Urban gardening can be profitable

If Harbest Agribusiness Corp. could have its way, the hybrid seeds company wants urban dumpsites and backyards turned into veritable vegetable gardens. Include also windows with abundant sunlight. So says manager, Arsenio Barcelona. "There are a lot of idle lands in the cities and suburbian spaces in homes, too, for pot gardening– waiting to be tilled for fresh supply of vegetable for one’s home consumption and extra income. This should give agriculture as an economic enterprise an added push."

To promote this peri-urban agriculture Harbest works with local government units (LGUs) and subdivision associations to develop available lots into productive vegetable commercial farms. One such location is an old dumpsite in Greenfields I subdivision in Barangay San Agustin, Novaliches, Quezon City. It was a joint project of the barangay, the DA-regional field office and Harbest which provided high-yielding F1-hybrid vegetable seeds from Known-You Seed Co., the biggest seed firm in Taiwan, which also maintains distribution outlets in China,Vietnam,Thailand and Myanmar, among other countries.

The 1,000-square meter demonstration farm was planted to Chinese kangkong, Veggin Kailan, Harbest long eggplant, Fullness round eggplant, Grand Rapid leaf-type lettuce, Moonlight oriental ampalaya, Green Arrow sitao, Vega bell pepper, Brisk Green pechay and Summer Autum cabbage. In about two months, the dumpsite was in a bloom of green, ready for harvest.

No less than President Arroyo was on hand for the simple harvest festival a few months back. The Chief Executive harvested fresh lettuce, kangkong and amplaya and planted some hot pepper seedlings.

Harbest is also into modern agricultural technology that is essential to its development goal for an agri-based industry, using fast-growing, early-maturing high-value crops. Production cycle may range from three weeks to three months depending on particular crops. High-value looks at a gross income of P200,000 to P500,000 per hectare in one crop cycle.

It is important for Harbest to transfer modern farming technology that is not capital intensive to its cooperators, especially the common growers. That makes the Techno-Demo and Training Farm Project with interested growers and government very urgent, indeed. There are now 18 of them being maintained throughout the country — in Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Laguna, Batangas, Negros Occidental, Oriental Mindoro, Panay, Iloilo, Boracay (Palawan), Davao, Misamis Oriental, Pangasinan, Zamboanga del Norte, Rizal, Quezon, Pampanga and La Union.

This arrangement is covered by a memorandum of agreement with the following basic features: Harbest provides the technology for the commercial production of short-term, high value-crops and assists in the marketing of the produce. For their part, the growers provide the land, labor, capital and farm management.

The cooperation is conditioned on the following features: fertile, flat, arable land; sufficient source of water for irrigation; security; accessibility; and a resident full-time technician from the grower's rank who will receive the technology training and apply the technology learned in managing the farm. Project cost for a one-hectare model farm is in the vicinity of P250,000 which includes a technology transfer fee, project site, labor and materials such as seeds, plastic products for agricultural productivity (among them, nets, mulching and plastic films, seedling trays and bags, bean sprouters, hand sprayers, aerators). Normally, this investment can be recovered in no time from the produce of the model farm.

A Harbest festival culminates the activities with the introduction of new varieties to the local consumers and traders. Among the new varieties available from F1 hybrid seeds are: patola, gourd, bell pepper, tomato, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, eggplant, cucumber, cauliflower, radish, squash, eggplant, hot and peppers, brocolli, bunching onion, honeydew, seedless watermelon, papaya, supersweet corn, melon, pakwan and kundol.

Harbest believes that vegetables and fruits produced with improved technology will yield more food with better eating quality. As production is stabilized, new opportunities arise with local traders and wholesalers getting interested on a long-term supply contract. That means more affordable farm produce because of higher yields in most parts of the country throughout the year.