by Rachelle Nessia

Dumaguete City (19 December) -- Aside from sweet lanzones, rambutan and durian, the town of Valencia has a new addition to its growing crop of agricultural produce that it is widely known for - organic strawberry.

The Valencia LGU has begun producing organic strawberry, one of the high value crops in the country grown only in Baguio in Luzon and Bukidnon in Mindanao.

The establishment of the strawberry farm in Valencia was made possible through the support of KOICA ( Korea International Cooperation Agency) with its volunteer Allu Kim who introduces modern farming methods of growing the fruit.

The local government of Valencia supported the project as its local officials are convinced this could be another major source of livelihood for Valencianons. Strawberry is sold at farm price of P200 and P250 at the market. The strawberry farm in Valencia has an area of 1,000 sq.m. and is located in the barangays of Pulangbato, Caidiocan, and Bongbong.

The Korean volunteer Kim said he introduced strawberry farming in Valencia considering that no such fruit is grown in the Visayas region and Valencia has suitable sites for this kind of fruit.

He further said farmers don't need to spend a lot of money to buy seeds since they can produce seedling with ease from its mother plant which is used as planting materials.

"The best characteristic of our harvest is that they are grown organically using the natural farming system (NFS). NFS is one of the most famous organic farming techniques in the Philippines now", Kim said.

Growing strawberry organically is known to be quite difficult among agriculturist and farmers that is why most of the strawberries in other parts of the country are grown chemically.

Meanwhile, the Arroyo administration continues to work on providing more social impact programs for the people.