Organic farm in Lipa City

By ZAC SARIAN

January 5, 2011, 1:58pm

MANILA, Philippines – An increasing number of organic farming enthusiasts are getting serious in pursuing their projects.

One of them is businessman Manuel “Nonong” Bagatsing who is developing a 16-hectare farm in Brgy. Adya, Lipa City, into a certified organic farm.

He calls his farm Kahariam which is an acronym derived from the initials of his children. The son of former Manila Mayor Ramon Bagatsing, Nonong has long been involved in farming because his father loved farming, especially horse breeding. He has been involved in ranching in Zambales until the unreasonable demands of the New People’s Army in Central Luzon forced him to give up the cattle project altogether. But that did not stop his interest in farming.

Today, he has turned over the management of his IT business in Manila to his son so that he could devote most of his time to the Kahariam farm. At first, he went into the production of lettuce in greenhouses that he supplied to supermarkets in Manila. The production was good but the marketing was not satisfactory to him. He said that there was so much spoilage and rejects by the supermarkets. And payment for the harvest was at least a month after delivery.

Three years ago, he gave up the production of leafy greens because he had spotted a better potential in producing vermicompost which is used in organic farming instead of chemical fertilizers. The greenhouses were converted into vermiculture beds using the African Nightcrawler earthworm which he feeds with horse manure mixed with 30 percent leaves and other biodegradable waste products from the farm.

Today he is producing 150 to 300 tons of vermicompost a month which he sells for P6 to P7 per kilo, depending on the volume purchased. His price is very much lower than the going retail price in the Metro Manila market which is anywhere from P20 to P30 per kilo.

He can sell his vermicompost at a very reasonable price because he has a relatively low cost of production.

The horse manure, the main raw materias, is virtually free except for the cost of hauling. He has a lot friends who are into horse breeding in Lipa who freely give the manure to him. In fact, they are thankful that somebody is getting the manure from their farms. He has two trucks hauling no less than 10 tons of horse manure a day.

Nonong said that in the beginning, they tried different kinds of manure for feeding to their worms. These included manure of goats, cows, pigs and horses.

They observed that practically all the worms transferred to the bed of horse manure. Usually, the substrate or feed materials are turned into vermicompost in two months if one kilo of worms is placed in one square meter of substrate. If two kilos are placed, the vermicompost is ready for harvest in 30 to 45 days.

The vermiculture beds are no taller than 16 inches. If the bins are more than 16 inches tall, there will be less ventilation in the lower portion and that is not good for the worms. Aside from the vermibeds under greenhouse (about 4,000 square meters), Nonong also has vermibeds on 5,000 square meters under and between mature mango trees.

The other focus today is organic rice production. In initial trials using nothing but vermicompost, he was able to harvest 133 cavans per hectare. He is now preparing seven hectares for planting to organic rice.

He says there is an unlimited market for certified organic rice which is usually sold at more than double the price of the ordinary rice. He was also able to produce jasmine rice which we tasted during our visit.

He grows other products on the farm like fruit trees, vegetables, strawberry, free-range chicken, tilapia, catfish and others. But these are minor projects mainly for testing the efficacy of his organic fertilizer. His produce are for his family’s own consumption as well as for giving to friends.

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