A fruit bowl in N Vizcaya

Money now virtually grows on fruit trees in a valley in Nueva Vizcaya.

Once upon a time, Malabing Valley was a sad picture of underdevelopment, with no roads (thus "unreachable"), no electricity, and no potable water system.

Villagers of Barangays Malabing, Binogawan, Wangal, Capisaan, Papaya, and Tadji used to spend days on foot to reach the town of Kasibu.

Only six-by-six trucks and weapons carriers could traverse the almost impassable river trails.

All this is past, thanks to Project Malabing Valley (PMV), which has transformed this domain of the Bugkalot tribe into the "citrus bowl of Nueva Vizcaya", reported Rita Fabro of the Los Baños-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), which is monitoring the project.

There are now 296 fruit growers producing 10,000 to 40,000 kilograms of citrus fruits per season (perante, King Mandarin, pomelo, etc.), reported R.J. Braña, project officer of the Nueva Vizcaya State University-Agricultural Extension Project (NVSU-AEP).

Braña added that the area devoted to this fruit crop is now about 800 hectares, from only about 440 ha in 2002.

"Many among the younger generation who have obtained college education have gone back to their farms and are finding citrus farming a more profitable venture than menial employment in the cities," Fabro also noted.

Project Malabing Valley was started in 1988 under the AEP of the then Nueva Vizcaya State Institute of Technology (NVSIT), now Nueva Vizcaya State University currently headed by a woman president, Dr. Marilou Santos Gilo-Avon.

Since then, several government and nongovernment agencies have supported various R&D activities in the valley. — RAF