Poor harvest forces farmers to hike prices

Farmer Juanito Redelosa and his daughter can only resign themselves to a lower harvest at the start of the year due to the cold spell. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

The prolonged cold spell has dwindled the harvests of many farmers in the upland barangays of Cebu City, forcing them to sell their produce at double the price.

Juanito Redelosa, a 58-year-old farmer of barangay Sirao, Cebu City told Cebu Daily News that last week’s harvest consisted of only two kilos each of tangkong (swamp cabbage), pechay (Chinese cabbage) and batong (string beans).

“Before I was able to harvest more than 50 kilos each of tangkong, pechay, and batong. The cold weather and strong wind caused vegetables to rot,” Redelosa said.

Because of the scarcity of supply, Redelosa said he was forced to sell his tangkong at double the price to P25 per kilo instead of P12.

From P12 per kilo, a kilo of pechay is sold at P35 while a kilo of batong was sold at P40 per kilo or up from P15.

Having worked in the farm since he was eight, Redelosa said it is the only livelihood he knows.

Redelosa’s 18-year old daughter Gemmarie delivers his produce by motorcycle via the Central Highway to Carbon market in Cebu City, Mandaue City, Opon and Labangon.

“I pray that there will be fine weather so that we can recover again,” he told CDN.

The state weather bureau Pagasa said Cebu will have cold weather until the end of this month with temperatures dropping as low as 23 degrees Celsius at night.

Northeasterly winds from China and Siberia have blown straight to the country instead of passing through a longer route to the Pacific Ocean.

Redelosa said the vegetables that he planted will be harvested every one month and two weeks.

“As of now, I haven’t started to plant seeds yet because I am worried with the weather. It might not grow up or just rotten again. It is too hard to plant vegetables. You need to spend 8 hours a day to take care of them,” he said.

The cold weather also affected Redelosa’s harvest of bananas, jackfruit and corn.

Cebu Daily News witnessed Redelosa bind four bunches of unripe bananas and two jackfruits.

“I don’t have any choice but to sell this one. Our family only relies to farming and I need to sell it so that we have money to buy food,” he said.

On regular days, Redelosa can sell 15 bunches of bananas worth P3,000 and more than five jack fruits for P300.

From his usual harvest of P2,000 kilos of corn which he sells at P25 per kilo, Redelosa harvested 800 kilos that he plans to sell at P30 per kilo.

Another farmer, 39-year-old Lorena Tabal also of barangay Sirao, only harvested 20 kilos each of lettuce and chili instead of the usual 60 kilos.

Tabal now sells her lettuce at P40 per kilo instead of P15 and P80 per kilo of chili instead of P50.

“Lisod kaayo mo motanom karon kay mao gihapon hangingon mamatay ra sila (It’s hard to plant now because it would only wilt and die),” she said.