A camote advocate

By ZAC B. SARIAN

April 8, 2011, 5:45pm

HO CHI MINH -- We had an interesting exchange of ideas with Roberto P. Alingog during breakfast at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City last April 2. He is a rural banker and founder of Ropali, a distributor of agricultural implements and motorcycles with 110 outlets all over the country.

He and a group of bankers were visiting Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam and then to Thailand. On the other hand, we were on a trip sponsored by Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Company as part of our award in the Bright Leaf Journalism Awards.

Mr. Alingog, who has just been notified as this year’s outstanding UP alumnus in entrepreneurship and employment creation, is also very much concerned about our rice supply in the country. He believes we should not just tackle our rice problem by trying to increase production. There should be other alternatives that will help alleviate our perennial shortage of rice.

Just like what we have been advocating, he is for the consumption of more root crops, especially camote. Eating camote is not only good for the health, It could help the country save foreign exchange. If only more people would eat camote instead of rice once a day, he said, the reduction in rice consumption would be tremendous.

He believes that the way to do that is to subtly advocate camote consumption. There should be no coercive or legislative fiat. What is needed is to have more advocates who are really sincere in promoting the idea.

There are advantages in advocating more camote consumption. For one, even the most ordinary farmer can produce his own camote. This crop is not badly damaged by typhoons. Besides the roots, camote tops are also nutritious.

Also, there are already improved varieties of camote for human con¬sumption, thanks to the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center at the Visayas State University in Baybay.

One outstanding variety developed in Baybay is VSP6 that is not only re¬sistant to virus, it is also high-yielding with an average yield of 21.02 tons per hectare. It also has a high dry matter content of 32.90 percent. This means that it has excellent taste as boiled camote. It is also good for camote-cue because the flesh does not easily break.

Another significant hybrid released in 2002 is now known as NSIC SP25 or the LSU Purple. It has a marbled purple flesh which is desirable because it is said to be high in anthocyanin. It contains a lot of antioxidants which is good for the health.

Dr. Julie Tan, head of the postharvest division of PhilRootcrops, says that among the various varieties released for commercial production, LSU purple has about the highest dry matter content of 36 percent, hence it is very tasty when boiled. It is sweet because it has the highest sugar content of 4.07 percent compared to most other varieties which only have 2 to 3 percent.