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Sunday, February 1, 2009
The purpose of this documentation is to amplify the interplay of realities presented, met and subsequently addressed by the Upland Development Programme in its struggle to facilitate the embankment of its mission to the lives of upland folks in southern Philippines.
After eight years, UDP has threaded the dreams of improving lives in remote terrains found in mountainous topographies. Despite the many pitfalls and setbacks, it continues to struggle and reach out to better the lives of the upland folks and communities. This is its story woven and entangled by the challenges, failures and successes of true people engaging to make a stake at progress...
Pictures of upland realities in yesterdays struggle
The traces of the past are essential tools in dealing with the future. It is the memory of lives spent hurdling with difficulties. Sometimes it posts barriers for improvement, making its trail strongly felt to burden the present in the struggle to reach a better future. The upland is practically the most difficult road to traverse. Its remoteness may prove to be unfriendly and hard to transgress...most of the time; it is left out and hardly awakens by progress.
This is an attempt to unveil the past pictures of upland communities…the struggle of its people on the road to rehabilitation and positive changes.
An abstract of the lives of eight villages scattered in the hilly and mountainous terrains in southern Philippines will somehow paint a replicating picture of common realities lived by and survived by upland folks. Let us try to imagine the lives of people resplendent with mediocrity, simplicity, and scarcity by journeying into the flashes of their past before the UDP and other key players for progress started working on the new pictures of their struggles…
Synchronizing goals through community formation
another facet of this documentary is snapshots of realities found in the many faces of upland lives when the UDP started its journey in the realm of its mission and goals.
We will attempt to immerse and become acquainted with the endeavors of initiating little changes in communities as a means of staking bigger and more practical schemes for development. The upland folks are the major stakeholders of progress who are rarely afforded the opportunity to grow beyond the confines of their ordinary and customary day-to-day struggles. Yet when the UDP alternative and more systematic stance against all forms of scarcity became felt in their communities, motivating changes gradually beat common insecurities and apprehensions.
The Stories:
- hustling over veggies
- the rape of a forest
- going bananas
- striptease to progress
- nuts over rats
- a climb to flourish
- the tale of two villages
- the rope of life
Friday, January 30, 2009
Barangay Maligang in Kiamba, a town in the province of Sarangani, is experiencing the difficult road connecting them to the nearest market---the common problem in the upland communities. The village has about 261 families and mostly indigenous people, and farming is their livelihood. The area is highly suitable to abaca production.
The FIDA, a government authority on fiber, opened Kiamba for Abaca production, however, unfortunately, their first attempt to organize failed. In 2001, UDP rekindled the interest in Tinagak making, using the knotted abaca fiber, into fabric, and other handicrafts. The UDP had worked closely with the FIDA in conducting skills training and exposure trips; thereafter a Tinagak producers association was formed and despite their lack of capital ventured on Tinagak making.
The village is on undulating hills with rivers to cross, and its roads are hardly passable on rainy days---the slippery stretches, and the gullies. But these didn’t hampered the productivity in the village, while farmers are growing abaca, their women, youth, and even elders are preoccupied into tinagak making, as additional income for their families.
Abaca, the primary crop grown by farmers in Maligang, can be considered a viable enterprise for them.
The odds…
The nagging road problem is among the many struggles of the community. The deteriorating quality of abaca due to age and diseases is also a serious concern to sustain the enterprise. However, the people are unfazed with these odds that they even work harder to achieve their goals.
The knotted strength…
From its lowly beginning, the association is now known as United Maligang Farmers Cooperative with 181 members accumulating a capital of some P38, 000.00 pesos. It has also increased its production of tinagak from 8.35 kilos in 2001 to an average of 140 kilos per month, employing about 115 people, mostly women, youth, and elders. The enterprise has contributed an increase in household income of about P700.00 to P5, 000.00 pesos monthly. The growth of the coop can be seen in the participation of the community, and the assistance from local governments and funding agencies.
The Task...
However, the small gain by the coop in trading isn’t good enough. They still need to strengthen themselves by building skills and right attitude, that in realizing the dream to improve their lives, they must also take care of the environment.
