Grower suggests: ‘Bring Ubi farming to schools’
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 4 2023 (PIA)—For over 20 years of holding Ubi Festivals, the problem still persists: crop production is still and farmers are getting fewer every cropping season.
As far as the ubi production is concerned and considering that the crop is privileged enough to be mentioned in the Bohol Hymn speaks highly of the need to make this ubiquitous rootcrop a part of every Boholano life and history, cries Ricardo Guiritan, 66 years old ubi farmer and retired master teacher.
Himself a confessed ubi production trainor in his active days as a government teacher, Guiritan, who has been into farming the ethno-religious crop since his elementary years, brought in to Piskay ni Bay, a suggestion to bring ubi back from the depths to resurface in every Boholano life.
“Let us bring back the knowledge to the schools,” airs the Looc, Panglao farmer who used to partner with then governor Erico Aumentado and the Department of Education to reintroduce ubi farming to the elementary schools.
Guiritan, who, during those times handled the training of school representatives in Bohol’s 47 towns and city as well as some Korean investors, recalled that the plan was to reteach elementary pupils on the rudimentary skills needed to grow ubi, harvest and germinate from this harvest.
Bringing to the 23rd Ubi Festival some 400 kilos of harvest of white ubi varieties as iniling or kabawoy, kabus-ok which is famed kapung-oy in Panglao, tam-isan, binato, binanag, binugas, and gimnay, Guiritan, along with ubi growers all over Bohol gathered at the old Tagbilaran City airport for the annual Ubi festival and bulk selling.
Growers also brought in their choice purple ubi varieties in kinampay and baligonhon.
Younger generation of Boholano ubi growers in fact interchange kinampay and baligonhon.
One is that variety which has pure purple starchy meat and another has white with reddish purple spots that stain into white varieties when cooked and mashed into the popular ubi-jam sitting on top of your usual halo-halo refreshment.
At the festival where growers bring out their best harvest for the contests, Guiritan claimed the heaviest tam-isan this year, his entry weighing 12 kilos.
There are much heavier tam-isan entries like we had in the past, but those, he claimed have been replanted whole so as to preserve for the next year’s contest.
His 12 kilo-entry is a 6 month crop, and considering it was tam-isan, it cooks rather fast, he said claiming further that it could even cook faster than sweet yam (camote).
Those ubi which are grown for over a planting season cooks slow and loses its usual starchy-creamy taste characteristic of a crop in its usual 6 months cycle.
“Koreans have asked why they could not grow their ubi,” he shared goaded by the banter during the interview.
They could never grow, not because of the soil they are using, but because they planted when it was not ubi planting season months, he explained.
Growing ubi in a 1.2 hectares of plains, Gurirtan said he has abandoned the practice of planting ubi in a trellis, as that is more costly than dam-ok, or just allowing the ubi to crawl over the mounds or hutok.
In his 1.2 hectares, he estimates a harvest of P32,000 at the very least, which to him is not bad considering that hardwork in land preparation for his ubihan can take less than a month.
Ubi, although considerably a simple crop to grow, can also be very sensitive, one that has to be learned well to be profitable, he stressed.
And there can be no better place to get that knowledge than in the schools, especially taught to young kids who will grow to see the economic benefits of agriculture seeing the already handsome price that ubi is bringing in the market.
I propose that every school can keep around 100 mounds, and let students take care of the preparation of growing the crop, learning its characteristics and preparing the seedling for the next year’s cropping, he said. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
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