BAGUIO CITY – With the advent of the implementation of the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in 2016, a new perspective was raised among farmers for a more sustainable and quality agriculture. Among the six earliest adopters of GAP in the CAR are Alma Sissi-it and her sister-in-law Fatima Sissi-it from Nalicob, Balili, Mankayan. They first learned about GAP through their co-farmer who attended a meeting called-up by the Mankayan Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMAg) and cascaded it to her co-farmers after their Sunday service. The farmers had a meeting then which resulted to the formation of their association named Manpat-a Farmers’ Association which highly supported the farmers’ adoption of GAP.
Motivation in adopting GAP
Fatima and Alma hope for a better marketing scheme for GAP-produced agricultural crops compared to the conventionally-produced crops. Fatima shared that it was presented to them during the GAP orientations that the GAP products will have a separate market space in the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC), which was being established in La Trinidad, Benguet at that time. While it was their initial motivation as any farmer would hope for, the trainings on GAP and its-related activities enabled them to understand deeper the concept of GAP.
“Jay health la unay, narigat idiay konsensyak nga agilako ti nateng nga nu anya dita ti nai-bomba. Isu talaga ti nai-adal kanyak nga dapat safe ken nadalus jay produkto nga ilako mi (It’s primarily about health, it’s hard on my conscience to sell vegetables sprayed with a lot of chemicals that I’m not even sure of. I really learned that the products we are selling should be safe and clean),” Fatima shared.
GAP also taught her the importance of following the pre-harvest interval (PHI) which refers to the minimum number of days between the last application of chemical inputs and when the crop can be harvested.
For Alma, environmental protection and the production of safe agricultural products became her long-term motivation to adopt GAP. Born to a farming family and being a full time conventional farmer for about five years, she saw how chemical inputs were used inappropriately including the improper farming practices like harvesting the crops when the price goes high even if these were just sprayed recently. She reiterated the feeling of joy stemming out from her clear conscience knowing that their products are now produced following the GAP standards.
Challenges in adopting GAP
Convincing their spouses to help them was a challenge then when Alma and Fatima were starting to comply with the GAP requirements. They would accordingly end up arguing even on simple matters especially during the establishment of the farm facilities including medicine kits. But Alma and Fatima remained committed. They continue to convince their husbands by sharing to them their learnings on GAP and the purpose of the farm facilities.
In the end, their husbands expressed appreciation while looking at the final outputs just like the installed medicine kit and comfort room. In the process of GAP compliance, they recognized the importance of the farm facilities and materials due to untoward situations. Alma shared that one time, a co-farm worker’s hand was cut while cleaning in their farm. They were able to apply first aid because of the available materials like alcohol, cotton and betadine. Similar with comfort rooms, it is very helpful not only to them as farmers but to their visitors who need not go to one of the community houses when ‘nature’ calls them.
They also received negative feedbacks from other farmers at the start. During the putting up of farm facilities, some farmers questioned its intent while pointing out that the possible reduction on their production. Other farmers were asking them on the perceived benefits of GAP like higher market price and difference of GAP with non-GAP products. At first, Fatima admitted not being able to answer those questions directly because they were also starting yet at that time. Their answers were focused on the lasting impact of GAP such as food safety and environmental management.
As the first adopters in CAR, Alma and Fatima were also challenged on how to better comply with the GAP requirements specifically in putting up the farm facilities because there are no established farms yet in the region for benchmarking. They were still navigating on their own on how to implement it in their farms. “First kami nga ag-GAP isunga awan ti pagtuladan mi isunga ay-ayaban mi ni Sir Rudy ket isu ti mang-assist ken mangkita nu usto (We are the first to adopt GAP so we have no other farms to refer to so we would always request Sir Rudy (former MA of Mankayan) to assist and confirm if we are doing it right),” Alma recalled. They established the farm facilities, organized them and put appropriate signages using available resources like coupon bond and card boards with the continuous assistance of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, OMAg, and DA-CAR. Finally after about a year of capacitation and compliance to GAP requirements, Alma and Fatima together with the other early adopters, received their first GAP certification issued by the Bureau of Plant Industry in 2017.
Facilitating factors in the adoption of GAP
The strong support of the implementing agencies and LGUs including their farmers’ associations and family members is the primary factor that facilitated the adoption of GAP in Balili, Mankayan.
