Strawberry fields are forever, mountain campus showcases



Press Release from the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca)

The strawberry farms are a must-see for tourists in Baguio, the first showcase of agricultural tourism in the country.

And there's more: A Bee Garden and strange orange-red egg yolks. Low-sugar strawberry delicacies. Vegetable-enriched patries, bread and candies.

All at the Benguet State University (BSU) in La Trinidad, Benguet, where it all started. Its Floriculture Project has become one of the most visited sites in the Summer Capital and where visitors choose and buy the flowers that they harvest.

Agritourism now earns the campus at least P1 million a year, Dr. Lita Molitas-Colting of the Department of Entomology, BSU College of Agriculture, told the ongoing 1st National Agritourism Research Conference organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the Tourism Foundation, Inc. of the University of the Philippines Diliman-Asian Institute of Tourism (UP-AIT).

What makes BSU an agritourism hub that it is today?

“The campus is accessible to tourists, the tour guides are trained by the Department of Tourism, and they have the appropriate technical background,” she said.

In a study of BSU's contribution in the promotion of agritourism in the country, Colting looked at how the campus integrated agritourism in the instruction, research, extension, and production mandate of the university.

BSU's involvement started long before agritourism became a buzzword, said Colting who oversees BSU's Natural Museum and its insectarium. A former chairperson of the Benguet Tourism Council, she heads BSU's agritourism program as well.

BSU started to open its strawberry fields to toursts in 2000, she said; four years later, by word of mouth, it has become a must-do tourist stop, complete with free tasting of strawberry and tropical fruit wines.

In 2004, BSU declared itself an organic farming university. Its organic demonstration farm started to attract visitors. Visitors increased when government agencies were mandated to implement the Organic Agriculture Act.

The BSU Organic Strawberry Farm, where do-it-yourself harvests are allowed for a fee, was opened in 2010. The next year, this R&D project on strawberry-based agritourism was cited by the Commission on Higher Education as one of the best research in the country.

Today, coffee lovers visit the BSU Organic Arabica Coffee Plantation, the only Arabica coffee plantation in the country that has been certified organic by the Institute of Marketecology based in Switzerland.

School children love the serene BSU Nature Park and its cool breeze and mountainous terrain lush with pines and best for trekking. The park is a part of the university's biodiversity program.  

Add to these a Natural Museum with more than 1,000 collections; an Insectarium with a Bee Garden; a Bamboosetum with various bamboo varieties; and an Animal Genetic Resource project where there are wild pigs and free range chicken.

Then there is the Vegetable Noodle Processing Center where vegetable-enriched pastries, bread and candies are processed; the Food Processing Center where low-sugar strawberry preserves are made; an Organic Marketing Center where organic produce of farmer cooperators are sold; and a Poultry Project that produce unique orange-red egg yolks.

BSU, which is a a partner of the Benguet Tourism Council all these time, can show the way to what a profitable and organized agritourism should work. The university's agri-based tourism activities, all in collaboration with the local government and non-government organizations, cashed in on Baguio's annual Flower Festival.

A Butterfly Exhibit in 2000 led to local butterfly farms. The year before, a Honeybee Expo was held to support the growing interest in beekeeping in the Cordillera.

BSU joined the Chayote Festival in 2005 that featured its chayote ice cream; the Silk Fashion Show in 2006 to boast Kapangan municipality's adoption of silk culture as its One-Town-One Product; the Carrot Festival in 2007 where processed carrot juice was first commercialized locally; and the Ethnic Food Festival in 2008 that showcased local delicacies that it developed, such as the kinoday.

At the same time, BSU assisted in the development of the Benguet Tourism Map as well as in the packaging of tours.

“There is a growing interest in research on ecotourism that started especially in caves and in forested areas where eco-treks are possible,” Colting.

Today, being the national university in agriculture in the Cordillera where agritourism is promising, the university has started to prepare an introductory course in agritourism as optional subject for students in agriculture, forestry, environmental science and related fields.

[Photo shows academicians at the Benguet State University Farmers Information and Technology Services Center.
Photo downloaded from http://www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph/ssentinel/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1447&Itemid=41]