DAVAO Region being the country’s fruit basket is one of the preferred summer destinations. But at this time, not all the delectable fruits are in abundance and mangosteen, the “queen of fruits” is one of them.
Mangosteen is in season from August to October only but the demand for the fruit is higher in the first half of the year.
Thanks to the breakthrough technology on off-season mangosteen production as farmers can now program their production year-round.
The idea of producing off-season production did not happen in a snap. It is a product of years of scientific research of the Department of Agriculture - Davao Agricultural Research Central Experiment Station (DA-Darces) in Manambulan, Tugbok, District, Davao City.
Darces through the study “Development of Package of Technology for Off-Season Mangosteen Production,” which is funded by the Bureau of Agricultural Research started in January 2015 to January 2019.
Darces chief Agapito Regulacion said rain shelter was installed in mangosteen trees to test its efficacy to induce fruit flowering.
“Of all the treatments, only trees with rain shelter induced flowering from 60 days after treatment with all its upper branches having high flowering induction at 95% and 30% in its lower branches,” said Regulacion who is also the study leader.
The study attributes the higher rate of induced flowering at the upper portion of the tree to the high-temperature rate of 35 degrees Celsius (C) compared to its lower portion with a temperature rate of only 32C.
“This implies that high temperature and water stress triggered the mangosteen trees to induce flowers especially at the upper portion of the trees where the temperature is high.
The microclimate inside the rain shelter was controlled resulting in a drought and higher temperature condition that triggered the trees to induce flowers after 60 days of stress period,” he said.
Regulacion added, “In the same period, there’s an accumulation of carbohydrates at the apical part that enhances the flower to bud break.”
The study also observed that fruits produced in off-season do not differ in taste and size if compared to fruits produced in regular season.
“Off-season mangosteen production through establishment of rain shelter is a profitable technology as it can enable farmers to program their production schedule and take advantage of the high price during lean months,” Regulacion said.
To adopt this technology, a farmer should invest in a rain shelter and appropriate drainage system to be successful in producing off-season fruits. Based on the study, a one-hectare farm should have an investment of about P1 million. This may be a huge investment at the start but can be overcome by a return on investment (ROI) of at least 125 percent just on its first year.
The off-season production technology gives the potential for a mangosteen tree to yield at least 25kg/tree at P250.00/kg. A one-hectare mangosteen farm with a planting distance of 10 x 5 square meter will produce around 5 metric tons on its first year alone. It will have a gross sales of P1, 250,000 at P250/kilo (off-season price), thus a farmer will have an initial net income of P250,000 on the first year.
Rain shelter structure could last up to five years, thus on the second year, a farmer can still make use of the structure without installation cost and can now enjoy at least P1,200,000 net income until the fifth year. (PR)