Our Partners
Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya, Inc. (SIBAT) is an NGO with over 25 years of experience in appropriate technology all over the Philippines. In 2006, it set up Mangarita Farm in Capas, Tarlac to demonstrate the effectiveness of organic methods of agriculture and to hold training sessions for farmers in these techniques. In 2010, SIBAT facilitated the birth of the Capas Organic Farmers’ Association, the cooperative of 17 farmers from whom we source our produce. With this partnership, SIBAT offers the farmers soft, affordable loans for seeds, netting, greenhouse construction materials as well as continued training sessions in organic farming such as bio-fertilizer production and natural pest-repellant solutions. SIBAT serves as our main partner in projecting what the farmers will collectively harvest each week, in cleaning and sorting the vegetables for your nourishment and in ensuring the farmers get a fair, sustainable return for their contribution. SIBAT is also an active advocate for safe, GMO-free food and for small farmers’ rights in national policies.
Focus Group Discussion
July 23, 2011
prepared by Social Entrepreneurship class of ADMU 1st semester 2011-2012
Good Food Farmers
Introduction
Out of the 300 farmers in the area, we were told that only 17 farmers do organic farming. This is due to the tedious process and high maintenance that entail in such which not a lot of farmers are willing to deal with. Organic farming is relatively new to most farmers as some have only begun with this three years ago while others started only six months ago.
What is interesting is the fact that the farmers decided to pursue organic farming not only as a means of earning more, but also to provide for their family organic vegetables in assurance of good health. Thus, farming is a family business as women participate by planting and harvesting vegetables while their husbands take care of the rice.
Demographics of Farmers:
Before anything else, we asked for each farmer’s name, age, legal status, educational attainment, number of members in their household, and monthly household income. The following were obtained from the farmers:
1. VeroniKa Salac – 58 – Married – 2nd yr HS – 5 – 5000-12000/4mos
2. Susan Cajuguiran – 50 – Married (OFW husband) – College Grad (Forestry) – 6 – 1500/wk (Sari-sari)+1000/wk (Gulay)+20000(remittances)
3. Rosemary Cajuguiran – 52 – Married – High School – 6 – 10000/4mos(palay)+3-4000(Gulay)
4. Robita Salac – 66 – Married – Grade 5 – 9 -10000/4mos(palay)+300-1000/week (gulay)
5. Jolina Manyego – 64 – Widowed – Grade 6 – 7 – 500-700/wk (gulay)+1000/4mos(palay)
6. Carlito Pabustan – 63 – Married – High School – 2 – 5000 (gulay)
7. Sonny Pabustan – 52 – Married – High School – 10 – 150-300/wk (gulay)+10000/4mos(palay)
8. Abiel Sikat – 53 – Married – College Grad (civil engineer) – 2 – 8000/month
9. Val Sikat – 32 – Married – College Grad (civil engineer) – 3 – 10000/month
Land Ownership:
The next part of the discussion asked whether or not the farmers owned the land that they were working with. All of the farmers had their own land but with varying sizes. The following are the sizes of the land that each farmer owns (numbers correspond with the farmers from the demographics).
1. 1000 sq. m gulay, 1.1 hectare total
2. 1 *luwang = 625 sq. m
- 8 luwang total (5 palay, 3 gulay)
3. 10 luwang total (2 gulay)
4. ½ hectare (1 luwang gulay)
5. 1 hectare (1 luwang gulay)
6. 3 luwang
7. ½ hectare (2 luwang gulay)
8. ½ hectare gulay
9. ½ hectare (4000 sq. m gulay)
They owned land with declaration of title through inheritance from their husbands or elder relatives
*1 luwang=625 sq. m
GOOD FOOD
Membership at Good Food:
The farmers were approached by Good Food through SIBAT last October, but their membership was made official this February. The farmers in the discussion have been engaging in organic farming ever since they had begun farming. The palayan, however, still makes use of non-organic materials because using organic farming would be too tedious of a process for such large productions, although they have been attempting to convert to organic rice farming little by little.
Months/ Years in SIBAT:
The farmers have varying durations of membership in SIBAT. Three of them have been members for three years, four for six months, and one for two years.
Main Responsibility of the farmers to Good Food:
The farmers have been given the main task of providing organic vegetables to be sold by Good Food. They must not make use of non-organic pesticides, and quality must be assured at all times. Fifteen percent of their monthly profit is paid to SIBAT for the loans that they made to obtain organic farming materials.
* SIBAT provides the seeds but some are produced by the farmers themselves
Relationship with Good Food:
All of them are happy with Good Food and gave the enterprise a 5 in terms of satisfaction (1-5, 5 being the highest).
Every 3 months, Good Food and the farmers discuss the terms of their verbal agreement. The farmers suggested that they also meet to discuss the vegetables Good Food wants for the following months so that they can initiate planning the proportion of vegetables that each would plan to avoid surpluses and shortages.
Their earnings from the vegetables that they harvest are given a week after the vegetables are sold to the customers (usually Fridays).
The farmers do not experience any problems in dealing with the people from Good Food.
