SINCE the success of the study on the increase of productivity of strawberry through tissue culture of the Research and Extension Services of Benguet State University (BSU) in 2010, demands have increased by 75 percent.
According to the study conducted by Science Research Specialists Dr. Julia Solimen, Sergio Gayao and Milagros Dumaslan, the use of runners from Tissue Cultured Materials increased the farmer’s income by 98 percent per 1,000 square meters as compared to the runners from conventional method of farming practice.
The average cost and returns analysis of the study showed the income increased from P21,503 (using conventional planting materials) to P42,503 when tissue-cultured runners are used.
For the past seven years, BSU has been regenerating and mass producing tissue-cultured strawberry runners for local farmers in the different municipalities of Benguet, specifically in Trinidad, Buguis, Atok, Kapangan and even in Mt. Province.
Tissue culture is a biotechnology used to improve the productivity of planting materials through enhanced availability of identified planting stocks with desired traits. This technique provides a rapid reliable system for the propagation of large numbers of genetically uniform disease free plantlets.
“With the tissue cultured strawberries tried, tested and proven 100 percent effective, high demand is seen nationwide,” said Dumaslan.
“We’ve had farmers come in and order a bulk of tissue cultured materials for export to Malaysia and Japan but we could not meet the demand, although in every meristem cultured, 2,000 plantlets are produced pero kulang parin para sa local farmers natin (but it’s still not enough for our local farmers) due to the lack of supplies and manpower,” Dumaslan added.
According to data from the tourism office of La Trinidad, there are about 49 hectares of strawberry farms, and 22 to 24 metric tons are being harvested per hectare.
The average production of strawberries is 924 metric tons from 2014 to 2015, and this increased by five percent from 2016 to present.
The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) in Malate, Manila, and BPI Guisad also conduct tissue culture.
While in search of more resources to fund the increase of production, Dumaslan said that their new goal is to propagate different varieties of strawberries in different elevations, which can withstand the temperature of the low lands, since strawberries traditionally thrive in temperature ranging from four to 24 degrees Celsius. (University of Cordillera Intern Shaura Elaine Cuyan)