DAVAO CITY—The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) urged banana farmers to consider planting sorghum in farms that were hit by the dreaded Fusarium wilt virus as there is increasing demand for the crop.
MinDA Chairman Emmanuel F. Piñol said a Thai company is looking for sorghum and is willing to buy it for P12 per kilogram. He also said a private company in the United States will donate seedlings to farmers who would go into sorghum farming.
Piñol, a former agriculture chief, was the guest in the Banana Fusarium Wilt Management Forum in Tagum City, last week where he said sorghum was an ideal crop to grow while banana plantations recover from the effects of the Fusarium wilt.
Also known as Panama disease, Fusarium wilt is soil-borne and attacks the roots and the trunks. It lays dormant and is known to attack any new banana plants, or any other soft tissue plants.
The government has suggested the planting of replacement cash crops, such as cacao, coffee, oil palm and now sorghum, in affected areas.
“Planting sorghum does not require you to overhaul the terrain of your fields so it will be easier to grow, and these are guaranteed to grow in your fields with lesser maintenance,” he said.
Piñol also said sorghum is a high-yielding crop that can be used as animal feed. “A hectare planted with sorghum can feed at least twenty heads of livestock in a year.”
Citing Davao del Norte Gov. Edwin I. Jubahib, Piñol said the province looked into alternative crops that would allow farmers to earn a steady income while the government is stamping out Fusarium wilt.
“This is why we are working with the Department of Agriculture in developing tissue culture varieties which will counter Fusarium wilt in the long run so that our farmers can go back to growing bananas,” Jubahib said.
Jubahib said government would assist and support farmers if they will plant sorghum. “We will be channeling some of our calamity funds to purchase backhoes, to help you start planting sorghum.”