NAIC, Cavite—The combined provision of support services and infrastructure facilities from different government institutions led by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), have helped uplift the lives of rice and vegetable farmers.

DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer James Arthur Dubongco said the collaboration among different government agencies was instrumental in extending assistance to the 351 members of the Palangue Agrarian Reform Cooperative (PARC).

The PARC, a DAR-assisted cooperative, was established on 5 July 1995, with an initial capital of P21,100 from its 34 founding members who are agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

Dubongco said that since the PARC’s establishment, the DAR has been providing various support services in the form of machines, equipment, farm-to-market roads, irrigation, loans, and various training.

Among the latest projects granted to the PARC by the DAR is a 200-sqm. vegetable greenhouse with solar-powered drip irrigation and fertigation system. The P1 million greenhouse was provided under the Sustainable and Resilient Agrarian Reform Communities (SuRE ARCs) project and was turned over to the cooperative last year.

“Farming under greenhouse conditions helps farmers sustain their production all year round and protect their crops from adverse climatic conditions and insects and diseases,” Dubongco said.

“Farmer members also benefitted financially, through dividends or interest on their share capital, as they manage and operate the project,” added Dubongco.

Joselito Tibayan, general manager of PARC, said that through the greenhouse, they can plant and harvest fruits and vegetables that are not in season. He said that crops planted inside the greenhouse are bigger and juicier than those planted outside the greenhouse.

“These cantaloupes we are harvesting today were planted inside the greenhouse. We will earn P40,000 every harvest. Last year, we harvested only P8,000 from each harvest of cantaloupes that were planted without the greenhouse,” Tibayan said.

The PARC also earns from vermicomposting and egg-laying that they have learned through the training provided by DAR in partnership with the Farm Business School (FBS) program of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Agricultural Training Institute.

Tibayan said the FBS helped develop the farmers’ their entrepreneurial skills and taught them how best to access the market and develop their agricultural products.

“From the training on organic farming from DAR, we learned how to make organic fertilizers through composting. We also learned to manage the business of egg-laying and we earn from it every day. The DAR built us a chicken-laying house for this business venture,” Tibayan said.

Under the DAR’s Village Level Farm Enterprise Development, the PARC received a water refilling station that supplies the community with safe drinking water, and a food processing facility that processes ube jam, cucumber juice with honey, and pickled papaya.

The DAR also provided a learning site for the members of PARC to strengthen the competencies and skills of ARBs and non-ARBs.

At present, the PARC’s share capital has grown from the initial P21,000 to P2 million and now serves its members through the following: credit services: buying and selling of agri-inputs, agri-service operation, botika ng barangay, rice-trading, water-refilling station, and solar power irrigation system.

Tibayan, on behalf of their association, expressed his sincere gratitude to the DAR and other implementing agencies of the land reform for exerting all efforts to help them.

“Thank you, DAR, DA, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), local government unit (LGU) of Naic, and other partner agencies for your unrelenting support to the association. We are deeply touched by your determination to uplift the status of our lives by simply providing us with different support services,” Tibayan said.

Joselito Tibayan is a farmer-scientist who advocates for the health and welfare of farmers through the use of environment-friendly technologies, maintenance of ecological sustainability and stability, and profitability attainment.