Green revolution in Central Luzon

Title

Language

English

Year

1968

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Sweet corn offers the largest profit and has the steadiest market of all field crops.

Fulltext

09 Sv.eet corn offers the largest profit and has the steadiest market of all field crops. GREEN REVOLUTION IN CENTRAL LUZON A green revolution is sweeping peacefully and profitably across the gently rolling plains of Central Luzon, long the rice bowl of the Philippines. Ride is still the principal crop of the hardworking far mers who till the area’s rich, fertile soil. In fact, since the introduction of IR-8 less than two years ago, followed by rapid transition from tradi tional to modern farm prac tices under the helpful su pervision of college-trained technicians, Central Luzon farrrters are producing more rice today than ever before. At the same time, how ever, they are dramatically boosting their income—some as much as ten-fold—and greatly improving their liv ing standard by growing and marketing a wide varie ty of vegetables and field crops. Some farmers are re ceiving better returns from the sale of mongo beans, sweet corn and string beans than they are earning from IR-8 production, even though yields are several times greater than rice varieties they used to plant. Interestingly, explain agri cultural technicians, the in troduction of IR-8 largely ac counts for the revolutionary development in vegetable farming taking place in Central Luzon. Since IR-8 is short-matur ing, they point out, the wet crop is harvested in Nov ember, at the end of the rainy season and almost two months in advance of tradi tional varieties. Early har vesting enables the farmer to plant vegetable seeds sooner, permitting the seed to germi nate quickly and the plant to develop rapidly in the soil’s high moisture content. Furthermore, the residual effect of the generous appli May 1968 25 cation of fertilizer which IR-8 requires, invigorates vegetable growth. Only sweet corn needs additional fertilizer. Still another factor is the willingness of farmers to care scientifically for their crops controlling insects and plant disease. They learn the im portance of such care while growing IR-8 under the Agri cultural Guarantee and Loan Fund (AGLF) program, su pervised by agricultural cre dit technicians of the Central Bank of the Philippines. The purpose of the AGLF is to provide crop loans, with out collateral and at a mo dest interest rate, principally for tenant and leasehold far mers whose main source of credit has been the notorious money lender. Loans are ar ranged through privatelyowned rural banks and are carefully supervised by cre dit technicians who advise the borrower on proper land preparation, pest control, fertilizer use, and other measures essential for maxi mum crop yield. The most successful Cen tral Luzon vegetable ven tures, in fact, are those of the 400 farmers of Mexico, Pampanga, who since Dec ember 1966 have obtained more than a half million pe sos in loans under AGLF financing from the Rural Bank of Mexico to cultivate 1156 hectares of high-yield rice varieties. During the 1967-68 dry season, only 300 of the 1156 hectares were planted to rice. The balance was in vegetables and field crops, such as grain sorghum, soy beans, and com. In early January, to discourage the planting of rice because of water shortage and to pro mote vegetable growing, the bank stopped granting rice loans until the next wet sea son. Best promoters, though, are farmers themselves who have discovered undreamed wealth in the raising of vegetables between rice har vests. For many, vegetable sales have meant the dif ference between bare sub sistence and profitable farm ing. The difference between grinding poverty and relative affluence. Take 37-year-old Pedro Dizon who leases 12 hectares 26 Panorama in Barrio San Juan. Before he began planting IR-8 he cultivated one hectare of string beans during the dry season, netting about P400. This.season, from one hec tare and without adding any fertilizer following his IR-8 harvest, Dizon netted P4700 from the sale of two crops of string beans. This, added to his mongo bean and palay sales and ex cluding five hectares of IR-8 destroyed by Typhoon Welming last November which were replanted, gave him a net profit of more than P13,000 in 1967. From his earnings, Dizon made a down payment of P6000 on three residential lots in San Fernando, the provincial ca pital. That he had a net loss of P318 from his farm ope rations in 1966 underscores his spectacular success. Says Florante Salvador, Central Bank agricultural credit technician who has worked closely with Dizon since Dizon got his first loan under the supervised credit program: “Pedro used to be quite a gambler. He’d dis appear for several weeks at a time. Now he doesn’t want to leave his fields. He says he intends to keep his 12 hectares under cultivation the year ’round. He’ll be able to because all of his land is irrigated by the Abacan River even during the dry season. Besides rice and beans, he wants to try sweet com, peanuts and picnic cu cumbers.” While not all of Mexico’s string bean growers have been as successful as Dizon, many have done very well. Barriomate Leonardo Mal lari, Sr., boosted his profit from P240 to P1700 since he began growing