Cassava vegetation are additionally environment friendly at capturing carbon dioxide and storing this of their biomass and soil, contributing to carbon sequestration and local weather change mitigation. | Photograph from San Miguel Meals
San Miguel Meals’ regenerative agriculture program, additionally geared toward supporting native farmers, has yielded over 90,000 metric tons of cassava within the first half of the 12 months, 44% greater than in the identical interval final 12 months, boosting incomes for its in depth community of farmers nationwide.
San Miguel Company (SMC) Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang stated that the corporate’s Cassava Assemblers Program, ongoing for a few years now and in place in additional than half of all of the provinces within the nation, has steadily grown, leading to greater yields.
“Via our Cassava Assemblers Program, we provide a assured market with buy agreements, a hard and fast ground value, and complete technical help. We proceed to interact with, and encourage farmers to prepare themselves and type small companies, to assemble a minimal of 20 hectares of cassava plantation,” Ang stated.
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Ang defined that assemblers buy produce immediately from small farm holdings. That is significantly useful for farmers with inadequate funds to pay for transport prices to promote their items.
It additionally solves the issue of economies of scale in manufacturing, decreasing the unit price of harvesting or transport, to a degree the place it’s worthwhile for each the farmer and the assembler.
For its half, San Miguel is assured a gradual provide of a necessary uncooked materials.
“Our aim has at all times been to help farmers by harnessing the potential of cassava, a root crop that’s ideally suited to cultivation within the Philippines. Resulting from its excessive carbohydrate and power content material, it’s used in its place for conventional substances similar to corn and wheat. Its byproduct, cassava pulp, can also be thought-about as one other ingredient for animal feeds, highlighting the crop’s versatility in animal diet,” stated Ang.
San Miguel Meals President Butch Alejo stated that at the moment, the corporate has some 100 assemblers and 1000’s of farmers everywhere in the nation, planting and harvesting on some 45,000 hectares of land final 12 months and this 12 months.
“With this, we guarantee not simply dependable provide for our enterprise, however we additionally present good, regular revenue for farmers.”
Alejo stated that past large-scale cassava manufacturing, this system considerably contributes to sustainable, regenerative agriculture, because it helps improve soil well being and contributes to local weather mitigation.
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In response to Alejo, cassava’s deep root system helps break up compacted soil, improves soil construction, and will increase soil natural matter–enhancing total soil well being.
Its inclusion in crop rotations additionally diversifies plant species, decreasing pest and illness pressures, whereas selling helpful soil microbes.
Cassava vegetation are additionally environment friendly at capturing carbon dioxide and storing this of their biomass and soil, contributing to carbon sequestration and local weather change mitigation.
“Cassava is a resilient crop that requires fewer chemical inputs like fertilizers and pesticides in comparison with others, decreasing environmental air pollution and supporting pure ecosystem processes,” defined Alejo.
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“Its drought-tolerance and skill to thrive in marginal soils with low water availability make it very important for environment friendly water administration, particularly in areas going through water shortage, he added.”
