More and More Farmers in Mindanao Benefit from TCP 4
It would not be a surprise if Basilan would be known as the vegetable bowl of Mindanao as soon as the farmer-cooperators of the Technical Cooperation Project 4 (TCP 4) apply the technologies they have learned in the project’s Farmer’s Field School (FFS).
One of them is Avelino de Guzman of Tabiawan, Isabela City. He is one of the participants in the vegetable production training in Luzon, which the TCP 4 sponsored. Thanks to it, he is able to make money from vegetables, which he raises along with three goats, eight ducks, and chickens in his 1.3-hectare farm.
Among the things he learned from the FFS is growing seedlings in banana leaves. He turns banana leaves into cylindrical containers by fastening the ends of the leaf with a coconut midrib. He puts a medium made of compost in each container and plants a seed in it.
He also wraps banana leaves around ampalaya to keep these from being infested by white flies. He also learned to make compost out of goat and chicken manure, and to use rice straw as mulch.
With the things learned from the FFS, he and 29 farmers are now growing vegetables such as eggplant, okra, cucumber, and ampalaya in their farms. In fact, they were able to sell ampalaya at P6 per piece in Isabela City during their first harvest.
Meanwhile, six graduates of the 2007 FFS in the Lamitan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (LARBECO) in Lamitan City have turned a one-hectare barren land into. a profitable vegetable farm where they are growing pole sitao, pepper, lemon, and eggplant.
According to 42-year-old Teresita Abella, one of the graduates, they don’t have problems with water and they have reduced foliar fertilizer application because the soil in the farm is very fertile. They also save seeds for the next cropping so that they wouldn’t have to ask for some seeds from the Department of Agriculture in Lamitan City. They are also allotting 10 percent of their income to sponsor some of the activities of the Christian Children’s Fund, which provides them with inputs.
Benhur Benico is another successful farmer in LARBECO compound. This retired soldier was brought up in a farm in Nabua, Camarines Sur. When he decided to settle in Basilan with his family, he knew that farming would be his bread and butter and he was right for his earnings enabled him to send his children to school. In his previous harvest, he earned a net income of P20,000 from rice and a net income of P5,000 from upo.
Like Benhur, Pepito Sanchez and Romulo Ng are also doing well in farming. If not for vegetable farming, Pepito, for instance, wouldn’t afford the college education of his three children. Romulo, on the other hand; is very strategic in choosing what vegetables to plant. He finds out what his fellow farmers are going to plant and from there, he and Pepito would know what they should and shouldn’t plant. Their strategy is to plant on-season vegetables that other farmers wouldn’t grow.
“If they will not buy our vegetables which other farmers have also produced, we will not sell them the vegetables which only us have produced,” Romulo said. With this effective strategy, they were able to earn more than P40,000 many times.
The practices they have learned two years ago from the FFS have also contributed to their success. Like Avelino, they also grow seedlings in banana leaves and make fertilizers out of animal manures.
More and more farmers are benefiting from the TCP 4 because Pepito and Romulo share what they have learned in the FFS. They also give seeds to those who come to them. In fact, many residents near the LARBECO are now into vegetable gardening and it’s because they have been inspired by the success of Pepito and Romulo. These things wouldn’t happen if not for the FFS, thanks to the TCP 4.
