Farmers level up as mentor-preneurs

FARMING comes to the fore as decisive in ending hunger and poverty as the international community tackles the roots of these problems by building on initial gains of the past 15 years.

In September, governments in the United Nations adopted the 17-point Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, which follow through the eight-point Millennium Development Goals 2015 that helped lessen the incidence of hunger, especially in Asia and the Pacific region.

To harness such potential of agriculture, experts believe it must level up both as a viable vocation for younger people as well as a rewarding business venture — both for long-time farmers as well as newbies.

Asterio P. Saliot, director of the Agriculture Training Institute (ATI), says the world is turning to the undertaking of producing our food as the solution to addressing food security and the threats of climate change.

“But first, farming needs to be strengthened by raising farmers’ expertise as producers,” Saliot says. “Second, it must offer a sound business case to gain the interest and dedication of farmers, as well as to encourage the continuous updating and upgrading of skills.”

As a farmer strives to improve his knowledge — by attending seminars, workshops, etc. — he or she naturally evolves into a teacher or trainer to other farmers.

The teacher-farmer’s farm naturally becomes the classroom as, Saliot explains, experience shows that farmer-students learn best through field schools or practical education.

“The best teacher for farmers are also farmers, rather than technicians or extension workers,” he says. “Of course, the best classroom for farmers is a farm.”

As the farmers’ field school develops in to a “learning center,” the trainer’s farm catches up with provisions for function rooms or areas for seminars, and even accommodation for visiting trainees.

As the learning center develops still further, the field school attracts non-farmers who simply want to see and feel how life in a farm is — giving rise to farm tourism.

Such developments, the ATI chief says, inevitably lead to agri-tourism.

“What started as an effort to improve farmers’ ability to produce food ends up on an enterprise level,” Saliot says. “The farmer moves up the value chain.”

According to the partylist group Aambis-Owa (Ang Asosasyon sang Mangunguma nga Bisaya-OWA Mangunguma Inc.), agri-tourism jives well with the need to promote awareness and understanding of the benefits and importance of agriculture, promote environment-friendly and sustainable farm practices and generate more job opportunities in this sector.

Aambis-Owa says combining tourism with agriculture also provides incentives for farmers or farm owners to stay in agriculture amid concerns about converting farmlands to commercial or residential use.

It notes that in Southeast Asia, agri-tourism is well developed in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, where visitors can opt to stay with a household or “host family” in a rural community for the purpose of cultural immersion.

Still, ATI’s Saliot says international agencies turn to the Philippines in promoting farm tourism as a mainstream activity.

“As early as 2008-2009, the Japan International Cooperation Agency has engaged the ATI to help in training activities,” he says. “Back then, we developed guidelines for farm tourism and organized an initial workshop in Bacolod.”

In July, the ATI worked with Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on a project dubbed Strengthening Capacity-Building in Agricultural Sector in Asean. The 14-day training course benefited 20 delegates from across the region.

Currently, the ATI is pushing a Big-Brother-Small-Brother scheme under which progressive farmers serve as mentors to help the small-scale farmers.

“The big brother farmers act as providers of technology, and they are also the buyers of small farmers’ products in order to share their market reach, being operators of farm tourism sites,” Saliot says.

He says this concept developed around efforts to increase the small farmers’ income, especially considering that poverty is widespread in the rural areas.

According to Aambis-Owa, as of 2014, there are 28 farm tourism sites accredited with the Department of Agriculture and five with the Department of Tourism.

Meanwhile, the ATI lists 234 farmers’ learnings sites spread across the Philippines, which Saliot says are in fact levelling up as full-fledged farm tourism sites.

Farm tourism sites have different levels of development. Some, Saliot says, are considered as prime examples of the business model while others are on their way to such status, and others are just starting.

“One of the best-known so far is the Costales Nature Farm in Majayjay, Laguna, whose operator Ronald Costales is now a much sought after resource person in international forums,” Saliot says.

In the more advanced agri-tourism sites, training in organic farming is a staple activity as well as the growing of vegetables; the raising of animals like chicken; pigs, goats and cattle; and the production of natural fertilizer, particularly from worms (vermiculture).

“There is still a step forward from that,” Saliot says. “In Panabo City (Davao del Norte) at the Aces Polytechnic College agri-tourism site, they recently opened an ATIng Organikong Kainan restaurant, which offers food from their farm.”

This last example, he says, shows that the initiative comes full circle as farm tourism spans across the value chain — from the farm to the plate.