Learning, Enjoying, And Earning From Agro-Forestry (Native Trees, Part IV)

Forest tree nursery owner Gerardo “Geff” Cedeño, whom I met virtually on Facebook, gave me a quick rundown on Philippine hardwoods. I’ve always assumed that their wood is great for buildings and furniture. It was therefore an eyeopener that many can and should be significant recurring income sources.

- Wala Lang Dr. Jaime Laya

The commercial value of coffee, pili, and cashew trees is already recognized, but much can still be done, like cultivating them in large orchards as is being done elsewhere for macadamias, almonds, pistachios, pecans, hazel nuts, etc.

We have other trees of similar commercial potential like kalumpít and balobo that are unknown to most.

In seven years, kalumpít (terminalia macrocarpa) begins to produce up to a ton of purple-blue fruits rich in nutrients and antioxidants that can be made into jam, jelly, juice, and champóy. Cedeño also attests to kalumpít’s delicious and refreshing dark red juice that tastes like lemonade and that has the consistency of mango juice. He feels it can easily compete with imported orange and lemon juice. It is not delicate and fruits year after year without needing any flower-inducing spray. A full-grown tree is 15 to 20 meters tall with a trunk one meter in diameter. Planted eight meters apart, one hectare can accommodate 150 trees yielding up to 150 tons of fruit annually.

Balobo (Philippine almond) trees start bearing fruit after eight to 10 years. Its kernels are two centimeters in diameter and can be snack food, ingredients of chocolate and protein bars, or mixed with oats in a breakfast cereal. A hectare can be planted to about 240 trees that will yield some 100 to150 kilos of nuts each or 30 to 35 tons per hectare.

Other species are suitable for sustained and long-term tree farming.