Cabbage in gloom

HAPPY WEEKEND 

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE- Couple Jessica and husband George who manage a coffee shop in this tourist town planted some 1,000 square meters of a parcel of lot to cabbage  four months ago to augment income at this times of the Covid pandemic. Came harvest time this September and  a part of the produce, some 500 kilograms was given out to whoever was interested to get from their farm located at the southern part of this town.
    The rest of the produce harvested by the couple along with  two of their children was donated to Linking Smallholder Farmers to Markets (LinkSFarM) LinksFarm, a program of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

    Asked why, ‘cabbage is priced low at the market’, Jessica said.

    ‘Rather than see these rot in the garden we donated these’, she added.  

    As of harvest time third week of September till now at presstime, cabbage plummeted at a market price of  P4.00  per kilogram at the La Trinidad trading post.

    Transporting cabbage to La Trinidad can’t even answer for the transport cost at P8, 000 from Sagada, Jessica lamented.

     Arsenio, another gardener at the central part of town did it another way.

    Arsenio  plowed back  his 500 square meters of cabbage produce he was about to harvest from his farm located some two  kilometers from the roadside  when he learned that cabbage  costs  P4.00 a kilogram.  The plowed back cabbage serves as fertilizer for the next cropping.

    Asked why, another gardener said, labor to harvest the produce and transportation costs are not enough to answer for the cost of cabbage to be sold in the market.   

    Other vegetable farmers who transported their vegetable produce to la Trinidad trading post and reached the P4.00 per kg price of cabbage donated their produce  to passersby along the sidewalks of La Trinidad.

    The same way that farmers whose carrot produce reached a low of P1 per kg at the La Trinidad trading post early this March donated their produce while some threw their produce along the roadside.  

Marketing woes

    Such is the marketing problem of vegetable farmers of Benguet and Mountain Province in the 80s till now.

    That is, when prices go down,  the vegetable farmer could only drop the vegetables at the roadside or leave the vegetables to rot in the garden.

    Most times, gambling on veggie prices in the market had been the practice. Prices that were never sure if the market value will return investments relied on. Good if the veggie price reached at least ten pesos plus per kg of cabbage for example, but if not the produce is wasted.

    With expensive inputs on fertilizer and seeds to include labor fees, the vegetable gardener could only say ‘waday swerte waday malas’ (there is good luck and there is bad luck) depending on the market price of veggies .

    A fair share of the gardeners’ capital and labor had long been the problem since the 80’s on to the ‘90s to the present where the Covid pandemic highlighted it so.

    For highland vegetables from Benguet and Mt Province which supplies 70-80% of highlands vegetables in Manila, marketing issues has doubled where gardeners increased at this time of the pandemic.

    For some 200 conventional farmers here in the tourist town of Sagada have obviously increased with some tourist guides and others in the tourism business who have gone to vegetable farming to feed a family.

    Others not in the tourism business but have turned to farming as an additional source of income and livelihood  made the once bushy and weedy lots go  green with vegetables on the  go since the pandemic began this March.

    March to May was preparation and planting time and farmers just have seen the fruits of their labor August-September this year.  Comes September and farmers are again preparing their fields for harvest this Christmas season.

Private and government support

Help and support is needed especially in the government sector which has the resources.

    The plight of farmers especially on the marketing side of it looks up to the Department of Agriculture and other  concerned  government  line agencies such as the Department of trade and industry  (DTI) and  the Department of Science and Technology  (DOST) and local government units (LGUs) to take notice and address the problem.

    In Sagada, efforts of kailyan and friends based in Manila help in the marketing of veggies rather than see these rot.

    Manila-based Tracey Santiago a friend of Sagada coordinates veggies from Sagada through the office of the Municipal agriculturist (OMAG) and gets orders in Manila before these are transported to the city in a marketing program called Sustainable Sagada.

    Maria Ap-apid, OMAG officer said the LGU shall be transporting 4 tons of veggies per week to Manila beginning this September. She calls out to farmers to reach her office that their produce be included in the weekly transport to Manila.      

    Sagada farmers pay P7.00 per kg of their veggies transported via the LGU truck. In the first two trips, the Department of Agriculture (DA) took charge of the freight in April. The DA resumed recently this September  with the transport fee partly handled by Santiago.

    Recently, with DA’s delivery truck having malfunctioned, Santiago shall be handling the  transport cost and with at least P10.00 per kg of cabbage given to the farmer, Ap-apid added. .  

    Under the DA’s Kadiwa Express provides farmers’ groups transport assistance and links them directly to buyers. News reports say DA regional director Cameron Odsey said 768,070 kg of assorted vegetables have been sold as of August.

    From September to December this year,the  Agri-Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) in La Trinidad, Benguet shall serve as farmers’ “buyer of last resort” when there is an oversupply of vegetables in the Cordillera region.

    Equally, Menchie Buking of the Department of Agriculture who manages Linking Smallholder Farmers to Markets (LinkSFarM) in Mountain Province expects that farmers themselves come together and coordinate with DAR for their produce to be marketed.

    “We pay farmers at higher prices from the usual market price. Farmers pay transportation cost at 7.00 per kg”, she said. 

    With cabbage at P19-22 per kg sold in Manila, farmers get P10 per kilo and the rest for packing materials and freight. 

    LinksFarm aims to make smallholder farmers increase agricultural productivity and effectively manage their agricultural production by applying value chain process. LinksFarm is now ARBold, an expanded version of its project that links agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) and smallholder farmers to the supply chain of products.

Packaging and processing woes

Packaging and processing of vegetables remains a big challenge among farmers and food processors so with concerned government line agencies and other stakeholders .

    Enthusiast-retail businessman Agustin Christian Lizardo based in Manila gets pre-ordered veggies before these reach Manila from Sagada via  private transport where farmers pay a P10.00 per kg of their veggies to answer for freight and toll fee. 

    Asked what issues he contends with, Lizardo said packaging is an issue to deal with. Having better boxes and better packaging facilities is important in selling veggies’, Lizardo said.

    Good looking veggies also come up significant in retailing veggies in Manila.

    ‘We are constrained to buy veggies at  La Trinidad Trading post as these are more attractive looking’, Lizardo said.

    Lots of farmers' vegetable produce of cabbages, carrots, bell pepper, tomatoes pose long time ago challenges in processing and preserving these into bottled pickles, kimchi, dried tomatoes, candies, chips much as these offer potential marketing possibilities.

    That is, a vast economic opportunity that has long not been given a chance to get noticed in the vegetable and marketing  industry. 

    It’s about time and it has long been about time that vegetable processing facilities be in place and help farmers regain their efforts, capital and labor.

    It’s a welcome development that the office of the Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar has funded a processing center  to be built at Benguet State University BSU through the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR). The amount of P10 million is meant for the construction of a building, while the P10 million will be used for equipment.

    Meantime in Benguet province, Governor Melchor Diclas is intent on constructing vegetable processing facilities in the province’s five municipalities following  an earlier discussion with DA Secretary William Dar.

    Benguet locates the popular vegetable producing towns of Buguias and La Trinidad.

    A vegetable processing facility is looked forward to be in place in Mountain Province with the attention of officials and concerned officers in government.

    Mountain Province locates the vegetable producing town of Bauko adjacent Buguias, and the tourist town of Sagada where gardeners have increased since the Covid pandemic struck March this year.