Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Philippine Center for Postharvest
Development and Mechanization
CLSU Compound, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

SUCCESS STORIES

Onion Farmer from Ilocos Norte and the HTS Technology
by Jett Molech G. Subaba (March 18, 2019)
For somebody who mastered his craft for 50 years, it is hard to convince him to shift into new beliefs or practices. Not Florendo Abiday Galinato of Paoay, Ilocos Norte. He is adopting the PHilMech’s High-Temperature Storage (HTS) for four years now and experiencing great results.

Florendo, 68, produces rice, corn and onion in his one hectare farm for two cropping seasons. He allots 3,000-5000 m2 of his land on onion production and harvest a total of 3.5 tons. From his produce, he separates 400-500 kilos for storage for the next planting season. During the pre-storage, he practices on-farm curing method which will last for four to six weeks to dry evenly the bulbs to be stored. Recently, he is trying not to apply Sevin dust on the bulbs before storage and he found no defects on the bulbs yet.

In 2014, Florendo was chosen by PHilMech as the pioneer testing site for the HTS. Its success has made this technology to reach out to farmers from adjacent provinces like San Juan and Sinait, Ilocos Sur.

Some of the benefits Florendo cited were the length of storage period which is 10 months up to one year with minimal or no losses unlike his former practice. Also, he is calmer using HTS because he will no longer worry about the moist from the roofs during mornings or cold weather. With HTS, he will only have to control the heat that goes directly to the storage using nets or blowers which is a component of the storage.

“I approve of using HTS more than my former practice of storing onions under my roof. I wouldn’t have to worry about the moist that may drop on my onions which can contribute to the easy spoiling of the bulbs,” said Galinato.

The major reason why Florendo approves the technology is because the storage is no longer inside his house but separated outdoor. Imagine their situation for 6 to 10 months of storing onions inside their house. Now they are relieved from its smell and discomfort.

“This is the main advantage of the technology. It is set-up outdoor, apart from my house unlike before. My family especially my grandchildren will be free from the smell of onions this time,” emphasized Mr. Galinato.

In the future, this golden farmer plans to venture into seed production extracted from the flowers of onion.