Science over tradition
Scientist urges ubi farmers
‘Use sci, tech, heap profits’
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—A Boholano scientist and rootcrops research center director tells ubi growers here, “embrace science and technology, and manage production to increase harvest and multiply profits.”
And for profits, it runs from a few hundred thousand to a million for a hectare of ubi patch.
What may be impossible to aging traditional ubi farmers, to Philippine Rootcrops Research and Training Center Director Marlon Tambis, whose research center is inside the Visayas State University campus in Baybay Leyte, assuring farmers that there is so much that science can do to reinvigorate the local ubi industry, is the only bright way forward.
Tambis, who preferred to be called professor than director, was the keynote speaker during the 25th Bohol Ubi Festival which was held from December 3-6 at the Plaza Rizal.
As head of the country’s national center for rootcrops research and development, Tambis said “it is [our] mandate to develop, through research, new rootcrop varieties.”
He also shared how the center is studying and developing and recommending ubi varieties, than can make the tropical rootcrop associated with the Visayas, feasible for planting in other provinces.
As to ubi, the center has collected over 230 ubi species including over 20 varieties of ubi Bol-anon, he added.
Through research and development, they found out that, although the ‘sacred’ rootcrop, which Boholanos traditionally plant from April to June, can have a longer production window.
On their trials, he said they have seen that ubi can be planted from January to September, and that the center has also planted a research set in November.
“This may not make the ubi a year round crop, but this will increase the available supply nearly the whole year,” Prof Tambis said.
Traditionally grown towards the peak of summer and harvested 6 months later, an ubi planted in January makes the crop available for the markets as early as July, while the traditional harvest heaps up the supply by the beginning months of the year.
Key to this, according to Philrootcrops exec, is strengthening production by adoption of recommended technologies.
Critical to this is nutrient management system, pest management system, ensuring clean planting materials or using tissue culture, he suggested.
Another factor is ensuring disease-free propagation, he pointed out.
Ubi is also a plant that is so attractive to fungus anthracnose, so that application of fungicides, preferring trichoderma as an organic fungicide.
Bohol ubi farmers also need to seek advanced technologies in sitt preparation.
Traditionally, a farmer can make 10 sitts from a single piece of crop, but science proves that the size does not matter much.
“One can make 30 sitts from a piece, or enough to sustain the growth of roots to scour for the nutrients needed to support the sprout,” the Boholano scientist said.
And when direct planting is traditionally preferred, establishing a nursery system proved better, Tambis added, noting that direct planting does not assure that sitts sprout simultaneously.
As ubi is a good absorbent of water and nutrients, adding these to the plantation would ensure better harvest.
We need to apply site-specific management and good agricultural practices, he suggested. This also explains why ubi does not grow well when planted on the same spot where the first cropping was, as the depleted micro nutrients boron, manganese, magnesium and calcium have been depleted, consumed by the first crop.
Following the scientists advice, he said achieving a million in profits from a hectare of ubi patch is not far- fetched. (PIABohol)
EMBRACE SCIENCE. After 25 years of celebrating the ubi -anon, a Boholano leading the country’s rootcrop research and development center suggests getting science and technology into farming and see how profits sprout into the trellis. Philrootcrops Research and Development Center Director Marlos Tambis, along with tourism officer Joanne PInat. Board Member Lucille Lagunay, Agriculture Officer Liza Quirog and DA Romand Dabalos cut the ribbon marking the opening of the 3 day ubi sale at the Plaza Rizal. (PIABohol)
NUTRIENT DEPLETION. When the crop doesn’t do well when planted in the same spot in the last cropping, that is because ubi is a voracious consumer of water and micronutrients that farmers need to add boron, manganese, magnesium and calcium into the soil to be assured of multi-kilo yields, said Philrootcrops director Marlon Tambis during the 25th Bohol Ubi Festival. (PIABohol)
