THE Department of Agriculture said that it is planning to set up a vanilla pilot project in partnership with an Israeli agri-technology company.
The project will involve training for interested farmer cooperatives, Undersecretary Jerome V. Oliveros told BusinessWorld.
He identified the Israeli partner as LR Group, which runs a vanilla farm in Papua New Guinea.
“The LR Group has a very ambitious and productive vanilla project in Papua New Guinea,” he said.
“We can bring (the technology) here, and we can probably provide our farmers this technology, subsidize part of it, and then tap the private sector,” he said.
He added that LR Group has managed to shorten the growing time for vanilla to three years from the normal five years.
“We have to (evaluate) the return on investment on that technology also, because, at the end of the day, you have to make a profit… that’s what the farmers need to see,” he said.
Mr. Oliveros added that the department will also provide interested cooperatives with technical support should they seek to join the vanilla project.
“Their best practices there, I think we can adopt,” he said.
He added that vanilla producers here typically grow their crop alongside cacao. — Adrian H. Halili
