A MAJOR banana export firm has established a bamboo nursery to support its venture and for environmental protection in the town of T'boli, South Cotabato , a company official said.
Winstor Villanueva, zone manager of Upland Banana Corp., said the nursery maintains 75,000 bamboo culms even as the firm has already established over 115 hectares of bamboo plantations in the town outside its jurisdiction.
Bamboo poles are used in banana plantations to support the plant from breaking down, especially during the fruiting season.
Upland Banana, whose major market is Japan, maintains at least 1,700 hectares of banana plantation through a lease agreement with landowners.
Villanueva said the firm also planted bamboos and other trees within its sphere of operation.
"We have efforts to protect the environment not because it is obliged to do so but because of firm's corporate philosophy that no agricultural activity will succeed in a depleted environment and that balance in nature is balance in its production," he said.
Late last month, the firm participated in a tree planting activity spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources dubbed "Beat the Heat."
Upland Banana managers and workers planted more than 300 bamboo seedlings on two strips of land spanning 775 meters along the Allah Valley River, Mr. Villanueva said.
Bamboos are actually not a tree but a variety of grass. (BSS)
