A GROUP of about 40 farmers from seven barangays in the municipality of Lupi, Camarines Sur are halfway into their season-long training or farmers field school on vegetable production which started May this year.
Already, they are reaping the fruits of their labor and new-found knowledge and improved practices as they start to harvest the vegetables they themselves planted and nurtured in a 1,000 square meter area in Barangay Bulawan Sr., just along the Andaya Sr. Highway.
Aside from the lectures conducted by resource persons from the Agricultural Training Institute, the Harbest Corporation and the Department of Agriculture, the 4-month training also includes hands-on and actual practice and application of the technologies on vegetable production under the supervision of the DA-LGU technician and high value commercial crop municipal coordinator, Evangeline Abejuro and the Municipal Agricultural Officer, Segundina Morallano.
Funding assistance was provided by the DA thru the GMA High Value Commercial Crops (HVCC) Program.
Every Friday, the farmer participants some of whom came from remotest barangays and upland areas would go to the project site and tend to the vegetable crops they have planted which included ampalaya, cucumber, tomatoes. pechay, eggplant, lettuce, and watermelon.
They are there also to monitor the presence of any pest or disease and decide how to address the problem using their knowledge on Integrated Pest Management practices.
At first the participants were disheartened to see that the project site assigned to them by the LGU appeared to be not the ideal site for vegetable production because the surface was badly eroded with hardly any top soil left. But with the use of organic fertilizer and improved farming practices they were able to restore its fertility and grow healthy vegetables which amazed not only the FFS participants but the residents in the neighborhood and even passers by.
The cucumbers and ampalaya of hybrid variety were really a delight to see as they have grown big and robust with an average weight of about 800 grams. The biggest cucumber they have harvested so far, even weighed over 1 kilogram. Their first harvest of cucumber yielded over 13 kilograms which they sell at P15 per kilo and earned them an initial income of P195 The sale from the vegetables is being pooled by the group and would later on be divided equally among the members which have been divided into four groups and which are now organized with a set of officers to oversee the various activities of each group.
This farmers field school on vegetable production under the “Gulayan sa Masa Program” is but one of the strategies being adopted by the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Agricultural Training Institute to mitigate hunger, reduce poverty and address the malnutrition problem especially in low income municipalities.
One of the farmer participants, Rogelio Gueriña, chairperson of the Barangay Agriculture and Fishery Council (BAFC) of barangay Bulawan Sr., says the project gives them something to look forward to. They have a sure supply vegetables for their home consumption and they can also earn additional income. Most important he says they are assured that the vegetables they are eating are safe from harmful chemicals that are now intensively being used by some commercial vegetable growers. Emily B. Bordado
Gulayan para sa Masa. A group of about 40 farmers from 7 barangays of Lupi, Camarines Sur are halfway into their season long training or Farmers Field School on vegetable production which started in May this year and are now ready to harvest the vegetables they themselves planted and nurtured in a 1,000 square meter area in Barangay Bulawan Sr. just along the Andaya Sr. Highway. Funding assistance was provided by the DA thru the GMA High Value Commercial Crops (HVCC) Program to mitigate hunger, reduce poverty and address the malnutrition problem especially in low income municipalities. PHOTO BY JUN COLLANTES
