AVANT GARDENER

A year ago, around this time, I had the opportunity to visit vegetable farmers in Benguet courtesy of WOFEX.

One of the farmers I talked to was Mena Sukil-ap from Atok, Benguet. Turning 56 next week, Sukil-ap inherited her terraced farm, about 500 sqm of which is productive, from her parents. “It’s small. That’s how farms here are,” she said in Tagalog. “Disregarding my school days, I’ve been farming for almost 30 years.”

Sukil-ap is an organic farmer who cultivates a variety of crops, including arugula, dill, Korean radish, parsley, bell pepper, kale, and cherry tomatoes.

Her farm, like others in the community, is PGS-certified via the Atok Organic Association.

PGS is short for Participatory Guarantee System and is a community-led organic quality assurance system used by many small farmers.

Some of Sukil-ap’s produce is sold at the local market, with the rest being contract grown, consolidated with other organization members, and bought by bigger companies with a Manila clientele.

She said that organic produce, while harder to cultivate, sells well because people are more health conscious now and are more particular about the provenance of what they put in their body. This encourages farmers to go into organic agriculture because its high production cost means it’s more expensive than conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables, making it harder to sell in the wrong market.

Sukil-ap began organic farming in 2007, back when it was still a new concept in the Philippines. It took her three years to transition to a fully organic farm. Before that, she planted typical highland vegetables like potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. “The crops (I plant) are the same, it’s the method that’s different,” she said.

She said that it was harder to be an organic farmer back then because organic produce was seen as only for those with deep pockets. “But once you understand the concept of organic, that it isn’t just about money but also ecology and health, (you see its value,” she said. “That’s why we continued to pursue organic farming, even if we had difficulty selling it.”

Even though there’s a large and still-growing market for organic produce, the industry is still fraught with challenges. Sukil-ap mentioned being affected by drought in 2023 and 2024. “If you don’t have a water source, you can’t plant.”

There is also the worry that several farmers planting the same crop at the same time might result in an oversupply of said crop, drastically bringing market prices down. The worst case effect of this is the vegetable dumping that occasionally makes the news, highlighting—but not solving—the lack of coordination and the food waste problem, among other concerns, in local agriculture. On top of this is the concern for La Nina. “if you don’t have greenhouses or rain shelters, there’s the fear that your harvest will be destroyed.”

She’s very thankful for the support of the Department of Agriculture, whose many programs have benefitted many upland farmers, including herself, though many folks in the community wished that some of the programs were more tailored to fit the local mountainous terrain. For example, tractors that are efficient for use on flat land cannot be used on terraced farms on sloped land.

She also wishes that there were official floor and ceiling prices for produce, which would help keep farmers’ incomes relatively steady despite the often wild price fluctuations, especially for table vegetables. “Lettuce can go as high as ₱350 (per kilo) to as low as ₱5… which is why it’s (sometimes) thrown away,” she said. “…it’s a big difference, which is why we prefer having ceiling and floor prices.”

Skil-ap hopes Filipinos prioritize locally grown organic products. Not only are they fresher, healthier, and more nutritious; they also provide farmers like her with livelihood. She also hopes that more folks hire their organization as organic vegetable contract growers because even though they have limited space, they haven’t yet maxxed out their room for harvest. “We deliver our produce to the cold chain facility in Trinidad directly after harvest, so there’s room for more orders.”

Farming was something Sukil-ap inherited, and thus, she feels like she had no choice in. “It’s a source of income. (We) have no choice, but those who studied and came back to farming, maybe it’s in their heart to produce vegetables.”

Still, she appreciates being able to work the land. “If you’re a farmer, you’re your own boss. Nobody dictates your time.”

Sometimes, it’s this kind of freedom, so rare in today’s hyper-capitalist world, that makes a job fraught with uncertainty such as farming worth it.

The easiest way to support farmers like Mena Sukil-ap is to buy local. Not only does it help keep the local agriculture industry alive, it can increase one’s health and bolster national food security as well.