OFFICE IN SPOTLIGHT

 Municipal Agriculture Office:

coaxing bigger income from the land 

            Along the national highway in Tenan where the landscape is a blend of grasses and rubber trees, motorists are often surprised by a small garden patch marked by luscious papaya fruits dripping on dwarfed trunks, and a trellis of crawling vines loaded with ripening squash.

            If the curious traveler stops to inquire, he would discover that the papayas are for sale, and so are the various fruits and vegetables planted in the 1000 square meter garden tended by an old couple darkened by the same sun that ripens their produce.

           Welcome to Ipil’s model farm, a showcase for integrated and multiple vegetable gardening. 

            The joint handiwork of the Erlino Asuelo couple and the Municipal Agriculture Office, the model farm is an experiment in the adaptability to Ipil’s climate of high end vegetables like cauliflower, sweet pepper, and squash.

            If the experiment is successful, the MAO will encourage farmers to switch to vegetable production for bigger income as opposed to rice farming, says agriculture officer Zenaida Santos.

In August of this year, in partnership with a seed production outfit, the MAO sponsored a two-day training seminar for several farmers.  In this training, the East West Company provided both technology and seed samples of various vegetables and fruits.  Mulching, a method where moisture is preserved and growth of weeds discouraged by a specialized plastic cover on the plantbed, was introduced.

After the training, participants were given free seed samples, insecticides and fertilizers.  They were also allowed to borrow garden tools as they try to apply the new technology in their own backyards.  Every now and then, the MAO personnel visit these farms to check on the progress and to offer advice to farmer participants.

            For many farmers, like Erlino Asuelo who continues to till the land even in his seventies, farming is not just a source of living but a way of life.  New technologies that would increase their production and assistance in farm inputs are always scarce but welcome developments.

CAPTIONS: 

P7-1    Improving farmers’ lives.  The work of the Municipal Agriculture Office impacts the lives of small farmers, just like that of Erlino Asuelo, 73, a resident of Tenan, tilling borrowed land in order to put food on the table for his family.

 P7-2    Zenaida Santos, municipal agriculture officer, checks on the growth of cauliflowers, a high-end vegetable selling at P45 a kilo.  The sheets of plastic covering the beds are designed to control soil moisture for maximum care of vegetables.

 P7-3   These papayas may just be a little taller than agriculturist Nilda Clemenia, but for what they lack in height they make up for size in fruit.  This variety have few seeds and are succulent.

P7-4 & 7-5      Crab fattening is also another venture by the MAO.

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