By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
There are certain requirements for land to suit ginger though.
“It should have just the right slope. When it rains, the water should not form pools that last more than an hour. Neither should the slope be so steep that it gets easily eroded because that way, the ginger would not multiply,” Samuel Gunaban.
He informed that he has lands with good shade but he is not planting them with ginger as they do not have the right slope.
At the moment, he supplies the city’s two markets at the rate of five cavans a week.
What concerns the Gunabans and other ginger producers in the barangay is the entry of the inferior but nonetheless cheaper ginger from Nueva Vizcaya which they say pulls down the price to as low as P20.00 per kilo which is half the average price.
When the Nueva Vizcaya ginger floods the market, the Gunabans just bide their time and do not harvest any more as they wait for the price to improve.
Something else is on their side though. Tessie Camaddo, 40, who has been vending vegetables in the public market for ten years now, claims that most customers only buy the Nueva Vizcaya ginger when the locally produced ginger is not available.
“The locally produced ginger is native and has a pleasant aroma which is absent in the hybrid ginger coming from Nueva Vizcaya,” Camaddo said.
The Gunabans made a killing last year and this year when, due to crisis in the supply of the commodity in the local market, the price hit an all time high of P200.00 per kilo.
Speaking of Nueva Vizcaya ginger, Samuel Gunaban informs that the system of growing the plant there is different because they do not use shade.
“When we went to Malabing, we observed that they produce ginger on flat lands. They plant them on plots which they cover with cogon and coconut fronds after planting. The ginger would then burst through the cover,” Samuel Gunaban said.
Samuel Gunaban warns against the usage of weedicides in the ginger plantations saying that the chemical stunts the plants as some of the leaves wither affecting the multiplication of the ginger.
He also shared that the dilemma of ginger farmers is the exhaustion of the nutrients of the soil required by the plant. He and Batalao observed that on the fourth year, the productivity and quality of the rhizomes deteriorate.
Samuel Gunaban is requesting the Department of Agriculture to help them solve the problem.
At the moment, Samuel Gunaban tries to prolong the desired condition of the soil by composting the weeds pulled from the plot. They just strew the weeds on the plot to rot. According to him, the pulled weeds serve another purpose: they mitigate erosion during rains.
One advantage of ginger is that it is not vulnerable to droughts.
“I did not notice any difference on the plants during long dry spells. What the plant dislikes is prolonged rainful because too much exposure to water make the plant sallow and thin,” Samuel testified.
The ginger being grown in Nambukayan is midway between the small native ginger and the large hybrid ginger coming from Nueva Vizcaya. Samuel Gunaban is not sure where it came from but could remember his late mother Maria planting the variety in small quantities since the 80s.
He said it was in 2000 when the price of ginger hit P30.00 per kilo that the family started widening their ginger plantatations.
Samuel credits their late mother Maria for the discovery that ginger could be grown in partial shade. He said that she used to plant small patches just enough for home consumption with a little left to sell in the local market and that one time, she observed that ginger likes partial shade.
“No one advised us regarding the growing of ginger under trees,” Samuel said.
Regarding the future of ginger, Samuel is convinced that there would be no need to convince farmers to go into production of the plant if they see that there is a market. The government should step in now to save trees in the few coffee plantations left given the likelihoof these being converted into cornlands entailing the decimation of the shade trees, according to Samuel.**
