Last year, when we brought the leaders of our assisted cooperatives and people's organization in the mountain barangays of Cebu specifically at Brgy Guba where we visited the different farmers' association and cooperatives assisted by the Mag-uugmad Foundation, we came accross a small anthurium garden owned by one of the founders of Mag-uugmad. He shared to us some secrets on successfully caring this very special plant. For me, one important factor which would contribute to its successful production especially its very attractive flowers is the farm elevation. I remember one of the sites I visited before which intensively grow anthurium is in the Province of Bohol, especially the Escaya tribe in the mountain barangays of Sierra Bulliones. I have seen such a huge Anthurium plantation that almost all the plants underneath the big trees were anthuriums.
According to Mr Conrado "Condring" Brigoli who was the previous Program Coordinator of the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation (SWCF)-an organization assisting the Escaya Tribe of the aforementioned location, the project was painstakingly conducted by the members of the tribe. Year after year they continuously plant and manage the farm until it widened its area which is now giving livelihood to its members. Twice a week, tribe members harvest the very attractive flowers and the bulk of its harvest were marketed in the neighboring province of Cebu by the middlemen who often earned a bigger income than the tribesmen.
The technology is quite simple, the thing we must first consider in establishing a project like this is finding the appropriate location. Although anthuriums thrive in lower elevation, a cooler place is very suitable for them to grow healthy and bear more flowers than in hotter area. No wonder why tribesmen of Escaya successfully grown such thing.
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