string beans after his IR-8 harvest. Another San Juan resident, Gregorio Pineda, saw his earnings jump from PBOO to P850. And Teofilo Dizon of Anao, who earned 1*350 from one hectare of string beans before he began plant ing IR-8, netted P1300 from one-and-a-half hectares this season. Credit technician Salvador said the municipality’s 30 hectares of string beans should net producers an average of P1700 per hec tare. He estimated an aver age per hectare profit of May 1968 27 P850 for the 500 hectares of mongo beans under cultiva tion. Among outstanding mongo bean producers are Leonardo Franco, San Juan, and Epifanio Tolentino and Pastor Miranda, both of Anao. Fran co had an income of P1250 from two hectares compared to P340 from one hectare of mongo beans before the land was used for IR-8. Tolen tino’s earnings were more striking. From two hectares and a profit of P260 before IR-8, he doubled his mongo bean earnings although he planted only one hectare. Miranda’s profit went from P200 to P530 from one hec tare as he increased yield from five' to twelve cavans. Sweet corn has Mexico farmers rpost excited. Even though it is more costly to grow than most other vege tables, sweet corn offers the largest profit and maintains the steadiest market. Two contractors competed for Mexico’s entire production. The representative of a can ning company offered to contract for 20,000 ears a week. At season’s peak, one con tractor purchased Mexico’s total output, about 60,000 ears a week. He paid the farmer 10 centavos an ear and furnished cellophane sacks into which the un husked ears were placed im mediately upon being picked so as to preserve their fresh ness. Most of the corn was distributed to Manila super markets, Clark Air Base and the U.S. Naval Station at Su bic Bay. “We figure it costs about P400 for seed, fertilizer, insecticides and labor,” said Vergara, “to produce a hec tare of sweet corn. Gross returns on the investment are about P1500, or a net earning of approximately P1100. This is a better re turn than most farmers are earning on the production of IR-8 rice.” Primo Mandani planted one hectare of Hawaiian Sweet on his farm in Cawayan. He sold 14,000 ears for P1100, had P291 in produc tion costs, for a profit of P809. He was still harvest ing when the data was col lected. 28 Panorama Mateo Garcia, Anao, net ted P913 from the sale of 17,000 ears of UPCA Hybrid 801, and like Mandani was still harvesting when data was obtained. Sa profitable have been the bean and sweet corn harvests of Mexico farmers that many are using pro ceeds from vegetable sales to pay >off bank loans in curred for last year’s rice planting. A number were unable to meet their obliga tion when more than 20 pet cent of the rice crop was destroyed by Typhoon Welming. “This experience,” says Salvador, “has taught them that they should not depend on a one-crop economy. Their vegetable crops have been gooql insurance against a disastrous’ rice crop.” Mexico farmers, particu larly the 400 who have bene fited from the rural bank’s supervised credit program, maintain they owe most of their success to the faith and understanding of Miguel Ver gara, President-Manager of the Bural Bank of Mexico, and the technical skill and encouragement of Florante Salvador. At the same time, Vergara and Salvador stress that their program would have failed had it not been for the willing cooperation of the farmers who were eagerly responsive to change once they were shown how to improve their farm opera tions. There is reason to believe Mexico’s quiet revolution is just beginning. Vergara and Salvador have plans for de veloping a bustling provin cial farmers market where farmers from all of Pampanga could bring their produce and contract for its sale to canners and represen tatives of Manila supermar kets. They want to increase the planting of field crops, improve and greatly expand fish, livestock and poultry production, and promote mechanization as farm earn ings increase. Mexico’s greatly increased rice production and success ful multiple-vegetable crop ping have brought several constructive changes. For one, unemployment no longer is a problem. Those who used to head for Manila af ter the rice harvest because May 1968 29 there was nothing to do un til the next rice season, have found a new profitable in terest in vegetable farming. In fact, Mexico actually has a labor shortage. The most important as pect, however, of Mexico’s awakening is the wholesome ly contagious effect it is having on neighboring com munities. Nothing succeeds like success. The green re volution is spreading, each day winning more Central Luzon farmers to its cause. THE NEED IS GOVERNMENT Government is the thing. Law is the thing. Not brotherhood, not international cooperation, not secu rity councils, that can stop war only by waging it. Where do human rights arise, anyway — security against the thief, the murderer, the footpad? In brotherly love? Not at all. It lies in government. Where does control lie — control of smoking in the theater, of nuclear energy in the planet? Control lies in government, because government is people. Where there are no laws, there is no law enforcement. Where there are no courts, there is no justice. — E. B. White 30 Panorama

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