BAYBAY CITY, LEYTE — The Eastern Visayas currently possesses robust growth in root crop production and is meeting the growing local demands in the Luzon area.

"Eastern Visayas is the number one producer of sweet potatoes in the entire Philippines, including the increasing production and increasing demand of cassava and ube. Now, we have important players, processors of these root crops," said Marlon Tambis, assistant director of the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center during the Root Crop Fiesta at Visayas State University.

"Also in Leyte, we in Region 8, are among the leading suppliers of kamote [sweet potatoes] in Manila. Truckloads of sweet potatoes are now being transported to Manila every week," he said.

Tambis said that if root crop growers would follow the recommended planting practices, the production cost of sweet potatoes would be cheap.

"The sweet potato, you can produce it for only P5 per kilo, and you can sell it for P20 and P25, even P40, depending on the market," he said.

He added, "For cassava, you will only spend P1 to P2 per kilo, while in the existing market, the minimum is P4 for the industrial, while in the fresh market it is P10 to P12 per kilo. The margins for farmers are really big if they only follow the recommended practices and the recommended production technologies."

When asked what he would consider the root crop capital in Eastern Visayas, Tambis said, "In the Eastern Visayas, it is Leyte for sweet potatoes. We are delivering truckloads of kamote to Manila every week that are sold there in Divisoria, Balintawak, and even Bicol, and the town number one here [for kamote production] is Dulag."

He said that cassava, at present, is an important player in Northern Leyte.

On the other hand, big producers of ube can be found in Samar, Biliran, and Northern Leyte.

Taro, commonly referred to as gabi, is also said to be an important agricultural product of Leyte and Samar.

"There are many root crops here. All root crops can be found in region eight."

The PhilRoot Crops official further stressed the importance of developing the root crop industry, as it is one of the foods that can be relied on during emergencies since it is known as a resilient crop.

"Root crops are well-known resilient crops in adverse environmental conditions. Even in storms, these survive. Yolanda is a good story because all the crops back then, the cereals, fell, but our root crops seemed to sustain our people there," he said.

"In drought, root crops are also known as resilient; in sweet potatoes, we have varieties that are really drought-resistant. The same goes with cassava," he added.