Mindanao Sweet Jackfruit

In my continuing advocacy to uplift the living conditions of the Filipino people through practical and doable agricultural activities, I am starting this new Facebook page, the Mindanao Sweet Jackfruit.

Through this page, I envision the development of a group of farmers who would be linked up by their common interest in propagating and growing the Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit variety developed by the Eastern Visayas Agricultural Research Center (EVIARC) of the Department of Agriculture.

EVIARC or Abuyog Sweet is considered as the sweetest jackfruit variety ever developed in the country with a Brix Level of 25.3.

I took notice of the variety when I became Agriculture Secretary in 2016 and started planting my own Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit in my farm in Paco, Kidapawan City.

Now, I have hundreds of matured Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit which are already bearing fruit.

It has also captured the interest of fruit exporters who asked me if I could produce more. Obviously, I could not do it alone.

So, through this page, I would like to form a group of Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit farmers who would like to develop their own Jackfruit farms.

I am offering for free scions from my jackfruit trees so that other farmers will have access to grafting materials.

I believe that through this page, I will be able to spread more information about Jackfruit, a fruit that is so easy to grow but whose market potentials have been taken for granted and ignored.

Not very many know this but currently the Philippines is importing an estimated P500-M worth of Jackfruit from Vietnam for the ice cream and Turon production.

This amount should have gone to Filipino farmers had we not ignored the potentials of the lowly Langka.

But it is not too late.

We could start growing our Langka now and in five years, we could produce enough to fill the gap.

#PlantInEveryAvailableSpace!

#AgricultureIsCommonSense!