Purple Yam of Dauis Bohol

The purple yam is the recognized OTOP (One Town One Product) of the municipality of Dauis. Locally known as “UBI KINAMPAY”, this purple yam is commercially grown in the municipality and processed to serve as an ingredient and food additive in cooking sweets and deserts. Finished products are Ubi Powder, Ubi Jam, Ubi Pastilles and more.

OTOP (One Town One Product) Philippines is a priority program of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs in each city and municipality of the Philippines.

OTOP Philippines supports micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to manufacture, offer and market distinctive products or services through the use of indigenous raw materials and local skills and talents.

Ubi Kinampay has been a staple crop of the people of Dauis since time immemorial. It is an alternate crop for corn and legumes. Surprisingly, the tuber thrives in the town’s rocky and sandy soil and helped much towards the people’s survival especially during long droughts.

Ubi, in the past, is more often treated as a vegetable or as an ingredient in a local sweet delicacy which Boholanos call “binignit” – a concoction of sweet potato (kamote), saba banana, landang (processed from the “boli” palm to serve as thickener), and coconut milk. The Ubi Kinampay, aside from adding bulk, gives the binignit its aroma and unique color.

Demand for the Ubi is steadily growing. People have found ways and means to process it into paste and powder which is now being used as a special ingredient in ice cream, cakes, breads and other pastries. It is also made into jam, pastilles, and polvoron.

The people of Dauis are now engaged seriously in Ubi farming with the help of the LGU (Local Government Unit) of the municipality and other government national agencies. In fact, the municipality is a major site for the Ubi Planting Project of the government.

With the government’s support, the farmers are now enjoying profits from Ubi farming on top of their other sources of income. Newly harvested yams are bought by the Mayacabac Women’s Association in the town giving the farmers an easy outlet for their products and thus quick income.

The processing of Ubi into powder is a new endeavor in the town and is still being improved upon with the help of the Department of Agriculture. Pending perfection in the production process, Ubi powder and its by-products are sold only locally. Bulk orders goes to local food processing companies.

However, there is great potential for the product in the global market. Demand for Ubi puree, powder, dried chips, cubes in syrup, ice cream and other forms is increasing. Thus it is tagged as one of the Philippines’ five banner crops for export by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Dauis is one of the two municipalities comprising Panglao Island, the other being Panglao.

Bohol Dauis Hotels and Resorts Pension Houses, Inns and other establishments offering room accommodations are only few in comparison to those found at Alona Beach yet their clientele have grown.

Dauis Church occupies a strip of land on the shore of Panglao Island opposite Tagbilaran City. One of the most beautiful churches of Bohol, one gets an excellent view of the church and convento from the Mansasa seaside as one travels from Tagbilaran to Baclayon.

Bohol's Ubi Kinampay One of Bohols special food crops; Bohol is the largest producer of UBI in the Philippines where it is revered and considered as SACRED and included in the Bohol Hymn!

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