BAYAMBANG–Onion farmers in this town, the top producer for the province and in Region 1, are not giving up on their precious crop despite heavy losses incurred recently due to various diseases and unabated smuggling.

The provincial government has already taken measures to help the farmers in addressing the problem.

Mayor Leocadio de Vera Jr told The PUNCH that onions, mostly the red creole variety, have been the lifeblood of their more than 1,000 farmers covering 650 hectares in more than 30 barangays and it would not be easy to simply drop the crop.

“While they had a good harvest during the second planting the market price was low,” De Vera said.

Onion farmers here have been advised to apply trichoderma species, a cultured microorganism recommended by PhilRice to fight bacteria causing the diseases knows as pinkroot and bulb rot.

Delfin Bravo, municipal agriculturist, said his office has already designed a participatory technology demonstration to be held in October to discover and address the root causes of the diseases.

He said this problem was first experienced in 1997 and peaked in 2000.

“We still believe this problem will not cause the death of our onion industry,” said Bravo.

But the bigger blow to the onion industry here, Bravo added, is the smuggling of onions from other countries that flooded the local markets in 2003 and 2004 when prices plunged to as low as P5 per kilogram.

Today, onions are sold at P11 per kilogram.

The Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Post Harvest Research and Extension, and experts from the Department of Agriculture and the provincial and municipal agriculturists’ offices have joined hands to solve the problem, which is soil-borne and also experienced in nearby town of Bautista town.

Local agriculturist Aries Magat said farmers here were advised to give their farmland rest by planting other crops and to observe field sanitation.—EVA

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