Agriculture Secretary Manny F. Piñol invited inventors and fabricators to come up with a special implement that would make mango bagging easier and more efficient.
“It will be similar to the selfie-stick we use for taking photographs,” the Secretary explained during the opening of the Mango Festival on May 2, 2019 at the Department of Agriculture Central Office in Quezon City.
The mango stick will be an automatic tool that will bag maturing mangoes to protect them from insects and other pests.
Mangoes, while waiting to be harvested, are bagged individually to protect them from diseases and mechanical injuries. This management practice improves the quality of the product, and enables the growers to demand competitive price for their produce.
Also in line with quality control, the agri chief posed another invitation for the fabrication of a special paper that will be used as wrapping material.
“Growers are very particular with the quality of paper that they use, and so to this is the challenge for Filipino scientists and inventors,” the agri chief explained.
The Philippine Center for Postharvest Research and Mechanization (PhilMech), in collaboration with Guimaras mango growers, is currently developing a bagging material made of cassava starch, which is biologically safe.
According to Dr. Ofero A. Capariño of PhilMech, his team from the Bio-Process Engineering Division is currently working on the special paper that will naturally peel off once the fruits are ready to be harvested.
The Secretary likewise suggested that the PhilMech should come up with a rotating platform that will ascend and descend around the mango trees to make bagging and harvesting easier and faster.
“We need to make our agriculture sector more technologically-advance,” Piñol said.
The Philippine mango is tagged as the sweetest around the world. However, despite its popularity, the industry faces challenges which the DA vows to address.
“The DA has committed to undertake interventions to prevent the infestation of cecid fly, particularly in the island-province of Guimaras,” Piñol announced.
In line with the commitment, Piñol stressed that the Department will provide all farm inputs, while the local mango growers will serve as the labor force.
The Secretary reiterated that the initiative, which will be a first island-wide action to fight off cecid fly, will be community-based.
“Everyone must participate to ensure success. If only a small group will join in our action, it will fail,” he said.
“If successful, we will duplicate this holistic approach in Palawan,” he added.
The Mango Festival, which will run from May 2 to May 10, will feature mangoes from different mango-growing areas of the country. During the opening ceremonies, Piñol and other DA officials sampled mangoes grown in Guimaras, Cebu, and Cotabato.
The Festival is part of the marketing strategy of the Department, under the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service, to create awareness on the potentials of the fruit and create domestic and international markets.
The Philippine mangoes will be showcased in international trade fairs in Belarus, Moscow and Singapore in the coming months. As of date, the country already exports a small volume of mangoes to Dubai. (Oda Rodriguez/DA-AFID)
