Breakthroughs in Sampaguita Farming

I have been in sampaguita farming since my high school years. My grandfather on my father side started the business in our place in Tabaco City, Albay. He established the business around 1970’s. 40 years after my grandfather’s time, his grandsons now continue the legacy he left.
With the different challenges that struck this line of business, here are some techniques we formulated.
1. Leaves removal. Although this somewhat awkward, this technique can increase the yield by as much as 50%. As compared with the traditional pruning technique, leaves removal does not interrupt production. Continues flowering system is forcefully induced. How is it done?
In leaves removal, retain only one leaf per branch. This will help maintain the food process making of the plant. Removing all the will cause harm to the plant. Based from the observation we gathered in A.P. Bobier Samapaguitahan in Matagbac, Tabaco City, it showed that removing all the leaves killed some of the plant stand. Some yield smaller flowers. Some cause stunted growth to the plants. However, removing all the leaves for the first time has shown drastic increase in the flower production. The result is not permanent. The proceeding flowering season showed a decrease in production.
Maintain at least a leaf showed a sustainable increase in the production. It also ensures a year round production, as long as the weather is conducive to the plants.
2. Rice husk application. Perhaps this is the most effective weed control technique that can be applied. Results showed that it can last for 6 months. Imagine a 6 month free from weeds! That’s awesome!
3. Intercropping. From the same sampaguita field, it showed that taro, peanut, mung bean, and tomato are excellent crops to be intercropped with sampaguita. Aside from it improves the soil fertility of the soil; these plants do not affect the sampaguita flower production. Never intercrop cassava. It will tower the sampaguita plants and it can cause poor production for it becomes a competitor of the primary crop (sampaguita) to the nutrients available in the soil.
4. Twigs to shoo chickens. Some farmers practice hilling up to prevent the weeds from sprouting. But animals like chicken scratch them and destroy the hills. In an experiment held on the same field, by placing the twigs horizontally on the hills, the chickens no longer bother to scratch the hills. Try!

Thank You CHED!!!

Thank You CHED!!!
January 29, 2011, that was the last time that I was able to receive my financial assistance of the Commission on Higher Education under the National Scholarship Program (CHED-NSP). Had I deposited or saved the money I received from first to fifth year, I could have had P 150 000.00! That was awesome! But it didn’t happen. No cash was saved. Only one assurance was sure, the financial support went to good spending.
I had taken up BS Agricultural Engineering in Bicol University College of Agriculture and Forestry. The school was 40 km away from my hometown. An ordinary student belonging to a poor family won’t able to sustain his studies at that situation. But CHED NSP has bridged the gap. A scholarship was awarded to me which I enjoyed from 2006-2011.
In consonance with the main objective of the scholarship, 50% of the total money went to the budget for schooling. I still remember, it was summer of 2006, I made my own computation of allocation of the money I was about to receive. The whole of it was enough to sustain the five months or one semester of schooling. If I were selfish, I could have the money by myself. As my brother frequently says, “Magtulungan tayo, kung sino ang may pera at nangangailangan ang pamilya, ipahiram muna.” After all, in times that I was short of allowance, my family provided me.
Regular classes came. It’s true that not all of us were given sharp minds. As part of my dedication to education, I offered my classmates free group or individual tutorial in particular subjects they are not well versed. It was worth it. Most of them were able to catch up in the subjects and eventually released from the verged of failing. I know that a team work would keep us up and prevented us from falling.
It was not only me that was able to enroll in college because of CHED NSP. A portion of the money was able to send two of my siblings to college, too. Not only that, two of my classmates was also able to enroll. I lent them some of my tuition money though it meant I had to apply for partial payment. I had no regrets as long as the money from the CHED went to good deeds.
For the last five years, during the weekends, I was a fulltime students and part time vendor of sampaguita garlands on weekends. Selling flowers helped to sustain some of my expenses and added money to my weekly allowance. My family owns a small parcel of land planted with sampaguita. No wonder, because of CHED NSP’s financial assistance. I was able to buy rake, hoes, knap sack sprayer, mask, gloves and boots necessary in farm operation.
Perhaps the most important treasure I was able to acquire from BUCAF was the idea that was able to formulate techniques/strategies to increase our flower production. Of course, CHED played important role why I was able to study in BUCAF.
The strategy I was referring to is the removal of leaves from the sampaguita plants instead of the traditional pruning method. The principle behind the leaves removal lies in t fact that the more branches there are in a plant, the more the flower it will produce. It is done manually. Based from our observation, removing all the leaves in the plant will harm its stand. Sparing at least a leaf in every branch will maintain the food process of the plants. It helped us to increase the production by 50-100%! However, this strategy should be refined. Formulation of chemicals to remove leaves will make the job faster. I then realized that I can be an asset to the field of agriculture. Given enough opportunities and trainings, I can contribute to the development of the agriculture sector.
Five years had passed. Soon I’ll be taking my steps towards the real world. No five years might be the same had my sister did not processed my requirements for the application for CHED scholarship. I thank her a lot. Let me also give my deepest thanks to the government especially to the Commission of Higher Education. May the agency continue to support all the scholars ng bayan!