by P. Julian

A new machine makes a money-maker of the famous ‘walis tambo’.

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union - The lowly ‘walis tambo’ is a great equalizer, its soft broom highly-valued for its easy grace in sweeping dirt in bamboo shacks and marble mansions.

The soft broom is so popular that it is a must for visitors in Baguio to buy at least one, not knowing that most if not all the ‘walis tambo’ sold in the summer capital comes from La Union where it costs about P45 each.

Tiger grass is also harvested and made into soft brooms in Marinduque and Romblon but on a smaller scale.

It is a tedious task. ‘Walis tambo’ is made of tiger grass (Thysanolaena maxima), its stalks the main material in the production of quality brooms known locally as ‘boiboi’. Each stalks is topped by a single flower.

Removing the pollen grains from the flower at the tip makes the stalk pliant and ideal for a soft broom. This is one of the most important and indispensable parts in making ‘walis tambo’.

Taditionally, the pollen is removed by shaking and brushing the flower stalks against walls, tree trunks, and hard surfaces.

The Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (MMMSU) in San Fernando has designed a machine to take away the tiresome and inefficient way in which it is made, potentially boosting the income of poor farmers.

The Pollen Grain Remover machine was developed by MMMSU’s Dr. Victorio Palabay and colleagues Francisco P. Abad and Danilo Aquino with funding from the Department of Science and Technology Region 1 (Ilocos) under Dr. Edgar F. Padilla and DOST’s Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research & Development.

The machine can process enough tiger grass to make about 100 brooms a day, compared to just 10 by using the traditional method.

“It means additional income to farmers,” Palabay says. “It ensures smooth and uniform cleaning of the flower without damaging the stalk.”

The P25,000-machine is made from local materials such as steel, flat and angle bars, G.I. sheets and plastic brushes. It is operated either by pedal power or by a one-horse power motor.

In just five minutes, the pedal-powerd machine can remove pollens from a 3-inch diameter bundle of 100 tiger grass stalks with no broken and subsequently discarded stalks. When motorized, it can process the same amount in three minutes or less but averages three brokens stalks.

The real bonus for tiger grass producers who are also rice farmers is that the machine can be converted into a rice thresher during harvest season by simply detaching the pollen roller and replacing it with a rice thresher.

Manned by two persons, the manual rice thresher produces 10 cavans of unmilled rice per hour while the mechanzed version yields 12 cavans.

“One simply detaches the tiger grass pollen roller and replaces it with a rice thresher roller,” says Palabay. “It means additional income to farmers.”

It makes an ideal dual-purpose machine, serving as a pollen remover from November to May when tiger grass is harvested and made into brooms and as a rice thresher after the planting season that follows.

Better yet, Palabay points out, the Tiger Grass Pollen Grain Remover “can be disassembled for easy transfer to other work places.”

In La Union, tiger grass is cultivated extensively and in commercial quantity in Baba, Bagulin, Burgos, Sudipen, Naguilian, San Gabriel and Santol - mountain towns with altitudes of 2,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level. The grasses also grow wild along hillsides and mountain creeks and rivers.

These towns harvest some 5,797 kilograms of tiger grass growing in more than 900 hectares. Burgos gets a yield of 3,375 kg from 375 hectares of cultivated and wild plots while Sudipen produces about 20 kg from 2 hectares.

The 700-member La Union Broom Makers Association wants 10 units of the Pollen Grain Remover machine. And Palabay could expect more orders as the provincial government wants to rehabilitate unproductive land and plant them to tiger grass and encourage more walis tambo production. (InterNews&Features)