PERU-BASED International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIP, for Centro Internacional de la Papa) is calling for more regional and national engagement in popularizing Asian tubers as a sustainable approach for food security and climate-change resiliency.
There is enough research that “root and tuber crops are an effective way of improving the health, quality of life and resilience, especially of smallholder farming households,” Julieta Roa, collaborating researcher at the CIP-Philippines, said during a recent discussion on ways to improve food security in the face of the changes in weather pattern.
In a document Roa presented, CIP Interim Project Leader Christopher Wheatley said: “In the Philippines, [although a common crop], many people do not realize how nutritious and valuable sweet potato is and how useful the crop is for disaster recovery, especially for the resilience of rural communities after disasters, such as that brought by [Supertyphoon] Yolanda.”
The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) recently reported that sweet-potato production for the second quarter of this year slightly decreased from 144.86 thousand metric tons (MT) last year to 143.94 thousand MT this year, or by 0.6 percent.
According to the BAS, the decrease was brought about by the “decrease in sweet potato farm areas in Eastern Visayas due to the aftereffect of Yolanda,” including the shifting to rubber plantation of some sweet-potato farms in North Cotabato, coupled with prolonged dry season and attack of weevil in Quezon.
“About 27.2 percent of the five-year annual average production was harvested during this quarter,” the BAS said, noting that this quarter’s top producing regions were Bicol Region, Eastern Visayas and Western Visayas.
Wheatley also said “in normal times, sweet potato offers a very good source of income through market links, value chains that are developing alongside the food industry and a nutrient-rich food option for urban consumers, as well.”
The BAS reported also that cassava production grew by 9.1 percent, from 704.44 thousand MT level in 2013 to this year’s 768.75 thousand MT.
The production growth was attributed to technical assistance and provision of quality planting materials from the San Miguel Corp. field unit in Zamboanga City and the increase in farm areas in Isabela, Batangas, Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur due to good market demand for industrial purposes.
In a comprehensive value chain study for agricultural produce published recently by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, cassava production can net P21,000 per hectare a year, while processing the root crop into dried granules would net another P2,800 for every five tons of raw material.
Based on the five-year annual average, about 35.2 percent of the annual production was harvested in April to June this year, the BAS said, adding that this quarter’s bulk of harvest came from Northern Mindanao, 38.0 percent; the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 32 percent; and the Bicol region, which registered 6 percent.