Dear Forum Members,

In the name of the Bohol Ubi Center Foundation, Inc. (BUCFI) allow me to greet each one of you a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year. Yes, it's that time of the year for the province of Bohol and BUCFI to invite you to the Fifth Ubi Festival on January 19-22, 2004, which is actually less than a month away.

As part of the fifth anniversary since its inception in 2000, we will also host the second National Ubi Symposium, a 2-day event (Jan. 21-22) during the Ubifest. Held ten years ago in 1994 at VISCA, Baybay, Leyte, this second ubi symposium will gather researchers from academe and government institutions, ubi processors as well as farmers from ubi-growing provinces all over the country to meet and talk on research and development, production, processing and marketing of ubi.

Some of you, I'm sure, would like to know what are the inroads made from this annual holding of Ubi Festival. The following are some of the achievements:

1. Increase of LGU participation from 7 in 2000 to 16 LGUs in 2003 and 20 in 2004. The addiitonal entrants for this fifth Ubifest are Valencia, Ubay, Loboc and Jagna. I'd say the area for booth exhibits at the Cultural Center is getting more crowded.

2. Sales of fresh ubi tubers jumped from P56,000 in 2000 to P300,000 in 2003, plus a 5-ton purchase of baligonhon by one Manila buyer worth 100,000 pesos right before the festival.

3. Aside from the regular ubi-processed products such as jam, pastillas, puto and polvoron, new ubi products have been introduced, namely - tart, cake, chippies, candy, fries and ubi ketchup. Every festival there's a price for a unique ubi-based product, one that's not yet sold on the market.

4. Farmers who stopped planting ubi are going back to growing them knowing the market is there. The "kinabug-atan" (heaviest) prices donated by you through BUCFI are added incentives. Area and number of farmers planting ubi have tremendously increased since 2000.

5. There are now two ongoing ubi powder processing plants (one managed by LGU-Corella and the second by UNLAD, an OFW NGO in Jagna) and a third plant will soon be operational in Dauis.

6. Because of the increased awareness in ubi production, a tissue culture lab run by the Dept. of Agriculture regional office in Ubay was established two years ago.

7. Ubi is included now as one of the high-valued commercial crops with export potential that needs additional funding by the national agencies.

8. Bohol being named this year as number one ecotourism destination of the country, will boost ubi's market potential more so as we promote ubi as the basic ingredient of most Boholano pastries for tourist trade.

9. The cultural-religious-historical component of ubi has revived the traditional Boholano poetry-song-and-dance forms through balak, balitaw, rondalla and kuradang. In fact, the original scripts are now compiled in a book form for posterity. Whenever ubi growing is mentioned, the "lumad" (indigenous) Boholanos have stories to tell on how their parents, grandparents, etc. plant ubi. It's traditional knowledge that's been revived and handed down from one generation to the next.

10. Mini-sett research on purple baligonhon variety is ongoing in order to minimize cost of planting material.

11. Lastly, during Ubifest 2004, Bohol will host the second national ubi symposium with the blessings and technical assistance from the Rootcrops Research Center at Leyte State University in Baybay, Leyte.

Knowing all that, do you think your annual contributions have gone a long way to achieving our goals? Because of the symposium, BUCFI's counterpart is being increased this year to about 100,000 pesos or roughly $2,000. We are also soliciting from local donors and politicians - the latter may be receptive this time since it's election year. For your info, solicitations from Rene S and other overseas donors since 2000 when converted to pesos amounted to P142,200 in 2000; P23,750 in 2001; P64,363.25 in 2002; and P58,243.75 in 2003.

Vir Abueva, whom we had snacks at Metrocentre with Princess Leah this afternoon, gave us P2,000 donation. Thanks Vir. And thanks to all BUCFI donors.

Zen Darunday
Treasurer/Board Member, BUCFI
Tagbilaran City