PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 7, 2014) – More than 1,300 farmers have benefited from the government’s Shared Service Facility program carried out by the Department of Trade and Industry in Western Mindanao.
Regional Trade Directress Amina Jain said the farmers, who are members of the Danlugan Farmers’ Multi-Purpose Cooperative, received a set of equipment consisting of a mechanical shredder and separator, and other implements used fertilizer production worth about P468, 000.
Vermicast is an organic or natural fertilizer that is created by using composting earthworms. These earthworms are placed in a container which is filled with compost and it makes their way through the food and excretes what is called vermicast.
Jain said they handed the equipment to Herminia Magrenia, the cooperative’s general manager, in the village of Danlugan in Pagadian City. Local mayor Romeo Pulmones and other village officials were also invited during the handover of the equipment.
“We are banking so much on the partnership of our local government unit in our project implementation to ensure its viability and sustainability. I also encourage our project co-operators to adopt branding strategies so that both the product and the place get promoted at the same time and help counter the negative impressions people have about our region,” Jain said.
Magrenia said at present, the cooperative can only produce around 30 bags a month of vermicast fertilizer which they sell at P300 per 50-kilo bag. With the shredder and other equipment from the DTI, she said production could reach at least 500 bags a month.
“Daku kaayo ang among pagpasalamat sa atong gobyerno pinaagi sa DTI niining mga ekipo nga mauy mopalambu ning among organic fertilizer production project. (We thank the government through the DTI for the equipment that would help enhance our organic fertilizer production project),” she said.
Rev. Felix Tigoy, the cooperative chairman, said marketing the vermicast is not a problem because orders for the natural fertilizer come by the thousands.
“Market for vermicompost is not a problem. We have standing orders in thousands of bags from neighbouring municipalities which we simply could not deliver, given the manual method using shovels we employ before. By mechanizing our operations through these machineries from the DTI, we should be able to produce more to meet a bigger portion of the burgeoning demand for organic fertilizer in the province,” he said.
Provincial Trade Directress Maria Socorro Atay said they regularly extend assistance to the cooperative which is one of the most progressive in the country and a recipient of many recognition and awards.
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