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BY JULIO P. YAP JR.
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Friday. September 15, 2017
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A LIVELIHOOD venture, which is gender-responsive, has empowered women to become productive organic farmers in Los BaƱos, Laguna.
The project dubbed āGender-responsive organic vegetable production livelihood enterprise for low-income communities of Los BaƱos, Lagunaā is spearheaded by the Gender and Development (GAD) Committee of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCAARRD-DOST).
The initiative, which benefited at least 123 farmer-cooperators from the barangays of Bagong Silang, Timugan, Putho-Tuntungin, Bambang, Bayog, Malinta, and Mayondon, was conducted in collaboration with the local government unit (LGU) Los BaƱos.
Barangay Bagong Silang, which is located at the foot of the Mount Makiling, has the most farmer-cooperators at 46 percent, and posted the highest number of women cooperators who participated in the project.
Annabelle delos Reyes, one of the women farmer-cooperators of Barangay Bagong Silang, has converted hours of domestic work to farm and community efforts that provided her an additional income and food for her family.
This setup allowed both Delos Reyes and her husband to earn from the vegetable project, and at the same time share in domestic chores.
Before the project started, most of the farmer-cooperators had little or no knowledge on how to produce organically grown vegetables.
Benny Badillo, another farmer-cooperator from the same barangay, had previously depended on young and mature coconuts for livelihood until the infestation of cocolisap and weather disturbances like typhoons ruined their coconut palms.
The project was able to impart know-how and skills on organic vegetable production to farmer-cooperators through a series of training sessions.
These included seed production, organic fertilizer production, vermicomposting, postharvest handling, marketing, farm record keeping/documentation, mushroom production, agripreneurship, leadership training, and gender sensitivity training workshop.
They were also introduced to the mechanics of integrated farming system, which they can use when they decide to set up their own business.
Because of the knowledge they acquired from the series of training sessions, the farmers in Barangay Bagong Silang are now producing bitter gourd, lettuce, tomato, okra, pechay, mustard, eggplant, sitao, and peanut, among others.
They also market their produce at the Organic Agri Fair of the University of the Philippines Open University in Los BaƱos every last Friday and Saturday of each month.
Aside from directly benefiting from the harvest of their farms, they also learned how to produce processed foods like atsara, suman, burong mustasa, pickled garlic, and spiced vinegar, among others.
These products are also sold alongside their fresh produce.
With these developments, the farmers in Barangay Bagong Silang have been benefiting from the project, mainly through the profit they earned from selling their produce.
For the months of August until December in 2016, the communal farm in the barangay has already earned P19,340 from the sales, including non-cash earnings.
Non-cash earnings are the produce consumed by the farmers and their families.
The profit obtained from the operation of the communal farm is being loaned to farmer-cooperators without interest, but should be paid within a period of one month. (jaypeeyap@ymail.com/PN)
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