JICA project teaches Benguet farmers safe veggie production, charcoal technology

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Monday said it has completed a three-year agriculture cooperation project with the farmers in Benguet province to introduce safe vegetable production and charcoal technology.

 

According to a statement Monday, the JICA project, in partnership with the Japan Agricultural Exchange Council (JAEC), piloted safe vegetable production and marketing for the farmers in Benguet.

 

Introduced in the project was the "Mokusaku" or Japanese charcoal technology to help enrich soil for better farm produce.

 

Through the JICA-JAEC assistance, which started in 2012, the farmers in Kabayan, Tuba, Tublay, La Trinidad, Kibungan, and Bokod farming communities "were able to adopt the so-called Safe Vegetables from Rich Soil (SAVERS) technology such as the Mokusaku in enhancing their vegetable production."

 

The technology helps prevent soil from drying and also prevents unnecessary losses of fertilizer nutrients and also serve as repellant, herbicide and fungicide, JICA said.

 

"Our strawberries became less prone to overwatering especially during heavy rains and flooding," Ying Cho, a farmer in Benguet, was quoted as saying in the statement.

 

Meanwhile, some local farmers, with the support of JAEC, were trained in Japan on Japanese agriculture practices.

 

JICA, citing data from the Benguet government, said that the province, known as the Salad Bowl of the Philippines, supplies 80 percent of the vegetable needs of Metro Manila. More than half — 54 percent — of the province's workforce are engaged in vegetable and cut-flower trading. — Kathryn Mae P. Tubadeza/JDS, GMA News