The provincial government of North Cotabato and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday inaugurated the country’s first National Rubber Budwood Garden inside the provincial capitol compound in Barangay Amas, this city.
A budwood garden is a nursery where sturdy and improved varieties and plant species are tended for their buds to be used in plant propagation, particularly grafting.
Gov. Emmylou Mendoza said the project is part of the initial aid of P8 million from the national government through the DENR for the establishment of a clonal nursery that would serve as a source of seedlings for the flagship National Greening Program (NGP)
Mendoza disclosed the establishment of the 3 hectare rubber budwood garden at the back of the provincial capitol cost P2.4 million.
“Production from this nursery will be utilized in our rubber dispersal program,” she said, emphasizing that the rubber clones planted in the site are high yielding and much improved than the rubber clones traditionally planted by local farmers.
Since 2012, the provincial government has been using PB 260 rubber clones in its rubber seedlings dispersal program, which aims to boost the province’s standing in the country’s rubber production.
SOCCSKSARGEN Region ranks second to Zamboanga Peninsula in the production of the said high value crop. Notably, however, SOCCSKSARGEN Region’s rubber production is concentrated mostly in North Cotabato.
Meanwhile. Director Ricardo Calderon of the Forest Management Bureau of DENR, who is also the national coordinator of NGP, assured government officials and residents of the province that more developments may be expected.
“We at the National Greening Program and the Forest Management Bureau and with the help of the provincial government assure you that these won’t end with the launching,” Calderon said, “in fact, as your governor as pointed out you still have over P4 million with the PENRO (Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office).”
He said, this is the first such project in the country and is already being eyed for replication in other provinces, including the adjacent Sultan Kudarat province.
In November, last year, the provincial government and DENR 12 cut ribbons for a clonal nursery in the same barangay for the production of genetically superior planting materials for NGP.
At the time of the official launching of said facility, it had already produced over 407,000 seedlings of different species.
The state-of-the art clonal facility is equipped with nine rooting chambers capable of producing as many as 50,000 clones of genetically superior quality planting materials at any one time.
It also boosts of a multi-purpose office building, a potting shed, a recovery shed, a hardening area, including hedge or ramet gardens with planting stocks coming from superior mother trees of indigenous species like white and red lauan (scientific names: Shorea contorta and Shorea negrosensis, respectively) and molave (Vitex parviflora).
Before this, DENR 12 also signed a memorandum of agreement with the state-run University of Southern Mindanao located in nearby Kabacan town, for the establishment of a P3.5 M clonal facility also for production of superior indigenous forest tree species such as lauan, molave, and tanguile. (DEDoguiles-PIA 12 with report from RBenez-DXVL)
Source: Philippine Information Industry
Published: 28 Feb 2014