Environmental Farming! HASS AVOCADO PERFECT IN MINDANAO HIGHLANDS

“Kung laging naglalakad, may matitisod.”

This is an old Filipino idiom which literally means “He who walks always, will discover something.”

On Tuesday, on the way back to Kidapawan City from Cagayan de Oro City, I passed by a place where I was told four seedlings of the high-value Hass Avocado were planted a little over two years ago.

That information was shared to me by an official of Dole Philippines who said that it was part of their experiment on the performance of Hass Avocado in cool and high elevation areas in Mindanao.

I and my team had to walk through a muddy trail in a village in Talakag town to get to the area where the four Hass Avocado seedlings were planted in 2018.

What I saw gladdened me no end.

The trees, except for one that was shaded, were fruiting profusely at just over two years old, even with very little care and fertilization.

I was told that the trees started fruiting before even reaching two years and had been bearing fruits all year round.

Planted at an elevation of about 1,450-meters above sea level (MASL), the four Hass Avocado trees’ performance gave me hope for the a successful Environmental Farming Program which the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is introducing in the deforested highlands of Mindanao.

I crafted the Environmental Farming Concept as a solution to the failed and expensive reforestation programs of government in the deforested highlands of Mindanao.

It is also a farming concept which promotes greater productivity among the farmers in the countryside while at the same time protects the environment by encouraging them to plant fruit trees.

Among the high-value fruit trees that the Environmental Farming Program plans to introduce are Hass Avocado which is in demand in the local and foreign market, Mangosteen and the Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit developed by the Department of Agriculture in the East Visayas Agricultural Research Center (EVIARC0.

With that short walk to the place where the Hass Avocado trees were growing, I discovered two things:

1. Hass Avocado, a high-value and potential new industry for Mindanao, indeed grows well in the cool highlands most of which have been deforested;

2. The four 2-year-old Hass Avocado seedlings will now be the source of scions for grafting so that we could propagate more seedlings to be shared to farmers in the highlands.

Indeed, if we in government would only get out of the comforts of our air-conditioned offices and walk a few extra kilometers, we will not only hear the cries of the poor and the neglected.

We will for sure discover the simple solutions to the problems of our people in the countryside.

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#LetsWalkAnExtraKilometer!

#LetsCrossOneMoreRiver!

#LetsClimbOneMoreMountain!

#LetsChaseOneMoreDream!

(Photos by Mayette Tudlas, MinDA OC)