Pinoy Eco Farmer

An opportunity to visit this odorless and relatively fly-free hog farm presented itself when a environmentalist friend suggested it in our itinerary during our recent Bacolod trip. The owner’s son who is also an active environmental advocate in Negros Occidental arranged our trip to their farm in Victorias City.

The farm is located in the vicinity of the city just at the back of a big grocery store but it does not create a problem because of its unconventional way of waste management. It is amazing considering that it houses about 800 heads of hogs in any given time. In addition to probiotic spraying to prevent the multiplication of flies, the farm likewise employs natural processes using azolla and quiapo as consumers of manure. These nutrient-rich plants which carpet the ponds are then used as feed supplements and vermifeed that sustain the other livestock in the farm including ducks and chicken.

Another attraction that is rising within the compound is the a majestic house constructed out of lime and wood. The bricks are made of lime and cement mixture pressed into strong building blocks. The upper portion is primarily of wood and bamboo. The roof is cogon grass complementing the nature design.

A Malay-inspired pond house sits on a body of water teeming with koi and other water plants.  Trellises constructed out of bamboo are neatly positioned along the pathways. A variety of creeping vegetable vines (some with fruits) serve as a shade. No space is seemingly wasted. Plots of medicinal and aromatic herbs are neatly positioned at the sides accenting the whole place creating a garden-like ambiance.

The integrated farm has its own windmill that powers the water pump in the compound. The water requirement is surely enormous considering the number of hog pens that needs to be cleaned. The wastewater drains into the ponds where the azolla grows.

The farm is indeed a showcase of an urban-based food production that blends well with its surroundings. And for the weary, a blissful place to relax.

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” 
Masanobu Fukuoka, One-Straw Revolution

A recent acquisition of about 2,000+ sqm meter farmlot (mid July of this year) somewhere in the highlands of Alfonso spurred a regular weekend love affair with farming. This has been a long time coming after a discouraging attempt to takeover a smaller farm property somewhere near Dasmarinas, Cavite that never materialized. An unexpected offer by longtime friends Henry and Cris Arceo to be their neighbors in the Alfonso farmlot paved the way for this quite addictive (I must admit) venture. The opportunities all unexpectedly fell into place with the concessions given by the kind sellers.

Farming has become a therapy. A weekend stay at the farm recharges me for another week of office work. My wife (Hilda) and two kids (Julius and Juliene) have joined me in these getaways. The kids never miss to enjoy the springs and river below the property while I supervise the farm work that needed to be done. A stay at the little farm has become something of a regular event to look forward to even with just the most spartan facilities that we have so far.

It was like a jungle when we first saw the property due to years of neglect and abandon. The vines have crept and invaded the santol, coconut, lansones and avocado trees that consequently blocked the sunlight from reaching the rich soil below the thick canopies. Practically nothing was done to take care of the property and the trees planted to it. There was little activity except for the occasional harvesting of coconuts sold to middlemen at ridiculously cheap prices. We saw a lot of work that needs to be done yet we took the challenge and has never regretted the decision.

With a collective area of half-hectare farm space, we set a general direction of what we intend to do with the tiny farm which is to be an ecologically sound and sustainable natural/organic farm on this scale. This is a fairly manageable area at this point considering the time and resources that we can afford to allot. The farm is a work in progress and as rookie farmers (all I have are theories although I was trained to be a farmer) we surely need a lot of help from both veteran and new farmer friends who share the same passion and enthusiasm that we have.

I will attempt to chronicle and share our experiences, successes as well as failures along with posts on various protocols done by others so other farmers who will read this can learn and hopefully share theirs as well.   The internet has made and facilitated knowledge sharing that is unprecedented which we can use to our advantage. It has provided us with a wealth of information. Farmers can really learn a lot from each other but at the end of the day there is no better judge on what will work best in their farms than the farmer themselves.

