I, Farm Boy! Let’s Plant Two Mother Trees Of Sweet Langka In Every Town

Plant propagators in my farm nursery in Kidapawan City had been tasked to produce 4,000 Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit seedlings through Inarching before the end of the year as I start a personal advocacy to spread this Langka variety all over the country.

This advocacy will be called “Binhi ng Pag-unlad” and it would also include the distribution per town of planting materials of Giant Bamboo and Moringa seeds.

The Abuyog Sweet Langka, also known as the EVIARC Sweet, was developed in the East Visayas Agricultural Research Center in Abuyog, Leyte, is reputed to be the sweetest Langka in the Philippnes with a brix of 25.

Ang daming gustong magtanim but I cannot produce enough to supply the demand. Ang ibang magsasaka ay nagrereklamo din kasi ang bentahan ng seedling ng Abuyog Sweet is between P300 to P500 each.

There are nurseries producing authentic Abuyog Sweet Lanka seedlings in Leyte but they could only serve the communities around them.

I really dream of turning this iconic fruit tree into the beginning of a new industry both for local demand and for export.

Currently, the Philippines is importing P500-M worth of Jackfruit every year for food processing.

Pero naisip ko, kung kaming mga nursery operators lang ang source ng seedlings, it would take us 20 to 30 years before we could expand the areas planted to Abuyog Sweet.

So, naisip ko na mas mabuti siguro bigyan ko na lang ng dalawang seedling ang bawat bayan sa Pilipinas, roughly 2,000 towns and cities, and then ask the Municipal Agriculturist or the farmer leader in the town to nurture these to serve as Mother Trees.

Ang tatanggap ng dalawang seedling ng Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit will be made to commit that he will share with his neighbors and fellow farmers scions for Inarching or Grafting.

The municipal or city agriculture office will be involved here by providing training to local farmers on how to Inarch or Graft Jackfruit scions.

In three years, these seedlings would become Mother Trees na magiging source ng scions for grafting or Inarching and since each tree could have as many as 1,000 scions, mas madali nating mapadami ang population ng Abuyog Sweet.

There are two methods in propagating Jackfruit, through Inarching, a method of grafting where the rootstock is connected to a growing branch without separating it from its parent stock, or through grafting.

Inarching has been proven to be the most effective way of propagating the EVIARC Sweet Jackfruit over the Cleft and Saddle Grafting, where the scions are taken from the Mother Trees and inserted into rootstocks on the ground.

I have initially about 600 Inarched Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit Seedlings available in my nursery which will be distributed to the first 300 towns and cities along the route of my national journey in Biyaheng Senado.

Along with the Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit Seedlings, I will also be sharing planting materials of Giant Bamboo and Malunggay seeds as part of my Binhi Ng Pag-unlad Advocacy which I am now starting.

Our first target areas this week would be Batangas, Camarines Sur and Samar then we will move up from Mindanao 3rd week of November to the Visayas Provinces, Palawan, Mindoro and Luzon.

#lifetimecommitmenttofarming!

#letsbuildagriindustriesprovidejobs!