SARIAYA, Quezon—Onion farming technology and organic agriculture are on the upswing in some rural barangays of this town with the holding of a harvest festival of hybrid onion and the launch of an organic farming contest, Season 2 in barangay Bignay 1 here on Tuesday.

Municipal administrator Allan Loria and municipal agriculture officer Ernesto Amores Jr.  commended the holding of the event they both considered as the collaboration of efforts of various stakeholders which consist of farmers, various local government agencies and the private sector.

“This is a convergence of efforts and partnerships of all the various stakeholders and the challenge now is to pursue continuity and sustainability with this onion hybrid program and organic agriculture we consider as a breakthrough in Sariaya,” Loria, who represented Mayor Rosauro Masilang, told participants of the event consisting mostly of farmers, municipal and barangay officials and representatives from the provincial agriculture office and Allied Botanical Corp. (ABC), a seed company providing seeds and farm technologies to the local farmers. 

Also present at the event were municipal councilor Alfredo Joven, Sally Panaligan of the Department of Agriculture regional field office, Jing Dimalaluan of the provincial agriculture office, agricultural technologists Nelia Oribe and Erlinda Valdoria, barangay chairmen led by barangay Bignay 1 chairman Edgardo Britania and farmers’ federation president Loreto Basit.

Amores said that the holding of the hybrid onion harvest festival and the launch of the organic farming contest are both part of the food security program of Masilang.

Amores said Sariaya is 138-percent rice self-sufficienct, 224-percent vegetable self-sufficienct but 100-percent onion dependent to Nueva Ecija and other onion-producing provinces in Northern Luzon.

He said their first trial of an estimated 600 kilos of hybrid onion has been harvested.

He said they have about 800 kilos on their second trial in barangays Mamala, Pili, San Roque, Bignay 1 and Sampaloc 1.

The planting of hybrid onion was started in three hectares last year in the five barangays, said Rudy Dean, ABC sales manager, whose company has assigned an agronomist  and conducted season-long training and demonstration in onion production in the areas.

A makeshift tent was constructed for the program and nearby were hybrid onion gardens ready for harvest.

Meanwhile, the launch of the inter-barangay organic farming contest here considers farm layout, technology innovation, organic input fertilizer, quantity and quality of vegetables produced for the first-, second- and third-place winners who will bag P20,000, P15,000 and P10,000, respectively.