BAGUIO CITY – Changes in climate patterns and harsh environmental conditions pose threats to many sectors of economy, the agriculture sector not excluded.
Daguio Atopen, a farmer from Abatan, Buguias, Benguet, shared to have experienced mostly strong typhoons and continuous rains affecting both crop yield and income for the cropping. He, together with his children, currently tends 1.4 hectares of land for high value crops and coffee-lemon production. They also have small fishpond for tilapia including some chickens and swine in their backyard.
Through the Climate Resilient Field School (CRFS) provided by the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera’s Adaptation and Mitigation in Agriculture (AMIA) Project, Atopen has gained insights to be able to adopt with the changing conditions in agriculture. He now practices agroforestry system within his 2,000 sq. meter-area planting Arabica coffee and lemon under the pine trees. This not only maximizes the land but also allows both the plants to thrive harmoniously. Atopen pointed out that the lemon and coffee produce significantly provided them with alternative source of income especially in times when their main crops were damaged and/or met low prices in the market. His first coffee harvest were bought by the Buguias-Office of the Municipal Agriculturist and later on found an established market with a private buyer in the municipality. The lemons, on the other hand, are usually sold in bulk for retail in the local markets in Abatan area.
Aside from agroforestry, Atopen also maximizes the pine trees as natural wind breakers keeping his crops and greenhouse safe from the impact of strong winds during typhoons. The greenhouse provided by the AMIA Project in FY2024 is 200 sq. meters and is used for the production of bell pepper and lettuce through crop rotation. These allows him to produce crops even during monsoon season.
Atopen expressed his gratitude for the greenhouse project noting that it enabled for the season-long planting of crops within controlled environment compared to the open field that faces various environmental challenges.
Being a farmer for 38 years already, 59-year-old Atopen have learned the usual cropping patterns for the year which was later enhanced and adopted during the CRFS in 2021. Accordingly, their first cropping is within May-June-July-August, then production break follows in September and October being the months where strongest winds were accordingly experienced, and then next cropping follows in November-December-January-February. The following months are accordingly drier when they experience water shortage especially for those under the rainfed areas, hence, they only plant minimally during these months until the next cropping arrives again. Prior to the established cropping pattern in their area, Atopen shared that they plant crops continuously throughout the year following the monocropping system.
Given his agricultural experiences, Atopen now recommends integrated farming for diverse sources of subsistence and income. At present Atopen is also producing vermicompost following the turnover of the vermicomposting facility last year by the AMIA Project. Vermicompost is the product of the decomposition process that used worms to create a mixture of decomposing food scraps, bedding materials and vermicasts. He is already in the second harvesting of vermicomposts that he both uses in the farm and sells to other interested farmers in their area.
His first harvest gained 56 sacks at 40 kilograms per sacks. These were used in his production area and significantly decreased their complete fertilizer usage into half. Apart from that, Atopen is also working on the production of vermitea which can be used as alternative for foliar fertilizer.
Atopen continues to apply his learnings and come up with innovations, adopting new technologies to improve his farming activities into climate-resilient ones in order to cope with the changes of times. He also shares it to other farmers, particularly within the Northern Hills Farmers’ Association where he currently serves as the Adviser. Atopen, at present, aims to apply for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) – a certification system that gears towards ensuring food quality and safety. By JBAgrifino
