Tricycle overloaded with eggplant

An increasing number of farmers in Pangasinan are resorting to the use of a powder spray to increase the yields of their vegetables. The powder comes by the name of Nevirol which is mixed with water and then sprayed on the flowers and leaves of their vegetables. The spray results in better pollination and fruit set, also minimizing fruit drop.

One happy user is Edwin Sebastian, a 39-year-old farmer from Brgy. Pias, Villasis, Pangasinan.  Last November 18, he planted 5,500 seedlings of the Morena variety of hybrid eggplant and got his first harvest last January 27. At the start, he was harvesting just a few kilos which he sold at R14 per kilo. He harvests his fruits every five days and after just a few harvests, his production had been continually going up.

Last Saturday, March 14, he was able to harvest some 2.5 tons of fruits which two big buyers from Urdaneta City bought. He says he does not have any problem selling his produce because his two big buyers buy all his harvest.

He attributes his high yield not only to the good variety that he planted but also to the Nevirol that his workers spray on the plants soon after the harvesters are through with their job. Normally, he estimates that the harvest from his half-hectare plantation during the peak season would only be two tons. With Nevirol, however, he made that bumper harvest of 2.5 tons last Saturday.

Edwin is from Dupax Sur, Nueva Vizcaya. He settled in Villasis in 1993 when he got married to the former Delia Salazar who is from the town. Since then, he has been planting eggplant as his favorite crop. He cites a number of good reasons why he prefers to grow eggplant. One is the fact that eggplant is a favorite vegetable in practically all parts of the country, hence there is a big demand. Another reason is that with the new technologies, eggplant could be grown in both dry and wet seasons. He plants his eggplant in Brgy. Pias after the rice crop. On the other hand, he plants eggplant in July in an upland farm that was mortgaged to him. Fruit set during the rainy months is more problematic but the use of Nevirol is a big help.

He also said he likes to grow eggplant because it is not as expensive to produce as other vegetables. He adds that the productive life of eggplant is much longer than other vegetables like cucumber, tomato, upo and others.

He admits that the price of eggplant is quite erratic. Sometimes it is high when there is little supply. At other times, it could be very low because of oversupply. Nevertheless, on the average, it is profitable to grow eggplant. He quips that when the farmgate price reaches R30 per kilo, the income from one harvest would be enough to pay for a mature cow.

He spends R930 for seeds that he plants in his half-hectare farm. He also spends about R2,000 for land preparation. The more expensive inputs are the fertilizers which include urea, ammonium phosphate and complete fertilizer. When the plants are two weeks old, he applies 6 bags of ammonium phosphate (16-20-0). After one month, he applies a combination of urea and complete fertilizer. Every three weeks, thereafter, he mixes two bags of urea and two bags of complete to fertilize his plants.

Nevirol, the fruit set enhancer, has now become popular in Pangasinan. In Brgy. Pias alone, Romeo Wabe, a distributor, says that no less than 300 farmers from his barangay buy Nevirol from him.