Calasiao, Pangasinan—About 108 farmer-trainees of Barangay Doyong in this town have finally harvested their high-value vegetable crops and watermelons, produced after seven months of field trainings conducted by the SM Foundation and HarBest Agriculture Inc.
This was owing to two major setbacks the farmers suffered from heavy rains and floods from a recent typhoon and monsoon weather.
The farmer-trainees under Batch 172 of the Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan program of SM Foundation began their training in June and were supposed to finish after 12 weeks. But owing to damage wrought by floods from the “habagat” in July and by typhoon Ompong in August, it forced them to extend the training up to January.
From an original 120 trainees, those left until the graduation were determined to pursue their newfound knowledge and farming technologies in their backyards, as well as train their neighbors on these new farm technologies.
The techno-farm in Barangay Doyong, owned by trainee Bernardo Morales, is on an elevated terrain. But since the Marusay River overflowed—reaching 10 feet high or way above its critical level of 6.2 feet—the floods spilled to Calasiao and filled nearby Sinocalan River.
At least 24 villages of 31 in the area remained flooded for over three weeks.
“Our graduation is a recognition that we are learned participants, and that we became united in our newfound skills of growing vegetables in an area that used to be planted solely to rice and corn,” Morales said.
Stephen Ballesteros, 29, the youngest but most active advocate of farming here, used to work in a hospital as an IT system maintenance man. After three years, he decided to go into farming the land of his father, an agriculturist.
Ballesteros found that farming is “not just a stress reliever,” but there is great fulfillment in seeing the seeds grow into marketable sizes and earn from them, while at the same time supplying freshly-harvested vegetables for the family’s table.
His elder brother encouraged him to put up a greenhouse inside the family’s 4,000 square meter lot, which he did with the internet courses and tutorials as guides.
“I had my share of hits and misses until I was asked to join this KSK program and encourage the youth in my community to join. Many students heeded my call, but since the season training became seven months long due to the floods, many of the student-trainees graduated and opted to be employed.”
Ballesteros now heads the Assosasyon ng Samahang Maggugulay ng Barangay Doyong.
Bernardo Ferrer, at 69, was the oldest participant, and has been farming for 50 years with no intention of giving up for as long as he lives.
“Thankfully, even at my age I have managed to learn some things, and did it through KSK,” he said.