AVANT GARDENER
Last week, I wrote about Anitu Forest Food Processing, a small chocolate brand from New Kidapawan City, Bukidnon. Now, I’m writing about the Anitu Forest Farm, the syntropic farm that produces the cacao that goes into the handcrafted chocolates.
Anitu Forest Farm is run by Marvi Montecillo, a fourth generation farmer. His wife, Rogen Montecillo, is the chocolatier behind the Anitu brand. Agriculture magazine featured their farm some time ago but now’s a good time to see what the couple have been up to and how the farm has grown.
The farm is named after anitos, deities worshipped by ancient Filipinos. “[We grow cacao], which is the food of the gods,” Marvi explained in Taglish.
“We’re growing food in the forest,” Rogen added.
Marvi’s interest in syntropic farming started in 2013, though the land he farms on has been passed down since his great great grandfather, who helped establish New Kidapawan City. “My mother’s and father’s side all stated farming here.”
He established Anitu Forest Farm in 2016, though as a BS Biology major, he was clueless when he started and underwent about a decade of trial and error before he began to see results. He attributes his success to his online community of syntropic farmers who continue to support each other.
The farm started on two hectares of sandy loam that used to be planted conventionally to various crops such as sugarcane, bananas, and coconuts. Most of their farmland is still farmed conventionally, though Marvi is trying to convince his siblings to shift to syntropic farming.
Now expanded to six hectares, the farm holds a mix of mostly cacao (totalling about 3.5 hectares) with banana, native and various fruit trees as shade. “We grow cacao under the bananas,” Marvi explained. “Our long-term goal is full cacao production for chocolate making.”
Since both cacao and banana plants take more than a year to mature, the Montecillos don’t have complete numbers on their annual yields yet. “I would say that [our cacao production] is very competitive,” Marvi said.
Marvi, who’s tried both conventional and syntropic farming, said he prefers the latter, even though it can be more labor-intensive.
“In terms of our bananas, the yield is the same even if you applied chemicals. The difference with monocropping is you can plant, let’s say, 3,000 banana trees per hectare and in syntropic farming you can only plant half of that or maybe even less because your goal is to continually harvest and continually increase soil fertility, so [you have to make] certain sacrifices in the early stages. But we’re playing a very long game.”
“[Our bananas] have about 20+ bunches from one tree, which doesn’t happen often, especially since we’ve just come from El Niño,” Rogen said in Tagalog.
“Our focus is on the soil. Our farm did okay during El Niño, and when the rain came, we had a huge harvest,” Marvi added. “We started planting the banana at ₱40 per kilo and right now the price is ₱50 per kilo farm gate. It’s also calculated because aside from farming, I do [cost] analysis. It seems like the price of fertilizer… continues to increase, and when it continues to increase, there will be lesser farmers growing. I really think that for us, it’s very important that we really think of [this as] the future of farming, [which is] regenerative farming.”
Marvi stresses that despite their many successes, there is always room for improvement. He’s hoping to acquire machinery to offset the intensive labor required to maintain a syntropic farm.
“You have to climb the trees and prune them,” he explained. “Bananas [are] very laborious because we brush cut every month but with machinery, I think we can really cut down on the cost of labor. With more technology applied to this type of farming, I think it’s going to be very good,” he said.
The Montecillos also aim to turn their farm into a research center. “[We want to open our farm to] anyone who wants to try syntropic farming and make it economically impactful. We want to make syntropic farming mainstream. Unfortunately, it will require research,” Marvi said. “We’re always at the same time growing cacao and bananas, which is a sure strategy. I also want to try many things like growing vegetables and dairy cattle, small experiments. We want to be a learning site… If the farm continues to grow, it [may] become [an] ecotourism destination. Whatever is the opportunity.“
Anitu Forest Farm isn’t just a cacao and banana farm. It’s a food forest that represents the Montecillo’s commitment to conserve the environment.
And as Rogen said, ”It’s also a gift for our children.”