BANANA PLANTATION: Main Source of Income

"A walk down the rich landscape of Panabo"

Davao del Norte is popular for its export-quality Cavendish bananas. Plantations are a common sight in the province. This is particularly true for Panabo City—one of the province’s three cities—which devotes around 10,000 hectares of its 25,123-hectare land area to banana production.

Already home to the world’s largest banana plantation owned by the Tagum Agricultural Development Company (TADECO), Panabo City is now also known as home to the so-called “finest bangus in Mindanao.”

Davao del Norte may be the Banana Capital of the Philippines but, soon, it shall be identified with bangus as Panabo City gears up towards becoming the Bangus Capital of Mindanao, if not the Philippines. This is the development thrust of Mayor Silvosa, who envisions his city to be the Agri-Industrial Gateway to the World.

Wonders of Panabo City

Bangus Harvesting

Mariculture Park of Panabo City

DAVAO CITY — More investors are coming in and venturing on mariculture production with the continued development of Panabo Mariculture Park.

Opened in 2006, this joint project of the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the Panabo local government, and the Province of Davao del Norte, the park located in J.P. Laurel, Cagangohan, and San Pedro has shown sustainability.

For three years now, the mariculture park continues to contribute food security especially to Mindanao provinces, job employment, increases fish stocks in the coastal-marine waters, and promotes ecotourism development.

According to data furnished by the (BFAR), as of August, the 1,075-hectare mariculture park has enticed a total of 115 local and foreign investors who have already harvested 1,394 metric tons distributed to most areas in Mindanao.

Among the investors are Japanese, Ecuadorian, and Taiwanese businessmen who have put in money for this business and tried out the export market. The project also benefited sectoral groups, not just private individuals. Nineteen marginalized organizations like fisherfolk families, women, out-of-school youth, and cooperatives also took share in this investment.

Since January until August this year, investors reported an income of more than 89-million pesos out of the more than 1 million kilograms of fish harvested.

Panabo City 
(Cebuano: Dakbayan sa Panabo, Filipino: Lungsod ng Panabo) is a 1st class city near Davao City in the province of Davao del Norte, Philippines. The city has an area of 249 square kilometers. According to the 2010 LGPMS Census, it has a population of 164,035 people in 32,807 households.




History

Long before the rich lowland was discovered by civilization, a group of stocky-haired aborigines called Aetas have already staked a claim and declared this place their own. Far from being civilized, these people led nomadic life and co-existed with the living creatures of the wilds. They have few wants and were easily satisfied. With the use of their bow and arrow "pana-sa-boboy" as they call it - they hunted for food which primarily consisted of rootcrops and meat of wild boars. "Pana-Sa-Boboy" was their most essential tool and it became part of their life.

Even the Christian settlers came at the onset of the century, the place was already a thriving trading community; thus, the place was already knwn as Taboan, which means "trading center". After the Cristian settlers began pioneering the region, these friendly natives moved further to the hinterlands along with them their "pana-sa-boboy". These later evolved into present day name Panabo.

Economy

The city is known as the "Banana Capital of the Philippines" due to numerous banana plantations scattered throughout the city. In fact, Panabo is the home of the world’s biggest banana plantation, which is owned by the Tagum Agricultural Development Company (TADECO), which covers around 6,900 hectares of banana fields and produce millions of boxes of export-quality bananas annually. The city itself cultivated 40% of its land or around 10,000 hectares into planting export-quality bananas, which is better known as "Cavendish Bananas". Thus, banana cultivation and exportation are the main economic lifeblood of the city.