Trying new ones

Farmers plant for a living but they also need to find the right crop that fits well for the land that they till. This group of farmers knowing the low yield of growing vegetables is trying to grow sweet corn. The demand for this crop is high and hopefully this new crop will give them good yield.  Good luck farmers ... 

Tagum City farmers shift to sweet corn farming 

By Prix Digna D. Banzon

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte (PNA) -- About 30 farmers in this city have shifted to planting sweet corn from their long time vegetable growing that has not been giving them good results.

City agriculture office (CAGRO) chief Engr. Harold S. Dawa said the farmers started growing sweet corn in May this year which gave significant increase in their income.

He said their office is helping the farmers grow sweet corn in Barangay Madaum even as he said they will expand the program in barangays Mankilam and Pagsabangan.

"There is a big demand for sweet corn here and also in the neighboring provinces that is why they already have a captive market," he said.

He said they will assist the farmers in looking for other planting sites, in farm inputs and in marketing.

The sweet corn production was launched here in May 2013 when the city agriculture office was looking for an alternative on vegetable farming where production was low.

According to one grower, Bonifacio Montilla who is also president of the Madaum Vegetable and Sweet Corn Farmers Association, a 1,300 square-meter lot planted to one kilo of sweet corn seedlings generates an income of P25,000 in 72 days.

Louie Lapat of the city information office said this program is in line with the revitalized goal of Mayor Allan Rellon on food security.

Lapat said the city government will be acquiring the ten-hectare lot next year that the farmers used as planting site for their use. (PNA) CTB/ASA/DDB/ldp

Agri-based economy remains strong in Mindanao

A leader in rural banking sees agri-products to remain strong in the agri-based economy of Mindanao this year despite the global crisis.

One Network Bank (ONB) president Alex Buenaventura said the strong agri-based economy and liquid environment support the high deposit generation targets of the bank's branches especially in the countryside.

Given such upbeat outlook, he said they project a 19-percent increase of their targets this year of P288 million as against their actual Net Income After Tax (NIAT) in 2008 of only 242 million.

ONB's deposit liabilities are raised by 30 percent increase or P7.8 billion as against the 2008's actual of P6.0 billion.

He said they also increased their target for loans at 36 percent or about P8.0 billion as against the P5.9 billion actual loans in 2008.

Buenaventura said although there will be many challenges this year, rural banking in Mindanao will continue to experience growth.

He attributed this to the good prospects in agriculture particularly banana, pineapple, coconut, rubber and palm oil.

Buenaventura also said their banking operation remains strong due to Department of Education salary loans and the One Banana Program growers' loans.

Meanwhile, he said the rural banks play a niche in service of small depositors and borrowers in the countryside.

He said as they continue to improve on their services they are also able to bring their clients to economic opportunities in the financial mainstream.

He said they have given small accounts access to projects with solid fundamentals and services which they thought can only be possible in urban centers.

With 72 ONB branches, he said they have given more Mindanaoans the means to improve their lives.

Davao sees more demand for fresh bananas this year

Many investors are looking for farm lands around Mindanao with the increasing demand of fresh bananas especially in Japan.

Gil Dureza, Board of Investment (BOI) head for Regions IX, XI and XII said the demand of foreigners on (Cavendish) bananas is a great advantage to us.

He cited for instance that with the "morning banana diet" that is popular in Japan, there is an indication that demand for the bananas would increase even as he said that many people now are getting conscious of their health and shifted to eating more bananas.

"Investors for banana production continue to come and this has been going on for years now," he said.In fact he said a new investor for banana production is the biggest among this year's investment leads.

The investor would need some 3,400 hectares either in Davao Oriental or Davao del Sur.

Meanwhile Dureza said that In 2007 banana production was also among the registered investments as Upland Banana Corporation opened new areas in Davao, Cotabato and South Cotabato and was able to employ 10,000 workers.

Data from the Department of Agricultre showed that in 2007 the production area was at 436,783 hectares with volume of production of 7,484,074 MT. The Davao Region attained the highest production area and volume of the same year of 78,647 hectares and 3,180,331 MT.

Other top producing regions include SOCCKSARGEN with 935,565 MT, Northern Mindanao 933,114 MT, Cagayan Valley 386,929 MT and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) 372,676 MT.

On the other hand, banana remained as the leading export commidity where in 2008 it showed an increase of 13.49 percent as against 2007 figure.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics comparative data for the last three years from 2006 to 2008 on production volume for the period January to September showed that banana export in 2006 accounted to only 2,197,894 MT, 2007 had 2,377,424 while in 2008 it registered some 2,698,255 MT.