Alma and Fatima acknowledged that the supportive and committed GAP focal persons/implementers from the provincial and municipal agriculture offices and the DA-CAR have been very instrumental in their GAP adoption journey. They saw how dedicated were the GAP focal persons/implementers in assisting them in complying with the GAP requirements. Their positive outlook and constant appreciation of their small accomplishments along the way fueled the commitment of the early adopters to do better and complete the GAP adoption process.
“Iya-iyaman sin full support da tan nu maga da adi yan aytan naamag mi di amin. Uray masangaw da iman ay mankana-ali yan umali da ladta, kaman kamin VIP iman isunga the more ay ipapatimi tan kaman kamin nai-commit sin gobyerno (We are very thankful for their full support because we could not have made all of it without them. Even when it requires them coming here every now and then, they would still come, we felt like VIP, thus, we also do our best because it felt like we were already committed to the government).”
Moreover, Fatima and Alma’s spouses became supportive of their GAP adoption journey when they became more involved in GAP-related activities like farm monitoring and pre-assessments. Their spouses would also bring them to the van terminal in Poblacion, Mankayan which is about two hours away from their place and then pick them up again as scheduled in a rotational basis when they have GAP activities. The earlier GAP activities were conducted in La Trinidad, Benguet and/or Baguio City which required the participants to depart from their place in the wee hours and then arrive back late at night.
Their husbands also help them primarily on the application of GAP in their farm although the women were the ones issued with the GAP certification. In the case of Alma and Fatima, they had mutual agreement with their husbands that the former will be working on the individual GAP certification given their nature of being more patient and diligent in participating to activities like trainings as well as in maintaining requirements like record-keeping.
Their farmer’s association which is now the Manpat-a Farmers Agriculture Cooperative (MFACO), formerly the Manpat-a Farmers’ Association, also back up the adoption of GAP. It was primarily organized with the goal that all its members would become GAP adopters. All GAP related activities and advisories were cascaded by the MFACO, particularly during their meetings.
Benefits and ways forward after GAP adoption
The earliest adopters of GAP in CAR from Nalicob, Balili, Mankayan dubbed as the “six dancing ladies” received various interventions from the DA-CAR through its High Value Crops Development Program which include plastic crates, tractor, seed storage facility, and twin-tunnel greenhouse. These were provided to them as incentives for adopting GAP as they continue to improve their farms. “Adi mi namnamaen ay wada di project ay umali en dakami (We did not expect that we will be provided with projects), Fatima remarked. These interventions became a living proof of the tangible benefits after GAP adoption which piqued the interest of many farmers to adopt GAP as well.
“Nalaklaka tattan ta adda kami nga kasla pagtuladanda saan nga kasla idi time mi nga awan, mayat pay ta mai-conduct en ti activities ditoy haan nga kasla kanyami idi nga outside Balili amin (It is easier now because they have us to refer to not like during in our times which was none, even the activities are being conducted already in the community unlike during our time that all activities were outside Balili),” Alma shared.
Alma and Fatima regularly maintained their GAP certification which is renewable every after two years. They are focused on the lasting benefits of GAP enclosed in its four pillars namely food safety, quality produce, environmental protection, and the farm workers’ health, safety and welfare. For them, following GAP makes farming sustainable which is crucial because it is their main source of living. Producing safe and quality produce also gives them the clear conscience that their products are fit for human consumption and it is one way of taking care of their health. These realizations were carried over even in their non-GAP farms. Alma and Fatima remarked that they practice good farming practices like proper use of chemical inputs, waste disposal and proper harvesting in their non-GAP farms.
Another benefit of adopting GAP, on a personal growth, was the improvement of the farmer’s communication skills and self-confidence. Alma said that being exposed to various activities on GAP, joining DA’s KADIWA trade fairs, and talking to various people like the GAP implementers and farmers who visit their farms to benchmark improved her communication skills and boosted her self-confidence.
In terms of marketing, the GAP farmers including Alma and Fatima through their associations were linked to various institutional buyers outside the region. While it worked for some time, challenges were also met along the way resulting to the non-continuation of the linkage. Despite that, Alma and Fatima were grateful for the linkaging and their experiences as they continue to hope that a better marketing and pricing scheme for GAP products will be established in the proper time.
They continue to become prime movers of GAP adoption with their farms becoming a regular benchmarking site for GAP among farmers and other agri-stakeholders within and outside the region. They also assist co-farmers applying for GAP through pre-assessments to ensure that the latter are compliant to GAP requirements prior to the formal inspection of GAP by the BPI. By Janice B. Agrifino
