The Nagbayan Farmers Agriculture Cooperative from the town Castillejos, Zambales are enjoying the advantages brought by the given custom service facility for sweetpotato enterprise subproject in December 2021 from the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP). The P13.6-million subproject under the DA-PRDP enterprise component, I-REAP, aims to increase the income of the cooperative through the provision of land preparation and delivery services and marketing of fresh and dried sweetpotatoes.

Prior the intervention of the DA-PRDP, most farmers in Brgy. Nagbayan and nearby barangays still used manual labor in cultivating their farmlands due to the lack of access to modern machineries. “The problem in our farm was we were lacking in [modern] tools. We were using carabaos to plow for the preparation of our land,” recalled Carolina Alipin, a beneficiary of the subproject.

It would also take much longer time and intensive labor to use the traditional method of farming. The low productivity also meant low income and small yield for farmers. “It would need five of us to plow one hectare of land. We’d start at 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the evening. We would only rest a bit at noon so we can finish on time,” said Joemar Alterado, also a farmer beneficiary.

Since the enterprise’s implementation, they were able to feel its various benefits, both to the cooperative and individual farmer members. To determine the impact of the subproject, the DA-PRDP Central Luzon led the Rapid Appraisal of Emerging Benefits (RAEB) on July 19-21, 2023, where they collected the necessary data through household surveys, key informant interviews, and a focus group discussion among farmer beneficiaries, cooperative officials, and key personnel from the provincial and municipal local government.

According to the cooperative officials, they have seen the increase in the cooperative’s income derived from the truck and tractor rental and storage warehouse. Since the implementation of the enterprise, they have also increased their membership from 125 farmers in 2019 to 142 farmers at present time.

True to its promise, farmers also had an increase on their income due to the boosted productivity during the harvest season through the modern farm machineries provided by the DA-PRDP. “The farm machineries greatly helped us because before, we’re only able to sell P40,000 worth of produce. Now, we’re able to sell P80,000 worth of sweepotato and eggplants because we’re already able to cultivate more than we did before,“ said Alipin on her personal experience as a beneficiary of the subproject.

It also alleviated the burden of manual labor through the additional tractors and other equipment received by the beneficiaries. “For one hectare of land, it would only take two and a half to three hours to plow now that we already have farm machineries,” said Alterado, who is also the machinery operator of the cooperative.

Meanwhile, the DA-PRDP I-REAP and the Provincial Project Management and Implementation Unit (PPMIU) of Zambales, continuously extend assistance to the cooperative in the marketing of their fresh and dried sweetpotatoes to further increase their income as one the development objectives of the enterprise.

Due to their successful application to the World Bank-supported PRDP, the cooperative was also able to apply and receive projects from the DA- Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization and Department of Agrarian Reform. (Ram Bill Bautista, RPCO3 InfoACE Writer)