Air Force men goga-ga over tomato, eggplant crossbreed

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Air Force officials call it kamlong.

Nope, it’s neither a secret military cabal nor another sinister plot. It’s a crossbreed of your ordinary kamatis (tomato) and talong (eggplant) which Air Force men are growing at the Air Force City here.

Brig. Gen. Charles Hotchkiss, commander of the 600th Air Base Wing at the Air Force City which hosts about two-thirds of the Air Force’s manpower, said 18 hectares of the Air Force reservation here are devoted to agriculture.

Air Force men, he said, undergo 100-day agricultural skills training which they can find use of when they retire from the service.

At least a hectare is devoted to propagating kamlong, thanks to the technology taught by experts of the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) based in the country’s official "science city" of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija.

"The main stem belongs to the eggplant into which the tomato is grafted," Hotchkiss said. The crossbreed can withstand the rainy season with a more sturdy eggplant base, he added.

Supply of tomatoes runs low during the rainy season because rains destroy the crawling tomato plant. With the eggplant stem as base, tomatoes grow above the ground and survive the rains, he said.

Kamlong is only one of the plants now being grown here. About 15 hectares yield sweet potatoes, while other areas are planted to honeydew, sweet corn, ampalaya, squash and pechay.

"We have already harvested 46 kilos of kamlong," Hotchkiss proudly said after Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Nestor Santillan tried his hand at planting squash in one of the farms.

While ordinary tomatoes normally sell at P25 per kilo in nearby Angeles City, Hotchkiss said kamlong sells for only P20 per kilo.

Santillan earlier turned over to the 600th Air Base Wing some P500,000 for its agricultural project.

The Air Force chief also handed over encyclopedia and a computer to the Macapagal Village in Angeles City, a community largely populated by Aetas. The 600th Air Base Wing has adopted the elementary school there as the beneficiary of its civic, medical and dental project.

Hotchkiss said 30 percent of the proceeds of their agricultural project are remitted to the Air Force general headquarters, 30 percent are funneled back to the project, and the rest are spent for the needs of the 600th Air Base Wing.

The Air Force City occupies some 315 hectares of the 4,500-hectare Clark special economic zone. To generate income, it also runs a resort, a hotel, a small golf course and some restaurants.