Using his 1.3-hectare lot in Bonuan Binloc this city where he hails from, de Venecia, with the help of some technicians from the Department of Agriculture turned this sandy loam lot into a demo farm where various high value vegetable seeds are planted.
The demo farm will be used as a model where people can magically turn an idle lot into a highly productive area.
In a recent visit, de Venecia, assisted by agriculture regional technical director Flora Dagney, engineer Demie Fontanilla, retired agriculture regional director Manuel Varquez, demo farm over-all coordinator Rudy Ramos and seven other trained technicians, harvested upo, eggplant, tomatoes, ampalaya, sweet corn, okra, cucumber, water melon, string beans, mongo, peanuts, garlic, pechay, saluyot, upland kangkong, gabi and small onions locally known as lasona.
Started in November, harvest of some of the produce has started since Dec. 8 and every week thereafter. They are also applying the integrated pest management technology where chicken manure is used to minimize the use of chemical fertilizer.
De Venecia hopes to duplicate the success of this project in other towns under this jurisdiction that include Mangaldan, San Jacinto, Manaoag and San Fabian where food can be readily available on the table of the people in these area.
Under the Nationwide Fisheries and Agricultural Modernization Act of which de Venecia is the principal author in the Lower House and Sen. Edgardo Angara in the Senate, de Venecia said their target budget is from P17 to P20 billion per year and he hopes to continue it through this kind of program.
De Venecia plans to tap five to 10 farmers per town who will be trained and provided with certificate seeds, fertilizer and proper technology so they could transfer these to other farmers, too.
Through the use of hybrid seeds, production will go up by 100 to 300 percent, he said.
With rice production farmers earn from P20,000 to P35,000 per hectare. But with the use of high value vegetables, farmers can earn anywhere from P200,000 to P700,000 per hectare, he added.
"If you devote one hectare to high value crops you can become a millionaire" de Venecia said.
He added that this project will create the beginnings of a Filipino middle class and to create hundreds of thousands of agricultural entrepreneurs.