrative district that can equal if not be better than the farmlands of Benguet.
For so long, the cool farmlands of Marilog have been producing strawberries, but the planting materials were of varieties that produce very sour fruits. Thus, the strawberries of Marilog never made it into the mainstream market.
The Baganihan Agri-Ventures Cooperative Inc. made up of farmers in the area have agreed to try out the project with the help of CAO and the high-value crops division of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
“We are targeting that around October of this year, Marilog will already be producing strawberries that can satisfy the local demand so that supermarkets here need no longer get their supplies from Benguet,” CAO officer-in-charge Leonardo R. Avila III said in a media tour of the experimental farm.
The varieties – Festival and Sweet Charlie – that BAVC is planting these days are those from Benguet, the red luscious strawberries that are sold in supermarkets here.
The farm is being manned by Criselda Iroy, who said, no one among the members have taken up interest on the experiment and that she has been farming anyway and so she took on the task.
Farther up the mountain highway in barangay Buda, another group of farmers are venturing into onion bulbs.
“We can produce these onions here, but we are importing most of these from China,” Avila said.
Jimmy Bangonan, 42, is the first to test the Rushmore and Red Pinoy varieties in a ¼ hectare farm lot.
With an initial capital of P9,000 covering seeds and land preparation, he said, he was able to net P42,000 in his first harvest of Rushmore onions. Seeds, he said, cost P320 per 100 grams and one needs around 1.4 kilos of seeds for ¼ hectare, Bangonan said.
“There are many buyers, they are the ones who come over and bought my harvest,” he said.
“Demand for onion bulbs will always be there,” Bangonan said in the vernacular. “Even the poor come over here in Buda to buy onions.”
His first harvest, he said, was that of Rushmore, and he finds this very profitable. From the seedbed, which has to be tended for one month, these are planted in the regular plots and made to grow for 75 days. After that, he said, he just keeps on harvesting every week.
He already planted a small plot with the Red Pinoy variety and found potential in this too, although the Red Pinoy takes longer to grow to harvestable age – three months or 90 days.
“But the bulbs are firmer and can be stored longer. You can also harvest more per plot,” he added. Four hundred grams of Red Pinoy seeds cost P1,400.
He appreciates the help CAO has extended in terms of access to seeds and technical support saying that before CAO came in, he was farming on his own without much access to better varieties that he could have earned more from.
To further help the farmers establish a market hold, the CAO is building a display center along the highway in Baganihan. The center will not only be a place where buyers can congregate but will also display the crafts of lumads in the area – mostly Matigsalugs.
Avila said the main problem of the farmers in the uplands is really access to planting materials and the market, this is what the CAO is opening to them. With such support, he foresees a huge potential for the city’s farm sector.
“The land is rich, the climate is suited for agriculture, there is vast potential in this area,” Avila said.
