OCCIDENTAL MINDORO, November 1, 2022 – Aiding in the decline of banana production in the province, the Department of Agriculture – Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) Program MiMaRoPa awarded banana planting materials worth Php 499,000.00 to five (5) Tagalog and indigenous Mangyan SAAD farmers associations (FAs) in Calintaan and Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.

Each association received banana suckers (sweet plantain variety) under the Banana Production Project FY 2022, serving as an additional livelihood, complementing their existing rice production and swine raising aside from the Program’s intervention.

Table 1. Association recipients of Banana Production Project FY 2022

Consequently, Sablayan has also listed a decline in banana production from 13,920.613 MT in 2020 to 12,782.57 MT in 2021 according to the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMA) Ecological Profile 2021. The 1,138.049 MT decrease in production is likewise attributed to typhoons that devastated plantations which damaged the crops.

Said project under DA-SAAD Program aims to assist in the recuperation from the damages incurred primarily to increasing banana production in Calintaan and Sablayan. 

With an average of 36.3 kilograms (kg) of banana per tree, the 7,000 planting materials is expected to bear 256.2 MT after seven (7) to ten (10) months in the ideal cultivation setting.

Farmers of El MCGA and SaMaKi from Calintaan and the FAs situated in Sablayan are involved in rice production for livelihood, planting bananas on the borders of their lands to maximize their areas. 

According to Mr. Edgar Espiritu, chairperson of El MCGA, members of their association plant banana trees mainly for personal consumption as of now.

“Nagtatanim kami ng saging sa paligid ng mga palayan namin. Kadalasan, pansarili lang na konsumo ang naaani namin dahil kaunti lang naman ang tanim namin. Nagbebenta kami pero madalang, nasa Php 30.00 kada kilo sa mga kapitbahay para pandagdag kita,” shared Mr. Espiritu.

(We plant banana trees around our rice fields. Often, the bananas we harvest are for personal consumption since we only have a few trees. We sell bananas occasionally to our neighbors for Php 30.00 per kilo for additional income.)

For members of RIC Akasyahan, banana production serves as an additional livelihood as they can also sell bananas for additional income and utilize banana tree parts as supplementary activity for swine raising.

“Noon na walang feeds, pipinuhin namin ang katawan ng puno ng saging na namunga na tapos lulutuin ito at hahaluan ng binlid. Gustong-gusto ng mga alaga naming baboy,” shared Ms. Rosamar Valdoz, chairperson of the all-women farmers of RIC Akasyahan.

(Back in the day when feeds were not available, we would finely chop banana foliage and cook it with binlid or small, broken particles of milled rice. Our swine really enjoy this meal.)

Integrated livelihood: livestock

SAAD FAs in the municipalities of Calintaan and Sablayan became part of the program in 2022. In addition to banana planting materials, FAs in Calintaan under the said project also received cattle inputs in June 2022 which  aims to integrate banana and cattle production.

Table 2. Cattles awarded to FAs under Banana Production Project FY 2022

Banana production can be considered a short-term income generating source as long as they bear fruits, while cattle production is a long-term income generating project since it requires a certain amount of time to raise.

The cattle production project was given under the Banana Production following the integrated livelihood strategy. 

On the awarding of the intervention, Municipal Mayor Dante C. Esteban of Calintaan, Ms. Nelia Oreiro, Municipal Agriculturist, and staff from OMA assisted with the turnover in Calintaan, while OMA – Sablayan staff assisted in the awarding in their municipality. ###

Writer: Dianne Francis A. Sy-Gorembalem, DA-SAAD MIMAROPA Information Officer

Sources:
Mr. Relan S. Sabac – SAAD Area Coordinator, Calintaan,
Mr. Oliver B. Cosme – SAAD Area Coordinator, Sablayan,
Mr. Jerald Ladringan – Agriculture Technician, OMA – Calintaan,
Calintaan Municipal Commodity Investment Plan 2021-2023,
Ms. Kreazel Mae Torrano – Encoder, Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMA) – Sablayan,
Mr. Reynante D. Dumale – Head, High Value Crops Services, OMA – Sablayan,
Ms. Floriane l. Aguilar – Agricultural Technician, OMA – Sablayan,
Mr. Peter Gallinera – Senior Agriculturist, OMA – Sablayan,

Sablayan Ecological Profile 2021,

Saba Banana. Specialty Produce. Retrieved from: https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Saba_Bananas_15268.php