Vegetables galore!

A total of 573 varieties of vegetable crops will be showcased at a field day to be organized by an agribusiness company at its experimental farms in Tayug, Pangasinan, on Jan. 28.

The varieties will be presented to farmers, local government unit (LGU) officials and agriculturist, agricultural schools, representatives of business entities, and others in eastern Pangasinan by the Allied Botanical Corp. (ABC).

Headed by Willy U. Co, president and general manager, ABC is the first fully Filipino-owned vegetable breeding company. Since its started as a breeder of hybrid grain sorghum in 1984, he has been venturing into distribution of high-quality vegetable and flower seeds from world-renowned brands, thereby bringing the world’s best in plant breeding and seed technology to Filipino farmers.

Following the establishment of its 23-hectare research farms at Barangay Lichauco in Tayug, ABC has entered into the pinakbet range of tropical vegetables with the release of many selections of open-pollinated varieties (ampalaya, eggplant, tomato, okra, squash, beans, etc).

In 2004, it formally introduced new streams of hybrid varieties into the market. It carries hundreds of commercial varieties comprising a good number of species of vegetables.

ABC has also been supplying the seed needs of vegetable farmers nationwide.

To be showcased in the 2009 ABC Open House are a large line of tomato varieties that are resistant to the deadly Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV) common among farmers as pangungulot which is ravaging the country’s tomato industry, ABC corporate communication manager Rommel F. Lopez told The STAR.

“We also feature sunflower for feeds and more lines of high-yielding sorghum grain varieties. ABC has partnered with San Miguel Feeds (B-Meg) to organize farmers to plant sorghum as a feed alternative to corn,” Lopez added.

The line up of varieties to be presented during the open house includes cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, Brussel sprout, supersweet and waxy corn, onion, sorghum and sweet sorghum, sunflower, ampalaya, cucumber, melon, watermelon, patola, upo, squash, tomato, pepper, eggplant, okra, pole sitao, bush sitao, cowpea, herbs, and oriental greends.