Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class Monday to Friday
It was a
long walk and the hikers knew they were getting near their destination, a
flower farm in San Luis, Pampanga in Central Luzon, Philippines. The air was
filled with the singular fragrance of an immaculate white flower, the
sampaguita. This flower is the pride of the Filipinos, it being their national
flower. Its scientific name is Jasminium sambac.
The
source of the fragrance sprawled before the hikers – a track garden very much
like a hillside tea farm in China or in Sri Lanka. Sampaguita and tea have a common growth
pattern. They are bushy shrubs, trimmed
waist to form a continuous hedge that makes harvesting easier. It also reminds
one of vineyards in Europe and California where grapes grow following the
contour of the land.
Sampaguita Farming
Each garden is the size of a typical rice
paddy, a tenth of a hectare (or one mu in China). This is equivalent to 1,000 square meters or
one-tenth of a hectare. Small as it may
when compared with other farms, sampaguita is a high value crop. It requires
initial high investment and takes around two years to become commercially
productive. Production technology is
rather new and the industry - from farming to garland making - is labor
intensive. But the profit derived may be
several times over that of an ordinary field crop. For a size of one to two mus,
a family can comfortably live on the farm’s produce, and this is appropriate
for small landholdings with fairly large families. The farm which the group of
hikers visited (one of whom is the author) is just ideal for one family to
manage.
“Sampaguita must be a profitable
business,” we asked. The lady gardener
smiled and looked down in a gesture of humility while doing some mental
computation. The lady is an Overseas Filipino Worker
(OFW)-turned-entrepreneur. She is
Brigida S. Batac, a former school teacher who went to Saudi, then returned some
years later. Today she heads the family farm.
Sampaguita is sold by the tabo
(the size of motor oil can) of about P50.00 (US$1.00) per tabo. The
harvest from the Batac farm ranges from 50 to 100 tabos a day. This means the value of a day’s harvest is
from P2,500.00 (US$50.00) to P5,000.00 (US$100.00). Assuming that harvesting is done daily, the
monthly gross sale is from P75,000.00 (US$1,500.00) to P150,000.00
(US$3,000.00). When made into garlands,
the value of the flower is doubled. A tabo contains a hundred garlands,
with four flowers each. And a garland
sells at P1.00 (US$0.02) apiece.
Net
profits, after deducting the cost production, is 50 percent of each gross
sale. One can do one’s own pencil
pushing to come up with the amount each family can earn.
The
garland making area is the family porch of this Batac home. Brigida’s sister,
Cristina, 27, demonstrated the technique of garland making. As the farming
business proceeds manufacturing, the value of the product is increased,
hence the term, value added.
One can
picture the case of the rice farmer and the trader. The latter undertakes the post-production
work of drying, milling, storing and transporting. By doing so, he virtually
takes the profit away after the farmer had sold his palay at a relatively low
price.
The lesson to be learned is that production,
processing and marketing must be integrated in one roof, with a farmer, and
members of his family having control over these aspects of business.
Subsequently, the business becomes more self-reliant and viable.
The main
markets of sampaguita garlands are Solis in Quiapo in Manila, Balintawak
Monumento, and Malolos, Bulacan. These
centers, like Divisoria, serve as bagsakan (unloading and wholesale
zone). From here, the sampaguita garlands
are retailed in sidewalks, around churches and restaurants where parties are
usually held. It is the sampaguita a
little girl offers, gently tapping your car’s window after stepping on the
brake at some busy intersection in the city.
It is the sampaguita we wear on graduation day, when we speak on stage,
and which we offer to the Santo Niño. It is the sampaguita we simply hang in
our sala (living room) or bedroom. Its sight and fragrance exudes a
feeling of freshness and peace.
Many
will agree with the author that the sampaguita has made lasting impressions in
our lives. One of these moments is
recorded in this verse he wrote sometime ago.
“A trophy, that I would
rather miss;
for a sampaguita from a Miss
who gives it to me with a kiss.”
The
sampaguita flowers are shy under the noonday sun but the scenario is a respite
as if we were among the blooming hedges of some Italian- or French-type garden.
Other
members of the group from Manila tried their hands in stringing some sampaguita
buds, forming the familiar leis and garlands.
