SAN CARLOS CITY–This city known as the mango capital of Pangasinan plans to further advance its major industry by putting up a processing plant for mangoes and other fruits.

Mayor Julier Resuello, in his state of the city address Monday, said a task force has already been formed, with the City Cooperative Office under Arlaine De Vera as the lead agency, to prepare a feasibility study for the plant.

Resuello also laid out a plan to boost the city’s bamboo industry by diversifying into other products apart from handicraft.

The local government will seek assistance from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agrarian Reform to develop these projcts.

Resuello underscored the need for rehabilitating mango plantations that were devastated by Typhoon Cosme in May.

City Agricultural Officer Domingo Resuello said they estimate that less than half, or about only 42,000, of the 100,000 fruit bearing mango trees survived the typhoons onslaught.

He said it would take five years for the plantations to recover its pre-Cosme status.

Resuello said these new initiatives to advance the mango and bamboo industries are intended to improve the status of farmers who still comprise 80% of the city’s population despite continued commercial development.

“It is expedient therefore that we motivate our farmers to rise from just being subsistence farmers who just plant and harvest for their day to day needs into commercial farmers and entrepreneurs who earn a living out of their agricultural efforts,” Resuello said.

The mayor reported that in support to the Farmers Field Schools, P4 million has been released this year for fertilizer subsidy, and a farm tractor worth P2.6 million has been made available to farmers under the Corn Mechanization Counter-parting Scheme.

The Department of Agriculture gave a grant of P1.2 million pesos while the city provided a P1.4 million counterpart for the scheme.

Resuello said a second tractor is scheduled for release by the end of the year under the same program.

During the previous administration under the late Mayor Julian Resuello, the incumbent mayor’s father, a Mango-Bamboo Festival was launched as part of the city’s annual summer fiesta activities to highlight these industries.#

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