Agriculture Business Week

Rolly Lagaya, the successful poultry farmer from San Jose, Batangas shares with us his “innovative” tale of success.

Arapid change is now sweeping the Philippine poultry industry. The sector—which is predominantly a backyard affair—has now stepped up with nearly all farms operating at a calibre similar to that of commercial operations. Nowadays, rarely you would see small raisers sowing corn grains to feed the chickens roaming around their backyard and housing them in bamboo or wood-made cages. Minute operators now house their birds in modern fabricated domiciles and fed those using calibrated feeders and waterers. The evolution, according to pundits, is caused by tremendous competition in the market as well as the fast-paced and ever changing lifestyle of consumers.

Rolly Lagaya, owner of Lagaya Farms in San Jose, Batangas is happy to be a part of the sector’s revolution. An engineer by profession, he has established his farm together with his parents in 1975 as a mere family business. Started with 500 heads, the farm has now 200,000 birds in tow and producing 175,000 eggs per day. “Our farm’s expansion has been continuous. Whenever there’s a new technology, we always adapt it. We were the first farm in Batangas that has elevated the poultry houses. Unlike other farmers, we are always open to new technologies. We love new discoveries.”

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The Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) and agribusiness firm AgriNurture, Inc. (ANI) recently signed an agreement to provide credit assistance to vegetable contract growers in the country.

Under the agreement, Landbank will make funds available to qualified conduits for re-lending to farmers engaged in vegetable and fruits production. AgriNurture, meanwhile, will act as the collection agent for the borrowers’ loan with the bank and will provide them with free technical assistance on various agricultural matters, such as farm management, new planting techniques and methods, field validation, and harvesting and postharvest technology.

In addition, the agreement provides a supply and purchase agreement between ANI and the qualified organizations of growers wherein all the produce shall be exclusively delivered to the company.

The agreement aims to address ANI’s need for additional supply for its export market while bridging the gap between farmers and credit financing and is in line with Landbank’s thrust to help improve the livelihood of farmers and prop up the country’s food supply.

“We at Landbank welcome this partnership with ANI as it will benefit the vegetable industry in particular and the agricultural sector at large. Through this partnership, we are optimistic that we could contribute to the efforts of industry players toward ensuring the sustainability of the vegetable industry,” said Landband president and CEO Gilda E. Pico.

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The Animal Products Development Center (APDC), a section of the Research Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry, is a most helpful government agency, if you ask entrepreneurs like Rene Almeda of Alaminos Goat Farm (AGF).

Almeda is most impressed by the professionalism and the dedication of the people running the agency. Of course, he is very thankful for the help APDC has provided AGF in developing a number of goat products. For one, APDC has developed new goat meat products with commercial potential. One of them is the smoked pure chevon longanisa which taste-testers consider superior to other meat sausages in the market.

Another version is the hungarian sausage which is also considered better than its counterparts in the market today. Actually, Josefina Contreras, APDC chief, says that whatever processed meat products that could be made from pork can also be made with goat’s meat.

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An ex-salesman lets us in on the advantages and disadvantages of sharing entrepreneurial endeavors with your kin.

For more than 19 years now, Eugene O. Cebuala, general manager of Kiks Roasted Corn Coffee, has been an avid coffee drinker. “It’s as if my day’s incomplete without at least a cup of coffee. While I often get hyper acidic because of it, and the doctor has advised me to stay away from my favorite brew, I still can’t help myself,” he said.

And so, after a visit last year in Butuan where he saw his first encounter with a different kind of coffee-not from beans, but from corn-he also caught sight of promising agribusiness. After talking to the processor of the product and ironing out the rest of the details, Kiks was born.

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The indispensable Filipino side dish gets a makeover and creates a buzz in the food sector.

If there’s anything more Pinoy than eating rice and tuyo (smoked fish) sans silver utensils, it might just be eating rice, tuyo and atchara (pickled vegetable) with your bare hands.

“It’s a staple Filipino side dish,” said Flordeliza Valerio, owner of Delisha’s Home-made Atchara, “But why make a business out of it? First, it tastes great. It’s ulam all by itself. Second, it doesn’t just satisfy the taste buds, it’s also packed with health benefits. And lastly, it already has a market here in the country.”

Atchara is the Philippines’ contribution to the world of Asian pickles. It is known by many versions, and virtually any vegetable can be used to make it. The art of pickling have existed across the globe for centuries. Pickling food was once done out of necessity, before modern refrigeration and preservatives ever existed. There was a need to preserve foods grown on the farm through the non-growing seasons. This helped supplement the foods that were hunted and gathered from the wilderness.

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If there’s one common factor that can be attributed to a good number of successful food entrepreneurs of Pampanga, it will be their innovativeness and receptiveness to technology which undoubtedly propelled their businesses to where they are today.

Proof of this is the increasingly expanding market for their products which does not only benefit themselves but also the people in the community by providing employment and serving as a sure market for raw materials produced by smallhold farmers.

Four of them are Lai Manalang of Lailen’s Pastries in City of San Fernando, Lucia Miranda of Aiza’s Sweets in Sta. Rita, Francis Joseph Carreon of Carreon’s Sweets and Pastries in Magalang, and Gil Navarro of Navarro Foods International, Inc. in Masantol. They have availed of the technical assistance of DOST in terms of product development and processing which further boosted the marketability of their products.

