AGRI UPDATES

Sagada hits it big with squash pancit canton
By Robert Pangod

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- A popular tourist destination, Sagada offers another novelty attraction – canton noodles fortified with squash.

Thanks to the Montañosa Research and Development Center, a non-government organization based in this town, which developed the Sagada Squash Pancit Canton, the very first variety of squash canton to hit the market in Mountain Province or perhaps, in the Cordillera region.

The Sagada Squash Pancit Canton is made from a mixture of squash puree, wheat, egg, squash, and salt. “Our squash canton noodles is very much improved and more nutritious compared to other canton noodles sold in public markets that are just made of flour, food coloring and preservatives. “Ours has more nutrients like beta-carotene or Vitamin A,” said MRDC nutritionist, Charlotte Camfili.

In a study conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, a serving of 55g of Sagada squash canton noodles will provide 9%, 12% and 35% of the RDA for energy, protein and vitamin A, respectively.

Marketing of the product is very encouraging. In Sagada alone, orders for squash canton noodles have been increasing. “We are flooded with orders coming from hotel owners, retailers, and residents. This only shows that the people are very supportive of this new product from their hometown,” Camfili added.

She said during the Lang-ay Agro-Industrial Fair held in Bontoc recently, they had to turn down the offer of some businessmen to market the product in the other provinces due to limited production capacity.

MRDC’s plant initially produces 600 packs of 150g vitamin A-enriched noodles every week. But with the growing demand in the local market, it expects to increase production to 150 to 200 packs in a daily basis. Each pack costs 20 pesos.

In a speech during the product launching at the Capitol grounds last April 14, Dr.
Matthew Tauli, executive director of MRDC, expressed his gratitude to the Department of Science and Technology for providing the necessary information and technology for the manufacture of squash pancit canton.

He also commended the provincial office of the Department of Trade and Industry headed by Ms. Juliet Lucas for offering its consultancy services and providing training on product labeling and marketing.

Mungbean a good alternative to rice

SAN MATEO, Isabela – This region’s top-most major rice-producing town enhanced its recently prized-mungbean project to supplement its stocks of rice, whose production has been on the downtrend, fearing of a shortage of supply of the Filipino’s major staple crop until 2010. 

“This mungbean project was designed to arrest declining rice and corn production and to restore the fertility of the soil in time for the rice planting season again,” said Mayor Roberto Agcaoili of this town, which is now considered to be North Luzon’s munggo granary.

From around 500 hectares five years ago, this town now has more than 7,000 hectares of munggo farms, especially at this particular time of the year when rice planting takes a respite due to shortage of water, enabling hundreds of farmers to venture into it rather than their usual idleness waiting for the rainy season. 

Inspired by increasing profit, Agcaoili said that more farmers here are now venturing into munggo production, which has become the leading summer crop here, not only as an additional income source but also to supplement their rice production. 

Dubbed here as “Black Gold” because of its promising profit to farmers, munggo or balatong in the local dialect is normally broadcast immediately after the rice harvest or before the onset of summer when the farmlands are still wet. 

“We encouraged our farmers to consider alternate cropping of munggo to keep them from being idle during the summer months when they could not plant rice because of scarcity of water supply,” said municipal agriculture officer Emiliano Camba. 

With 800 to 1000 kilos of shelled munggo produced per hectare, and with a prevailing price of P45 a kilo, this results to an income of P45,000 per hectare. This translates to at least P300 million added income for the local farmers during summer for the more than 7,000 hectares of lands planted with munggo, Camba said.  

Besides its economic value, munggo, a kitchen favorite for both rich and poor, was found by experts to be a nutritious source of protein, calcium and iron. 

During the inception period, the town leadership ventured into a plant-now-pay-later scheme to intensify munggo production, enticing farmers to try the program, which enabled them to avail of 20 kilos of munggo seeds. And this started it all.

In February, this formerly obscure town was recognized by the Ford Foundation-Local Government Academy-sponsored Galing Pook Award for years of painstaking research in the development of the said leguminous crop. No less than President Arroyo bestowed the most-sought-after award among local government units on the San Mateo municipal government during the recognition rites held in Malacañang on Feb. 28. -- CL