Former rebels reap gains from high value crops

POLOMOLOK, South Cotabato – Their life used to revolve around corn. Since becoming a farmer eight years ago, Kakim Zarudin, chair of the Mapia Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MMPC) in Polomolok, South Cotabato, and the 49 other members of the group, harvested two crops of corn annually, earning an average of P10,000 per crop.

It wasn’t exactly the good times but it was a more productive and peaceful life than being a Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) combatant, his fateful existence before the 1996 Peace Agreement. Corn wasn’t the most profitable crop, but there was enough to build decent hollow block homes with galvanized iron sheet roofs and to send the kids to school.

But now the farmers are starting to prosper from high value crops that command higher incomes. And life is looking brighter. Since they started planting bitter gourd, eggplant, sweet pepper, tomato, cucumber, mungbean, string beans, and pechay a year ago the MMPC members have seen their incomes quadruple. These days, instead of having to bring their crop to market, the farmers find vegetable buyers trooping to the MMPC farms in Brgy. Sumbakil.

"There is huge demand for quality vegetables even in the local market," notes Zarudin. He says some vegetables buyers come from as far away as General Santos and Koronadal City. Consequently, Zarudin and his colleagues are expanding production to meet demand. And business is good; one cropping of vegetables earns the farmers more than the total income from a year’s worth of corn harvests.

The Polomolk farmers are among the more than 20,000 former MNLF combatants who went into rice, corn and seaweed farming. Many of the former fighters formed associations and/or cooperatives to help each other in farming.

Last year, however, the MMPC was introduced to high-value vegetable cultivation by technical advisors of the Targeted Commodity Expansion Program (TCEP) component of USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program, which is implemented in cooperation with the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCO). TCEP’s agriculture experts helped set up a demonstration farm in the village and taught the farmers appropriate planting and post harvest techniques. Commercial input suppliers were also enlisted to provide commodities and training.

TCEP is encouraging farmers throughout Mindanao to diversify into high-value crops such as vegetables, mangoes, cardava banana, peanuts and fishery products like catfish, tilapia, milkfish and prawn. More than 2,000 former MNLF combatants who have been trained in high-value agriculture and aquaculture technologies are now into food production; half of them are already selling their products to local and institutional markets.

In the adjacent barangay of Lumakil, 50 corn farmer-members of the Bago Inged Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BIMPC) are also selling assorted vegetables at markets in Polomolok, General Santos and Koronadal City.

News of success of the Sumbakil and Lumakil farmers has spread throughout South Cotabato. It has motivated other farmer groups in nearby areas also to diversify into high value crops.

Conducted in their own villages, corn growers in other areas are introduced to proper practices for cultivating eight vegetable commodities. The farmers are taught land preparation, planting seeds, irrigation, and harvesting techniques.

Participating seed companies present a cost analysis for each community and provide primers on common diseases and pests. Fertilizer companies demonstrate appropriate and judicious ways of using fertilizer and pesticides to maximize production while protecting the environment and preserving the soil.

The companies then provided seeds and fertilizer to the trainees so that they can start production on their demo farms. After learning the production system for each vegetable crop, farmers then select the vegetable commodities that are right for them.