Agriculture Business Week

In the several years that we have been interviewing successful vegetable growers, we have observed that one favorite crop is sweet pepper. Small-scale as well as large-scale growers say they love to plant sweet pepper for a number of good reasons.

Wilfredo B. Rios of Brgy. Lao, Ormoc City, is one fellow who loves to grow what is popularly known in the Visayas and Mindanao as “Atsal” (that’s sweet pepper). Willie, as he is called by friends, was recently adjudged the most outstanding vegetable grower in Leyte in a search conducted by the Visayas State University and East-West Seed Company. He received his cash prize during the recent 85th anniversary celebration of VSU in Baybay, Leyte.

In May 2008, Willie planted 3,000 seedlings of Emperor, the latest sweet pepper hybrid developed by East-West. This is a prolific variety with thick flesh and skin so that it is heavy and also has good shipping and storage qualities. It is also one variety that can be grown during the rainy season. Another improved variety is called Sultan which is equally prolific and can also be grown any month of the year.

One reason why farmers love sweet pepper is that it has a long productive life if it is given the right management. In the case of Willie, he harvested the fruits of his 3,000 sweet pepper for eight months. Most of the time, he harvested 300 kilos per week which he sold at an average of P45 per kilo. That’s P13,500 per week.

Of course, Willie does not plant sweet pepper on the same area season after season. He has devised a sequence of crop rotation in which he grows on the same parcel of his farm such vegetables as ampalaya, sitao, upo, okra and others before he plants sweet pepper again. That’s his way of making his land sustainably productive throughout the year.

Another satisfied grower of Atsal is Magdaleno Didal of Brgy. Odiongan, Abuyog, Leyte. He is also a progressive vegetable grower who received runner-up honors in the recent search for outstanding vegetable growers in Leyte. Last April 4, Didal planted 800 Emperor seedlings in his farm behind his house. On June 25, he got his first harvest of 10 kilos which he sold for P50 per kilo. This was followed by his second harvest of 37 kilos a week later which he sold for P1,850.

Then a typhoon soon struck in Leyte and his plants were blown down to the ground. There was a minimal mortality, however. Only those with totally severed stems didn’t survive the typhoon. While most of them had not returned to their erect position, still the plants continued to bear fruit. On August 5, two days before we visited him, Didal was able to harvest more than P1,000 worth of fruits. The plants have started to recover and he expects to harvest more from this cropping.

What Didal likes about planting Atsal is that it does not require a big capital. He spent only P150 for the 800 seeds that he planted in his last cropping. Unlike vine vegetables and indeterminate tomato varieties, sweet pepper usually does require trellising.

Even smaller Atsal plantings can be profitable. Just like the case of Roberto Cuyacot Jr. of Brgy. Benliw, Ubay, Bohol. After attending a comprehensive training on vegetable production in a program under the auspices of the Department of Agrarian Reform, East-West Seed Company and the local government units, Cuyacot borrowed the equivalent of P5,700 in the form of seeds and other inputs.

With that loan-in-kind, he chose to plant 300 seedlings of scalled Majesty, a variety earlier developed by East-West which was subsequently improved to become Sultan. He planted the seedlings on exactly 125 square meters of a well-prepared part of his farm on March 4, 2008. He got his first harvest the following May which he sold for P30 per kilo. Soon the price got higher as the supply from other farmers got scarcer with the onset of the rainy season. He sold most of his subsequent harvests at P60 per kilo.

By the time we met Cuyacot on August 10, 2008, he had already grossed P40,000 from his 300 Atsal plants. On that particular date, he also harvested 100 kilos which he sold at P80 per kilo. Because the plants were still in good shape, Cuyacot expected to harvest many more times from them.

In the upland barangay of Cabintan, Ormoc City, farmers are growing Atsal by the hectares. One such grower is 30-year-old Edwin Cabugay. In 2007, he planted 25,000 seedlings of Majesty on a one-hectare property. That earned him P250,000 which means that each plant gave him P100 in a growing period of a little over seven months. That was enough to pay for his first Canter truck.

In February 2008, he planted again another 25,000 seedlings of his favorite Atsal. Although he harvested from this crop for only about four months, he was able to harvest about six tons which he sold at an average of P35 per kilo in Tacloban, Naval and other towns in Leyte. That was enough to pay for his second truck which he now uses to transport not only his own harvest but also those of neighboring farmers to the market. Aside from being a grower, Edwin has now become a vegetable trader who buys the produce of his fellow farmers in Cabintan. That’s great because the other farmers no longer have a hard time selling their produce on their own.

Cabintan is a remote barangay with a cool climate because it is high up in the mountain. There, farmers also grow other high-value vegetables like snapbeans, hybrid tomatoes, eggplant, squash and many others. Edwin Cabugay also buys and sells these products to his regular customers in other towns.

There are many other success stories about farmers growing sweet pepper not only in the Visayas but also in Mindanao and Luzon. Even the urban dwellers can take part in the bounty from Atsal. Homeowners can grow their own sweet pepper in containers, for instance. Or in small plots that are enhanced with adequate organic fertilizer.

Enterprising hobbyists or sideliners can produce potted sweet pepper which they can sell in weekend markets or in trade fairs such as the forthcoming Agrilink trade show on October 8 to 10 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Fruiting potted sweet pepper can easily fetch P150 each.

So why not also try growing sweet pepper, even only as a hobby in containers? You will enjoy the experience. And, perhaps, also the monetary reward.

By Zac B. Sarian