Some needs of small time farmers

Cebu City is composed of roughly 32,000 hectares. A large portion of this total land area is in the mountains. Necessarily, the means of livelihood in the rural part of our city is related to agriculture.

In the mountain barangays, the problems of the residents there, specially those who depend on their farm for their sustenance, are simple. They can be addressed with a little system put in place.

Let me cite two specifics that I learned from personal experience. There is a sitio called Baugo in Barangay Paril. It is a very small community of less than 50 homes. Most of the inhabitants of this sitio are farmers who toil their lands without the sophistication of mechanical implements.

First. On my visit there one day, I noticed that one of their carabaos did not look healthy. Of course, I myself did not know anything about farm animals so I could not state certainly that it was sick. But that was how I perceived the condition of the animal to be. Indeed, when I inquired from the owner if there was something wrong with his carabao, he confirmed my suspicion. In fact, he was attending to it in the old ways he learned from his forebears because they never had the assistance of any veterinarian.

I then asked the carabao owner if he and his neighbors would like their farm animals visited by the city veterinarian. There was skepticism, to say the worst, registered on his face. But, he welcomed the idea.

Two weeks later, I succeeded in bringing the personnel of Dr. Alice Utlang, the city veterinarian to Baugo. They brought along medicines and applied them on the beasts of burden and other animals. In Baugo, that kind of attention given by the city government was the first of its kind. And so to express the gratitude of Baugo people, I wrote about this few months ago.

Second. One farmer in that sitio owns the land he cultivates. His registered name is James but he is more known there as Boy. His possession is not so very big, but I gathered that each time Boy works on it, his yield is sufficient for his family’s needs and a little more to sell in the market.

What prevents him from making his farm productive all throughout the year is the availability of fertilizer. This is also true as regards the other farmers. It takes them time to gather and prepare organic substances like chicken dung or horse manure. The inorganic fertilizers are, for them, very prohibitive and some of them have become aware that these are deleterious to their farm land.

To help them source out organic fertilizer, I asked around which government agencies could extend assistance. There is a program of the provincial government of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia that answers this need. The province is producing compost fertilizer and is giving it to farmers.

Considering however, the perceived conflict between the administrators of the city and the province, I initially hesitated to approach Capitol. But, there was a need that I felt only the province was in the position to supply. So, I called Atty. Rory Sepulveda, the governor’s consultant for help. To my surprise, Dr. Vecoy, the provincial agriculturist, returned the call and he said his office would help regardless of whether I was a city resident or a constituent of the province. He then sent me sacks of his compost fertilizer and chicken dung.

I write of these specific experiences in the hope that the city government of His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama sets up a program to look into the needs of our small time farmers. The help the city can give these people will make our mountain barangays produce more than the amount of agricultural products we need. Who knows this modest gesture is the beginning of something big.

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