In the Philippines, approximately 25 percent of the total working population is engaged in the agricultural sector, but its share of GDP is only 9.7 percent (2016), indicating stagnant productivity. In addition, the declining number of farmers, the aging of the farming population, and estimates that about 70 percent of the poor live in rural areas make increasing agricultural productivity and farm income a challenge.
Against this backdrop, the entire country is working to increase production of banana, the country’s most important cash crop for export, and cacao, for which demand is increasing worldwide.
This cooperation aims to establish an ex situ conservation system to elucidate the diversity of fungi collected and isolated from fields where major diseases of both crops are observed in banana and cacao production areas, mainly in Mindanao, as well as to develop new technologies to control the diseases and establish an industry-government-academia collaboration system. By doing so, we aim to establish an integrated disease control technology system from environmental, social, and economic perspectives, thereby contributing to disease control of both crops, and ultimately to the realization of sustainable production and stable supply.
© Source JICA