By Manny Piñol
On the way to Mawab, Compostela Valley for an engagement with President Rody Duterte today, I dropped by the Mindanao Cacao Center to check a reported outstanding cacao clone.
It was Philip Dizon, scion of the late Paco Dizon, a respected Davao agricultural entrepreneur, who invited me to drop by the nursery located in the Crocodile Farm Park along the Diversion Road in Davao City.
Cacao advocate Larry Suarez showed me his clonal gardens and pointed to a 15-month old tree which was bearing fruits profusely.
Suarez said BR 25, the prolific Cacao variety bears fruits ahead of other clones and has a higher yield.
Many farmers now are shifting to Cacao, also Coffee, as the Department of Agriculture encourages the planting of high value tree crops in the elevated areas of the country to prevent soil erosion and landslides.
At P30 per seedling and a planting density of 1,600 per hectare, however, not very many poor farmers could shift to Cacao farming.
I promised Sonny and Larry that I will work on sourcing loan funds for our farmers so they could plant Cacao.
I am glad I made the early morning side trip to the Cacao nursery because it gave me an insight into what needs to be done to support the farmers.
(Photos by Mayette Tudlas.)
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