COCO FARMER TURNS FARM INTO AGRI-TOURISM PLACE

Kumalarang, Zamboanga del Sur - Along the national highway connecting Pagadian City to Zamboanga City, there is a roadside coconut nursery which has been transformed into an Agri-Tourism site.

Owned by farmer Rey Quisumbing, an agriculture graduate from UP Los Baños, the Sayao Farms offers a unique experience with their Kan-anan sa Balsa, bamboo rafts with nipa huts where they serve soft-shell crabs and, of course, young coconut.

The bamboo rafts are moored by the side of a wide man-made pond where Rey raises Kois, Tilapia and Hito which rush towards the rafts, as soon as they see people, to be fed.

Kumalarang is known as the Crab Capital of the Philippines and Rey offers frozen soft-shell crabs for P500 per kilo.

The coconut variety which Rey offers his customers is called Sweetwater Coconut, originally developed in Thailand and now propagated by a select group of farmers in the Philippines.

This vareity, along with the Buko Pandan variety, is the current craze among coconut farmers because it offers better income compared to the ordinary coconut used for copra production.

In Mataling, Malabang, Lanao del Sur, for example, a fresh Buko Pandan sells for P30 per piece, higher than one kilo of copra which needs about four pieces to produce with so much labor cost.

Buko Pandan seedlings sell for P300 per piece, if ever you could find a source.

Rey Quisumbing's Sweetwater Coconut seedlings sells for P250 per piece and this comes with on-site instructions on how to properly plant the seedlings.

So, if you are traveling the Pagadian City to Zamboanga City Highway, a stretch of about 270 kilometers passing by Zamboanga Sibugay, you could drop by the Sayao Farms.

👉Please get in touch with the Office of the Chairman, Mindanao Development Authority, Old Airport Building, Sasa, Davao City.

Credit : MinDA Team Lead By Sec. Manny Piñol


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