SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

FILIPINO SCIENTIST AND INVENTOR

RAMON BARBA(MANGO FLOWERING)

(born August 31, 1939, San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte[1]) is
a Filipino inventor and horticulturist[2][3] best known for
inventing a way to induce more flowers
in mango trees using ethrel and potassium
nitrate.[4] Barba was proclaimed a National Scientist of
the Philippines in June 2014.[5]
Dr. Barba was also recognized as one of the Ten
Outstanding Young Men in Agriculture in 1974, and
was given the Horticultural Technology Award in June
1999.[3]
time that the trees naturally take before bearing more
fruits.
Filipino mango tree growers already had a system to
make mango trees flower; it involved using smoke
(smudging) to help induce flowering. Barba, however,
while he was still a student, saw this as a tedious and
expensive practice and he thought there must be a
more practical solution to induce the mango trees to
flower.

He proposed that a chemical spray with Etherel (2-

chloroethylphosphonic acid) may induce flowering but
could not obtain permissions to begin trials. He had
previously conducted research using Etherel and
potassium nitrate and wanted a trial to try these
fertilizers on mango trees.

Career and Contributions in the Field of

Mango Horticulture
The Philippines is known as a largely agricultural
country, and Barba’s dedication to finding a solution to
help mango exports flourish benefited his home
country. However, his road to success wasn’t
straightforward.

Mango trees were seasonal, producing one crop a

year and this limited the country’s ability to earn
precious foreign income from exports, because of the