Let’s build an industry! 100,000 Jackfruit, 50,000 Hass ’21 Target Seedlings Production

This year, Braveheart Farms and Nursery which my family owns based in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, will produce 100,000 Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit and 50,000 Hass Avocado seedlings.

This will be my personal contribution and support to the Green Mindanao Project of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) which I designed shortly after I left the Department of Agriculture in 2019.

The Green Mindanao Project aims to introduce high value fruit trees farming in the deforested and denuded highlands of Mindanao.

It is the implementation of the proverbial “hitting two targets with one bullet” as the program aims to protect the environment while at the same time boost agricultural production.

I have chosen two varieties of fruit trees – the DA-EVIARC-developed Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit and the Hass Avocado – because of the huge market demand and adaptability to the cool climate in high elevation.

What stands in the way of this program is the availability of planting materials owing mainly to very limited grafting materials and the ugly habit of many plant propagators of keeping their scions to themselves.

Yesterday, one of the major plant propagators of Mindanao, Dr. Pablito Pamplona, came to my farm to ask if he could buy scions of the Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit which I grow.

I told Dr. Pamplona that I am sharing the scions for free adding that Mindanao will not be able to develop a viable Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit industry if the farmers only plant a few trees.

To develop a viable Jackfruit Industry, Mindanao must produce volume and fill the demand of the local market which imports P500-M worth of Jackfruit from Vietnam and Thailand every year.

The production of Hass Avocado seedlings is also hampered by the lack of grafting materials prompting some nursery operators to import mother trees from California.

In Mindanao, Dole Philippines started planting Hass Avocados many years ago and the company is now exporting to China.

I have gained access to four mother trees planted by Dole Philippines in Talakag, Bukidnon allowing us to graft about 4,000 seedlings.

This year, I will go full blast in my production of both Abuyog Sweet and Hass Avocado seedlings and I will ask the region’s nursery operators to unite and set seedlings production targets.

I will convince Mindanao LGUs to allocate funds for the procurement of seedlings which they could distribute to their farmers under a “Plant-Now-Pay-Later” program.

Government Financing Institutions will also be asked to create a loaning window for high value fruit trees production.

Alone, we would be selling fruits in makeshift shacks along the highway but together, Mindanao’s fruit farmers could build a competitive Jackfruit and Hass Avocado industry which could lift up rural families from poverty.

#WalangKwentaAngMadamot!

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

https://fb.watch/asVB0rOaT8/