Vizcaya citrus growers alarmed over spread of deadly diseases

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – Citrus growers in Nueva Vizcaya’s mountainous town of Kasibu are alarmed over the spread of a viral disease wreaking havoc on their produce.

The disease, called huang long bing or citrus greening disease, is capable of destroying 30 percent of harvestable citrus fruits, thus its spread could potentially destroy the province’s citrus industry, farmers said.

Affected citrus plants experience sudden yellowing of leaves, resulting in low harvests.

Local authorities said the fungal disease has affected almost all of the 1,200 hectares planted to citrus in Kasibu.

Felipe Borja, assistant provincial agriculturist, said the spread of huang long bing has become alarming that a team from the agriculture department’s regional office went to Kasibu last Wednesday to assess the situation.

Besides the disease, citrus plantations in Kasibu are also being hounded by the citrus tristeza virus (CTV) that was spread by the black citrus virus that destroyed some 50 million citrus trees worldwide in 1981.

Fernando Sison, general manager of the Malabing Valley Multi-Purpose Cooperative, said the citrus planters in Malabing and other parts of Kasibu town are on top of the situation, having been aware of it since the last quarter of 2006.

Sison said they have requested the Bureau of Plant Industry to verify the diseases, and even contacted a virologist from the University of Taiwan about them.

“They told us that we indeed were positive with the said viral disease, but our consolation, they said, was that we don’t have to worry too much about it as it is something we could solve,” Sison said.

Among the solutions being proposed, according to Sison, include the cutting down of infected trees and their immediate replacement with disease-free seedlings.

“This has been done in Malabing and is now being done in Wangal (another village of Kasibu),” he said.

Sison added that they have also banned the self-propagation by farmers of their own seedlings to prevent the spread of the diseases.

Ironically, one of the first to raise the alarm over the spread of the plant diseases was the Australian-owned mining firm Oceana Gold (Philippines), which initially planned to put up more citrus technology demonstration farms in Kasibu.

Lucy Esconde, OceanaGold environment manager, said the diseases discouraged them from pushing through with their plan as part of their social development and management program.

The plant infestation has also put on hold the planned expansion of 2,000 more hectares of citrus farms, said Dr. Elena Sana, assistant professor of the Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU).

To help the citrus farmers, OceanaGold is now coordinating with the Department of Agriculture and the provincial agriculture offices in both Nueva Vizcaya and neighboring Quirino to devise ways to eradicate the diseases.

Aside from this, the NVSU, Kasibu municipal government, the Malabing Valley cooperative and the Kasibu Citrus Farmers Cooperative also created Task Force Sagip Citrus to contain the spread of the citrus diseases.

Sana, however, said the task force direly needs more funds to implement a citrus disease eradication plan.

“We also need a legal entity to have the personality to raise funds for this purpose,” she said, adding that former Rep. Rodolfo Agbayani provided the initial funds.

“Many things are being done to solve the problem, which may indeed become serious as feared if nothing is done to solve it. Our only fear is that the news of the disease may discourage financing agencies from extending further assistance to us,” Sison said.

Authorities intend to fully operate the disease detection laboratories donated by the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna by the end of the year.