The San Carlos City (Negros Occidental) government has launched a 10-year mango development program to transform this bustling urban center in sugarlandia into a "mango country".

The program was crafted as a component of the 20-year (2000-2020) San Carlos Master Development Plan (SCMDP) by the city government, currently headed by Mayor Eugenio Jose V. Lacson and Vice Mayor Gerardo P. Valmayor Jr.

The SCMDP aims to convert the city into an agro-industrial center.

A unique feature of the master plan is the active participation of small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs living in the barangays. While agriculture remains an important component of the plan, it also promotes and emphasizes high-value commercial crops, among them mango.

The city's mango program aims "to develop, promote, and sustain the mango industry and elevate San Carlos as a mayor mango-producing area."

It was prepared by Joselito Payot of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) and Los Banos scientist Dr. Rafael Greencia. The two were commissioned by the San Carlos Development Board to study the prospects of commercially producing mango in the city's barangays.

The program has three groups of beneficiaries: small farm owners, sugarcane planters, and forest reservation dwellers, who actually constitute the majority growers of mango in the city.

The city has a land area of 45,150 hectares blessed with good agro-climate suitable for mango production. By classification, only 11 percent are nonagricultural lands, 20 percent are forest-covered, and the rest are good for agricultural enterprises.

Roughly 8,400 ha of San Carlos City's land with 0-18 percent slope and 12,500 ha with 18-30 percent slope can be used for mango production.

There are at present 646 backyard and commercial mango growers. Some claim steady income, particularly through contract-sharing arrangement with buyers from Cebu.

"There is good indication that farmers would expand production on their own best effort given the appropriate technical and financial support," Payot and Creencia said in their report titled "San Carlos Mango Development Program".

The program envisions to expand the mango areas in the city at the rate of 90 hectares per year. At this rate of expansion, a multipurpose processing plant for mango is expected to be established in the city soon after the tenth year of program implementation.

Among other things, outstanding mango varieties and selections will be introduced to San Carlos City from the National Mango Research and Development Center (NMRDC) in the island-province of Guimaras and elsewhere.

Locally grown outstanding trees will also be identified and collected.

All these collections will be multiplied in nurseries to be set up in the city.

Mango growers and prospective mango planters will be trained. Women will also be trained in the development of some home-based mango industries.

"The small farmers are excited because the city government is now looking into their problems. This will mean rapid expansion of rapid farms in the city," noted Dr. Ramon V. Valmayor, chairman of the San Carlos Development Board.

Dr. Valmayor added that training, establishment of a mango information center and a mango growers' cooperative, sponsorship of mango festival, and eventual commissioning of a team to study the feasibility of building a mango processing plant will subsequently be pursued.