Bayambang's Farm Mechanization Project

 Bayambang's Farm Mechanization Project

Bayambang is blessed with vast tracts of farmland producing plentiful harvest, thanks to its hard-working farmers. Agriculture is one of the major sources of livelihood here in our town, so agriculture is one of the sectors that the local government is focusing on, particularly the production of rice, corn, onion, and other vegetables.

 The goal towards Agricultural Modernization under the Bayambang Poverty Reduction Plan 2018-2020 – which the municipality crafted in response to Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao’s declaration of a Revolution Against Poverty (Rebolusyon Laban sa Kahirapan) – includes the introduction and provision of modern technologies and farming equipment for local farmers. These equipment and machinery make the work easier and quicker for each Bayambangueño farmer. Modernization is one way of improving the lives of the farmers by raising their productivity at lower cost and, in the process, raising their income.

 Rather than being drenched in the field all day, farmers using modern technology will allow them to do away with the heavy and tough farming tasks, but that does not mean that farmers will lose their jobs. No matter how efficient technology is, manual labor is still needed by farmers because the farmers are still the primary caregiver of the crops. These tools, however modern, will not work without the hands and guidance of farmers.

Still, we need technological assistance to make production work even more efficient. This is also essential in ensuring that the local food supply is always sufficient.

***

        On several occasions, Mayor Quiambao has succinctly stated how he assessed the local agricultural situation among his constituent farmers, “I know what the problem of our farmers is. They are trapped in a vicious cycle due to lack of capital, he said. “Uutang, magtatanim, maghihintay ng ani. Pagkatapos ng ani, magbabayad ng utang. Tapos ganon ulit.” 

“Kaya naisip kong isa sa mga solusyon ay tulungan ang ating farmers through farm mechanization to reduce production cost. Sa tradisyunal na pagsasaka (called broad casting or sabog tanim) gamit ang manual labor, gagasta ang farmer ng P350/day/laborer.” On top of the problem of high cost, there is presently a huge deficit in manual labor.

“Sa farm mechanization, di na gaanong kailangan ang manual labor at mapapabilis ang production per hectare per hour. Tataas ang kita ng farmers.”

“Magkakaroon ngayon ng mas maraming idle time ang farmer kasi wala na siyang gagawin. Kaya naisip kong tulungan sila sa aspetong ito by introducing to them other means of livelihood on the side like vegetable farming, livestock-raising, etc.”

That, in a capsule, is how Mayor Quiambao sizes up the situation in his town of Bayambang, which is located at the southern tip of Pangasinan.

Before he launched his town-wide farm mechanization program in 2019, possibly the first in the country, many farmers still resorted to using carabaos and hired hands in place of tractors and other machines. According to the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) headed by Senior Agriculturist Artemio Buezon, it used to take 15 people to finish work on a hectare of rice field in 30 minutes, but using a tractor will finish the same work within the same period of time. With full-blown mechanization using a rice planter, all it takes is 3 hours to finish the same work.

Moreover, the aid received by farmers from higher levels of government bureaucracy (provincial, regional, national) were limited to seeds, fertilizers, seedlings and fingerlings, tractors, hand tractors, water pumps, and hand sprayers that were duly applied for by the local farmers’ associations through the MAO.

However, the farming business is quite complex, especially the problem of making it sustainably profitable. Other farm inputs are essential on the macro-scale: farm-to-market roads including bridges, large-scale irrigation (solar, pump), a reliable credit line, cooperativization to attain economies of scale, crop insurance, and other contingency measures in times of emergencies such as typhoon, flood, drought, and pestilence.

 Without these other essentials, our farmers will not be able to compete in the local and global markets.

 One of the things Mayor Quiambao did was to convince as many of the existing farmers’ associations in the 66 farming barangays to work on becoming a cooperative, with the guidance of the newly created Municipal Cooperative Development Office under former Municipal Agriculturist Mercedes Peralta. By being co-op members, farmers get an easier access to loans and convenient “charge to crop” payment terms after the harvest season.

 MAO also campaigned hard for farmers to embrace crop insurance for their own protection and consider banks that offer loans at lower interest rates.

 Another instrumental move was a massive information campaign to convince farmers on the advantages of farm mechanization. For this purpose, the MAO, with assistance from the focal persons of the Bayambang Poverty Reduction Action Team (BPRAT), another newly created department, headed by Dr. Joel T. Cayabyab, went around the barangays patiently entertaining questions from wary farmers. 

 A testing of the waters, so to speak, came with the introduction of the first rice planter in Bayambang’s farmland on July 31, 2018, with the machine coming from the Department of Agriculture coursed through the Regional Field Office I. Perhaps due to the sensitivity of the issue, the initial feedback online was immediate, but the commenters were divided. One-half were aghast, saying the move would kill the little farmers and their even poorer farm hands, while the other half was celebrating the conversion, then saying we were actually 50 years behind Japan and Korea.   

 But the early adaptor farmers appeared happy with progress. 

Now the real game-changer came with the provision of farm machinery on a large scale. This is where Mayor Quiambao’s foundation comes in. On March 5, 2019, Kasama Kita sa Barangay Foundation Inc. (KKSBFI) purchased a P17M worth of farming equipment.

