The Miarayon Highland Farmers Association (MHFA), Talakag, Bukidnon recorded the highest yield among the beneficiaries of the Department of Agriculture (DA) – Universal Robina Corporation (URC) Sustainable White Potato Program (SWPP), registering 3.5 kilograms (kg) or 39 tubers per hill using the Granola White Potato Variety.
The DA-URC team aimed to verify the actual yield of the Granola White Potato imported by URC from Nova Scotia, Canada, which was turned over last March 18, 2019 for further study and potential market linkage at the same time scale up the productivity and income of local potato farmers.
In Region 10, the study was conducted at two sites in the province of Bukidnon, particularly by the Miarayon Highland Farmers Association in barangay Miarayon, Talakag town; and the farmers of Imbayao Community-based Participatory Action Research Approach (I-CPARA) in Imbayao, Malaybalay City.
On August 1- 2, 2019 was the conduct of the Potato Field Day and Harvest Festival in which the team also conducted an actual data gathering of the yields on the two sites. This was facilitated by DA-Central Office (DA-CO) Project Development Officer III Engr. Reen Marr C. Maningo.
During harvest, MHFA got the highest recorded yield of 3.5 kg of tubers in a hill or plant among other beneficiaries. While in Imbayao, Malaybalay City the highest is 0.6 kg of tubers in a plant. Accordingly, even from other regions like Region 11, the highest yield is 1.9 kg tubers in a plant and in the Cordillera Administrative Region, 2.9 kg tubers in a plant.
The result of data gathered revealed that MHFA got an average yield of 1.5 kg per hill (17 tubers per plant) , in which, Engr. Maningo calculated that they can produce up to 50 metric tons of tubers per hectare (ha), with 33,000 planted seeds per hectare.
“With a farm gate price of Php45.00 per kilo, a farmer can earn about Php2.2 million/ha in three months,” he added.
Overwhelmed by their potato yield, MHFA President Ryan Daño, said that the program is a blessing not only for them, but to other farmers associations as well, as they plan to distribute this potato seed variety to them to also increase their production and income.
Meanwhile, aside from potato seed intervention, DA-Regional Field Office 10 through the High Value Crops Development Program of the Field Operations Division (FOD) and the Agricultural Training Institute, continue to provide potato farming technology to Talakag farmers through the season-long Farmers Field School (FFS) which had started a month ago.
FOD Chief Audy Maagad said, with this kind of support [FFS], the farmers undergo an intensified actual training in white potato production every Thursday within five-month period for free.
The URC team is headed by the Vice President for Procurement Vicky E. Yap. Also attending the activity are the officials and staff of the Municipal Local Government Unit of Talakag, headed by Mayor Vergito O. Factura; the FFS students of Miarayon; other farmers associations/cooperatives and DA-10 staff. (Edgar Bentulan, DA-10)
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