A PAPAYA FARM LEARNS FROM START UP ERRORS

A three (3) hectare hybrid Red Lady papaya farm is now rising in Brgy. Hibao-an, San Miguel, Iloilo. Learning from their past costly errors, the owners and their farm manager are painstakingly building a farm that they hope will be profitable and can help other farmers in the province to avoid the costly mistake they had made.

Costly Mistake:

Having heard from others how a papaya farm can reap a windfall, the owners, Mr. Gerard Camiña and his wife, Minviluz (nee Saludes), enlisted the help of their relative Noel Velez to start a papaya farm in the three (3) hectares of idle land that they own. Immediately, they built a farm house and started planting papaya using seeds that they got from a farmer in nearby Leon town, noted for the small scale vegetables and fruit farms. They became interested in the fruits of the papaya which they thought would likewise give them the same productivity they saw at the farms they visited. Little did they know that the plants were already too inbred and that succeeding generations of planting materials taken from the beautiful looking mother plants will have deteriorated badly resulting to sickly plants with small fruits and thus poor returns for them.

They started to plant in mid-2009 and by early 2010, they realized their mistake when the first fruits came out. They then decided to learn as much as they can and went to many places like the Penalosa farm in Bacolod where they learned organic farming and the use of windmills and other appropriate equipment like the windmill to draw water without the need for electricity. They also went to the Harbest Agribusiness Center in Rosario, Cavite to learn the right methods of commercial vegetable farming last May 2010.

Starting Right This Time Around:

At the Harbest Agribusiness Center, the Camiña couple and Noel spent six (6) days learning everything they can through hands on and lecture course that covered everything about commercial vegetable farming from plot making, seedling start, basal fertilizing, trellis making and the use of the plastic multch which saves much labor in weed control and other maintenance activities. Farm work starts very early and by 9:00 AM, the trainees take breakfast and proceed to the lecture hall for lectures until 3:00 PM and again back to the farm for more farm work and to apply what they have learned in the class rooms.

As soon as they got back, Noel proceeded to implement his new learnings and got the farm right this time. They did not hesitate to cut down the papaya plants that have just started to bear fruits which Noel said were really frustrating. Plots were made so that the future papaya plants will be elevated and water can be introduced at will and thus avoid water logging which is the most dreaded situation for papaya.

This time, the Camiñas bought hybrid F1seeds of Red Lady from Harbest Agribusiness at P1,700 per packet of 350 seeds. Since the farm will need about 3,000 seedlings, they invested 9 packets and started the seedlings in a nursery using the method learned from the seed company. Noel started the seedlings in batches so that they will not be over grown at planting. He learned to organize his activities so that he will not need outside labor which is quite difficult to find in the neighborhood. Besides, planting the hybrid seedlings need some expertise and that he cannot afford to have mortality at planting because of the expensive investment involved. Each seed cost about P4.85 each and with labor and other costs, each seedling may run to about P15.00 per.

As soon as he came back from his training, Noel had immediately applied his new skills by planting the Galaxy strain of ampalaya which is now bearing large fruits due to the proper care and management taught by the experts at the training center. He has also planted sweet or bell pepper also using the plastic mulch they bought at harbest.

With the organized way that Noel is managing the farm, the Camiñas are confident that they will realize their dream of establishing a dream farm that will both be profitable and become a relevant factor in the agriculture and economic development of Iloilo.