High value crops for more incomes

SUGBONGCOGON, Misamis Oriental – "We now negotiate with buyers for the prices of our vegetables. We are learning the business side of farming," said Ricky Aragua, one of the corn farmers from Barangay Kaulayanan who have branched out into high-value vegetable production.

The farmers started growing these vegetables after techno-demo farms were established in Barangays Kaulayanan, Kidampas and Ampianga in 2001, a joint effort by the USAID-funded Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program and several agriculture-related government agencies.

The demo farms introduced appropriate farming technologies to help the farmers maximize the production of highly marketable crops suited to the area’s agro-climatic conditions. Semi-temperate vegetables were planted in Kaulayanan, located over 1,000 meters above sea level, while barangays Kidampas and Ampianga went for a mix of semi-temperate and tropical crops.

The farmers, who organized themselves into the Ampiana-Kidampas-Kaulayanan United Neighborhood Multi-Purpose Cooperative (AKKUNIMCO), were also introduced to basic marketing know-how that can help make their enterprise more profitable. These include scheduling the planting of vegetables according to market demand. "With scheduled planting and harvesting, we avoid saturating the market and keep buying prices steady," Aragua explained.

Learning new farming techniques, as well as preventing and containing plant diseases, helped the farmers increase production volumes and, consequently, generate more income. Aragua said the farmers now earn as much as P9,000 per week for planting cabbage, sweet peas, carrots and broccoli. On rare occasions when unfavorable conditions prevent them from planting in the farms, they still manage to earn at least P1,000 per week from their backyard vegetable gardens.

The request to put up the training facilities was made by the Northern Mindanao Vegetable Producers’ Association, Inc. (NORMINVeggies), a GEM-supported producers’ association that assists village farmers in the hinterlands of Sugbongcogon.

Fifteen of the Kaulayanan coop members have recently formalized a contract to supply 500 kilos of cabbage weekly for shipment to institutional buyers in Manila, through the efforts of NORMINVeggies. The Kaulayanan farmers are now part of the NORMINVeggies vegetable clusters that deliver their produce to institutional buyers.

"Our lives are far better now than when we just planted corn. Our harvest then could barely cover production costs and other debts we incurred while waiting for the harvest," said Aragua, who also serves as a barangay councilman in Kaulayanan.

"We harvested corn once every three months, earning an average of only P5,000 for the effort. But now that we’re planting high-value vegetables, we’re assured of a weekly income, despite erratic price movements for some of the crops."

Having a stable livelihood helps a lot, Aragua said. With augmented and stable incomes, the farmers are able to go to nearby Cagayan de Oro City to shop and eat in fast-food restaurants. This is a real treat for Kaulayanan farmers who, according to Aragua, used to have only root crops for meals.

Some of the farmers have even managed to send their children to college and some young families, like Aragua’s, have started building houses in the town proper to prepare for their children going to high school. Still others are renovating their homes or buying household appliances.

The success of this small farming community has caught the attention of some farm-oriented government agencies and a lending institution which offered assistance to the farmers. This has inspired the farmers to work even harder to improve.

The GEM Program is being implemented in partnership with the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCO).