MOUNTAIN farming is mostly “family farming.”
There is more to the observation in the Cordillera highlands. It is also “community farming too.”
At different altitudes in our mountains, with their fragmented landscapes and different climates, dispersed patches of useable land for agriculture will now have to be farmed in a modernized light.
It should be done with “greater sustainability, efficiency, effectivity, profitability, and productivity in mind,” to borrow from Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar’s expositions on “The New Thinking for Philippine Agriculture” strategy of the DA.
The strategy is built around eight paradigms: “Modernization of agriculture; Industrialization of agriculture; Promotion of exports; Farm consolidation; Roadmap development; Infrastructure development; Increased (higher) budget and investments for agriculture; and Legislative support,” according to Dr. Dar.
Approaching highland agriculture in this light requires strong cooperation and support from all stakeholders of agricultural development to manage small family farms and landholdings in our mountain areas work for the farmers, their communities, and the nation as well.
In its beginnings, family farms hereabouts were mostly cultivated for family consumption. Slowly, particularly in Benguet and some parts of Mountain Province and Ifugao, patch-farming previously planted to highland rice and root crops like taro and sweet potato were slowly transformed into commercial vegetable farms.
As suggested by the “New Thinking in Agriculture” strategy, these farms can yet become major sources of food and thriving livelihood and income sources by organizing the farmers not only as associations and cooperatives but as corporatives.
The term “corporative” is a technical jargon that was first used in 1833. It is used as an adjective relating to the corporation.
There is more to its application in agriculture. It is not simply transforming a cooperative into a corporation.
Under the “New Thinking Strategy,” farmer cooperatives must be federated and formed into corporatives in partnership with the private sector, state colleges and universities (SCUs), local government units (LGUs), the DA, and other government agencies.
When the farmers are organized in this manner, support service is sustained with more efficiency, effectiveness, and quality. The farmers’ produce must be consolidated, and their operation mechanized.
From the point of view of mechanization alone, the benefits of the “New Thinking” strategy can be envisioned in this light.
According to engineer Gaston Cael of the PRDP-CAR, farmers cannot maximize their harvest of chayote, especially if these are grown far from the road. Farmers can only carry so much of the harvest. The rest of the harvest is left to rot at the bottom of the mountain or along its slopes.
To save the wastage, bring more chayote to the market, and increase the income of farmers, you mechanize the operation with an agricultural tramline project, Engineer Gaston said.
However, many tramlines that were constructed over the years are no longer operational. The exact data to include the number of operational and non-operational tramlines should be determined.
Indeed, the best practices, lessons learned, and problems in their operation should be documented and understood.
There are more to this discussion but to engage the “New Thinking” strategy better, the information and knowledge generated from this activity must guide stakeholders in promoting tramlines and generating investment to develop and promote this rural infrastructure for highland agriculture, otherwise, it could not be sustained in a most desirable manner.
This is true with all interventions in highland agriculture done over the years. We need to have science-based data to properly intervene and justify our operations.
And the mantra this all brings to light is that we all need one another to stand this new thinking challenge, “no man or woman lives alone.”