(Gina P. Gerez)
Aside from being environmental friendly
TACLOBAN CITY- Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla is encouring farmers to plant bamboos to augment their income.
Petilla, in an interview, said that he is aspiring to export bamboo as there are thousands of hectares available for bamboo planting across the province.
In particular, there are around 7,000 hectares along the Binahaan River that are suitable for bamboo planting, the governor said.
Petilla said that with high demand of bamboo in the world market, farmers in the province could bank on it that could result for additional income.
He also noted that aside from augmenting the income of the farmers, planting bamboos could help soil erosion and as deterrent of landslides.
Petilla said that he is also for the enhancement of the skills and knowledge of the farmers to meet the standard of the exportable bamboos.
“We may come to that part but we have to produce first before we market our province on bamboo production. It’s hard to sell our province for a product that is not existing. The key to that is to enhance the skills and knowledge of our people on bamboo production,” he said.
“Before we also market our bamboo abroad, we also need to examine what are their quality standards. We need to know if we can meet their standard and if we see that we can meet it then we will produce the quality of bamboo according to that standard so that we can export,” he added.(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
