DA crafting roadmap for soybean industry

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is now crafting a program to build a strong community-based sustainable production unit and establish a viable soy bean processing industry through public-private partnership initiative.

It will be called the Philippine Soybean Roadmap for 2010-2014 “Building Sustainable soybean Industry in the Philippines.”    

“The creation of a National Soybean Development Program supports the government’s advocacy for a sustainable agriculture sector and attain food security for the country,” said Rosie Aquino of the DA-Cagayan Valley Integrated Agricultural Research Center.

Aquino said, farmers will benefit from the program in terms of enhanced productivity, improvement of soil fertility, improvement of household nutrition as a result of product consumption that are protein-rich, and income augmentation through utilization of soybean meal for backyard swine raising.

The Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) serves as the focal unit in the conduct of various activities of the program and leads in the conduct of meetings with other implementing agencies. 

“The draft roadmap is undergoing final critiquing/editing to accommodate other suggestions in the last technical working group meeting,” Aquino said.

As part of the development of the Philippine Soybean Roadmap, the DA-CVIARC has started varietal testing of soybean in the region.

Aquino said CVIARC is continuously participating in the multi-location testing of soybean through the conduct of National Cooperative Test (NCT) in support to variety recommendation to National Seed Industry Council (NSIC) and production of registered and certified seeds.

NSIC-approved soybean varieties used were PSB Sy-2 or Tiwala 6, PSB Sy 6 or Tiwala 8, PSB Sy 7 or Tiwala 10, NSIC Sy 9 or Mapusyaw, PSB Sy 3, and BPI sy 4. 

From the varieties tested, PSB Sy 2 or Tiwala 6 was the most preferred and acceptable variety to the farmers in Region II due to its high-yielding attribute.

Like CVIARC, the DA-Central Mindanao Integrated Agricultural Research Center (CEMIARC) is also at the implementation stage of the project, conducting technology demonstration and seed production activities in the region.