LIGHTNING HITS SAN RAFAEL, BULACAN VEGGIE GROWERS
ABOUT 50 MEMBERS of the San Rafael Vegetable Growers Association (SRVGA) of Bulacan recently accepted the invitation of the Maronquillo Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MMPC) in San Rafael’s Barangay Maronquillo to an afternoon meeting which the co-op and vegetable seed and crop care company Allied Botanical Corporation (ABC) hosted to introduce them to Lightning.
No, not the lightning that occurs during thunderstorms, but the Condor hybrid eggplant variety. It’s a highly prolific early-maturing eggplant whose fruits come in clusters of up to four pieces weighing 100 to 120 grams per cluster, and which are harvestable in only 60 to 65 days after transplanting. The variety’s glossy purple fruits are cylindrical, have an average length of 25 centimeters (cm), and have green, purple-tinged calyxes.
Each Lightning plant can bear from 2.7 to 3.0 kilograms (kg) of fruit during its productive life. The plant, which usually attains a height of 1.35 meters, is vigorous and strongly resistant to Bacterial Wilt disease, aside from being tolerant to pests and other diseases. The ABC Research and Breeding Farm in Tayug, Pangasinan developed, bred, and subjected the variety to multi-location trials before releasing it for commercial planting in 2012 for its high yield, pest-disease resistance and tolerance, and potential profitability.
In Maronquillo, MMPC general manager Federico Secor Jr. became a FarmerScientist designate of the Central Luzon Agricultural Resources Research and Development Consortium (CLARRDEC) of the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD) in 2010 for the successful innovative cropping methods that he shares with his fellow-farmers. CLARRDEC is one of the eight Regional Research and Development Consortia of the DOST-PCARRD in its National Agriculture and Resources R&D Network. The Farmer-Scientist designation automatically made Secor’s two-hectare farm—which is planted to rice and vegetables—a Science- and Technology-based Farm demo site, not only for San Rafael and Bulacan, but also for all of Central Luzon.