Pro-Importation, Read This! Local Agri Activity Opens Jobs For Poor Families During Crisis

Three months ago, I started a small nursery operations in my farm by grafting EVIARC Sweet Jackfruit and Hass Avocado with the purpose of planting the seedlings in my farm and selling the excess.

Later, a group of friends from Isabela Province sought my help in developing a Giant Bamboo nursery in Cabagan town by supplying them with bamboo propagules.

The long haul, however, resulted in high mortality rate of the propagules which made me decide to propagate the seedlings in my nursery and allow the sprouts to grow before shipping them.

On Thursday, my farm will be shipping the first 20,000 sprouted Giant Bamboo propagules to Cabagan, Isabela which would later on be planted near the banks of the mighty Cagayan River for flood mitigation.

With this, my farm will be generating income and at the same time contribute to the efforts of the people of Cagayan Valley to lessen the damage of floods to their crops.

This could also start the Giant Bamboo Industry in Luzon.

But there is a more interesting story that I would like to share here and this is all about how a simple agricultural activity, propagating Giant Bamboo seedlings, has benefited so many poor families who face difficulties amidst the economic collapse because of the pandemic.

In supplying the needs of the Bamboo Nursery in Isabela, Giant Bamboo farmers in Bukidnon now make money weekly by harvesting and selling the propagules which are hauled to our nursery in Kidapawan City where they are grown.

That means jobs for those who pack the propagules in bags and load these in the truck.

The drivers also earn from the activity as with the supplier of the plastic bags and the coco peat used in the seedling bags.

The Agri Supply Stores make money because we buy root growth enhancer, fungicide and fertilizer regularly.

Most of all, poor families near my farm now make money by bagging and planting the propagules in plastic seedling bags using coco peat.

The laborers who will load the seedlings to the trucks on Thursday and the truck owner who will haul the seedlings over a distance of 2,032 kilometers, the gas station which will supply the fuel, the ferry boats along the way and the small carenderias where the drivers will eat will also get a share from the economic activity.

In Cabagan, workers who will unload and establish the seedlings in the nursery will also earn.

This is what I call the production chain which involves hundreds of participants who stand to benefit.

This production chain is also present in the hog industry, the poultry industry and the rice industry.

So, when the economic managers claim that by importing cheaper pork, chicken and rice, it is for the good of the country’s economy, think again and recompute.

One does not need the brilliance of Albert Einstein to figure this out.

The fact is when we import what could be produced locally, we spend our foreign reserves and take away jobs and income opportunities from poor families who face difficulties in times in pandemic.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!