When mother is away, father's at home to stay

NO LAND remains idle as long as able hands do their best to till the land.

For Noel Gannisi, 49 years old, father to eight children, the usual day starts with boiling water for his one year old son to drink.

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His wife, Donna, aged 39, at dawn leaves the home to start harvesting for first cropping of the year in the payew or ricefield. This, of course, in Western culture is unacceptable but for the people of Natonin, Mountain Province, this is but a common thing.

When visited by social workers from THE Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation Inc., Gannisi said if only he could be doing more jobs as a farm worker, he would be able to send all of his kids to college.

But with his aging hands and weakening health condition, Noel's primary job of providing for the daily needs of his family are now passed on to Donna's still able hands.

His eldest daughter at 16 is now a housemaid in Bayambang, Nueva Vizcaya, while his other children help in the farm, says Gannisi.

Gannisi claims he can only send his three children up too grade 6 in the nearby Natonin Central public school but sees no need for them to finish high school because they would be able to read and write by then.

Just like them, he believes that children, treasures of their parents should always remain as extra help of parents at home and in the farm.

Mainly an agricultural municipality since its early years when nearby Kadaclan sitio is now part of Barlig town and nearby town of Paracelis were part of this town, Natonin has been known to be a land teeming of fertile farmlands and arable mountain slopes.

But as unique as the place is, the town's one town one product which boasts of high grade and export quality abaca.

With abaca, and the prospects for its development, it is hoped it will provide more income for most of its marginalized families.

Natonin Hemp

Commonly known in the world market as Manila hemp, abaca is hailed by many countries as the best shipping rope since the Spanish Galleon Trade times. Abaca of the town remains one of the next product, which can make the Cordillera region, albeit it is only produced in this Mountain Province town.

Growing sporadically for more than 800 to 900 hectares in all the 11 barangays of Natonin, abaca according to the Municipal Agricultural Technologist Ruth Baral is the town's next top income-infusing product next to palay.

This is already an amazing development considering rice fields only comprise more than 700 hectares of their agricultural town, says Baral.

With this growing interest in hemp and other by-products of abaca, Bertha Astrero, a mother of six children makes a living and adds income to her husband's measly income as a farmer.

Because of this abundance in raw materials for the production of abaca products, the Fiber Industry Development Authority (Fida) established its base in Mountain Province in this fifth class municipality as it has seen positive prospects for this town, employing Astrero and many more housewives in creating handicrafts for export.

Fida Provincial Fiber Officer Raymond Turac said class JK to grades S and I quality fiber from the abaca produced in the town have been developed by the agency that is comparable with the produce of the top abaca producing province of Albay in Bicol.

But the problem, Turac stressed, is the current lack of market for the produce of the town. Only a few of their products so far have been exhibited in trade fairs in the capital and in Manila.

Nonetheless, this did not dampen the spirit of Natonians who think that their products will become in demand in the near future. As Astrero optimistically sees it, as long as roads leading to the town are fixed and the materials and equipment are provided them, self-sufficiency is never vague.

Fiber Development Officer Medor Aguda also claims that aside from hemp which is twined for shipping ropes and exported to European countries, the town is also now producing pulp from the abaca fibers that is eventually made into first class hand-made paper.

Their produce, used for certificates and canvass for the paintings of National Artist Ben Cabrera or Bencab has been tapped by leading paper craft maker Leonida Domisan as a papercraft material for jewelry boxes, wedding invitations and the like.

Turac says Bencab uses Natonin paper because of its quality, substance and craftsmanship are comparable with the works of Arao Shimura, the only internationally-renowned handmade paper maker in the Asia.

Other than hemp and paper, scrunch, a product made of woven abaca fibers used in handicrafts, floral bouquets, native hats and wedding invitations is also now being eyed as a new product to develop.

"If only there's a processing center here and a harvesting facility for the town abundant in abaca, I would say there will be an industry here soon for the town which has been dwindling in population for the past three years," says Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation's social worker Corazon Sajonas.

Sajonas adds what the town needs are more investments, investments which will not only be for the short term, but so the people can be self-sufficient.

Municipal Planning and Development coordinator Bernard Foryasen says countless development programs from the Department of Agriculture and Department of Social welfare and Development have been made in this town, included in the top 50 poorest municipalities in the country today.

But to Foryasen, the problem lies in sustainable development. "Once our people become expectant of dole-outs from government, they will no longer feel the need to 'own' their small businesses. They will just depend on government for everything," he adds.

Currently, Fida is proposing to the town government to create a harvest-to-process-to-handicraft facility which can develop the product for export.

Turac says, once the product becomes of real high quality, orders from exporters and hemp-loving businessmen will follow suit.

Foryasen adds this is already a good initiative on the part of government. He says "just as long as Natonians feel they really own the business and will give their best for it to become self-sustaining, this should be the real goal of government agencies coming to help."

Other Prospects

Aside from abaca, organic rice is now in demand by high-end restaurants in Manila and abroad. Organic rice is also being started in the town.

Baral said, this product may become one which can help farmers become sufficient as most of them eat balatinao or kintoman rice on a daily basis.

Data from Natonin's municipal agriculture office furnished by the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Statistics in 2006 say Natonin has an ideal agricultural ratio with 60 percent forest lands and 40 percent occupied lands.

Of this occupied area, only 5 percent are residential areas, which have been an ideal density combination for an agricultural community which has not yet been exploited with more than 50 percent of its 49,050 hectares (29, 240 square meters) of virgin forests.

Gannisi, an organic rice farmer, sees income in the product when told about the demand for her produce.

But Baral says people like Gannisi, despite having irrigated rice fields, need help in transporting their products because majority of the farmers here only plant palay for their own consumption.

Despite all of its rice fields irrigated, in last week's rural appraisal workshop conducted by the Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation, many farmers requested for irrigation facilities, which to the social workers remain puzzling.

During interviews of the group, most of the irrigation facilities constructed by DSWD's Kalahi-CIDSS project have been worn out and destroyed by typhoons which struck the region in years past.

Until now, with the town's meager internal revenue allotment, many rice fields remain sparsely irrigated.

In the annual investment plan of the town, around P4 million is designated for the town's repair of destroyed waterworks facilities, irrigation systems and other infrastructure projects, which includes footpaths and trails without any allotment for farm to market roads.

Furthermore Gannisi, only laments that most of the traders buying their produce usually buy their rice dirt cheap but she overhears these are being sold for hefty prices in Baguio and Manila.

Baral says the reason for the town's expensive produce is all because of the difficulty in transporting them. The town only has three regular trips every morning to the province's capital of Bontoc and two trips to nearby town of Paracelis giving their town a sense of seclusion in terms of trade.

With this, Baral meanwhile added they are now coordinating with farmers like Gannisi on how to develop their product from seed to sack and produce the right income for every farmer here.

Moreover, aside from organic rice, most of the vegetables produced in this highland town are mostly organic says Baral which makes them saleable in many high-end supermarkets in Baguio or in nearby Santiago, City in Isabela.

Only if, the roads going to the town are paved, which for years remain impassable during the rainy season, Baral adds.

Without this, says Baral, the products of this town remains in obscurity, until an investor starts pouring in development in terms of sustainable technology that would make this sleepy town rise up from its current state.

For Gannisi, if only the world would see the beauty of the rice terraces in the place, as comparable and to some even more beautiful than Ifugao's famous terraces, any investor would not leave the place bare with promises.