Road To Food Sovereignty! Building A Jackfruit Industry By Planting Quality Varieties

When I assumed office as Secretary of Agriculture in 2016, I asked officials of the department to give me a list of imported agricultural commodities which could be grown or produced in the Philippines.

The list provided to me was shocking, if not frustrating.

We import rice, corn, coffee, pork, chicken (dressed), beef, onion, garlic, peanut, milk and dairy products and, believe it or not, Mongo and Jackfruit.

All of these commodities could be produced in the country, especially Jackfruit which grows just about anywhere.

Our problem actually is that most of our agricultural activities had remained in the category of subsistence and backyard farming.

We have never really developed food production industries.

The classic example is Jackfruit.

Ang dami nating Langka but we import P500-M worth of Jackfruit every year for our food processing industry.

The reason why our local Jackfruit farmers could not sufficiently supply the market demand is that we do not have Langka Plantations.

Second, wala tayong specific variety propagated at an industrial level.

But can we develop our local Jackfruit Industry?

Yes. After so many years of research, the Eastern Visayas Agricultural Research Center in Abuyog, Leyte and the Visayas State University were able to jointly develop an outstanding variety called the EVIARC Sweet or the Abuyog Sweet, reputed to be the sweetest variety in the Philippines with a Brix of 25.

Ang problema na lang natin is to establish either large fruit tree plantations or engage a huge number of farmers and organize them so that they could produce volume.

To do that, the planting materials must be made avaiable to farmers in areas where the Abuyog Sweet could be grown ideally.

Since limited ang supply ng planting materials, I have launched a personal advocacy of sharing Inarched and Grafted Abuyog Sweet Langka seedlings with every town and city that I would be able to reach.

The Binhi Ng Pag-Unlad is my contribution to the development of Jackfruit farming into an industry.

I may not live long enough to see the full development of the Jackfruit Industry in the country 20 or 30 years from now but at least I have started something today.

People must remember that to modernize and develop Philippine Agriculture, it would take years simply because wala namang Langka na namumunga one month after it is planted.

It takes a long process and requires a lot of patience.

Those who are not real farmers will never understand this.

#CommitmentOfTheFarmboy!

(This video presentation was prepared by the media team of the Biyaheng Senado.)