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Cabanatuan City - The Nueva Ecija University of Science and
Technology (NEUST) and one of the country's top pomologists
have signed an agreement to put up a techno-demo center for
the modern culture of high value fruit trees.
The
memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed by NEUST president
Hilario C. Ortiz and Bernardo O. Dizon with Department of
Agriculture Region 3 director Redentor Gatus and top
officials of the university as witnesses.
The
MOA aims to establish the university as a training ground
for students who want to go into commercial level production
of fruit trees.
The
NEUST will provide a half hectare in its Atate, Palayan City
campus with Dizon will use for modeling/showcasing
agribusiness projects such as orchard, nursery and other
income generating projects. Aside from this, the school will
provide an unlimited area in the vast grounds of the
NEUST-Gabaldon campus.
For
this part, Dizon, an agricultural scientist, shall transform
the university as a showcase of his refined multiple
rootstock technology in the culture of fruit trees.
After
the MOA signing, Dizon conducted a free hands-on seminar on
the culture of fruit trees. It was attended by 123
participants who came from as far as Binalonan, Pangasinan
in the north and Lipa, Batangas in the south. Similar
activities will be held every first Saturday of every
months.
Dizon
also "top-worked" a dozen Indian mango trees, budding them
with such varieties as Guimaras, sweet Elena, and Thailand
varieties Chokanan and Namdokmai, which shall be the source
of budsticks for use in the NEUST project.
Gatus
hailed the undertaking as significant in the maximization of
the fruit tree industry considering the "excellent
expertise" of Dizon, who he regarded as the country's top
pomologist.
Thrilled by the bright prospects offered by what he call
"the Dizon phenomenon," especially in the field of
"top-working," Gatus has committed to Ortiz the
establishment of a "farmers' training center" at the Sumacab
campus.
Ortiz
who looks at the acquisition of Dizon's expertise as a
life-long quest to reinvigorate the province's culture of
exotic high-value fruit trees such as mango, citrus,
lanzones, durian, mangosteen, rambutan, pummelo, and others,
employing the multi-rooted technology being promoted by
Dizon." |
