"My foray into farming started when I cultivated a small vegetable garden to produce food for my family’s consumption. After a few months, I was producing more than what we actually could consume, so I decided to sell the remaining produce at the local market," recalls the burly, pony-tailed Sarraga.
His decision to sell his surplus produce convinced him of the economic viability of vegetable farming. Armed with the hands-on experience he gained from his small farm lot, he expanded his production area, and started producing more vegetable varieties including eggplant, bell pepper, green onion, okra, and spring onion.
With a daily production output of 50 kilograms of vegetables, he is a relatively small producer compared to the more established farmers in the region who produce a daily average of 5,000 kilograms of vegetable products.
Cowboy and farmer combined
Although he is now a full-fledged vegetable farmer, Sarraga remains a cowboy at heart, and he still wears his 10-gallon cowboy hat as he tends to his vegetable farm.
"I have been a cowboy for the past 26 years, and it has become my identity. But that doesn’t mean that I am not a committed vegetable farmer," he points out.
Sarraga’s daily routine starts at the crack of dawn. First stop: His farm, to supervise the harvesting and loading of the produce. He then proceeds to the city’s bagsakan (wholesale) centers where he spends the morning haggling with local traders to get a good price for his produce.
"The bagsakan centers are among the bottlenecks of vegetable producers," he laments. "Normally, the price is determined by the demand for particular produce, but sometimes, traders who control the bagsakan centers negotiate for a lower price although your produce is of good quality."
He envisions the day when the region’s vegetable industry will become more "farmer-based," and will move-away from "trader-centricity."
The farmers he feels, should determine farm-gate prices of the products based on their actual cost of production.
New trading facility
Issues affecting the competitiveness of small-scale vegetable growers like Sarraga have not gone unnoticed by the government or by USAID, and some steps are now being taken to address these concerns.
Utilizing a grant from the Department of Agriculture (DA-X), and technical support from USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program, a trading and storage center will be constructed in the Agora Market, the largest vegetable market in Northern Mindanao handling more than five metric tons of vegetables a day. The facility will open this year and will provide vegetable growers in the area with a display area of 300 kilograms per square meter, as well as enough space to store 60,000 kilograms of produce.
"While other bagsakan centers offer similar services, what makes the new trading center different is its built-in product quality control system which will sort, grade and determine the actual buying price of vegetables," says Leo Eduria of the Northern Mindanao Vegetable Producers Association, Inc. (NORMIN Veggies), which has also received financial and technical support from USAID’s GEM Program.
He adds that vegetable farmers who utilize the facility will pay a minimal fee of P1 per kilogram for storage and product display. Moreover, communication facilities will be available to producers to help them contact buyers from Luzon and the Visayas.
Moving the industry forward
Normin Veggies, which proposed the establishment of the trading center, will provide technical training to community members to ensure sustainability of the new facility.
The association, composed of more than a hundred vegetable producers in Northern Mindanao, strives to increase productivity, improve product quality, ensure food safety standards, and to generate investments in cold chains and logistics systems. All of these initiatives are geared ultimately towards the development of the overall Mindanao vegetable industry.
USAID’s GEM Program has been providing technical and marketing assistance to NORMIN Veggies for the past five years. It assists the association in advocating policy reforms designed to boost the competitiveness of the region’s vegetable industry.
Industry data indicate that, from October 2004 to September 2005, the weekly vegetable out-shipments of NORMIN Veggie’s member firms averaged 38 metric tons, compared to 22 metric tons shipped during the same period of the previous year. This represents a growth rate of almost 73 percent.
When he heard about the construction of the trading center, Sarraga who is also a member of Normin Veggies, expressed high hopes for the industry to which he belongs.
"I will be the first farmer to display my vegetable produce at the trading center once it opens," he says with smile. By June this year, he anticipates doubling this present daily production capacity to at least 100 kilograms.
"I don’t mind wearing two hats right now, because a brighter prospect looms for the region’s vegetable industry," he concludes. – (GEM Program)