The government is stepping up the revitalization of the abaca industry in Mindanao, with the establishment of a P3.5 million tissue culture laboratory in Marawi City.

The abaca tissue laboratory, which was inaugurated on October 15, is expected to boost the production of disease-free and uniform seedlings for the entire province of Lanao del Sur, said Director Alicia Ilaga, head of the DA Biotechnology Program Office (BPO).

A project of Kawiagan sa Ranao Livelihood Training Center (KRLTC), the tissue culture laboratory is the first to be put up in the entire Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

This development, Ilaga said, is significant because the establishment of such facility in Marawi City, an Islamic City, more importantly opens the door of ARMM for biotechnology—as an effective fighting tool against hunger and poverty.

Classified as a middle level biotechnology, tissue culture has been proven to increase yield in banana, and sugar production particularly in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur.
Tissue culture is also responsible for the development of the orchid industry in the Philippines.

Through tissue-culture, Ilaga said the government and its private-sector and nongovernment organization partners will enable the rapid mass propagation of “healthy” abaca planting materials, thus allowing farmers to expand areas planted to the fiber-rich plant.

“More farmers will benefit from the wonders of biotechnology because tissue culture will allow them to have more disease-free and uniform seedlings. This means they wouldn’t have to go through the hassles of buying planting materials that may or may not have the dreaded abaca diseases,” said.