Maria Luuill D. Daquilos comes from years’ experience in Forestry Non-Governmental Organizations therefore had been working closely with the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DERN) and therefore was well informed of the opportunity which was the new law in the Philippines where it was authorized the plantation of the tree Agarwood. Different to other countries in the Southeast Asia, plantation of Agarwood was not allowed in the Philippines.
Being herself a landowner, and foreseeing the great opportunity that Agarwood was going to be, Maria Luuill decided to create a Agarwood seedlings nursery so she drafted a project everything and presented it to the DERN in order that her company SIBZ Seedling Farm, would be authorized to grow Agarwood seedlings in the Region VI of the province of Negros Occidental in the Republic of the Philippines.
The DERN demands to applicants high standards of preparation and a highly viable project to give Certificate to authorize the breeding of Agarwood seedlings.
Maria Luuill D. Daquilos presented her plan and project to the DERN and had a culture permit granted on June 2023, with the goal of Propagation of Agarwood and its by products, under the name of SIBZ SEEDLING FARM and situated 8 km away from the City of Kabankalan in Negros occidental.
It was not an easy task, as the DERN wants strict control over the quality and traceability of all the Agarwood seedlings planted in the Philippines.
SIBZ Seedling Farm is the origin and mother company to D´agri.
The main staff of SIBZ is composed, apart from Maria Luuill D. Daquilos as General Manager, by Khent Bontigao as Director of Industry and Logistics, an International Consultant ,PHD in Chemistry, expert in Agarwood, a Licensed Agriculturist, a responsible for Treasure and Finance and a Nursery maintenance manager, plus several other pemanent and temporary workers. From that initial moment SIBZ has none other but grow and grow and it is at its´ full of its capacity due to the numerous orders of seedlings that they are constantly receiving, especially during the rainy season.
Since the first moment SIBZ, and later D´Agri has a very strong social development component at its core. As the project documents stated when presented to the DERN the company has a one of its main goals …¨harvesting of inoculated Lapnisan trees for sale, distillation, bottling, and marketing; supporting the government program through conservation, preservation, and protection; and providing an adequate supply of raw materials; increase socio-economic condition of the people benefited; conduct continuous Information Education Campaign through formal and informal ways; and give opportunities to farmers and interested parties to earn a living …¨
Maria Luuill D. Daquilos once working with the Agarwood nursery decided to go one step further and associated herself with a farmer association, , Southern Negros Forest Occupancy Permitees Association (SONFOPA) created to opt to a State land concessions to recover barren land for Agarwood trees and other high valued products. So she created D´Agri as a different entity from SIBZ (the nursery) that would be in charge of executing the project of the 3.000 hectares land concession to SONFOPA by the State, in a three party joint venture agreement with also the DERN.
a field trip showing a landowner how to plant Agarwood seedlings
So here we are in 2024, next to 2025, with this amazing project,… D´Agri. A company with more than 3.000 hectares available for at least 25 years to produce the high valued Agarwood tree, Avocado trees, Peanuts and much more that will result, through D´Agri, in wealth to the province and region in general and a great source of income for communities and farmers.
Luis Fernando Mezquita 