Greenhouse technology seen to improve quality of potato produce

June 10, 2019 Community Billboard

BAGUIO CITY – Potato growers/farmers in Mankayan, Benguet are now assured of a stable and accessible source of quality planting materials for a bountiful harvest through interventions from the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA PRDP) with the introduction of the use of greenhouse technology, the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the region said on Tuesday.
DA said in a statement that a farmers’ organization aiming to increase its agricultural livelihood opted for the establishment of a protected cultivation area to meet the emerging demands of high
quality potato produce and restore the quality of marketable tubers and to provide affordable price of planting materials for farmers having long been engaged in vegetable production as its main source of livelihood.
The Mankayan Young Farmers Organization (MYFO) was organized in November 2012 and composed of more than 40 members who were former agriculture trainees in Japan.
The organization aims to increase agricultural livelihood that promotes easy and affordable farming system which can produce competent marketable products with the farm technology they had learned.
“The installation of these greenhouses will address the need for a steady and available source of potato planting materials which will benefit not only the members of the organization but more importantly, the other farmers in the community,” MYFO president Jovito Banglod said.
Banglod said the greenhouses were completed in September 2018.
The organization planted bell peppers and Chinese cabbages, while the potato mother plant is not yet delivered. Other crops will be produced while waiting for the potato mother plants.
Along with the greenhouses, MYFO will also receive 400 pots of potato mother plant, seedling trays, water tank, and power knapsack sprayer.
The subproject has a total cost of one million shared by the World Bank, the National Government through the DA, and the Provincial LGU of Benguet, the statement said.
MYFO provided a counterpart of more than 20% in the form of production labor and other existing materials.
The statement said that farmers can now be assured of a year-round supply of disease resistant potato tubers which guarantees the increase in the organization’s income by at least five percent in the implanting period with the full implementation of the enterprise.
 
Merriam del Rosario/ABN