Ex-DH finds success in the farm

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

Many Filipinos working abroad realize soon after coming back that the success they have been looking for is right there where they come from. 

Take the case of Margie Allado, 43, of Brgy. Pias Norte, Currimao, Ilocos Norte who worked in Hong Kong as a domestic helper for two years.  She found out soon after coming back that the money she was looking for is not so far away – it is right there in the farm in addition to her rice and feeds retail store.

With her savings of P10,000, she put  up a rice and feeds retail store.  She started with five bags of rice every two weeks and then gradually increased to 20 bags.  Because the store was doing well, her husband got a salary loan from the local electric cooperative where he was working so that she could increase her volume of trade.

Not long after the store was established, she started to cultivate 3,600 sq m of rainfed farm, 2,500 sq m of which was mortgaged to her when she arrived.  She does not know the rice variety she planted, but she said it was probably good seeds from the previous harvest of her neighbor.

She was probably making good since her husband’s uncle even gave his land for her to cultivate as a tenant.  “Our yield increased somehow and the area that we were cultivating was increasing,” she said.

Margie recalls that when her sister-in-law, whom is also a neighbor, was starting the Palayamanan project in Currimao, she thought she did not have enough time for project activities.  However, she joined as a participating farmer, as “the project offered new technologies.”

Among the new rice production technologies she learned through the Palayamanan project and eventually adopted are seed selection, seedling production, transplanting techniques, and fertilization. 

In vegetable production, she learned about the use of plastic trays for seedling production as well as distance of planting among other things.  Without batting an eyelash, she enumerated the distance of planting of the following vegetables between hill: patola,(ridge gourd) 1 m; ampalaya, (bitter gourd)  1 m; squash, 1.5 m; upo (white gourd), 1 m; eggplant, 0.5 m x 1 m.

When  the third technical cooperation project (TCP 3) of PhilRice and JICA [Japan International Cooperation Agency] in Currimao started last year, Margie was selected as a techno demo farmer. 

She planted 100 hills of tomato and 30 hills of patola.  Although she was not able to plant more tomato as the seeds did not germinate well, she got a high income as her crop produced fruits when the supply was still low.

Margie transplanted tomato on October 17, and started to harvest in mid-November.  Although her harvest was only one-half kilo at the start, the price was high.  In fact, the price of tomato was still high until December.  She said she was able to sell more than P6,000.  However, she earned only a little over P1,000 from the patola, which were sold at P40 a kilo, because the good fruits were short lived. 

Marketing is not a problem for Margie, as she simply needs to display her harvest at her retail store.  When we interviewed her recently, her ampalaya, tomato and eggplant harvests were on display in the store and the neighbors came to buy.

At  the  time of the interview, her crops consisted of patola (18 hills), string beans (5 rows x 10 m), Bonito ampalaya (50 hills), Shambu upo (10 hills which must have already produced 100 fruits), multiplier onion (500 sq m), and peanut (500 sq m).  Margie said Bonito ampalaya bears fruits in three months if it is given enough care.

In  rice production, her techno demo in the wet season this year in 1.4 ha demonstrates seven recommended varieties – PSB Rc82, PSB Rc28, PJ 18, NSIC Rc122, NSIC Rc128, NSIC Rc130, and NSIC Rc144.

Among the rice technologies that she learned through TCP 3 is the application of the correct amount of fertilizer.  In the past, she was applying 15 bags of inorganic fertilizer to a hectare.  Through the project, she came to know that this is too much and reduced it to 4 to 5 bags complete (14-14-14) and 2 bags urea (46-0-0) based on soil analysis.

Transplanting was also done at random with so many seedlings per hill in the past.  She now practices straight row planting, 15 cm x 20 cm with 2 to 3 seedlings per hill.

Margie said a farmer would surely progress “if he is industrious and follows the technologies that are taught to him.”

Indeed, the project has already helped a lot of farmers, including those from neighboring barangays who are not directly involved, Margie concluded.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/)

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