Started on August 12last
year, the project is so far generating important insight in
accomplishing the seemingly impossible feat of turning an arid,
lateritic land into a verdant landscape fit for agriculture.
A
portion of the 5-hectare experimental area is also starting to provide a
steady source of vegetable supply for the company’s kitchen.
Planted on a 600 square-meter patch, the vegetable demo farm blooms with
luscious edible plants such as bottle gourd, bitter gourd, sweet
pepper, string beans, squash, watermelon and tomato.
It is important to note that these crops were only planted on October 4last year, but are now providing food on the table both for stay-in employees and local workers.
These crops are planted alongside fruit trees using Good Agricultural
Practices or the GAP system, which uses a potent mix of delivering
nutrients to the plants. This agricultural method is being employed in
preparation for the long-term goal of developing rehabilitated areas
into an organic farm.
The planted fruit trees also did not
disappoint, showing promising response to foliar organic fertilizer and
chicken manure application on the soil. For instance, this high
adaptability is seen in the flowering of grafted mango plants in the
early vegetative stage.
The experiment has so far showed that
with good maintenance and handling techniques, as well as proper
supplementation of organic nutrients, CMC’s agroforestry plantation
holds a great promise for sustainability.
It further affirmed
that rehabilitated areas can be productive with proper soil amendments,
which vastly improved soil quality and fertility.
This fits
well with the end-goal of the project, which is to help future
recipients develop the land agriculturally so that they may derive
economic benefits and other opportunities that would last to
generations.