Pampanga state college grows exotic fruit trees

Magalang, Pampanga– Pampanga Agriculture College (PAC) president Zosimo Battad feels confident that exotic tropical fruits native to Mindanao and islands in the Sulu and Sulawesi seas would soon grow in abundance in the island of Luzon.

Battad said several durian trees have been grown and nurtured to bear flesh that taste just as delicious as their counterparts in Davao and Tawi-Tawi provinces.

Similarly, a demo-project in Barangay San Roque in this municipality lying by the western foot of legendary Mt. Arrayat has been devoted to the cultivation of Sweet Tamarind Trees.

According to the state college president, the project aims to serve as avenue for technology verification as well as to facilitate easy duplication and dissemination of the technology to target end users.

Other fruit bearing trees not native to Luzon but which successfully survived the Central Luzon sandy loam’s are rambutan, marang and mangosteen, Nora P. Lucero and Leopoldo F. Reyes, chairman and director, respectively of the PAC extension department said.

"Residents of Metro Manila and other places in the northern part of the country could get hold of exotic tropical fruits cheaper once commercial orchards earmarked for cultivation of said produce grow in number," Battad said.

Fruit vendors in nearby Angeles City headed by Bartolome Lacmit said the efflorecence of such trees would cut down transport and handling costs thereby eliminating the profit margins of second and third layer.