Bringing development to Maligang is a formidable task but seeing how it gradually changes their lives is inspiring.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Rancho and Kolambog are villages at the eastern hilly sides of barangay Libi, and the B’laan tribes settled in them since the 1930s, about 30 families scattered in some 869 hectares.There are no clinic and school, before the clearing for the road in 2003, the villages and their children had to walk over five kilometers to reach the health center, and for the children to attend elementary. But horses are also available for easier visits.
Potable water was also lacking and the villagers fetch in the springs far from their houses. Corn is largely planted in the villages, and rice is grown for eating, and cassava, sweet potato and banana are other staples.
In essence, life in Libi is simple and unsecured…the people are praying for land to farm to improve their lives.
‘Win some, loss more’
These upland villages in Libi are in Malapatan, a town in the
To date, KRANFO has their business plan but their proposed enterprises are not yet started. The organization is composed of 62 members, 30 of whom come from Rancho and 32 from Kolambog.
The UDP’s partners in the projects in Libi include the town of
During the business planning with the consultants, the farmers have identified the trading of banana and peanuts, and a store to be managed separately by each of the villages. However, the villages in Libi still struggle with the changes. Their pitfalls usually mean missteps for the association. It was realized that so much is left undone that every step forward somehow lead them away from their goals. Notwithstanding the fact, the farmers are still willing to stake at progress because they have shared with the UDP’s vision of development.
Guinang Fucal, a pastor and one of the chairmen in Libi in their dialect said, ‘Before, we are always short of cash. Until UDP came, we only had corn and coconut, but they taught us to plant all types: from long-term like coconut, mango and coffee; and medium-term like banana; and short-term crops like mongo beans and peanuts.’
Here, we will somehow see that people are people, their issues, small gains and heavy set backs are part of the process.
Monday, January 26, 2009
The trails to Kablon…
The village is at the foot of Mt. Matutum with an area of 4,700 hectares, more or less. It is the most populated in Tupi and most of its inhabitants are indigenous people, the B’laan tribe. It has very fertile land, and cold weather with no distinct wet and dry seasons, favorable to vegetables like potato, radish, carrot and cabbages that are commonly planted. The village life is mirrored by the ‘habal-habal,’ a modified motorcycle to transport farmers and vegetables that ply along its roads, aside from trekking by foot. The land tenures are merely certificates of stewardship that worried the farmers.
The farmers relied heavily on lending at unreasonable rates to finance their farms. They could hardly get by their income. Health care is scarce in this part of the upland, and education is expensive that only few farmers are literate. Despite these facts of life, they still enjoy the horse fights and “Amyak Maleh Matutum,”-a climbing activity at the peak of
…or a descent to perish?
Ever since Glandang is into vegetable farming producing vegetables in commercial scale and trading normally takes place at the roadside. The price is so unstable and usually happened at harvest when vegetables flood the market, and farmers would engage in price war just to avoid spoil.
The UDP approved the proposed Bagsakan, a buying station at Glandang to improve the trading of vegetables in Kablon. It was completed in 2003, with a rainwater reservoir for washing the vegetables. The farmers finally experienced payment on time at delivery; while their association with scarce capital could only buy a limited volume of vegetables--such with some internal conflicts, the buying stopped after two months.
However, the UDP have known their problems, and provided them with consultants to revive the Bagsakan Center. A team was formed, the “Matutum Enterprise,” as a subsidiary of the farmer’s association.The farmers made a business plan and manual focused on renting the bagsakan and how the enterprise would run the center. The association is able to prove that the business is profitable. The farmers were not able to make use of the bagsakan, as a trading facility, in a sense they failed to manage.
Until now, the Bagsakan is not operating. The farmers insisted on their old ways and hard to accept changes.
Monday, January 19, 2009
The logging operation also brought migrants from Leyte, Zamboanga and the neighboring towns. The denuded forests were further cleared for homes and made into farmlands. The Kaingin was practiced by farmers, and mono and non-synchronized cropping worsened soil erosion and incidence of pest and rat infestation on crops.
Land conflicts between the B'laan and Christians occurred and were settled only in 1988. The NPA and the MILF groups also occasionally pass through Palo 19 but there were no reported conflicts with them.
