Pangulong Gloria Scholar Finds Wealth in Agriculture

An ordinary farmer, JACINTO C. MABOLES fondly called as SINTO in his locality (Brgy. Balibayon, Surigao City), continuously dreams of developing a land into an agricultural enterprise. He widely ventures in several attempts of planting variety of crops in a tenanted land. However, no matter how intense he did in farming, his income was insufficient to meet the needs of the family. Among his four children, only one graduated from high school and pursued one semester in a college program; but then, his son quit because of financial constraint.

Luck Knocks at the Door         

Aware of his community, Sinto felt a need to establish a cooperative projecting pineapple production. Through a government loan the cooperative marched towards the goal. After the first fruitful harvest, an internal conflict among the members nipped the bud of agricultural enterprise. This situation did not hamper Sinto’s enthusiasm in the venture.

            On June 2006, Sinto opted to get assistance from the Surigao del Norte College of Agriculture and Technology-Famers Information Technology Services (SNCAT-FITS). The Institution provided several proposals requesting other government linkages for commodity development particularly the Caraga Consortium for Agriculture and Research Development (CCARRD) incharge for the development of Magsasakang Siyentista nationwide.

Science and Technology Based Pineapple Farm

            A 0.25 hectare of land was granted to the hardworking farmer as well as a capital outlay amounting to Php 100,000.00 to defray input expenses in the said pineapple farm. Sinto used the 20 cm x 50 cm x 80 cm distance in planting equivalent to 8 suckers/sq.m., a total of 20,000 hills in staggered basis.

At present, there is an initial return of investment amounting to Php 40,000.00, more schedules for harvest and more suckers for the continuity of program.

Pangulong Gloria Scholarship

 Driven by his determination in agriculture enterprise, Sinto embraced the PGS program and graduated in HORTICULTURE NC II qualification at SNCAT-IMSF, Day-asan, Surigao City. Amazingly, his competencies in agriculture were multiplied. He has started with other crops such as banana, cassava, falcate and mango. Today, other interested Surigaonons topped his expertise and secure suckers from his pineapple farm as well as the technology. He works part time as a consultant and co-manager in a 10 ha. of land owned by an agriculture conscious Surigaonons.

A Dream Fulfilled

 With the blessings received, Sinto portrays tolerance against all odds, hard work against poverty and confidence against despair. A handful of soil tilled with love and joy is 

Establishment of feedmill utilizing corn in Agusan del Sur is a Community-based Participatory Action Research (CPAR) project implemented by DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) and DA-XIII – Caraga Integrated Research Center (CARIARC) as the lead agencies and Provincial Agricultural Office- Agusan del Sur, Provincial Veterinary Office- Agusan del Sur and DA-XIII- Regulatory Division as the collaborating agencies.

LGU Sta. Josefa being the lead collaborating agency provided all the initiatives for the completion of the project. Without doubts, it was anticipated that the presence of feedmill in the project will really contribute for the profitability of the swine and poultry production since LGU has the existing piggery and poultry projects utilizing solely the available commercial feeds in the market and found to be profitable thru their “Buy Back Scheme” of raising hogs to the farmers, the hog growers. The LGU provided the weanlings, feeds and technical assistance/supervision of the projects and took the marketing to all the fatteners.

The establishment of feedmill was not only foreseen the production of low cost feeds, but also answers the corn surplus which is the perennial problem of the Municipality of Sta. Josefa. It also provides cheaper feeds for swine and poultry raisers. It elevates the socio-economic status and farm family income of the farmers. There was an increase in the production of the corn farmers and was able to command high price since it was marketed thru the LGU.

In order to test the quality of feeds produced through the feedmill, a number of one hundred (100) piglets were purposely raised in 2004.

Farmers’ traditional practice of raising swine lasted up to eight months. They use darat, kangkong and gabie as an alternative for commercial feeds, after which it can gave only an average body weight of 60 kilograms for the period of eight months. However, the tested animals that were purposely raised utilizing the feeds gave an average body weight of 82.14 kilos for a period of only four months.

Traditional growing period of eight months reaches the total cost of produced                      P2, 250.00 which gave a net income of P150.00 per head with an ROI of 5.58% only. However, utilizing the feeds produced through the feedmill, total cost of production amounted only to P3, 206.00 for a period of four months which gave a net income of P900.00 per head with an ROI of 28%.

It was found out that traditionally grown swine produced a low quality meat possessing a thick fat while meat from swine raised utilizing feeds produced through the established feedmill gave a quality meat. MLGU- Sta. Josefa was strategically chosen to be the final beneficiary of the project and the swine and poultry raisers were the target recipients of the said project. The municipality was known to be the leading corn grower in the province of Agusan del Sur.

Trainings and cross visits were conducted that empowered and enhanced the skills and knowledge of the farmer beneficiaries. After such time of implementation and active participation of the implementing agencies and farmer beneficiaries the project was successfully conducted. The favorable result of the project opens a wide market for feeds. The demands for feeds produced through the feedmill utilizing corn increases since the feeds cost lower that highly commercialized feeds available in the market.

Since Sta. Josefa was identified to as one of the corn-growing municipality, there is enough supply of yellow corn available which is the main ingredients in producing feeds. However, LGU- Sta. Josefa do not have sufficient fund to buy more yellow corn. If funds are available, LGU- Sta. Josefa wishes to purchase more yellow corn during harvest time since they could buy it in lower price and they can buy more yellow corn. In such way they could produce more feeds.

The success of the project was not that easy. The project gone through different trials before it leads to its right way heading to Sta. Josefa. The said project was first implemented in the Municipality of Bunawan wherein after few months of implementation the results were unfavorable. It was not successful due to some constraints which include the change of Municipal Agriculturist and Local Government Executives having different focus on project to be implanted during his term.

After such incidence, consultations and meetings were conducted since the project was not yet fully materialized. The project was transferred to the Municipality of San Miguel, Surigao del Sur which is known to be the leading corn producer in the province and the municipality was responsive to the said project. The farmers were provided by DA-XIII with corn and other production inputs. Other inputs such as soybeans seed, land and labor were the farmer’s counterpart. The production input for the next cropping was provided by the LGU- San Miguel and to be paid by the farmers after harvest. Values Orientation Workshop and Farmers Field Day were also conducted to boast the morale of the farmers. But, weather condition was not on their side. Constant rain and floods occurred during the two-cropping seasons. The farmers had no harvest caused them not to able pay the inputs and made them discouraged to push through the said feedmill project.