Emelita Solante, The Mushroom Queen

Dr. Emelita Solante, director for extension at the Capiz State University (CapSU), presents her hanging oyster mushrooms at the Mushroom Training Center based in CapSU Burias Campus, Mambusao, Capiz. Funded since in 2011 by the Japan International Cooperating Agency under KR2 Fund through the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region 6, the Mushroom Production and Extension Project has already benefited some farmer beneficiaries and entrepreneurs around the community. (Photo by Niño Manaog)

"To share what I know" is the credo of Dr. Emelita Pongcol Solante, the 53-year old Cebuana from Alburquerque, Bohol, who is currently the extension director of the Capiz State University (CapSU).

With such words, she describes her commitment to extension work even as she finds fulfilment from the fact that ordinary people would learn something from her in order to improve their lives.

Born on June 30, 1961, Solante finished Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, major in Plant Protection in 1982 at the Visayas State College of Agriculture (ViSCA), now Visayas State University.

Shortly after college graduation, Solante worked as research assistant at the ViSCA, where she helped conduct the research on the Etiology of Stem Twisting Disease of Abaca.

And in June 1984, she came to Mambusao, Capiz to teach at the Panay State Polytechnic College (PSPC) Burias Campus, where she would teach for the rest of her life.

From 1990 to 1993, as a scholar of the International Rice Research Institute at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Dr. Solante’s thesis titled “Biological Control of Rice Blast” garnered 1.25 rating from the advisory panel.

From 1996 to 2000, Solante qualified for a Monbukagakusho Scholarship to study in Ehime University in Japan and in 2012, she completed her Ph.D. in Agronomy at the CapSU Poblacion Mambusao Campus. Currently, she holds the position of Professor V with teaching load at the CapSU Burias Campus.

The road to Dr. Solante’s success in the professional ladder in the university was paved with simple intentions, so to speak.

Back in the early 1990s, during her doctoral studies at the University of the Philippines Los Banos, Solante was drawn to the work of Dr. Teresita Quimio, who was then in charge of the mushroom project in UPLB.

“I became curious of what she was doing inside the Mycology laboratory and later, I was inspired by her passion in culturing mushroom and producing them for food and business,” Solante says.

Dr. Emelita Solante has had a string of accomplishments in extension work through the years. From 1990 to 1993, she was part of the Municipal Science and Technology Advisory Program, which allowed her to work with a people’s organization in Ivisan, Capiz. Along with Dr. Cora Ferrer Navarra, who served as vice-president for research and extension, she also served as consultant for the farmers owing to her engagement in the biological control of rice blast.

Dr. Solante also shared her expertise in mushroom culture and production during the Uswag Info Caravans initiated by the Regional Applied Communication Group (RACG) of the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC). Initiated by then RAC Coordinator Cora Ferrer Navarra, these exposures also brought her to several towns of Capiz, Antique and Iloilo.

In 2011, she was named project-in-charge of the Mushroom Production Project of the Capiz State University. Funded by the Japan International Cooperating Agency under the Kennedy Round 2 (KR2) Fund channelled through the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region 6, the Project seeks to increase the productivity of farmer beneficiaries and entrepreneurs around the community.

Since its launch, the project has produced oyster mushrooms to cater to the protein or health requirements of the community, while providing for the production needs of the farmer beneficiaries.

To date, the Mushroom Training Center has also trained at least 600 mushroom producers and 100 product entrepreneurs from around the community—even as the entire intervention has generated additional income for mushroom farmer-beneficiaries and product entrepreneurs.

Solante’s passion in the study of mushrooms did not stop in the culture and production of straw mushroom. While studying at the UPLB, she began culturing and producing oyster mushroom varieties and later shared her discoveries in her subsequent extension activities.

Then, more recently, Solante took on the task of experimenting with cooking the mushroom recipes which she integrated and adopted from popular culinary dishes, namely: mushroom siomai; mushroom achara (pickles); burger patties; crispy mushroom fries; CapSU Express (a la Bicol express) and mushroom lumpia.

More important, she has shared this technology to the household women of her locality. Under the Mushroom Production Project, household women and ordinary barangay folk are being trained on cooking mushroom recipes at the Mushroom Production and Training Center in CapSU Burias in Mambusao, Capiz.

For Dr. Solante, these community interventions “give them the realization that mushroom is not just an ordinary food—it can also be cooked and prepared for profit.” Solante also promotes the commodity not only because it is high in protein and a cost-effective meat substitute, which cannot only augment livelihood but also give health benefits to consumers.

Solante claims that all these involvements in extension work helped her overcome her own shyness and stage fright because she would speak in front of people from all walks of life.

For her, such involvements helped her enhance her communication skills owing to her participation in varied trainings and lectures on mushroom culture and production. These activities which were held across the province of Capiz and Iloilo also afforded her the opportunity to travel and see other localities in the region.

Looking ahead, Solante says that it is important that the University’s Extension agenda prioritize choosing and adopting depressed barangays where CapSU’s interventions can be poured in and implemented.

Per 4K, the extension agenda she submitted as her final paper for the Executive Course required by PASUC, CHED and Development Academy of the Philippines, each of the CapSU campuses will have one adopted barangay in their jurisdiction.

To begin with, she has short-listed the barangays of Pangpang Sur, Pangpang Norte, Liboo and Sinundujan—one of which will be the adopted barangay of the Extension Institute based in Poblacion Mambusao Campus.

For now, she has challenged herself to devise ways and approaches by which she can package the mushroom culture and make it appear practical and lucrative to the communities. As part of her prospective research, Solante is studying the social acceptability of mushroom culture and production among the poor and the middle-income classes. (Niño Manaog/Extension Associate)