DA, JICA help Benguet farmers hike crop yields
HIGH-value crops farmers in Benguet are expected to enhance their knowledge and skills with the implementation of demonstration trials in five farming areas in Atok and Buguias that will provide them technical support in adapting new ways of producing high-value crops such as tomato and lettuce.
The Department of Agriculture-Cordillera (DA-CAR) Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through the Japanese consulting firm IC- NET has started the project under the MV2C technical cooperation Pilot Project 1-B (MV2C PP-1B) or the “Dispersion of Vegetable Production and Shipment Timing by Optimizing of Greenhouse Cultivation.”
Dr. Aki Kubota, expert-in-charge of the project, disclosed that Benguet was chosen as one of two pilot areas for the said training project in the country, based on Benguet’s capacity to produce vegetables as compared to other areas in the region having varying elevations.
Kubota said that six cropping patterns are being tried under a greenhouse to determine the appropriate crop combination that would optimize the use of the greenhouse.
“We have two pilot projects which are in Benguet and Quezon. Here in Benguet, what we want is for the farmers to utilize the greenhouses that was mostly provided by the High Value Crop Development Program (HVCDP), and last year when we had the planning phase, we were informed that not all the farmers are utilizing the greenhouses fully, that’s why we wanted to introduce some cropping patterns on the varieties,” Kubota said.
In July, two farmers in Atok and eight farmers in Buguias have already transplanted romaine lettuce and it is expected to be harvested in August this year.
The crops being tried at present are romaine lettuce (Xanadu), sweet pepper (Sultan and California Wonder), tomato (27878 and Ranger), and broccoli (Avenger).
Dr. Leonora Verzola, Senior Regional Specialists of MV2C Project for Benguet, on the other hand, explained that among the PPIB technology items being introduced to the farmers are the effective cropping patterns in greenhouses that would sell vegetables in the market at a higher price, introduction of new varieties of tomato (indeterminate type of tomato), plant training techniques for long time harvesting of tomato and sweet pepper, the usage of fruit-set hormones, sticky insect trap sheet, proper harvest timing of tomato, fertilizer application design based on soil test.
The DA-CAR is set to expand the MV2C program in other parts of the region after the pilot project depending on its results.
“Our plan is after Buguias and Atok, next year we start with Mankayan and Kibungan. We have four municipalities as our target decided by DA-CAR AMAD and JICA. After that, it would be DA’s responsibility to spread this technology or approach,” Kubota added.
