TABUK CITY, Kalinga – This year’s Regional Outstanding Rural Woman for the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is Wilma C. Alvester from New Tanglag, Tabuk, Kalinga, also the region’s nominee to the Department of Agriculture’s (DA)-National Search for Outstanding Rural Women (SORW).
As regional winner, Alvester will be receiving a cash prize of PhP50, 000 from the DA-RFO CAR.
There were two nominees endorsed to the DA-CAR this year for the search who underwent on-site validation in July 2024 conducted by the DA-CAR’s Gender and Development Focal Point System–SORW Committee together with the partner local government units. The nominees were assessed based on three major criteria namely: contribution to food security/agricultural and fishery development (30%); contribution to sustainable development and use of climate resilient or environment/women-friendly technologies (30%), and impact of rural women (40%).
The SORW is an annual recognition for outstanding rural women launched by the DA in 2003. The search, in sync with the Magna Carta for Women, aims to duly recognize rural women who have shown excellence and made outstanding accomplishments towards agri-fishery sector development making impacts on the lives of people in the rural communities.
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬: 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐳𝐨𝐧𝐞
Wilma is the 10th among the 11 children of Josefa and Calixto Cabannag. She is a proud farmer’s daughter, mother, entrepreneur and community leader who learned to do farm works in an early age, imprinting a special place for agriculture in her heart.
She also learned to become self-supporting to finish her studies and applied for scholarship to fund her college education. Wilma also became an active student-leader in various school organizations, particularly the Kalinga Students Association (KASA)-BCF chapter and the Council of Leaders-Supreme Student Government (SSG). As a student-leader, she upheld the welfare of the iKalinga students and led their school organization to oppose the industrialization plan of the Camp John Hay back then.
After graduation, Wilma went into various works to earn a living such as working in a merger company, opening a sari-sari store, and growing crops until she decided to work abroad. The hard decision was made after their farm was totally damaged by a strong typhoon that left them with nothing.
She worked in Korea for seven years and then came back for good to take care of her family and aging parents. She continued to work in the farm and started her palay buying business. The palay consolidation helped reduce the transportation expenses incurred by farmers in their community when marketing their products.
During that time, she also served their community in the capacity of a barangay treasurer.
In 2017, Wilma opened a food business and registered it with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) with the name FLQ Foods and Panciteria. That year, she also helped organize the Manggawa Farmers Environmental Development Association (MFEDA) where she was elected as president of which she holds up to present.
As president, Wilma initiated the proposal of agri-machineries like rotavator, water pump, and combine harvester to the DA which were granted to them after several follow-ups and site validations. The machineries are now utilized by the farmer-members based on their working policies and guidelines.
Since then, she continues to participate in various agri-trainings and seminars. Wilma further ventured into tilapia production as a result of one training on fish production that she attended.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MFEDA under Wilma’s leadership also distributed relief goods to the New Tanglag community to reinforce the government’s efforts against the virus.
Wilma also went into cassava production and processing. This all happened because of an unfortunate experience in their community in 2009. One local politician asked the community members to plant cassava and the harvested crops will be bought from them afterwards for processing. Many community members, especially the women, became interested and planted cassava. However, during the harvesting season, the political leader was nowhere to be found and the farmers were not able to turn the cassava into income. Wilma tried to think of ways to help the women so that their efforts will not go to waste. They tried to manually process cassava into miki noodles but without proper equipment, it became difficult and the expected quality was not achieved.
Her idea of processing cassava from root to flour was awakened when Wilma was introduced to the program of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development Working Helping Woman Innovating Social Enterprises (DOST-PCIEERDS’s WHWise) which was searching for a woman-entrepreneur. She was provided a grant to implement her project, “Babae Livelihood Accelerating Cassava Opportunity” or BALANGKOY, which means cassava in a local term. She used the fund provided under the WHWise Program to establish her cassava flour processing facility near their panciteria. She also hired five MFEDA members to serve as employees within the facility.
Currently, the project is already producing chips, flour, miki, and starch out of cassava. These products are being introduced in different places including research development and benchmarking to create more cassava by-products and job opportunities. She is currently working with 12 MFEDA members composed of 11 females and one male for cassava production in a 10-hectare and in New Tanglag to ensure continuous production and availability of raw materials for processing.
Moreover, she continues to encourage the farmers and women in their community by conducting actual demonstration of different planting techniques on cassava and trainings on cassava processing. She always ensures that women are involved in her livelihood activities as she believes that women are not just meant for the homes but for business as well.
As a proud woman-entrepreneur, farmer, mother, and community-leader, Wilma firmly believes that women’s abilities know no limit. They can break barriers and take the risks head on outside the boundaries of their homes – their comfort zones. By JBAgrifino