1 AMCC Batch recirculating dryer (8 ton capacity) with multi-fuel (diesel fired and biomass) - PhP1,800,000

2 Kubota DC-70 plus combine harvester with transport trailer and complete tools - PhP3,290,000

5 Kubota L5018 four wheel drive farm tractor with rotary tiller, disc harrow and complete tools - PhP6,250,000

4 Supermasa hand tractor with Kubota RK70 water-cooled diesel engine (prime mover) - PhP600,000

5 Kubota RK80 diesel engine coupled to 3”X3” self-priming pump and accessories (steel base, belt, pulley, foot, valve, hose adaptor and suction hose 3X6m) - PhP400,000

4 Kubota SPW-48C walk behind transplanter with 1,000 pcs of seedling trays - PhP1,200,000

2 Kubota SPDV-6 CMD riding type transplanter with automatic seed sowing machine with 1,500 pcs of seedling trays - PhP3,200,000

Total price: PhP16,740,000

          The initial plan was for the machinery to be rented out to the farmers of a 300-hectare rice farm appropriated for the pilot mechanized farming project covering the contiguous farming barangays of Ligue, Asin, Bical, Tanolong, Tococ East, Tococ West, Alinggan, Amanperez, Banaban, Duera, Sapang and Tamaro. 

        As it turned out, the Mangabul Seed Growers Marketing Cooperative (MSGMC), based in in Brgy. Pantol and headed by its President, Jayson Gene Sagum, had the capacity to buy the bulk of the modern machinery on an installment basis, and MSGMC indeed bought them. The farmer-members of the cooperative could now rent them out, and the going rate for the rice planter is at an affordable P2,000/hectare.

“Take note – that’s not per day but per hectare,” emphasizes Sagum. 

The use of the farm machines are scheduled according to a particular farmer’s schedule, so the rental policy is on first-come-first-served basis.

As of this writing, out of more than 5,000 local farmers, 224 have joined MSGMC, and they came from 37 barangays out of 68 farming barangays.

Mayor Quiambao also hired a consultant, Maricel San Pedro, to give pointers on how best to implement the farm mechanization project, so that the sustained profitability it promises, through the formula of high yield + high value + low production cost, would be proven by all to be realizable. This, it was hoped, would encourage the rest of the ‘bystanders’ and ‘fence-sitters’ to join the modernization bandwagon. San Pedro, who hails from San Carlos City, has experience assisting the farmers of Alcala snag a rice supplier deal with Jollibee Food Corp. through the ALBACOPA Federation of Cooperatives based in Brgy. Pilar, Sta. Maria, Pangasinan.

According to the MAO, among the fence-sitters were those farmers who harbored suspicions of being scammed by the farm mechanization scheme, thus their wait-and-see attitude. But with the baseless suspicions notwithstanding, San Pedro said that the modernization scheme also involves some risk-taking, for there are also other factors to consider, such as climate change and lack of irrigation. Besides, San Pedro explains further, “Hindi agad-agad ang implementation and realization of benefits, at kailangan intensive ang scale ng program.”

 One dilemma the farm mechanization project supposedly poses is the fact that there are landed farmers and then there are landless farmers, and the latter work the farms of the landowning ones as farm hands or laborers. The law protects against the sudden removal of these farm hands. But as mentioned, farm laborers have in fact become scarce because most have decided to pursue other interests like getting another job or enrolling in college after college education became free. The existence of beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programs (4Ps) may also have contributed to the labor scarcity.

But Mayor Quiambao is unperturbed, believing that mechanization will free the farmer from repetitive, backbreaking work, and the free time, he says, will bring the farmer opportunities for other livelihood projects related to large-scale farming.

 “I hope the project will be replicated in all (farming) barangays,” he says.

As if to serve as an encouragement, if not endorsement, of the scheme, Senator Cynthia Villar once commented, “Naunahan pa kami ni Mayor Quiambao sa farm mechanization,” during the Farmers’ Day celebration in April 2019. In her speech, Senator Villar revealed that as part of her measures to forestall the ill effects of the Rice Tariffication Bill which she has sponsored, she plans to distribute farm machines to farmers, among other measures, which Mayor Quiambao has already done.

***

It is important to note that the project is not just for rice growers, but for corn farmers as well. To enjoin even the corn growers, Municipal Administrator, Atty. Raymundo B. Bautista Jr., put things this way: "If you enrol in Mayor Quiambao's farm mechanization program, you will have to become a co-op member, and this way, even if your harvest is still wet, the cooperative will buy it. You will no longer bother with sun-drying, collecting the dried grains, and hiring of manual labor."

“With cooperatives, you can even apply for a loan to be able to buy seeds and fertilizers at 1% interest rate within three months of using the loan, compared with around 5% interest rate if you make a loan from a bank."

"In 2018, the price of corn in the market was P13/kilo, but as of November 2019, the co-op will buy your corn at P15.30/kilo."

 Atty. Bautista added that, as of this writing, around 900 hectares of tilled land in Bayambang has been enrolled in the farm mechanization program.

***

 To sum up, the goal of agricultural modernization is to provide greater income to farmers in a more efficient way at a much-lower cost. Farmers will benefit from these technologies because farmers are some of the most industrious sectors of our society. Thus, the Quiambao-Sabangan administration assures that Bayambang will not be left behind in the drive towards modernizing agricultural equipment and practices.

 The local government pays special attention to farmers so they are assured of support until they attain the level of productivity being targeted.

 The progress of a town is often connected to the kind of lives its farmers lead. Therefore, the local government unit of Bayambang ensures that they are assisted in every way, and modernization of farming machinery and equipment is just one of the ways that Bayambangueño farmers will attain their goal of escaping the vicious cycle of poverty they often find themselves in. (by Resty S. Odon/photo by Nelben Mercado)