By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
LAOAG CITY—In time for the
October planting season, Ilocos Norte officials encouraged garlic farmers here
to expand their production area as the province aims to deliver at least 20
percent or 26,000 metric tons of the national market demand.
Garlic demand in the
Philippines based on the National Statistics Office is approximately 128,000
metric tons per year.
As one of the country’s major
garlic producer, Ilocos Norte’s garlic industry remains threatened by cartel
which government authorities here are trying to suppressed.
“Garlic is a potential
product we should look into. Our production target is doable,” said Sangguniang
Panlalawigan member Vicentito “Toto” M. Lazo as he urged farmers to help fight
cartel, a long-time problem in the agriculture industry which really needs to
be taken seriously.
This planting season, the
state-run Mariano Marcos State University, Ilocos Norte government, Department
of Agriculture and a Japanese firm that specializes in garlic products has
started an experimental project to produce bigger and more resilient garlic
bulbs.
MMSU president Dr. Shirley
Agrupis said new garlic seed materials from Japan will be pilot tested at the
MMSU and in Burgos town using Ilocos Norte and Japan technology.
Prior to the arrival of the
garlic seed materials from Japan, they conducted a soil analysis to determine
the appropriate technology.
Ms. Agrupis hopes the
experimental farm will yield positive result to help garlic farmers to produce
more.
In support to the garlic
industry, Senator Cynthia Villar also pledged to allocate some Php57 million funds to improve the
quality of production.
During the last planting
season, farmers used about 1,876 hectares to plant garlic with an average yield
of 6,000 metric tons.
Comments
Post a Comment