Veggie farming provides good income

MANILA, Philippines - Joel and Lolita Biñar started their family in the late 80’s, with Joel helping manage his parents’ three-hectare coconut and rice land. Joel realized soon enough that the coconut harvest from that small farm would not be able to support them all since there were seven of them alternately getting the “kuchicha.”

What made things more difficult was that his family was getting bigger as his wife was giving birth every year. He knew he had to do something. It was just then that Congress approved the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and Joel was one of the lucky few who were given their own land to farm.

Joel started by filling the land with coconut. Then he cultivated vegetables and other short-term crops in a portion of his land that is not planted to coconut. It took three months before the crops were ready for harvest. Joel recalls how he patiently counted the earnings he made – P3,000 a month back in 1990

Joel felt his knowledge in farming was insufficient so he participated in a week-long DAR sponsored observation tour on vegetable production at the Golden Valley, Cebu City.

Inspired by the blossoming farmland at the Golden Valley, he welcomed the idea of planting high value crops and applied the lessons learned from the said visit.

His patience bore fruit when two months later, he produced 200 kilos of ampalaya every six days which he sold at P35/ kg; 20 kg of eggplant sold at P15/kg and 100 kilos of sitaw, which he sold at P20/kg.

Harvest was every six days for about three months. Joel was realizing a gross sales of P37, 200 every month from his vegetables.

With Joel’s earnings, the Biñars were able to build a concrete house with all the amenities. They were also able to send all their nine children to good schools.

Joel’s income grew even more when he acquired a turtle hand tractor and had it rented out for an average of P3,500 per month.

Then he bought two motorboats to transport his own and other farmers’ produce to the market. From that, he earned at least P8, 000 per month.

Since Joel’s farm is located across the stream, he decided to buy a rowboat that would ferry the village folks and school children to the other side of Buenavista I ARC. Now, he has three rowboats. At P1 per ride, he earns P6, 000.

To help young boys in the village, these boats were lent to them during weekends, rent-free. The income earned will be for the boys‘ week-long “baon” during school days.

Hoping to share his good fortune, Joel encouraged his fellow farmers to plant high value crops. But they were hesitant because they had no money to finance their production and they wouldn’t know where to sell their produce.

In response, Joel offered to finance all their inputs, interest free and buy all their harvests. Seeing it as a win-win situation, the farmers agreed and pretty soon, many of them saw a three-fold increase in their income.

In 2002, Joel became serious with the financing business. He financed 30 farmers in different barangays of San Jorge, tilling an average of 500 –1000 sq.m of farmlands for vegetables with a capital of P30, 000.

To prevent an oversupply situation in any one crop, he advised his farmer friends to plant different crops and practice intercropping.

Today, these farmers feel blessed, as they are now free from the shackles of loan sharks, greedy middlemen and the burden of looking for a market for their produce.

As for Joel, his success in farming has catapulted him to a political career that continues to grow.

Joel acknowledges the remarkable assistance of CARP, through agri- related trainings/seminars/orientation exposures that honed his leadership skills and eloquent speech ability.