The processing of the “Ilocos White Gold” garlic into pickles and chips is eyed to revive the country’s dampened production of garlic and perhaps over the long term make up for the country’s substantial 164,881 metric tons (MT) of garlic imports.

The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research’s (DA-BAR) has entered in a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with local government units (LGUs) in the Ilocos Region and farmer-partners on improved garlic production, garlic processing and value-adding, packaging and labeling, and enterprise development.

The production technology is raising garlic production from the current 2.81 MT per hectare to its three-times higher potential of nine MT per hectare.

“Since the goal is to enhance productivity, methods have been developed to improve cultural management practices such as balanced fertilization and application of growth hormones,” according to Wilhelmina P. Castaneda and three other DA-BAR researchers.

On top of raising production, the “Garlic Technology Commercialization” (GTC) in Region 1 is also producing high-valued goods: Garlic chips, garlic bread, pickled garlic, garlic powder, garlic granules, and garlic flakes as farmers-processors were trained by the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU).

A total of 150 farmers in Pasuquin and Vintar, Ilocos Norte have already been benefited by the GTC while 60 other beneficiaries come from Batac and Siwawer Garlic Products Association (SGPA) who were trained in processing and enterprise development.

The SGPA was actually formed through the GTC. It was registered with the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE).

The country’s very low garlic production at only 14,700 MT yearly or only 8.9 percent of what is being imported, has been blamed on trade liberalization in the 1990s which dumped cheap garlic from Taiwan and China to the country.

“Despite its cultivation for many years by farmers, its economic benefits and potentials have not been fully tapped,” according to GTC authors which also include Sharon A. Viloria, Aida D. Solsoloy, and Leonardo T. Pascual.

Ilocos Region farmers actually account for 65 percent of the country’s total garlic output.

These 150 farmers got their hands-on training in a one-hectare technology-demonstration farm and raised their yield by 46 to 89 percent higher than farmers usual yield.