Philippines: Garlic to be planted earlier
In a brief statement on Sunday, Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala ordered the DA in Ilocos Region to test dual cropping with farmers in the coastal towns of Baccara and Pasuquin in Ilocos Norte, using early-maturing strains.
The move, which the DA noted was also to “ease” the country’s dependence on imported garlic, entails a shift of the planting season to September from the traditional October-November period.
The resulting harvest in December would then afford farmers a second planting to be harvested in March, in contrast to the lone harvest viable in a year, given garlic’s average five-month cycle.
The DA will also experiment with month-long incubation of the plants in a nursery prior to these being planted in the field.
Regional agriculture officials are to finalize the details as the month ends, with parallel studies taking place in the agency’s Batac, Ilocos Norte, research station.
Mr. Alcala also requested that Batac-based Mariano Marcos State University speed up research and development of producing quality planting stocks for the bulb via tissue culture, with the agency pumping in additional funding.
The statement noted the absence of quality stocks as a factor behind low five-year production figures, and that experts from the state school gave a four-year development period for planting stocks.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority -- Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showed that garlic production in the first quarter of 2014 grew 209.09% in terms of gross receipts.
The DA, meanwhile, is directly selling garlic via rolling stores dispatched in markets across Metro Manila to help ease a price spike, which producers have blamed on traders and middlemen, a reliance on imports, and the state’s neglect of the subsector.
Source: www.bworldonline.com