It is not an easy job. It takes a
lot of skill, and speed to keep up with the freshness and aroma of the flowers,
thus meeting the market schedules. Both sisters, Brigida and Cristina, were
patient teachers, and soon enough the group began to form a production line of
sorts, a prototype of the assembly line for mass production.
Tapping the Potentials of an Enterprise
With the
bright prospects of expanding the industry, we sat down with the family and
talked about some aspects of the business. This is what we found out which may
be useful to those wanting to develop a sampaguita plantation:
1. There is an economic farm
size for every crop in a farm. A feasibility study is needed. Consult those who
have larger farms.
2. Production technology must
be improved to attain higher, and more uniform production volumes, while
cutting down costs. Work towards
sustainable productivity.
3. Integrate the flower
planting business with pendant flower production such as champaca (Michella
alba), ilang-ilang (Cananga odorata), and camia, some of the pendant
flowers in demand.
4. Introduce cut flower
production for roses, gladiolus, daisies and even orchids for
diversification. Planners call this
horizontal integration. Blossoms of Heliconia (lobster’s claw or bird of
paradise) have recently become popular as a flower arrangement. From the
results of pilot testing, select those flowers which are adaptable and
profitable.
5. Eliminate the use of
dangerous chemical pesticides. Replace
them with botanical pest exterminators such as pyrethrum and rotenone which are biodegradable. Greenhouse
cultivation is too sophisticated and expensive for the average farm. But there
are makeshift plastic greenhouses using Japanese and Chinese models.
Chlorinated hydrocarbon and phosphatic compounds, chemical pesticides which act
as systemic poisons, are hazardous to the gardener and the seller alike,
through poison inhalation and skin contact.
6. There is need to expand
research into the many uses of sampaguita. There are a number of medicinal uses
of sampaguita. In Malaysia, women soak the flowers in water for washing their
faces. In China the flowers are used to give added aroma to tea. The flowers are applied as poultice, or
medicated mass, covering to the breasts of women to reduce their secretion of
milk. A paste compounded with the roots of Acacia is applied to relieve
headache. The leaves are used as poultice and spread over sores or other
lesions.
7. The production of sampaguita
for perfumes, car fresheners or room deodorizers is another challenge for
cottage industrialists.
From the
garden of fragrance, sampaguita, the group of hikers walked over to another
garden of vegetables, kangkong. No sinigang is ever cooked without this
vegetable. Kangkong is the most popular
vegetable in the Philippines. It is
often dubbed the gulay ng masa (people’s vegetable), because of its
cheapness, and availability everywhere and anytime of the year. Kangkong, or
swamp cabbage, is scientifically known as Ipomea aquatica. It is in
Barangay San Jose in San Luis, Pampanga, where a group of visitors, including
this writer, were invited to observe how kangkong was cultivated like most
farm-produced crops are.
Mang Ben
Miranda took us to the edge of a stream, where he rowed a flat-bottomed boat to
a kangkong pen. He then showed us how the shoots grow outward from the “floating gardens” like the way the Aztecs
grow vegetables on Texcoco Lake in Mexico, or the way Burmese farm vegetables
on mud mounds where the farmer rows a dugout canoe to attend to his
plants. Another version of this unique
agriculture is Sorjan farming in Pakistan and India, characterized by intervals
of plots and canals.
The
thick mass of kangkong, two to three meters across, is tied to bamboo poles to
steady it against stream flow, while keeping the floating vines intact. While
on the boat, the harvester picks the shoots, foot long in length, which he
later bundles into a thickness the size of a thigh. This is later repacked at the market into
five to six shoots per bundle, and sold for P5.00 (US$0.10) each.
The key
to productivity of kangkong is to grow it in fresh, unpolluted waters or
streams. Contrary to general belief,
kangkong is not just a wild plant growing in canals and swamps. There are several varieties of kangkong and
the commercial ones are cultivated the same way as other field crops are
raised. The upland variety is short and
lean, and is preferred for adobong kangkong, fried kangkong, or simply
blanched for table salad (with tomatoes, onions and a dash of salt).
Food and Mineral Value of Kangkong
What are
the mineral food content of kangkong? According to Maranon in the Philippine
Journal of Science, young shoots of this plant, are rich in Phosphorus,
Calcium, and Iron. The significant food value consists mainly of 3.64 percent
carbohydrates, and 4.25 percent protein. Crude fiber however, cannot
sufficiently supply our body’s fiber requirement since it is less than one
percent in content.
