Christian Lignes, 19 years of age, is one of the active members of Camote Creations Farmers and Entrepreneurs Producers Cooperative in Tabon-tabon, Daraga, Albay.

He and his six younger siblings engage in growing sweet potato to help their parents with the daily expenses. To sustain the needs of their family, his father works as a construction worker while his mother works at a local flour factory in the area.

Unlike other boys of his age, Lignes is busy nurturing their sweet potato crops to ensure that they will grow well. Although the harvested sweet potatoes are only for their family’s consumption, he believes that one day this will help them earn an additional income.

“Gusto ko makatapos sa pagklase, kaya ako nagtatanom ning sweet potato (I want to finish my studies that is why I grow sweet potato),” Lignes said.

Eager to finish his studies and support the needs of his family, he exerts more effort in increasing the volume of harvested crop, so he can sell it to the market. In a span of three to four months, the crop is ready for harvest. Currently, the market price of sweet potato is P20 per kilo, and P10 per kilo when bought directly at the farm.

In Albay, sweet potato or camote is an abundant root crop that is a potential source of income. According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Albay has 1,675 hectares of effective area for sweet potato production. The province can produce an average of 40,167 metric tons per year.

The Provincial Government of Albay in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD), Bicol University, VSU-PhilrootCrops and the Department of Agriculture organized a series of trainings on the production and utilization of sweet potato in the disaster-prone area of Albay. The trainings intend to develop a technology on higher yield planting method, community nursery for planting materials, and technology in camote processing that will help the residents improve their livelihood.

Christian Lignes, member of the Camote Creations Farmers and Entrepreneurs Producers Cooperative shows his sweet potato plants at Tabon-tabon, Daraga, Albay. (Photo by: Michelle Angela G. Alfigura, DA-PRDP RPCO V InfoACE Unit)

Some of the members of the Camote Creations were able to participate in the said trainings, and from then, they were inspired to organize a cooperative that aspires to uplift the lives of its members.

The cooperative was organized on July 2015 and has continued gaining members. The following are its primary objectives: 1) improve the value added products of sweet potato and promote the crop for food security and its resiliency to climate change; 2) produce quality camote-based products from the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) accredited facility; 3) create job opportunities and increase economic activities in the locality; 4) help increase the farmers’ income by increasing the yield per hectare, widen marketing venue for the products, high returns on patronage refund and reasonable interest on the share capital; and 5) practice proper environmental management system for the conservation of resources and ecology.

As of this writing, the Camote Creations cooperative has 48 active members, 27 of which are either farmers or out of school youth, while the rest are processors and entrepreneurs who share technologies on sweet potato processing. The cooperative produce camote-based products such as camote-enriched muffins and cakes, noodles, and camote crispy fries.

The Camote Creations has a share capital of P1.8 million, which was amended to P12 million in a recent general assembly. Although it currently has a small membership, it aims to grow its number as part of the development plan. By the end of 2017, the cooperative is expected to have at least a hundred of new farmer-members. The business operation will help 2,849 camote farmers in the nearby cities of Legazpi and Ligao and in the municipalities of Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Libon, and Polangui.

In February 2017, the cooperative purchased a half-hectare lot in Brgy. Anislag, Daraga with the fund support of the cooperative members and their umbrella cooperative, the Entrepreneurs Alumni Development Cooperative.

PRDP South Luzon Project Support Office I-REAP Component Head Manolo Luis Herrera, (in white) and Bicol RPCO Deputy Project Director and I-REAP Component Head Adelina Losa (in blue, seated) discussed with the Camote Creations what they need complete before the technical review. (Photo by: Michelle Angela G. Alfigura, DA-PRDP RPCO V InfoACE Unit)

Camote Creations Chairperson Nolan Belaro said, “We are very grateful to PRDP, because we are given a chance to widen our business (camote creations) and more farmers will be benefitted. We could see our cooperative as one of the major contributors to the success of PRDP’s endeavors in the region.  In addition, a good partnership will be established to help uplift the economic condition of our farmers and households in the rural barangays.”

The proposed “Camote Creations Sweet Potato-Based Products Processing” enterprise is among PRDP-Bicol’s 11 pipelined enterprise development (I-REAP) subproject proposals. Belaro is passionate in finalizing their cooperative’s business plan so that they can proceed to the technical review and seek the approval of the Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB) for the issuance of No Objection Letter 1. ### (Michelle Angela G. Alfigura, DA-PRDP RPCO V InfoACE Unit)