01/09/2026
PLANTING STRONGER ROOTS FOR MARAGUSAN'S BANANA FARMERS
For years, banana growers in Maragusan, Davao de Oro, took a chance every time they brought in new planting material. They sourced varieties from outside the municipality, sometimes from other provinces, waited weeks for their orders, transported the seedlings home, and planted them. Only later would they find out whether the plants would perform as expected.
MAGROW Growers Agribusiness Head Dexter Amaranto remembers how growers sourced and benchmarked banana varieties from other areas, only to discover that some did not maintain the expected characteristics once grown on their farms. Some produced irregular bunches or fruit that failed to meet desired standards.
For farmers, that uncertainty came at a cost. By the time a plant showed it was not what they expected, they had already invested months of labor, inputs, and care.
That is why Amaranto sees value in something now much closer to their farms: a banana tissue culture laboratory and nursery operated by the Maragusan Growers Multipurpose Cooperative (MAGROW MPC).
“For us, that is the advantage of having the laboratory here. The planting material is already tested here. What we plant is what we expect to grow,” Amaranto said.
Before a banana bunch reaches the market, everything begins with the planting material. The seedling must adapt to local growing conditions and eventually produce the quality and consistency growers expect.
In Maragusan, that first step had long been a challenge. Sourcing seedlings from outside meant added costs, risks of damage and mortality during transport, and weeks of waiting.
For a community closely tied to banana production, those uncertainties matter. Davao de Oro remains one of the country’s major banana-producing areas, while diseases such as Fusarium wilt or Panama disease continue to threaten farms.
MAGROW believed part of the answer was to bring the beginning of the production cycle closer to farmers.
With support from the Department of Agriculture–Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP), the cooperative established its own banana tissue culture laboratory and nursery, turning a long-held aspiration into a growing local capability.
“The banana tissue culture laboratory and nursery from PRDP allow us to produce our own meristem. Our nursery also improved,” said MAGROW Chairman Arcadio S. Sabella.
The cooperative has since begun field trials as it works toward producing improved banana varieties suited to local growers.
For MAGROW Estimator Arnel C. Pedroso, one of the most immediate changes is that farmers no longer need to look so far.
“We no longer need to travel far to source seedlings. The price is more affordable, and growers can now obtain them more easily,” he explained.
What once took as long as eight weeks from an outside supplier can now take around four to six weeks for available varieties from MAGROW’s nursery.
But shortening the wait is only part of the story.
The value of having a local nursery goes beyond transportation costs or convenience. There is another question that can only be answered after a seedling is planted: Will it perform the way the farmer expects?
MAGROW is now subjecting its planting materials to field trials under local growing conditions, allowing the cooperative and growers to observe how varieties perform in Maragusan before expanding production.
The trials give farmers the chance to see how planting materials behave in the same environment where they will eventually be grown commercially.
For Amaranto, that local testing offers a measure of assurance.
“The planting material is already tested here. What we plant is what we expect to grow.”
It also gives growers a closer source of planting material when disease forces them to replant, rather than waiting for seedlings from distant suppliers.
Behind the laboratory is a cooperative that spent months developing its business plan, assigning personnel to the project, and strengthening the systems needed to operate it. Its Board of Directors supported the initiative, while the Provincial Agriculture Office of Davao de Oro provided technical assistance.
For Provincial Agriculturist Office representative Engr. Ramelyn Valdueza, the initiative responds to a challenge that reaches beyond the cooperative.
“Banana is the biggest commodity in the province, and Panama disease is one of the major challenges affecting our industry,” she said.
A reliable supply of planting materials becomes particularly important when growers need to replace affected plants and restore production.
But MAGROW’s role does not stop once a seedling leaves the nursery.
The cooperative is both a grower and consolidator, bringing together produce from its members and other farmers for marketing to major companies, where quality, fruit characteristics, and compliance with market requirements remain crucial.
What begins inside a tissue culture laboratory can therefore affect what happens months later in the packing area and, ultimately, in the market.
The laboratory becomes the first link in a longer chain: from planting material, to farm, to harvest, to buyer.
MAGROW’s tissue culture laboratory is still growing. Field trials are underway, and the cooperative plans to expand production of improved varieties. Much of its promise will depend on how those planting materials perform in farmers’ fields over time.
But for Maragusan’s banana farmers, having a reliable source closer to home means less dependence on distant suppliers, greater confidence in the varieties they plant, and a local source they can turn to when disease or production challenges force them to start again.
For a community whose farms and livelihoods have long been tied to bananas, the future of the industry will depend not only on how much farmers can harvest, but also on the quality of what they put into the ground today.
And in Maragusan, that future is being planted one seedling at a time.
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Story by Atty. Joy M. Montecalvo | Photos by Leonard John H. Asuque | Layout by Joseph John A. Palarca, DVM | PSO Mindanao
PRDP Davao Region B**g D. Gonzaga MAGROW Multi Purpose Cooperative
