Nueva Vizcaya eyes fruit research center

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – Fruit farmers here that have long suffered from various plant pests that have destroyed their crops, are expected to get better yield after the Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU) approves the creation of the multimillion-peso Plant Disease Indexing Center. 

The center which was launched last week with the groundbreaking of its official building, will assist citrus farmers and banana growers to determine if their seedlings are healthy or infected with various diseases. 

NVSU president Dr. Marilou Gilo-Abon said the total funding for the project consists of P1.1 million from the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), P1.5 million from the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) and an additional P1.5 million as counterpart of the university.

Additional assistance was likewise provided from the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), DA-Region 02, National Taiwan University, the local government units concerned and the Nueva Vizcaya Sagip Citrus Task Force.

A testing center for bananas was opened in 2005 which will be expanded to include citrus with the forthcoming opening of the new testing center. 

The citrus fruits have become a major agricultural industry in the province’s Malabing Valley in Kasibu town in the last 15 years that includes mandarin, ponkan, dalandan, Satsuma oranges, and pomelo that have made the province the region’s citrus capital.

The NVSU indexing center was also set up to prevent the outbreak of plant diseases affecting citrus farms in the province that occurred last year. 

Dr. Elbert Sana, director of citrus resources research and development center of the university, said citrus plant growers could avail of their services by providing specimens of their plants to the center, the first in the region and the third in the country, to be tested for the possible presence of diseases such as huang long bing and citrus tristeza virus (CTV). 

Huang long bing, also known as citrus greening or leaf mottling, is a disease of citrus plants caused by a bacteria and spread by the asexual propagation (grafting) of infected plant material to healthy plants or by means of an insect vector called a psyllid.