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CEBU CITY - May of Cebu's
mango trees, forced to bear fruit all-year round, are now
becoming barren and may eventually die.
Tended by profit-hungry growers and contractors, the trees
are often sprayed with potassium nitrate, which induces
flowering. "Some contractors are so abusive that they spray
the tree again a few days after harvest," said Jerry Valerio,
regional coordinator of the Fertilizer and Pesticide
Authority (FPA).
The tree eventually suffers from stress because of the lack
of time to rest in between harvests and spraying. Compounded
with the the long-term effects of moisture stress, soil
erosion and the failure to regularly fertilize the soil,
many trees fail to grow new leaves. Eventually the tree
loses its old leaves and dies.
"I have seen a lot of mango trees that have only twigs for
branches, "said Marina Viniegas, a mango specialist at the
Department of Agriculture (DA - Region VII).
"Ideally, a tree does not die," said Viniegas, stressing
that the older mango tree is, the more productive it is. "A
lot of mango contractors have gone to Mindanao because the
trees here are no longer as productive as they used to be."
Depending on its age, a health mango tree can bear from 50
to 5,000 fruits per harvest. Although a mango tree normally
bear fruit more frequently with the use of flowering
inducers. Over-eager mango growers however force trees to
bloom twice a year.
Although the DA and the FPA cannot estimate the number of
trees affected, the problem was deemed serious enough for
the FPA to require all mango contractors to secure a license
from hereon.
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