Around 50 sacks of vegetables in six consecutive harvests at four to six days interval sold at PhP200.00 each sack? Not bad!
Manny Pasawilan, 36, a Palayamanan participant in Margues, Maguindanao shows smiles of tranquility as he looks at his bountiful harvest.
“Nung una naming pagharvest, 14 sacks, hanggang dun!” said Elizabeth, Manny’s wife stretching her arms and pointing her lips forward to emphasize how bountiful their harvest was.
On their sixth harvest (as of this writing), i.e. the sixth with 4-6 days interval or about one month after the first harvest, Manny estimates to get 7-8 sacks of bottle gourd and squash. All of their harvests are sold to a businessman living in Margues who has a stall at the Cotabato City Supermarket. Datu Odin Sinsuat Public Market is another potential place for their products.
From the PhP 200 buying price per sack, he gets a net income of PhP170 i.e., minus all deductions like transportation, merienda of those who help in harvests, etc. Elizabeth shared that they actually produce more than what they can sell in the market. It’s just that before they could sell it in bulk, their neighbors buy in menudo or in retail. Plus, many just ask for vegetables for free.
“E dito naman, parang araw-araw Pasko. Kaya pag may humingi e di bigyan,” says Elizabeth.
Moreover, most of the residents surrounding their mini farm are their relatives so it’s hard to say no. The good thing thou according to Elizabeth is that many want to emulate them after seeing their wonderful harvest. “Parang nagising ang mga tao dito ng nakita nila ang harvest namin,” she said.
In addition, Manny explained that the livelihood of people in their area can improve if they would have access to the technical knowledge like what FFS participants had. Added to this is the fact that Mindanao has very rich soil. Elizabeth attests to this saying, “yung buto ng okra tinapun-tapon ko lang, nalaman ko na lang tumutubo na sila.”
Manny and Elizabeth are sharing the pieces of information that they got from FFS. In fact, there are vegetables which they do not harvest to serve as source of seeds later on. They have already marked those vegetables with pink plastics for easy reference.
“Dahil marami ng humihingi, marami kaming pinatanda (vegetables that are not harvested so it could serve as source of seeds) para ipamigay sa kanila,” said Elizabeth.
According to the couple there is no secret to achieving good yield. What they did were the usual things expected of a farmer. Industry, they said, is very important. For one, Manny and Elizabeth walk 1.5 km every day to go to their mini-farm. Every day they check on their vegetables to remove the weeds and worms. Furthermore, the couple believes that all these could not have been possible without Technical Cooperation Project 4, a collaborative project of JICA, PhilRice, and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries-ARMM. They said that before they were also planting vegetables but their yield now is just so magnificent that others have expressed their want to copy them. Proper fertilizer application and distance in planting are two of their most imbibed technologies.
Elizabeth said that there have been a lot of changes in their life since TCP 4 came. If before they were just depending on their small sari-sari store, now they have an additional source of income. Their friends tease them saying, “ngayon meron na kayong exrang pera pangtaya sa lotto!”
Meanwhile, the couple expressed interest to support the second leg of Palyamanan in their area focused on lowland rice farming set to start this June.
1 comment:
the stories are good
Post a Comment