VILLASIS, Pangasinan - The town of Villasis just north of the Agno river, is expected to assume a significant role in further shoring up the tremendous opportunities in the North Luzon Agri-business Quadrangle super region.

Sitting on 6,500 hectares of fertile land, most of which are agricultural, Villasis carved a name through the sweat and tears of its 60,000 inhabitant, being the vegetable bowl if not the ‘pinakbet’ capital of the province of Pangasinan.

Municipal Mayor Nonato Abrenica, responsible for turning around the economy of his town, said farmers of Villasis produce eggplants (salanum melongena), the chief condiment of the ‘pinakbet’, a favorite Ilocano dish.

Not only eggplants are produced in Villasis but also tomatoes, okra, ampalaya, squash, onions, and camote, all vegetables that comprise the ‘pinakbet’ dish, including ’saluyot’ upo and others.

Eggplants are produced, mostly during the dry season by some 520 farmers in 315 hectares of land in the barangays of Barangobong, LIpay, Piaz, Caramutan, San Blas and Bacag.

As of 2006, production of eggplants in Villasis reached a total of 7,875 tons or 7,875,000 kilograms at P25 to P39 per kilogram.

Before, traditional farmers of Villasis took the pains of bringing their eggplants to Divisoria for sale and distribution in various parts of Metro Manila.

But since last year, they only have to transport the product from the farms to the town proper where a large vegetable ‘bagsakan’ market was built from where traders are buying the products directly from farmer-producers.

Municipal Agriculturist Cornelio Achuela said they now have a technology that enables farmers to produce eggplants not only during the dry season but also during the wet season when the price of the crop is exceptionally high.

He said they have already transferred this technology to the farmers who attended a series of seminars conducted by agricultural experts mostly from the Department of Agriculture.

Aside from these, the municipal government is also giving seed subsidy to the farmers, to enable them to obtain 10 per cent discount in buying seeds of the hybrid variety that produces the purple elongated fruits.

The municipal government also maintains techno-demo farms to showcase modern technology in eggplant production.

Cesar Manangan, barangay chairman of Lipay, one of the town’s biggest eggplant producing villages, said one hectare of eggplant farm will produce a conservative 160 bags of eggplants, one bag of which weighs 10 kilograms.

He said from his own experience, eggplants give better income than rice or corn, that is why more and more farmers are planting eggplants yearly.