Banana farmers attend POT training in NegOr
To address the low productivity and low quality of bananas produced by farmers in Negros Oriental, the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas (DA-7) recently conducted a two-day Package of Technology (POT) training on banana planting held in Tanjay, Negros Oriental.
Mary Ronville Aba, DA-7's High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) Action Officer in the province said that the training is in support to the banana farmers for them to acquire the right technology in producing quality produce.
One practice of the farmers, Aba said that contributed to low productivity is the non-removal of excess or unwanted suckers from the mother banana plants.
Desuckering or the removal of suckers is recommended to avoid nutrient competition among banana plants and to produce more and bigger fruits.
"Per banana hill, we recommend to have at least 3 banana plants (mother banana plant and its 2 suckers) to produce quality fruits," Aba said.
Aba said that the farmers were exposed to on-field site demonstration with actual bagging, desuckering and soil sampling, for them to gather direct information on the proper management practices of banana production. The banana farm is producing organic banana bulongan variety and its produce are marketed to Japan and Korea.
Alberto Saga, Chairperson of Brgy 4 of Tanjay City who is also a banana farmer shared his best practices on banana production. He expressed his support to the DA and to the banana farmers in the POT training as this will help them in their production being a source of livelihood. He even encouraged the farmers to adopt the new technology in banana production.
"Maayo gyud kaayo ni nga training nga among naatenahan kay napalapdan ang amo kaalam karon, ako gyud ning i-apply sa akong kasagingan ug akong ipaambit ngadto sa akong mga kasilinganan kay dako gyud nig ikatabang sa pagpadako ug pagpataas sa among abot," said Santiago Aguilar, a 48 year old banana farmer of Brgy San Jose, Tanjay City.
(This training is really beneficial to us as it enriches our knowledge. I will apply my learning in my banana plantation and share this to my neighbors as this can help us increase our banana production.)
Hilario Mananquil, 71 year old banana farmer of Brgy. San Jose Tanjay, who owns a half hectare of banana farm said that in his 20 years in banana farming, he never had the chance to attend such kind of training. He said that in a week he can only harvest 7-10 bunches of banana for most of it was infected by 'bugtok' disease.
“Dakog makwarta ning saging kung seryosohon. Kinahanglan atimanon ug tarong ug dili lang pasagdaan kay para maayu ug klase ug bunga," Mananquil said (Banana is a good source of money if taken seriously. It requires proper care and handling for it to bear good quality of banana.)