In today’s urgency to go all natural and green, many industries are making an effort to evaluate their old ways and embrace new (or old yet effective) methods to turn out quality products without compromising the already fragile ecology. Hog-raising is one of those industries that is seeing an earnest revamp. This endeavor is locally being spearheaded by a newly-formed group dubbed the Natural Piggery Movement.

Led by its convenor Gil Carandang, the Natural Piggery Movement (NPM) is an organization of committed hog raisers advocating the cause of mitigating harmful environmental effects of pig production. The NPM aims to create balance between pork production, food safety and environment protection through the natural way of raising hogs.

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Construction work has begun on the country’s first organic agriculture school in Zamboanga del Sur province.

Mayor Nacianceno Pacalioga Jr. said the College of Sustainable Agriculture in Dumingag town in Zamboanga del Sur province will help ease the poverty of farmers and help protect the environment.

“Dumingag is an agricultural municipality. The economy is being driven by agriculture,” he said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines news site.

He said organic agriculture is his centerpiece program, contrasting with the relatively “easy” farming based on chemicals.

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NOT all the king’s men can stop the march of armyworms. What the king’s men failed to do, however, a farmer succeeded in beating back the invading hordes that have been destroying Negros Occidental’s food crops.

A young Kabankalanon farmer-scientist harnessed nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) as a biological weapon against armyworms, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist recently announced. Roland Quimpo experimented with an NPV solution against the armyworms feasting on his peanut plants.

Within three days, the horde was kaput. Quimpo tried the NPV solution against the armyworms in his Tamlang farm. His purok was one of the worst hit with the attack. Said he, “I observed that the worms vomited, no longer ate the leaves of my plants, became weak, their rears turned up, and died.  I found black spots on their abdomen.”

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We had our vermicomposting bin setup with the help of two friends (Xavier and Malou Peña) over the weekend. They brought a kilo of African Night Crawlers (ANC) worms and showed us how to properly prepare the bed.

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Our backyard garden may be small but nothing compares to the simple joys of harvesting something from it. We gathered the first fruits of our pipinitos (mini cucumbers) after just barely two months after we first sowed the seeds.

For breakfast, we  sliced the pipinitos into thin pieces as salad and it was great with rice, sardines and scrambled eggs. We also prepared a blended pipinito smoothie out of our harvest. All we did was mix some calamansi juice, add honey to sweeten and some crushed ice. The result was a refreshing and delicious drink.

Growing pipinitos is easy. Sow the seeds directly and put a trellis near it (a tree branch will do), water regularly and wait for nature to run its course. We did not put any fertilizers nor applied pesticides but we got good results. Imagine doing this in your own yards.

I came across products developed by scientists of Biotech UP Los Banos in Laguna which I think are very useful in farming and other applications.

Above: Taken from BioLife (Quarterly Magazine of Biotechnology) Vol1 No2 April-June 2005 Issue

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Carbonized rice hull is a crucial ingredient of bokashi organic fertilizer and can also be used in composting toilets and animal bedding. CRH results from the incomplete combustion of rice hulls under high heat and low oxygen conditions (pyrolysis). Pyrolysis causes the decomposition of organic materials such as lignin and cellulose, leaving a residue of carbon and mineral nutrients.

Click on Carbonized Rice Hull to view in pdf format.

The document was done by one of the members of Natural Farming Philippines.

“Worm composting is a process for recycling food waste into a rich, dark, earth-smelling soil conditioner. One of its advantages is that it can be done indoors and outdoors, allowing year-round composting. Worm composts can be made in containers filled with moistened bedding.”

Vermicomposting is indeed a nice way to manage our biodegradable scraps/wastes and turn them into something useful for our garden. I found this Guide to Vermiculture and Vermicomposting from the Bureau Plant Industry website which is a useful reference to get us started. The document focuses on the production of organic fertilizer through the action of earthworms. There are many other resources on vermiculture and vermicomposting including a series of brief articles posted on EntrePinoys which will further enhance our understanding. A more comprehensive reference is the Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture By Glenn Munroe. The document can also be viewed from the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada.

Other Resources You May Like:

• Start Your Own Worm Farm