Luzon’s New Industry! Mindanao Giant Bamboo Goes to Cagayan Valley

A decade from now when the Giant Bamboos of Mindanao would show their towering presence in the vast Cagayan Valley, protecting the plains from the overflowing river and cooling the environment, people will thank two enterprising businessmen who established a modern Bamboo nursery in Isabela.

Victor Calderon, who belongs to a political clan in Roxas, Isabela, and Edgar Pagulayan, an engineer-farmer, friends who had been following my advocacies in Agriculture, were so interested in the Mindanao Bamboo Industry Development Program which I launched late last year that they sought my help in introducing it in Cagayan Valley.

They realized the potentials of the Giant Bamboo in mitigating flooding by planting this near the banks of the mighty Cagayan River and in pulling down the mercury in a region where the temperature could rise up to the 50s.

Of course, they also looked at the business potentials of the Bamboo Industry following the model of the Bukidnon Giant Bamboo Resources Corp. in Malaybalay which has a facility processing bamboo slats for export.

So, I prepared a program for them which would ensure the sustainability of Cagayan Valley’s Bamboo Industry starting with the registration of an entity, Bamboo Valley, and the establishment of a nursery for Giant Bamboo in Pagulayan’s property in Cabagan, Isabela.

A nursery operations expert, Romie Ben Sotito, was “loaned” by Col. Pat Piñol, my brother, to the Bamboo Valley nursery and he installed the pressurized irrigation system.

Then, I linked them up with Myrna Decipulo, the Mother of the Giant Bamboo in Bukidnon, who supplied the initial shipment of propagules totaling 20,000.

The long haul and the intense heat in Cagayan Valley, however, resulted in high mortality rate for the bamboo propagules, prompting me to suggest that the propagation should be done in my farm in Kidapawan City where I also have pressurized irrigation.

This set-up also benefited me and the people living around my farm because they earned money by planting the propagules in seedling bags while I also made a little mark-up on the price to pay for the cost of production and operation, including the irrigation.

Yesterday, my farm shipped the first 20,000 sprouted propagules in seedling bags using Coco Peat to Isabela and I expect a 100% survival.

By Monday, the Giant Bamboo seedlings which were hauled by trucker Jun Alba, would be in the Cabagan Bamboo Valley nursery.

This shipment brought to 40,000 the number of seedlings sent to the Isabela nursery.

Bamboo Valley aims to propagate 1-million propagules in its nursery to cover an estimated area of 5,000 hectares.

The seedlings would be planted in the areas of Calderon and Pagulayan while the rest would be sold to local farmers and other groups with a buy-back agreement on the bamboo poles produced.

Both Calderon and Pagulayan are now working on the establishment of a Bamboo Processing Facility which will turn the bamboo poles into high value products for export.

More than just the prospect of creating a P2-B per year agro-industrial activity in Cagayan Valley, the two businessmen are excited to see how the Giant Bamboo of Mindanao would protect farmlands from flooding and cool the extremely hot summer months in the region.

As for me, I am extremely pleased that while I am just now confined to Mindanao, my advocacies in Agriculture and the Environment are reverberating all over the country.

I am inspired by the thought that my advocacies and innovations in agriculture and environmental protection would someday make life better for the Filipinos.

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#AgricultureIsMyPassion!