Tuesday, May 08, 2007 No new strawberry varieties available for local farmers
THOUSANDS of strawberry growers in La Trinidad, Benguet cannot raise new varieties of this fruit yet as the local government unit could not import new planting materials to enhance the lucrative business.
Agriculturists admitted that they could not give in to the requests of farmers to import any new strawberry variety since the La Trinidad Municipal Government is not yet ready to do so.
The latest imported strawberry varieties are Camarosa and Festival, which the town acquired last year and distributed to hundreds of farmers with the agreement that this would be produced on an experimental basis.
The Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) is propagating these varieties in its tissue culture laboratory for massive distribution to farmers.
However, it was learned that the agriculture office is focusing more on the propagation of the Festival variety since it is more advisable for farmers to raise the variety as it reportedly requires lesser care and maintenance in the fields.
The La Trinidad Municipal Government has chosen the best planting materials for the farmers so they could earn a decent income for producing the fruit.
Farmers were advised they could achieve the desired yield if they strictly adhere to the required spacing and propagation of the product.
Strawberry is the most patronized fruit in the town especially during the peak tourist seasons, particularly from the months of November to March of each year.
The strawberry fruit also helped the Municipal Government attain a seat at the Guinness Book of World Records when it was able to produce the Biggest Strawberry Short Cake in 2004. (DS)
