MinDA PUSHES FRUIT TREE FARMING TO BOOST INCOME, REFORESTATION

                         Hitting two targets!

By Secretary Manny Piñol 

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) meets with fruit tree growers today to assist them in the marketing of their produce and to push for the planting of more fruit trees in the wake of increasing demand for Durian, Mangosteen, Marang, Lanzones and Jackfruit.

"Richer and Greener Mindanao," MinDA's program to encourage farmers to plant more fruit trees, aims to "hit two birds with one stone" - increase farmers' income and boost the government's Greening Program.

During the meeting today to be held at the Old Airport Building in Sasa District, Davao City, MinDA staff will also gather data to determine the actual state of the fruit industry in Mindanao.

Statistics on the total number of fruit trees and the projected volume of harvest will have to be gathered and in-putted in a database so that well-planned marketing programs

Fruit tree farmers will have to be clustered by commodity so that good farming practices and modern technology could be shared among them.

With the support of the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional offices, periodic workshops will also be initiated so that the industry will be elevated from just producing fresh fruits to processing and value adding.

A profitable fruit industry could have a profound contribution to the efforts of government to plant more trees.

Even during the years when I was Governor of North Cotabato, I advocated the planting of fruit trees, instead of industrial tree species, for the government's National Greening Program.

Instead of spending billions to pay for reforestation contractors to plant industrial tree species in the deforested areas of the country, a program marked by failures rather than successes because of corruption, government only needs to distribute fruit tree seedlings to farmers for free.

Farmers will even thank government for providing them fruit tree seedlings for free from which they expect to earn income a few years later.

May income na ang farmer, may effective National Greening Proram pa.

Program

(Photos were downloaded from public websites.)