Propagation of high-value fruit trees pushed

MANILA, Philippines - Banking on his numerous breakthroughs in the propagation of high-value fruit trees for over three decades now, the country’s leading and practicing fruit tree expert has called on the government to get serious in producing high-value fruit trees instead of inferior-quality species for distribution to the country’s farmers.

Bernardo O. Dizon, more popularly called “Ka Bernie,” cites huge plantations in the Mindanao area which are carving quite well from top-notch multiple-rooted high-value fruit trees such as carabao mangoes,  durian, pomelos, rambutan, Longkong lanzones, and latex-less jackfruit or langka, and others. Being millionaires, the owners of these plantation have no problem with getting the best-quality and certified seedlings, reason why their small lot prosper, while the farmers suffer.

The ordinary farmers meanwhile, depend only on give-aways from the agriculture department. 

According to Dizon, the country’s farmers are at a disadvantage considering that their partner in their venture, the government, appears concentrated only on pushing for corn and rice,  the nation’s prime staple.  Upon these political crops depend to a large extent the fate of the farmers who have no visible alternatives to augment their minuscule income.  

Enslaved to the soil they have been tilling all their lives, they have no choice but to accept what the government offers them, he added.

The Department of Agriculture has been giving out huge government-funded single-rooted citrus and fruit tree seedlings, as part of its promotion for fruit tree propagation. “Sad to note, there has not been any study showing that  this program of the government has earned any significant profits for the government, least of all the farmer beneficiaries,” Dizon pointed out. 

Dizon pities the ordinary farmers for having been enslaved to the soil they have been tilling all their lives, when they should be “tourists” as what farmers are in the US, China, and Thailand.  Most of them are millionaires for their ventures are paying off handsomely for them and their country as well.

Way back in the 80’s, Dizon had been producing thousands upon thousands of multiple-rooted high-value fruit trees such as citrus, seedless calamansi, carabao mangoes, both native and imported varieties, mangosteen, latexless jackfruit, sweet guyabano, seedless atis, Longkong lanzones, even lychees, and others.

Noting that about 60 percent of our lands are uplands, and 40 percent are lowlands. He said the country’s land areas for do-able agricultural pursuits are getting leaner, losing out to subdivisions, industrial, commercial buildings, road network, and others. 

As such, Dizon opts for training centers similar to the DENR-Dizon botanical techno-demo center at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife in North Avenue, Quezon City.   This fruit tree center caters to the needs of fruit tree farmers insofar as the latest technology in the propagation and availability of high-value fruit trees utilizing multiple-rooted technology. Here farmers receive hands-on training on the finer ways of growing seedlings, cloning, and in-arching, considered as “simple technologies” being practiced by fruit-exporting countries such as Thailand, Taiwan and Australia. Lectures, to be sure, are free, he said.

Dizon suggests that such technology be incorporated in the curriculum of agriculture subjects in state schools and colleges. This way, he said the students who would not want to continue on with their schooling would somehow have learned a vocation of tremendous import. 

Dizon finds it odd that agricultural schools do not teach the imparting to their students of the advantages of high-value fruit tree propagation using multiple-rooted technology.  This technology has long been in practice in fruit-rich producing countries such as China, Thailand, and Malaysia including the United States.