A new hope for indigenous farmers

Negrenses find timely support from nonprofit groups to till ancestral domain

BACOLOD CITY—A tragedy six years ago almost pushed 44-year-old Merco Obas to give up farming, leave his family and look for a job in Manila.

His house in the upland area of San Carlos City in Negros Occidental was burned down. He did not have enough buyers for the large volume of vegetables he was growing at that time.

With only P50 in his wallet, Obas was about to say goodbye to his wife, Sharrie, and three children then aged 8, 9 and 16, to find better luck in Manila.

However, help came when he needed it most.

Now, Obas and his group of 60 indigenous farmers are cultivating 50 hectares of their 100-hectare ancestral domain in the mountains of San Carlos City and are supplying vegetables to a food processing plant in the city for a nonprofit organization.

His kids, Rhey Sha Mae, Rhey Shem and Merc Shan Joe Obas, are all in school. They also help him farm.

Regaining footing

Obas, who belongs to the Iliran Tribal Council, had been timely assisted by the 60-member Bukidnon Farmers Association (Bofa).

When the fire destroyed their house in 2016, the group let the Obas family live in their training center while he was getting back on his feet.

Although Obas received help from the local government and some of his regular customers, the donations were just enough “to replenish our family’s clothes and purchase basic farming supplies,” he recalls.

Obas used his remaining money to plant squash, but when the harvest came, while it was bountiful, there were no takers.

As Obas considered leaving for Manila to try his luck, the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation received an order for dehydrated vegetables from Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger relief agency that seeks to end global hunger by engaging local volunteers.

“One thing they (Stop Hunger Now) asked for was squash. Though we had to source several tons of it, we had no idea who to turn to,” says Millie Kilayko, president of NVC, which manufactures Mingo Meals for malnourished children.

It was then that the late Marivic Rio, who had been working with the organic farmers in San Carlos City, acted as a bridge between Obas and NVC.

“Thanks to Marivic, Merco (Obas) never left for Manila. He and the rest of the IP (indigenous people) community farmers soon began regularly supplying us with squash and other vegetables. The rest is history,” Kilyako says.

Using earnings from squash farming, Obas was able to rebuild a cozy blue house.

Obas and his group are now supplying vegetables to NVC. He is now president of Bofa, and his group has become one of NVC’s most reliable suppliers.

Moving up the value chain

On March 24, a groundbreaking ceremony for a farmbased food processing center in the hinterlands of San Carlos City was made.

Kilayko says the food processing center will be operated by the IP community’s women organization. It will manufacture a variety of fruit and vegetable-based products as well as provide NVC’s production plant in Bacolod with preprocessed nutritional ingredients.

The plant is expected to be operational by the end of this year. It is expected to source squash, rice, mongo, moringa, banana, camote and batwan from local farmers. Crop requirements are seen to expand as operations mature.

‘Opportunities for growth’

“For five years, we peddled our dream of turning the farm into a city where all produce leave with added value, where new jobs are generated, and higher learning will be in demand because of a variety of economic activities,” Kilayko says.

“We dreamt of a whole community staying away from the big city because their farm already provides opportunities for growth.”

The plant will have the capacity to process 50 kilograms of assorted farm produce for dehydration and 50 kgs for other food products. Kilayko says the dehydration capacity can increase someday if NVC could purchase a solar drier.

The food processing center in the hills of San Carlos City will be built by Base Bahay Foundation using its bamboo construction technology.

The center is envisioned to be typhoon- and earthquake-resilient, insect-resistant and compliant with the standards of the Food and Drug Administration.

Kilayko says Sun Life of Canada, through Sun Life Foundation, provided the initial startup fund for the project.

‘Change for the better’

Maricen Jalandoni, president of Base Bahay Foundation and Asia Hilti Foundation liaison, say they have developed affordable housing using cement bamboo technology.

“Now, we are looking at other social projects that have greater economic impacts on communities. That is why we are working with NVC, which has values aligned with ours,” Jalandoni says.

Johann Baar, director for Hilti Foundation for affordable housing and technologies and Base Bahay Foundation trustee, says he is extremely happy with the food processing project in San Carlos City.

“We want to create sustainable structures that help communities. I feel helping build a food processing center that really creates economic opportunities [and] in the long term helps families make a better living,” he says.

Base Bahay, in partnership with Gawad Kalinga and Habitat for Humanity, has built 1,000 houses in the Philippines, about 350 of which are in Negros Occidental.

“Housing is just a starting point. Our aim is to create a network of partners that engage in social development to bring about change for the better,” Baar says.