Noted pomologist to put up demo center at NEUST

CABANATUAN CITY — The Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST) and one of the country’s top pomologists have signed an agreement to put up a techno-demo center for the modern culture of high value fruit trees.

The memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed by NEUST president Hilario C. Ortiz and Bernardo O. Dizon with Department of Agriculture Region 3 director Redentor Gatus and top officials of the university as witnesses.

The MOA aims to establish the university as a training ground for students who want to go into commercial level production of fruit trees.

The NEUST will provide a half hectare in its Atate, Palayan City campus which Dizon will use for modeling/showcasing agribusiness projects such as orchard, nursery and other income generating projects. Aside from this, the school will provide an unlimited area in the vast grounds of the NEUST-Gabaldon campus.

For his part, Dizon, an agricultural scientist, shall transform the university as a showcase of his refined multiple rootstock technology in the culture of fruit trees.

After the MOA signing, Dizon conducted a free hands-on seminar on the culture of fruit trees. It was attended by 123 participants who came from as far as Binalonan, Pangasinan in the north and Lipa, Batangas in the south. Similar activities will be held every first Saturday of every month.

Dizon also “top-worked” a dozen Indian mango trees, budding them with such varieties as Guimaras, sweet Elena, and Thailand varieties C hokanan and Namdokmai, which shall be the source of budsticks for use in the NEUST project.

Gatus hailed the undertaking as significant in the maximization of the fruit tree industry considering the “excellent expertise” of Dizon, who he regarded as the country’s top pomologist.

Thrilled by the bright prospects offered by what he calls “the Dizon phenomenon,” especially in the field of “topworking,” Gatus has committed to Ortiz the establishment of a “farmers’ training center” at the Sumacab campus.

Ortiz who looks at the acquisition of Dizon’s expertise as “a life-long quest to reinvigorate the province’s culture of exotic high-value fruit trees such as mango, citrus, lanzones, durian, mangosteen, rambutan, pummelo, and others, employing the multi-rooted technology being promoted by Dizon.”