Ubi cluster farming method to solve diminishing farmers

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 13 (PIA) – With recent development still unable to draw young farmers into farming, agriculture authorities are now seeing cluster farming method as a measure to still peg increases in ubi production with the diminishing number of farmer adopters.

Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry Pamugas, during the recent Kapihan sa PIA allocated for the biggest agri fair festival in January admitted, there are fewer and fewer farmers into ubi production despite promises of handsome returns in the crop that is largely identified with Bohol.

There used to be many farmers clearing and planting ubi in small patches of forests who contribute to the over-all crop production, now, not only are they few, most are getting older and older with only a few younger generations picking on the industry, Pamugas, who led the 21st Ubi Festival in Bohol shared.

Faced with an ever increasing year-round demand for a seasonal crop, Pamugas said they have to find ways to supply the demand and in fact, make ubi farmer a lucrative industry to attract the younger farmers.

What we are doing now is to set up cluster farms, where few farmers jointly cultivate much larger farms, and use better technologies like plot farming, instead of the usual hill side farming, Pamugas said.

Traditionally grown on dug and organically prepared holes, ubi farmers have to clear secondary outgrowths, sometimes in destructive kaingins to convert forests and shrubs to ubi farms.

Now however, agricultural studies have shown that as long as there is enough gradient to drain water away from the vines, ubi can be grown in flat farms.

Indeed we used to have more farmers, but they plant only some few holes, now with lesser farmers, what we did was help them plant more in a cluster farm method.

Already tested in farms in Ubay, Carmen and in Corella, cluster farming has allowed Bohol to gain larger ubi-cultivated lands than before, Pamugas reported at Kapihan sa PIA.

The radio forum, set a couple of days following the opening of the annual Ubi Festival at the old Tagbilaran Airport, Pamugas added that this year, they noted a bigger harvest compared to the previous cropping.

Ubi kinampay, the aromatic purple variety commands the highest price, followed by the reddish violet Baligonhon varieties to the white varieties.

Sold at an average of P90-120 a kilo, a fist-sized ubi can be chopped into 6 sitts, each one capable of growing into more than a kilo after seven months.

Among those that farmers ascribe to as plant and forget crops, ubi is planted between April to June and is harvested from November to January.

A crop with a noticeably shorter shelf life, technologies have been put up to process ubi into powder, when four to five kilos of raw ubi can produce a kilo of ubi power which can be stored much longer.

Ubi is reportedly among the crops that the Spaniards used to shipped to Europe via the Manila Acaculco Galleon Trade, and has captivated the tastes of the white men. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)