result of data gathering in zamboanga peninsula and basilan province

AMYA House Tulip Drive corner Quimpo Boulevard Tel no. (082) 321-5589 Ecoland, Davao City 8000 Email: [email protected]

CACAO INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION OF MINDANAO, Inc.

CIDAMI TEAM VISIT CACAO FARMERS IN ZAMBOANGA PENINSULA AND

LAMITAN BASILAN

CIDAMi also gathered baseline data and conducted interviews to nursery operators on

their cacao production e.g. elevation, way points, type of land ownership, areas (ha)( sq.m)

planted, technology provided, cultural practices, number of trees, number of bearing trees,

number of non- bearing tress, trees condition, number of kilograms, wet beans yield, number of

kilogram dried beans yield, post-harvest practices and their market outlet.

During the first day the team visited several cacao nurseries and promotion areas in

Zamboanga del Norte 1 (one) in Provincial Agricultural Industrial Center (PAIC), 1 (one) in

Sta.Felomina, Dipolog City, 1 (one) in Rizal Dapitan City including a nursery at South Mapang,

Zamboanga del Norte.

PAIC (Provincial Agricultural Industrial Center) was located at Upper Irasan Roxas,

Dipolog, with an area of approximately 1ha. for nursery and cacao production area and it was

managed by Mr. Florian O. Abaja an Agriculturist II.

It was observed that cacao nurseries and cacao production areas visited at Zamboanga del

Norte do not implement good nursery management cacao seedlings have shown symptoms of

Vascular Straek Dieback (VSD) especially in South Mapang, Zamboanga del Norte. Lack of

cacao nursery materials improper net positioning and potting media were also observed in cacao

nurseries. At PAIC, Upper Irasan, Roxas, yellowing of leaves, stunted growth and burned leaves

were also observed in nursery seedlings and budwood gardens which maybe the effect of salinity

because the areas were located at an estimated of 100 meters away from the seashore.

On the second day, the team attended workshop and orientation of nursery operators

which was conducted by ACDI/VOCA at PAIC, Upper Irasan Roxas ZAmboanga del Norte.


The workshop was attended by twenty three (23) nursery operators where the team conducted

baseline interview on selected participating farmers. Fifteen (15) farmers were interviewed most

of them has a nursery with 5000 seedling capacity. Most of the farmers produce an average of

1000 seedlings per month with a price of 30 pesos per seedlings.

The same activity was also conducted by ACDI/VOCA in Sta. Clara Naga, Zamboanga

Sibugay on March 6, 2013. Twenty three (23) farmers have attended the activity and sixteen (16)

participating farmers were interviewed. Most of the farmers have nursery with a capacity of 5000

seedlings.

On March 7, 2013 workshop and orientation on nursery operators was also conducted by

ACDI/VOCA at Bonguiao, Zamboanga City.

The said activity was also attended by thirteen (13) farmers where ten (10) participating farmers

also interviewed. Most of the interviewed farmers have a nursery with a capacity of 5000

seedlings. Most of the farmers produce 500-1000 seedlings per month sold at 18 pesos per

seedlings. Most of the problems encountered by the farmers were lack of financing especially in

nursery establishment.

Several nursery and farm visits were also conducted by CIDAMi team and ACDI/VOCA-

(ADF) Agriculturist Development Facilitator. The first visit was conducted at Brgy. Lamisahan,

Zamaboanga City, nursery owned by Mr. Gerardo Carpio. This four month old nursery was

initially implemented by Landcare and presently assisted by ACDI/VOCA.

According to Mr. Carpio ACDI/ VOCA gave him seedlings for his budwood garden, as well as

farm tools and implements like net seedling bags and pesticides. His nursery produces

approximately 5500 cacao seedlings every 6 months with top soil as his potting media. Mr.

Carpio’s cacao seedlings were observed to be stunted that shows lack of nutrients because he

doesn’t employ any fertilizer or pesticides application and also regular watering of the seedlings

was not implemented. He doesn’t practice any proper spacing on the seedlings and he doesn’t

have a budwood garden himself.


The team also visited a nursery owned by Josephine Galvez at Brgy. Sangali, Zamboanga

City. This nursery was also initially implemented by Landcare and presently assisted by

ACDI/VOCA.

On its 1 year operation it produces approximately 4500 seedlings in every 6 month with

rice hull, top soil and chicken dung as potting substrate, with organic foliar fertilizer, insecticide

and Fungicide applications. The owner do not practice spacing between his seedling bags and

for the meantime. Basilan was their source of scion for the meantime because the nursery’s 6

months old budwood garden with 133 trees is not matured enough to produce scion/budstick.

On overall assessment the cacao seedlings on Mrs. Galvez’s nursery exhibited good

growth performance but the seedlings were overgrown because of the lack of skills on grafting.

The team also visited a nursery at Sitio Mangga, Barangay Bonguaio Zamboanga City

owned by Mrs. Marilyn Aliviar and Aleli Alfonso, the nurseries were also initially implemented

by Landcare and presently assisted by ACDI/VOCA.

These 1 year old nursey owned by Mrs. Aliviar had a capacity of 5000 seedlings and a three (3)

month old budwood garden with 100 budwood trees from ACDI/VOCA.

Scions for their nursery were coming from Basilan, since a three (3) month old budwood garden

is not matured enough to produce scions.

Lastly, on March 9, 2013, we have visited a nursery and cacao production area owned by

LARBECO (Lamitan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative) at Basilan).

LARBECO was managed Mr. Jose Bernadas and initially assisted by ACDI/VOCA. Cacao

production area of LARBECO has a high capacity and is very conducive for growing cacao trees

but was observed to be lack of proper management. It has its own post-harvest facilities like

fermentary box for five(5) days fermentation process. They were also equipped with a

mechanical dyer and a bean sorter and the cacao beans that they produced stored on ordinary

sacks.


LARBECO have rehabilitated 35 years old cacao trees but Mr. Jose Bernadas said that

instead of rehabilitating they are planning to cut down the old trees and replant new ones because

he believe that old trees cannot produce more fruits compare to new plants.

However, their main problem is that cacao production was very laborious and also they

are lack of financing he added. As evidence the cacao trees in LARBECO was not applied with

fertilizer and was not pruned for a year. As observed their budwood garden was also infected

with Vascular Streak Dieback (VSD).

Prior to farm visits the CIDAMi team and ACDI/VOCA ADF conducted courtesy call in

the provincial and Municipal Agriculture Offices of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay,

and Zamboanga City with a purpose of gathering baseline data on their cocoa nurseries and

production areas but there was no available data so we have conducted nursery and farm visits

and interviews on selected areas and farmer cooperators. Various recommendations were given

by the team to address identified farmers problem during the conduct of farm visits and

interviews.

result of data gathering in zamboanga peninsula and basilan province

Documents