Davao City – Davao del Norte Cavendish banana farmers whose farms were destroyed by the dreaded Fusarium Wilt or Panama Disease will get free Sorghum seeds to cover about 400-hectares from the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
The 4-metric tons of hybrid Sorghum Seeds are part of the 11.2-metric ton donation of Scott Seed, Co., a Texas-based seed production company, to MinDA.
The seeds arrived this week after a month-long voyage from Galveston, Texas to the Davao City Port and are now kept in an area designated by the Department of Agriculture Region XI.
The remaining seeds will be distributed to other LGUs in Mindanao, including Taraka, Lanao del Sur, the model town for rural development designated by MinDA.
The Sorghum Development Program is part of the economic advocacy of MinDA to support livestock and poultry production and the raising of Cattle, Goats and Sheep.
Sorghum, which could also be processed as porridge for human consumption, is an African grass which produces seeds high in protein for animal feeds.
Its stalks and leaves remain green even at harvest making it an ideal silage material for big and small ruminants. One hectare of Sorghum could produce silage enough to feed 20 heads of Cattle in one year.
Growing Sorghum is less expensive and more profitable compared to corn because the cost of the seeds is lower and the farmer could harvest three times in one year through ratooning with just one planting.
It is also more tolerant to drought and long dry spell producing an average 4-metric tons per hectare per harvest.
There are also studies showing that the planting of Sorghum in a Fusarium Wilt-affected area could neutralise the disease which is now devastating vast areas of banana farms in Mindanao.
Davao del Norte Gov. Edwin Jubahib who travelled with MinDA officials to Texas last year to receive the donation from Scott Seed Co., said the introduction of Sorghum to the Fusarium affected banana farms and ancestral domain areas could boost the economy of the province.
MinDA’s Sorghum Development Program aims to develop 100,000 of marginal lands and Ancestral Domain Areas by 2021 which could earn farmers in the island an estimated P15-B every year.
Two major feeds, poultry and livestock companies, PILMICO of the Aboitiz Group and Thailand’s biggest multi-national agriculture company, CP Foods Philippines, have expressed intent to enter into a marketing agreement with farmers producing Sorghum.
(Photo of Fusarium Wilt-affected bananas in Davao del Norte downloaded from public websites. Photos showing Sorghum planted in my farm in Kidapawan City were taken in 2018 while photos of the arrival of the container loaded with Sorghum seeds from Texas were taken by MinDA media team.)
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