Earn Cash from Seagrass
Unlike farmers who apply herbicides or burn seagrass or ragiwdiw which thrives in swamps and in watery ricefields, Victor and Rosa Noora collect ragiwdiw from their farm and from nearby farms and braid it to make slippers, handbags, headbands, and belts. The Noora family has been making handicrafts since 1989. Actually, this is their fallback business. Their first business was a ricemill that went bankrupt.
Despite of what happened, the couple did not give up. They started another business, which was making handicraft out of seagrass, because their income from a one-hectare-pawned farm was not enough to feed and send their 10 children to school.
Aside from their children, their neighbors also help them braid seagrass and the couple pays them in return. After all, braiding or salapi is so easy to do; in fact, it only takes five minutes to braid a meter of seagrass which costs P6. “It is very easy; they can do it while watching TV or chatting. It makes their leisure time productive,” Rosa said.
It was just a small business until 2005, when their farm was chosen as a model site of the Palayamanan project. Palayamanan is a term coined from the words palay or rice and yaman or wealth which means “to make the most of your farm.” Of course, the Noora family has indeed maximized their small farm.
The couple received financial support from the Department of Agriculture (DA). DA gave them support materials like suwelas or rubber sole, rugby, threads, coloring, and two sewing machines; these are worth P19,000. “[Their products are good] and they deserve the [financial] assistance [because] they show good examples of how to maximize farm resources,” Luz Marcelino, provincial agriculturist of Camarines Sur, said.
The Noora family supplies P13,000 worth of slipper, their main product, to clients twice a week. Some of their clients are those who are considered as “big names” in the shoe business. Sometimes, they improve the products of the Noora family but there are also times when they just tag the brand name into the materials.
The couple earns about P50,000 monthly from the handicraft, and this is something they could have not enjoyed if they have burned the seagrass. Worse, burning seagrass results in the death of microorganisms in the soil. The couple, of course, cannot risk the fertility of their land in which the family depends on.
“We never thought that the grass we once hated could actually feed our family, send our children even up to college, and bring back what we have lost in our first business,” Rosa said.
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