By Honor Blanco Cabie
PINILI, Ilocos Norte, (PNA) -– Homecoming residents and visitors to the country’s far northwest, particularly this historic town facing Luzon Bay, have noticed a slow but steady transformation in the verdant fields heretofore dotted by Virginia variety tobaccos.
This town, where warriors walked at the start of the 20th century and during the Japanese occupation of the country in the 1940s, has recently been anointed by the provincial government as Ilocos Norte’s garlic town.
Many of the parched brown furrowed fields where Virginia tobaccos have been rising in summer for six decades have been overtaken by mulching hay for garlic.
Pinili, which became a town in 1920 and has risen to 3rd class in the past decade, has been assigned in Ilocos Norte as the garlic town under the previous government’s One Town One Product (OTOP) Program.
But President Benigno S. Aquino III has authorized the continuation of the OTOP program, began in the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. OTOP, a priority program of the government to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs, supports micro, small, and medium enterprises to manufacture, offer, and market distinctive products or services through the use of indigenous raw materials and local skills and talents.
In Pinili, 453 kms from the national capital, the local government unit led by retired Army Col. Samuel Pagdilao Sr. has taken the lead in developing, and promoting garlic which has a comparatively competitive advantage.
Garlic, scientifically known as “Allium sativum,” is a species in the onion genus “Allium.” Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo.
According to agriculture old hands and experts, garlic, locally called “bawang,” has a history of human use of more than 6,000 years and is native to Central Asia.
It has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent seasoning in Asia, including the Philippines, Africa, and Europe.
Garlic, known to Ancient Egyptians, and has been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes, is a perennial herb of the Amaryllidaceae family.
Residents of Pinili and many other Ilocos towns have grown up and become familiar to the aroma of the plant which produces a bulb, surrounded by sheaths and composed of thin-shelled bulblets, cloves, or set, all of which are capable of forming a new plant.
The bulblet in fresh or in processed form has been used as food, condiment, and for medicinal purposes. Garlic is a relatively good source of calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. Its leaves are sources of protein and of Vitamins A and C.
In Pinili and much of the Ilocos Region – and even in Cagayan Valley and the Cordilleras where Ilocanos reside as well as other parts of the archipelago — the green tops are used for “pinakbet,” a stewed mixture of vegetables which is an Ilocano delicacy.
Culinary experts say garlic contains antibiotic substances that inhibit the growth of certain bacteria and fungi.
Many northerners, particularly in far-flung barangays, use garlic to treat wounds, toothache, epilepsy, and fungal skin diseases.
In Germany, scientific experiments, according to researchers, have shown certain compounds in garlic block the blood platelets from forming into blood clots, which could cause heart attacks (coronary thrombosis) and strokes.
Ilocos White, the most common variety of garlic planted for commercial production in the country, is slowly eating up some farms that used to have Virginia tobaccos as summer carpet in many Ilocos towns – but particularly Pinili now under OTOP.
The Ilocos White, which has purple to white scales, is moderately resistant to insect pests and diseases. and matures 90 to 110 days after planting with a potential yield of 3.5 tons per hectare.
There is another variety, the Tan Bolters, which is not yet officially recommended for commercial production because of unconfirmed yield performance.
Its clove is bigger than that of Ilocos White and has a good keeping quality. It matures 105 to 120 days after planting.
Other varieties such as Batanes White, Batangas White, Ilocos Pink, Nueva Ecija Pink are available in the country but these varieties are not yet officially recommended for commercial production.
Provincial agriculturists must have seen in the soil of Pinili a perfect patch, although garlic can be grown in different types of soil.
But sandy, silt and clay loam are recommended for commercial production.
And the soil should be fertile, rich in organic matter, well-drained, and capable of holding adequate moisture during the growing period – an ideal case for Pinili’s soil, under Type 1 climate, which is characterized by a wet season that usually occurs from May to October and a dry season from November to April.
Part of the P104 million plus income of Pinili as of 2010 – the latest available figures — has been contributed by garlic, the town’s new product under the government’s priority program.