BOUNTIFUL HARVEST: About 100 days from planting, farmers of Sitio Balutakay and Brgy Alegre , Bansalan, Davao Del Sur are delighted and excited to see the potato tubers sourced ftom Prince Edwards, Canada harvested from their farms.
The Sustainable Potato Program of DAXI-URC-LGU Bansalan, LGU Davao Sur, ATI and SPAMAST have been successful in providing quality Granola planting materials and livelihood program for our potato farmers in Davao Region.
Each tuber planted produces at least a kilo of potato tubers. Some farmers in higher elevation got as high as 2.5kg per plant. This is a far cry from their usual harvest of half a kilo per potato plant. Their one crate of seed tubers or 25-30kg (500-600 pieces) planted last April has produced 500-600 kg of potato tubers.
Farmers said that this is the first time that they are able to see such high and bigger tuber yields for many years since they started planting potatoes. Now, availability and access to good and healthy potato planting materials will not be a problem for these farmers who benefited from the program.
Potatoes planted in Brgy Alegre, Bansalan did not show any signs of Bacterial Wilt disease. While insignificant incident of BW has been observed in Sitio Balutakay.
Davao Region is Number 2 in terms of area and production of potatoes second to CAR. URC is now planning to buy back the seeds produced by farmers to be given back to farmers who were not able to be included in the first phase of the project.
With the success of this first harvest, DA XI will improve farmers’ cultural practices and sustain production of quality planting materials in the region so that any problems on availability of quality tubers in Davao Region will not be a problem in the future.
Photo credit: Jay Delino RAFIS XI
More Stories
Thank You, Dado, Alamada Vegetable Farmers!
1st Batch Of Spanish Goats Arriving End Of April!
Actual Farming Experience!