Former Rural Bank Cashier Succeeds with Bioseed Corn
That former rural bank cashier is 56year-old Bonifacio “Boni” Alombro, a commerce graduate with specialization in banking and finance.
In the late `70s, he suggested to the officials of the bank where he was the cashier that the farmers who were getting production loans may very well be trained on the new corn production technology to ensure that they would be able to pay their loans. This was because he noticed that farmers’ yields then were shrinking due to their traditional practices and, hence, they had difficulty paying back their loans. The bank would suffer in the end if the farmers could not pay back their loans, he asserted.
At that time, inorganic fertilizers were already costly, while traders bought corn grains at a very cheap price. For instance, complete fertilizer already cost P350 per bag at a time when the exchange rate was way below the current rate of $1 to P41 plus. On the other hand, traders were buying corn grains or kernels cheaply at P2.50 a kilo.
The bank top management of the bank refused to heed his suggestion, probably thinking that this fresh college graduate still had to do a lot of running before he could make sensible suggestions. He got frustrated, but he did not stop there.
With his salary of P800 a month and his savings, he started to finance the farm inputs of a number of farmers. Later, he also bought standing crops at prices depending on the population density, crop stand and percentage of ear-bearing plants. At that time, only 60 percent to 65 percent of corn crops were bearing ears.
Having been a sales representative of an agro-chemical distributor in Cagayan de Oro, he already had some knowledge on the cultural practices in corn production and, hence, he began teaching the farmers on the new corn technology. To beef up his stock knowledge, he also began reading more on the new corn technology so that he would be credible to the farmers.
STARTS FARMING
Boni’s gut feeling in 1980 told him that it would be better for him to plant corn as he continued to finance farmers.
First hand, he saw that with the new corn technology, the yield and income are high. With this observation, he resigned from the rural bank and started to cultivate 3 hectares (ha), which he borrowed from his father.
Unfortunately, his first crop did not prosper as much as he expected. It was affected by a prolonged drought and, hence, his income was low. Nevertheless, he was undaunted and vowed to keep on. For him, farming is a vocation, a career, and a business rolled into one.
After two years, the corn hybrids finally arrived. Always innovative, he was the first in the barangay where his farm is located to plant hybrid corn using Cargill and IPB (UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding) varieties.
The funny thing was that because the F 1 seeds of the hybrids were not readily available, his first hybrid crop was an F2 and he used seeds from the harvest of his brother-in-law. Even as the hybrid vigor of his crop was no longer as great as the F1, his yield was still three times higher than the traditional white variety. Amazingly, the F2 yielded almost 80 bags a hectare. For Boni, this yield level was already a great leap from the 25-bag per hectare level with the native variety. He told himself it pays to be innovative.
Thereafter, the Department of Agriculture regional field unit launched a program on hybrid corn production in Bukidnon, which offered among others the newly developed hybrid corn varieties. He selected the variety Hi-Corn 9, but found soon that it was susceptible to many insect pests and diseases.
Even with that, he was achieving some progress in farming. In no time at all, he was already cultivating 10 ha by renting additional lands at P1,200 per hectare after calculating that one crop can easily pay for the annual rent. He changed Hi-Corn 9 with varieties of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and Pioneer.
It did not take him long to find out that the SMC variety was better than the one from Pioneer. For one thing, the yield of the SMC variety, 5 tons to 5.6 tons a hectare, was higher than the Pioneer variety. Moreover, SMC corn ears could be stored for more than three months without being attacked by storage weevils. He said the Pioneer variety was just like Hi-Corn 9.
In three years after he started farming, he was already cultivating a total of 70 ha in 1984, 67 ha of which were rented. In 1982, however, he started working again but this time at the Bukidnon Electric Cooperative, while farming at the same time.
Boni recalls that everything went well in his farming venture until climatic conditions in 1989 were no longer favorable to farming. His crops were affected by prolonged drought, and he realized that it was no longer profitable to continue farming. Prices of corn kernels were also down. Thus, he left his farm of 4 ha to the care of his caretaker.
OPENS AGRI-VET STORE
A year later, he resigned from the Bukidnon Electric Cooperative and used P18,000 from his measly separation pay of P19,000 to open what is now an agri-veterinary supply store. The remaining P1,000 was used for daily operation.
At first, it was just a little store as he was only selling five brands of animal feeds. However, personal attention to the customers kept them going back to him. At the same time, he was teaching them how to maximize the use of their feeds.
Eventually, he started to sell livestock medicine, which was followed later by milled rice. Selling agrochemicals was an accident. A supplier of agrochemicals initially offered to give him more than P2,000 worth of pesticides on credit and the amount was paid when he got his next supply.
Boni said his credit line became bigger and bigger every time he got his replenishment. Soon, sales representatives of the agrochemical companies started to fall in line, so to speak, offering him credit lines he never imagined would be coming that soon.
MORE INCOME WITH BIOSEED VARIETIES
But the lure of farming brought him back to the farm in 1992 when he could already afford to spend some of his money for farm inputs. The income was not much but it kept him in his farming venture while he continued operating his agri-vet supply store.
Last year, after conducting a demo on three varieties developed by Bioseed Research Philippines, he decided to plant 18 ha with Bioseed 9909, while only a hectare was planted to a Pioneer variety. The 1-ha demo farm, which is along the road, continues to be planted to Bioseed 9900, Bioseed 9909 and Bioseed 9888.
In the last crop that was harvested in March, he scrapped the Pioneer variety and planted all of his 20 ha to Bioseed varieties because he was so impressed on their performance. He said he never saw yields as high as that of Bioseed 9900 and Bioseed 9909 in the past, as the yields of the varieties he had been planting were not comparable to his chosen varieties.
As he said, he never had it as good as Bioseed 9909, which yielded an average of 7 tons per hectare. At P2,800 per bag of 50 kilograms each, his gross income was P392,000 per hectare. Bioseed 9900 was sold at P2,450 per bag, while Bioseed 9888 was P2,250 per bag.
He also planted the ‘white corn variety Bioseed 9744W to 9 ha because white corn grits are still used for human consumption in Bukidnon. Even as its yield was only 7 tons per hectare, his income in the end was still high at P2,250 per bag of kernels. Since a bag weighs 50 kilograms, his average gross income was P315,000 per hectare.
Boni said he is impressed with the Bioseed corn varieties because these differ greatly from other varieties. For one thing, the leaves are erect and, hence, catch a lot of energy from the sun for their photosynthetic activity, which eventually lead to the production of higher yield. Every drop of rain that falls on the leaves also goes directly to the base of the plant.
In addition, the ears are almost perfect, he said. The size of the kernels from the base to the tip is similar, resulting in heavier weight. Moreover, the endosperm of the kernel is small, making it faster to dry. Likewise, the kernels could last until 150 days of storage without being attacked by storage weevils.
Boni is so satisfied and happy with the performance of the Bioseed varieties such that he said only time will tell if he will still change for other varieties.
