MARARAG, Bukidnon—Farmers from Central Luzon attending the Northern Mindanao Consortium for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development First Farmers Encounters through the Science and Technology Agenda program here were urged to go into bamboo farming.
“Operating a bamboo nursery is a profitable undertaking,” said Antonio Dominao, a bamboo nursery owner and speaker here, said to farmers at the second day of the program being held at Central Mindanao University Convention Center.
“A bamboo seedling with an investment of P7, could be sold at P12 at the minimum or as high as P25,” Dominao said, citing his experience running a bamboo nursery in Barangay Impalutao, Impasug-Ong here.
“I learned bamboo technology from researches of government agencies and continue to adopt latest technology,” he told farmers, having started his bamboo nursery in 1993.
In the message yesterday of Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora, as relayed by PCAARRD Applied Communication Division Director Marita A. Carlos, he said PCAARRD had some engagement with NOMCARRD on bamboo.
Ebora said among these were on the management of clumps of giant bamboo with DENR Region 10, the GIS-based assessment of bamboo resources and supply chain analysis, and soil erosion management at the Taganibong watershed, both with the CMU.
The council chief hopes that all joint undertakings in the past and this present undertaking on bamboo products through FIESTA can help in propelling bamboo as one of the country’s promising industries as well as in addressing the challenges faced by the bamboo industry.
Carlos said engineered bamboo technology is being developed here to produce bamboo products as high-end construction materials.
She also assured NOMCAARRD RRDC Chairperson and CMU President Dr. Maria Luisa R. Soliven PCAARRD’s continued collaboration with the consortium on bamboo production as well as other technologies.
PCAARRD pushes pushing FIESTA program for food sufficiency, increasing the share of agriculture to national development, and ultimately improving Filipino living through science and technology.