One
objection to eating kangkong is the danger it may carry toxic metals. An experiment conducted by Myrna Ramos at the
University of Santo Tomas showed that lead can be absorbed by the plant and
deposited in its stems and leaves. There is suspicion that mercury, a more
toxic metal, can also be absorbed by the plant and passed on to humans.
But
seeing how carefully kangkong is farmed at San Jose using unpolluted waters,
allayed our fears. The rule of thumb for kangkong is, we should know the source
of the vegetable.
Enterprise and Cooperative
The
profitability of an enterprise for a family is one thing, but the collective
success of a community of families is another.
While it
is true that there are individually successful entrepreneurs, it is essential
that this success be duplicated. Hence, there is need to organize small
enterprises such as a cooperative to enable them to compete in the market.
Economies of scale dictates that big and organized enterprises survive where
unorganized and small businesses do not. And this is the reason why
multinational businesses dominate the markets, forcing small ones to fold up.
The idea of organizing a cooperative was brought to the attention of the
barangay council of San Jose led by Reynaldo de Jesus.
“We had
a multipurpose Cooperative before,” the chairman confessed, “but it did not
succeed.” Since then no one thought of
reviving it or putting up another. We
suggested that they get assistance from the Cooperative Development Authority.
It was pointed out new thrusts in cooperatives development are supported both
government and private sectors. Cited were successful ones locally and abroad,
such as the multipurpose cooperative of Nagpandayan, Guimba, Nueva Ecija. This
cooperative was able to generate an asset base of more than P100 million (US$ 2
million) in ten years of continuous operation. Its membership grew from 30 to
300 during the same period.
Tagudin
Credit Cooperative in Ilocos Sur is another success story. The same is true for
Lucban Cooperative in Bay, Laguna. Just
to illustrate the size of a cooperative, compared to a corporation; Swiss Air,
one of the largest airlines in the world, is a cooperative.
Small is Beautiful
We have
no biases against big business. But we
have learned from experience how difficult it is to manage a big one. As gleamed from Schumacher’s book, “Small is
Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered,” he pointed out that progress has a
limit, and that bigness alone is not a guarantee of dominance and stability. We
know about stories of how giant corporations met their doom. The latest is the
US-based giant corporation, ENRON, which toppled like a domino. Small
enterprises on the other hand, are more resilient in weathering socio-economic
storms, which explains the book’s title. This award-winning book won the author
the title, “Hero for the Planet Earth,” given by Time Magazine. Small farm
businesses tend to be more environment friendly, if they are conscious of
wanting to be sustained in their surroundings.
Manila Market and the Concept of a Greenbelt
Also
pointed out was the advantage of being near a big market. With Metro Manila’s population of more than
eight million people, neighboring provinces, which include Pampanga are lucky,
indeed. They form a “green belt” of the
metropolis. The zones, CAMANAVA (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela)
and CALABAR (Cavite, Laguna. Batangas, and Rizal) are based on the concept of
providing a peripheral source of goods and services for the densely populated
metropolis. The stimulus of a good
market enhances the profitability of trade and commerce.
The last
thought that came was to hope that the success of these model enterprises could
be translated into better health and nutrition, for all the people. After all,
what justifications can a state give for having a good GNP (Gross National
Product) but poor HDI (Human Development Index)?
The
Gross National Product can be raised to as much 10 percent, a very high
estimate for the Philippines. (Our
projection is only three percent this year, compared to Vietnam’s seven
percent.) But what equally matters is that
increasing or having a desirable GNP should be accompanied by just as desirable
a Human Development Index.
HDI is
measured in terms of education, health, employment, and literacy of the people,
including mortality, morbidity and malnutrition of infants and children.
Therefore, if the aggregate rates of return for services and manufacturing and
agriculture are high, how come there are so many poor people in the
Philippines?
Having
said goodbye to Brigida and Mang Ben, the sampaguita and kangkong
entrepreneurs, we wished for them that their efforts serve as a catalyst for
the development of their community. We hoped that they continue to combine both
good GNP and HDI in that barangay, a microcosm of a nation.
On our
way back to Manila, the author’s thoughts traced back the potential flow of
goods and services coming from the barangay to the enormous Manila market.
Barangay San Jose, so with many similar villages in the provinces nearby, are
indeed living on a gold mine, one that is waiting to be tapped. ~
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