An Assessment of the Viability of Producing True-to-type, Virus-free, Tissue-cultured Garlic in the Philippines

Abstract

Considering that the Philippines’ garlic production cannot cope up with the local demand requirements, this supply gap presents itself as a bright spot in garlic farming. As the demand for garlic far outpaces production levels which remain low due to poor yields exacerbated by traditional growing practices of garlic farmers, there is a need to demonstrate whether producing true-to-type, virus-free, tissue-cultured garlic propagation is the answer to bridge such a supply gap. This study, which is part of a larger research study focused on looking into the technology utilization of producing true-to-type, virus-free, tissue-cultured (TC) garlic planting materials for farmers, aimed to evaluate the feasibility of producing in vitro bulblets from multiplied shoots and bulb production under greenhouse and field conditions so that better quality and high volumes of garlic planting materials may be available to garlic farmers. Data gathering was done through face-to-face interviews with tissue culture laboratory personnel, farmers and municipal agriculture officers and from secondary and online sources. Using comparative analysis with traditional garlic production methods, cost and return, benefit-cost ratio and NPV, it was revealed that TC garlic planting materials are more costly and beyond the reach of farmers. Moreover, current traditional garlic practices are more profitable compared to TC garlic production (whether as G0 in vitro bulblets from multiple shoots or as G2 bulblets). Though the sales potential of farmers using TC planting materials is about three times more than that of traditional farmers, their net income is only half of that of traditional farmers because challenges remain in terms of bringing the production cost of TC planting materials down in view of lack of economies of scale. It is imperative that continuing improvements in research laboratory protocols be done to bring down the gestation period of TC planting materials from 3 years to one year and address the high contamination rates in the production process. In addition, economies of scale must be considered in choosing at which production level to operate.