Benefits:
The main benefit that they gain from their membership at Good Food is associated with extra income, however they also experience other conveniences aside from extra income. With Good Food, there isn’t only more income but more stability as well because they do not follow the pricing fluctuations of the market. One scenario would be the pricing of okras. The market price of okras vary from 15-20 pesos but the Good Food price is constant at 30 pesos. Good Food also provides an additional 20% to the total sales of each farmer. For example, Farmer A sells vegetables worth 1000 pesos. With that, he/she gets an extra 200 pesos (20% of 1000), earning a total of 1200 pesos. However, 15% is subtracted from the original amount in order to pay for the loans for organic farming materials from SIBAT. [1000 from sales + 200- 150=1050 pesos gained]. Another benefit that they gained from being part of Good Food is that their neighbors no longer ask vegetables from them as they see that they get income from their products. Abiel, one of the farmers, was able to get through the tragedy of his son’s death through orgnaic farming with Good Food.
Income Satisfaction
All the farmers are not satisfied with their current income except for farmer 2 because of the remittances that she gains from her husband who works overseas.
Manifestations of improvements
After joining Good Food, all of the farmers noticed an improvement in their way of life. Additional income from Good Food made it possible for them to be able to serve meat in their tables. All of them gave a passing rate to how happy they are with their current work as organic vegetable farmers.
The extra income they earn from producing vegetables for Good Food were used for different things but all of them included food as the primary use of the extra income. Three of the farmers used the extra income for their children’s education, one used it to finish building his own house, five used it for the expansion of the farm and for other businesses like poultry, two used the money to celebrate wedding and baptism and most of them have used it for emergency. Another use of the extra income was to pay SIBAT for the debt they incurred for the materials they used.
Their dreams in life.
When asked of their dreams in life, the farmers seemed delighted to share theirs. Ate Veronika’s dream is to have good health, Ate Susan’s is to give her children education, Ate Rosemary wants to build her own house with 3 bedrooms, Ate Robita wants a big house to accomodate her children and grandchildren, Ate Jolina wants her house to be repaired, Kuya Sonny wants to have a business having no debt, Kuya Abiel wants to be able to lend money to others, and Kuya Val wants to expand his farm.
Vision
- hindi kaya mag-expand nang mag-isa
- next 12 months kukuha ng katulong ang mga wala, may ibang meron ng kasama na mga kamag-anak
- They see building a cooperative as one way of helping them expand
- halos lahat ng may balak mag-expand lalaki
All of the farmers want to expand their farm in the near future though they have difficulties in financing the expansion. Some have plans of hiring someone to help them in the farm when time comes that they could already afford to expand, while some have family members already helping them out. One solution they are eyeing is to have a cooperative for them to be able to borrow money for the expansion.
An additional income would really please some of the farmers. Ate Veronika and ate Rosemary wants an additional 1000 a week, Ate Susan wants an additional 1500 a week, Ate Robita wants 2000 a week, Kuya Abiel wants 8000 a week, Kuya Carlito wants 6000 a week, and Kuya Val wants 4000 a week. Earning these desired amounts of money depends on the improvement each farmer implement. The more they plant, the more they harvest, the more they earn.
As of the present most of them harvest 15-30 kilos of vegetables a week. Kuya Abiel harvests around 500 kilos during a good week while Kuya Val ranges from 40-200 kilos a week. They say that they could still plant more but they are limited by the available materials. It would cost them 5000 pesos to build one grrenhouse.
Benefits of Organic Farming
Another of the questions asked was whether or not they knew the benefits of organic farming. Evidently, one of the benefits of organic farming that they mentioned is good health to the consumers. The farmers can attest to this as they themselves are not prone to any sickness or diseases. Aside from health and wellness for the farmers, the soil also become healthy as organic farming encourages the multiplication of earthworms which then provide nutrition to the soil. The farmers then shared that the farming process becomes easier due to the healthy and arable land. As a result, other farmers who have not yet engaged in organic farming recognize the advantages to the extent that they are influenced to change their practices.
CHALLENGES
Being a vegetable farmer brings a lot of challenges. The weather is the main problem of all the farmers. During sunny period, they have a hard time with water. There are only a few water pumps and some of them are very far from the farm. And yet they are not very thankful for rainy seasons. In fact, they find it harder to plant during that time because their plants get destroyed and washed away by the water from heavy rains. Some are not earning for 3 years now because of the calamities that hit the area. Another problem they have are the pests in the greenhouses. One solution they have to fight the pests is mixing mint, perla to their pest control solution. They put fermented juice plant to leaves that are turning yellow in order for them to turn green. Crude oil prices is also becoming a problem for them as they need it for irrigation. Building greenhouses is also a problem because materials cost so much for them.
LOANS
When asked if they are willing to borrow money for the expansion of their business, males were the ones who were more inclined to doing so. Some of them would like to borrow 12000, some 20000, 15000, while Kuya Abiel would want to borrow 50000. With this, they are willing to pay 50, 200, 250, 1000, 300, 1500, 100 per week considering that they will be given 3 months period to start earning. They would prefer only a 1% interest rate and would want to pay their debt in 1-5 years. All of them agreed to the idea of paying their co-farmer’s debt in cased of emergency, but they would only do it when they see that he/she is really incapable of paying as for that moment.
Self-rated Poverty
When asked to rate themselves before and after joining Good Food with 5 as the highest and 1 as the lowest, most of them only gave a rating of 3 before joining Good Food although 2 gave a rating of 5. After joining good food, their ratings increased by at least 1, except for farmer 1 whose rating decreased by 2 due to the disasters she experienced from the bad weather.
