Welcome to the City of Golden Opportunities

The Park where Vegetables Grow
by: Noel T. Provido
(taken from UHAY Magazine, Official Publication of the Department of Agriculture-Region XI Vol. 26 No. 2 April-June 2007)

There's a different kind of park rising in the city of gold.

The 25 hectare energy park located in Barangay Apokon, Tagum City shows how it is possible to harvest a sustainable future for a modern and growing city .

Although the usual steel benches, spacious lawn, and scenic landscape are still there, what sets the Tagum Energy Park apart is that is envisioned to serve as "one-stop-shop" where people can mix business and leisure.

This wide space was actually a reserved area and has been idle for a long time. Thanks to the city's dynamic chief executive - Mayor Rey Uy who never ran out of innovative ideas. He started developing the place into what it is today and for the next generations to come.

When asked why it was named "Energy Park", Mayor Uy who was again elected for another term simply explains that with the trees and other living things around, people will literally have a breath of fresh air and get energized. The park was masterfully planned where intersection of spacious lawns, offices, and other gathering areas complement each other.

"By 2010 we hope all our plans will be in placed and the Energy Park can be much more than what it is right now," Uy said.

So far, two offices were already established: the Bureau of Food and Drugs Satellite Office for Mindanao and the Department of Education, Davao del Norte Division Office. Other agencies that are planning to establish their office in the near future include the Social Security System, Pag-ibig, and National Statistic Office. Camp sites for the Boy and Girl Scouts were also identified.

Social Payback
It cannot be denied that the development of the Energy Park has displaced informal dwellers who had been occupying the area as their residence and source of livelihood particularly vegetable gardening. However, Mayor Uy made it a point that they are properly relocated and be given livelihood opportunities from park development.

So when the park was established, one hectare was alloted for a demonstration farm where relocated settlers can continue growing vegetables as source of for their income. The city has teamed-up with the Department of Agriculture in Region XI (DA XI) for the mechanisms on how the vegetable demo farm will be set up.

The Office of Mayor Uy and the Dir. Roger C. Chio of DA XI agreed to develop a certain portion of the park as the venue where farmers will experience the "learning by doing" concept. Initially a 6,000 square meter open field tropical vegetable and sweet corn production area was established for farmers to go back to the same land they used to cultivate. The difference however is that they can no grow vegetables using improved technologies such as plastic mulch, bio-organic fertilization, proper drainage and irrigation.

"Here you can see that the pathways are made of concrete blocks. This is actually an application of what I observed from the demo farms I visited in other countries," Uy said.

The Author with Mayor Rey T. Uy at Energy Park

Hands-on lessons
Every stage from land preparation to harvesting has a corresponding training for farmers to go "hands-on" on proper vegetable cultivation.

In this demo farm, the DA XI through the Southern Mindanao Integrated Agriculyural Research Center (SMIARC) and the City Government of Tagum joined forces to provide a packeage of technology in vegetable production to our farmers. This makes the project a showcase not only of high quality tropical vegetables but also on DA-LGU counterparting schemes" relates RED Chio.

"The LGU Tagum City provided the area and support staff while DA XI researchers conducted lectures and coordination with the private companies that provided the seeds and other inputs needed" Chio said.

"Vegetables planted are the leafy and pinakbet type not only because of its suitability in Davao del Norte conditions but also because of its market potentials " says Melanie Provido, SMIARC senior agriculturist who oversees the demo farm.

" For farmers to observe and eventually choose the best vegetable varieties, we have invited leading seed companies to showcase their recommended varieties. Five seed companies namely: Allied Botanical, East- West, Kaneko, Ramgo and Seminis responded to our invitation" Provido said.

Farmers were able to learn first hand what varieties can thrive well in the area.
Most farmers favored smooth plastc type sweet pepper since it has resistance to bacterial wilt and its color and shape is appealing to consumers. For eggplant, farmers appreciate the variety that bears fruit in cluster as this means higher yield while in tomato, they preferred to grow Diamante variety as it has shown resistance to bacterial wilt. Other vegetables that thrived well in the area include sweet corn, string beans, okra, pechay, upland kangkong, cabbage, sweet corn and watermelon.

Dragon fruit,a potential new crop with high economic value was also planted in the area for farmers to appreciate and eventually mass propagate.

The City Agriculture Office and the DA XI have organized the farmers involved in the demo farm. Gregorio Ado the elected president of the RTU Energy Park Vegetable Association expressed his gratitude to Mayor Uy as well as the DA XI for the income opportunity given to them. Their Association will now handle the day to day operations while the city government and DA XI will continue to give trainings and other technical assistance.

Having shown how growing vegetable could offer the possibility of increasing production and providing better income for informal dwellers the area was part of the itenerary of of the participants of the recent 3rd Southern Mindanao Vegetable Congress held in the Tagum City. Agriculture students fromm the adjacent university of Southern Philippines' (USEP)- Apokon Campus also benifited from the project had their practicum in the demo farm where like the farmers, they went hands-on in vegetable production.

Seed Money
Since May this year, farmers are harvesting most of the vegetables twice a week. Compared to their income prior to the establishment of the demo farm, they're happy to note that they now have enough money for their basic needs. Vegetable produce are sold in at Tagum City Hall where Mayor Uy have provided them a selling area. There were also negotiations with institutional markets such as the malls and supermarkets but at this time the farmers produce are just enough to supply the demand of city hall employees and its walk in clients.

The first harvest of the farmers association was very promising. Sweet pepper harvested from 200 square-meter plots for the first month alone have yielded 240 kilos and was sold at prevailing market price of P60 per kilo. This has given them a gross sale of P14,400. Eggplant harvested from another 200 square meter plots yielded 340 kilos and was sold at P15 per kilo and game them an initial earning of P5,100. In sweet corn, the farmers were able to harvest from a 3,300 sq m area 6,000 pieces while retail price was sold at P5.00 per piece. This gave them an income of P15,000.

The association is till consolidating their sales in other crops such string beans, okra, upland kangkong, and pechay but they assured that is has also offered very satisfactory income as demand for this type of vegetable has never been a problem.

Mayor Uy said the income from the vegetable demo farm will all go to the members of the farmers' association. To sustain the demo farms' economic activity, the City Agriculture Office facilitates the collection of 30 percent of the farmer's income. The said collection is set aside as the association's seed money or capital for the next cropping season.

More to come
The partnership of LGU Tagum and DA XI will not end after the first cropping season. Several steps are being planned so that the project will be sustained and continue to be the farmers' source for learning and earning.

"As we expand vegetable production we will continue to train farmers particularly on application of post harvest technologies such as handling, product branding and packaing", Mayor Uy said.

Marketing of farmers' produce is another aspect that must be developed. While it is true that vegetables produced at the Energy Park already has winning comparisons with those sold in the supermarkets it must establish market linkage with institutional buyers to maximize profitability.

"In this demo farm, we will show how to address the need of the small to medium scale farming and improved their capabilities towards enterprise development", he added.

So next time you travel on north of Davao Region, try dropping at Tagum's Energy Park where you can have not just a breathe of fresh air but also some packs of fresh vegetables.