BAGUIO CITY – The Bureau of Plant Industry is pushing the intensive use of alternative pest control among Cordillera potato farmers to cushion the impact of soaring prices of chemicals and other commercial farm inputs.

Jesus Aspuria, chief of the BPI’s National Crop Research and Development Center in the Cordillera, said bacterial wilt and the cyst nematode, the most common problems of potato farmers, could be eliminated through crop rotation and the use of biological agents.

Bacterial wilt is a disease that causes brownish rings in potato tubers while the cyst nematode is a pest that stunts the growth of potato plants.

“We do not have a potato disease outbreak or alarming incidence of pest infestation now. But crop rotation and the use of biological agents could bail out farmers from their dependence on high cost inputs needed to kill the wilt and cyst nematode,” Aspuria said on Tuesday.

The province has 10,964 hectares of land devoted to potatoes that produce an average of 97,834 metric tons a year.

There are more than 7,000 potato farmers in the province.

Bacterial wilt and cyst nematode could decrease production from 50 to 70 percent if their mutation rate becomes severe, Aspuria said.

But he said crop rotation could prevent the wilt from becoming prevalent.

Crop rotation meant planting other vegetables, like cabbages and carrots, on land previously planted with potatoes.

The other vegetables would suppress wilt mutation since they are incapable of becoming hosts, he said.

Aspuria said he believed that in one crop year, potatoes must be planted only once to prevent the growth of the disease.

He said the cyst nematode could be solved through the use of trichoderma, a biological agent that the BPI has been giving to farmers since three years ago.

“The agent is a microorganism that is effective against soil borne pathogens like the cyst nematode,” he said.

He said trichoderma, when mixed with the soil before planting, could kill the cyst.

The province’s farmers plant three common potato varieties – Granula, Igorota and Raniag.

But the Benguet State University recently developed four varieties that were considered as the country’s first organic potato varieties – Solibao, Gloria Kamaptengan, Watwat and Tawid.

Department of Agriculture records showed that Benguet is the country’s major supplier of potatoes, producing 62 percent of harvests yearly. It is followed by Davao (14 percent), Mt. Province (12 percent) and Bukidnon (10 percent).