No need for chemicals in Argao farm

For more than half of his life, Ricardo Comaling, 63, was content with his income  from growing  rice, corn and sayote.

In 2011, he shifted to  high-value crops and earned much more.

“Dako gyud kaayo og kalainan sa kita ug sa abot (There’s really a big difference in yield and income),” he said.

Comaling is one of 15 farmer-beneficiaries in Argao town, southern Cebu.  He learned  new ways of farming through a program called Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CPAR) funded by the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) and implemented by the Cebu provincial government.

His one-hectare farm in the  upland barangay of Botong, now grows eggplants, cabbage, white squash, bell pepper and tomatoes, among others.

Three months ago, he earned P50,000 from the  cabbages he grew and sold directly to vendors  in Carbon market in Cebu City.

He can harvest 60 kilos of bell pepper each week and sells them at  P100 per kilo.

Comaling is proud that he does not use  chemicals in his fields.

CPAR  seeks the best  type of farming suited to an area  and trains farmers who are interested in their research.

The farmers in barangay Botong  practice  a combination of commodity, technology, land management and community dynamics.

Comaling adopted vermi-composting, which uses the droppings of earthworms,  a natural fertilizer.

If the system works, the project  will be replicated in adjacent areas which have a similar climate, soil type, elevation and other physical attributes.

Primitiva Magallanes, 47, started out with only two goats in 2011.

She has added at least 30 to her herd since then.

Goats are  among the livestock introduced to  farmers in the program.

Goats are  low-maintenance, don’t  require high-end technology and have a decent demand in the local market.

The organization was able to sell 17 goats for P30,000 in March this year.

Magallanes said this was used to purchase additional topsoil.

Each goat can be sold at P1,200 to P4,500, depending on the size.

Jun Calinawan, research and development coordinator of the Provincial Agriculture Office, said that CPAR is meant to increase income and not farm yield.

To ensure the farms are sustainable,  they also introduced organizational development to the Botong community.

“They are organized. They have a leader and treasurer,” he explained.

All inputs given to the farmers including organic fertilizers and seeds are coursed through the organization.  There are no dole-outs.

“The organization will lend the inputs to the members. They will pay the organization back and this will keep their seed money circulating,” said Calinawan.

There was no  management system for  farm inputs given by the government in the past.

Now the farmers are  taught how to keep records and  books of account to keep track of their resources.

“We are testing this method to see if it can be adopted by the Department of Agriculture,” Calinawan added.

If this succeeds,  it will become the basis of DA policies on the distribution of farm inputs.

The research project would have ended in 2013, but was halted for more than a year due to administrative constraints.

The project resumed in 2014.

“I was told by BAR that they didn’t want to close it yet. They want to see how it really goes,” said Calinawan.

Because of its location in the uplands, farms in barangay Botong are not classified as agricultural land.

But what made it work was the decision to plant   high-value crops which thrive in high elevations and the area’s climate.

Calinawan said land efficiency is high in terms of piece of product per square meter.

Land management is important because of the risk  of land degradation, erosion and siltation due to the elevation of the site.

Calinawan suggested that the project be officially closed in 2016, allowing him to begin a terminal report that details where they failed, where they succeeded and why.

A few months ago, representatives from the University of the Philippines Los Baños visited the site and gave positive  feedback.

Days after their visit, the crew of a government-owned broadcast station came to film an episode of an agricultural show in the area.