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Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Davao Sur farmers to supply SMC demand for cassava
By Jenny Molbog-Mendoza
AT LEAST 30,000 hectares of land in Davao del Sur will be developed for cassava plantation in the next three to four years to meet the demand required by the San Miguel Corp. (SMC).
Roman Armenio, Jr., senior agriculturist and high-value commercial crop (HVCC) coordinator of the Department of Agriculture 11 (DA), said in an interview Tuesday that the present land area devoted to cassava in Davao del Sur is not sufficient to satisfy the demand of SMC. He said there is a need for expansion of cassava plantation.
The level of requirement was not divulge by Armenio since the company has yet to finalize this, but he is definite that the demand will be "tons of tons of cassava."
To date, the agency is still doing an ocular inspection in areas cited by Fanny Solomon, acting provincial agriculturist of Davao del Sur, in order to validate whether such areas are suited for cassava plantation.
If the farmers will adopt good management practices in cassava cultivation (e.g. proper land fertilization, good variety of cassava cuttings, etc.), Armenio said, the demand to be posted by SMC will be met by Davao del Sur, therefore, additional revenues will be generated and supplied by the province.
"Madali lang din mag-cultivate ng cassava since it will only take eight to 10 months para makapag-harvest. And SMC is considering the province because it is close to them," he said.
SMC will buy the cassava from the farmers at P1 to P1.25 per kilogram.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. href="http://www.sunstar.com.ph/superbalitaDAVAO/index.html">Click here. (February 23, 2005 issue)
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