Ube ‘craze’ proves how science policies sustain hypes on agri-products

Like many food trends, as one hype emerges, another loses popularity, but one thing remains—supplies of raw ingredients decline, and for purple yam or ube, this painfully becomes the truth. Here’s where science policies come into play.

Despite the 2025 DTI Export Marketing Bureau recording $3.06 million worth of exports of ube-based products, domestic production has dropped continuously to approximately 12,483 metric tons.

As a response, raw purple yams are imported just to meet dessert and culinary demands in the country—an ironic scenario where what once was a staple slowly became a crop imported for necessity. 

Investing in ‘purple gold’

According to the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) spokesperson assistant secretary Arnel De Mesa, this year’s budget for the research and development (R&D) for root crops is around P17 million, showing how root crops may not be receiving much priority in developing varieties.

“Hence, DA is proposing to increase the budget to P93 million by 2027,” De Mesa said. “Sa ngayon, ongoing yung several R&D natin with several universities like University of the Philippines – Los Baños and Diliman para palakasin yung propagation ng planting material, yun ang importante.”

The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) pioneers in the use ofadvanced breeding and genomic technologies to develop improved ube varieties.

This is done by analyzing the DNA of different ube varieties, where researchers identify genes linked to desirable traits, especially higher yields and higher nutritional content, then use them to breed improved varieties more efficiently.

Aside from genome technology, the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture and Aquatic Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD) also funded training of farmers in a rapid propagation technique called minisett.

In this technique, instead of planting whole root and tuber crops, a healthy tuber is carefully sliced into small pieces, called minisetts, and planted to produce seed yams. This reduces the need for large seed tubers.

New advanced propagation techniques like this are being developed by the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center of the Visayas State University (VSU-PhilRootcrops), together with Bohol Island State University.

Through strengthening budgeting policies for root crops’ R&D, innovations in breeding and propagation could be scaled up to boost ube production and secure local supply.

From hype to harvest

Yet, budget and research don’t immediately translate into output, because even when technology exists, adoption at farm level remains slow.

PhilRootcrops director Marlon Tambis points to this gap, noting a low adoption of necessary recommended practices or science-and-technology-based (S&T) practices needed to improve yield. 

What this means for Filipino farmers is that developing innovations is only half of the struggle, scaling them across local farms is equally crucial to ensuring research translates into greater crop productions and better returns for farmers.

However, farmers do not always reap what they sow, with farmgate prices, the wholesale price paid at the very beginning of the supply chain to the producer, falling to P40.70 per kilogram from P45.24 per kilogram even as retail prices reached record highs.

“I feel it is unfair for farmers since they are not given the chance to increase their share of the revenue because they lack the capacity to do so,” said Lance Chua, agricultural economist from Ateneo de Manila University. “As the supply chain gets longer, the profit margins of ube farmers become thinner.” 

This is where policies that expand farmers training and strengthen farmer-to-market connections come into play, because after all, sustaining the demands means supporting the system behind the production, especially the farmers and the technologies making it possible.

Future of crop ‘superstars’

While ube is currently gaining the most popularity, the agriculture sector noted calamansi and several tropical fruits are also getting more attention from the international market. 

Tropical fruit crops such as bananas, pineapple, coconut products, and mangoes remain among the country’s most stable agricultural exports, with emerging products like ube and calamansi gaining ground.

If one thing is evident, it is the need to strengthen agricultural policies to ensure both established and emerging crops contribute to a stronger and more competitive presence in the global market.

The real test now lies in how effectively these policies backed with science-driven efforts can sustain production and farmer livelihoods, proving that while hype may spark demand, only sustained systems support lasting growth for the country.