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Raising children and sending then to school is three times harder for a single mom like Sarah Concepcion Dabucun. Facing the pangs and hardships of parenthood alone, she needs to exert more effort to make a living and invest in her kids future.

After finishing Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte in 1995, Sarah hoped to work as an employee. However, she went back to Ilocos Norte and became a rice farmer instead. After several years of being a rice farmer, however, her family’s life did not improve much.

As the prices of commodities continuously rose, Sarah decided to go into peanut butter production to add value to her harvest. However, this business venture did not prosper due to stiff competition among the commercial brands. But Sarah did not lose hope. Armed with determination and love for her children, she was willing to try another business.

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A jack-of-all-trades tells us why the internet is as important as having a good product.

Nobody’s ever told Larrimar Tia that he does so much for a 35-year old: he’s a graphic artist, a software architect, an IT. consultant, one of the country’s pioneers in Web development, an author and a poet with his works published in his own website larrimar.com, and presently Chief Innovation Officer of LVEWORLD Corporation, a start-up company responsible for one of the first 8-in-1 herbal coffee products in the Philippines.

He sad, “After working in a Hong Kong firm as a web developer, I wanted to do something different. After all, I had been in the IT industry for over 15 years and I’ve always wanted to have my own company. Actually I started as a freelance consultant, then I formed my own corporation which is apart from the consulting business that I am involved right now.”

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Three top growers of Foster Foods-Enrique Macapagal of Tarlac City, Roe Beltran of Malasiqui, and Precy Cuenca of San Carlos City, Pangasinan-have different stories to tell on why they are into broiler production. But they all point to two products of Novatech Vet and Biologicals as having played a key role in their success.

They said Biolyte and Nutradec have been responsible for their increased productivity since three years ago when Foster Foods started to provide these as part of their production inputs.

According to Dr. Ronaldo A. Sumaoang, president and general manager of the Novatech Group of Companies, Biolyte promotes growth and vitality. It contains biologically active growth factors as well as digestive enzymes that help the birds increase their digestion and assimilation efficiencies. As a result, higher feed conversion efficiency and growth rates are achieved.

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Meet a civil engineer who is successful in commercial production of corn, sugarcane, poultry and some fruit trees. He is Engr Raul Carreras of Tigaon, Camarines Sur, a 1982 civil engineering graduate from the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga City.

While practicing his engineering profession, he also dabbled in farming. It all started after he got married in 1985. He planted two hectares to corn and got five tons per hectare. He sold his harvest at only P5 per kilo and grossed P25,000 per hectare. That gave him a good enough profit because the cost of production was only P12,000 per hectare.

From then on, he increased the hectares he planted by leasing other people’s farms. He is into corn production to this day, planting the grain crop on 40 hectares two times a year. Although the cost of production has gone up to P50,000 per hectare due to increased costs of inputs and labor, he says it is still profitable to grow corn. That’s because he can produce 10 to 12 tons per hectare. Even at a low price of P10 per kilo ex-farm, the profit margin is still very attractive.

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An ex-jewelry retailer tells us how products grown in the backyard can help a great deal in starting a business

Although the Philippine herbal industry has been pronounced as a Php4 billion market, more consumers look at it as just mere second resort. Elizabeth Ceniza learned this the hard way, when she opted to leave a good position in a jewelry company to start her own herbal business.

“When I first started, people were discouraging me. They kept telling me that the herbal industry is an unsure way to make money, especially given the background that I have. I had no idea where to start,” said Beth, owner and president of Wonder Country of Nature Health Products.

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On weekends, lawyer and school administrator Edwin Leuterio looks forward to visiting his coffee and banana plantation in Sibulan, Davao del Sur; a good hour drive south of Davao City.

His dream project, a four-hectare coffee and banana farm parched 700 meters above sea level and with the majestic Mt. Apo as backdrop, is slowly taking shape.

Leuterio’s farm has been built using the technology of Nescafe, a valuable knowledge he got after attending the leading coffee brand’s free three-week coffee specialist course at the Nestle Experimental and Demonstration Farm (NEDF) in Tagum, Davao del Norte, early this year.

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A 52-YEAR old surgeon who later became successful in tilapia farming was awarded as one of the ten outstanding technology adoptors by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) at the Manila Hotel last September 19. They are part of the 50 Men and Women of Science who are recognized by DOST for their significant contribution to science and technology in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

Dr. Jose Ildefonso Costales Jr. of Brgy. Nabbuan, Santiago City owns and manages Palaisdaan Natin, a 3-hectare (ha) fishfarm which produces 8 million fingerlings annually and generates an annual sales and income of P4.2 million and P3.3 million, respectively.

Started without any knowledge in fish farming, Dr. Costales availed of the tilapia grow-out production module of the Consultancy for Agricultural Productivity Enhancement (CAPE) Program under DOST’s Technology Application and Promotion Institute in 2000.

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Vilma Hernandez took the risk by creating X’mas lanterns out of capiz shells and has since been reaping rewards here and abroad.

Whenever we hear the word “parol”, the very first thing that comes to our minds is a star-shaped Christmas lantern made of bamboos, plastics, different kinds of papers. But there is one type of lantern that is often neglected, yet its exquisiteness stands out-the capiz.
For entrepreneur Vilma Hernandez, the lure of the Christmas lanterns goes beyond livelihood. It binds her family together with love, prosperity and hope.

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