The village has poor roads that it is better to ride a horse or walk. There are no post harvest facilities, electricity, and health center--- only basic services are provided by the town’s personnel and some volunteers. There is a high school and an elementary school. The main water sources for the 260 households are undeveloped and unprotected springs.
After the logging, farming also became a very unprofitable enterprise. Middlemen provided trading, marketing, and credit services, including cash advances and loans to be charged against harvestable crops. The farmers have very little to do with their harvest. Selling prices for crops were mainly determined by the middlemen.
Fastforward…
Fortunately, the UDP selected Palo 19 as its first cover in Tampakan. It has assisted the village in formulating their community watershed plan, training farmers on sustainable and environment sensitive farming methods, provided farm to market roads, and helped in marketing and developing their enterprises.
Today, the village was significantly organized into an upland barangay association. It’s primarily purpose is to enter into a community-based forest management agreement with the DENR and secure land tenure for the farmers.
The Bagsakan center was broached to pave the trading of village’s major crops. The activity renewed interest in the communal efforts towards development. The center was intended as consolidating station for buyers and farmers to do business. Realizing that there was a big market for peanuts, the village went into peanut farming. However, the concept that the center would act as a consolidator of products did not happen, and actual operations were limited to peanut buying and storage.
Missteps…
In 2002, the association partnered with the Mindanao Peanut Industry that pitched them to a buyer in Manila city, who required 10 tons per shipment, at P50.00 per kilo. However, the venture resulted into a huge loss due to rat infestation. Also the unsynchronized planting and harvesting of farmers nailed them to meet the required volume. Helpless, the center then sold the peanuts to buyers within the town at less than their buying price.
The damage caused by rat infestation, the lack of capital, and lack of organizational skills to manage a communal enterprise, and other issues related to finance and operations, led to the closure of the Bagsakan at the same year.
Revival…
In 2004, the UDP engaged a consultancy firm, to implement business development services to Palo 19. The officers signified their interest in reviving the operations of the Bagsakan.
The association opted to convert itself into a coop to manage the trading business, and provide its members with dividends, patronage refund and other benefits. It would adopt a structure more appropriate to managing business, and guided by a business plan and operations manual. The coop is now trading banana, gabi, ginger and tomatoes based on the community’s production capabilities in relation to the current market demands. These crops are from the farmers, and sold to markets in Koronadal, Surallah, and General Santos.
The UDP funded and introduced diversified farming, to help sustain the trading enterprise and the production of the priority crops, to farmers.
Significantly, the association believe in focusing to stay committed, and united, as a way to address their day-to-day struggles, considering that up to now, the services rendered to the coop are still voluntary with doubts and intrigues destructing the initial operations of the enterprise.
In the shadows of development…
Upo is one of the 19 barangays some eight kilometers away from the town center in Maitum. It has a population of 1,640 and mostly T’boli, where only 43% are literate. It has 2,430 hectares of moderate slopes and rolling hills. This village was marginalized because of limited use of its land for agriculture. The village elders describe the barangay during the early 90’s as very bare. It was one of the poorest barangays of the town in a survey conducted by the local government. This situation was worsened by the armed conflict between the government forces and the MNLF in 1999 that greatly affected the village.Sunday, January 18, 2009
Paving the way to prosperity…
One passes through San Roque plying the national highway from New Bataan to the next town of Compostela Valley. It is one of the 17 barangays in the town of New Bataan, and three kilometers from the center accessible by passenger buses, motorcycles, and multi-cabs. In San Roque, one finds the Mapaso, a village at the foot of the mountain; and going up was to cross the river through a hanging bridge.
The area is widely planted to coconut with mostly banana (Cardava) as intercrop. Two springs development projects were constructed by the province and funded by CRS for them to avail of potable water. The village farmers are mono-cropping, slash-and-burn the slopes and planting with corn--denuding the uplands in the way. San Roque has an estimated area of 10,000 hectares considering the irregular terrain of the barangay. Its residents are from Bohol, Cebu, and Leyte, and other places of the country.
Cardava trading…
The Mapaso Small Banana Farmers Cooperative is the only banana trading business in the area. The Coop also provides its members lending and health care.The coop started Cardaba trading in year 2000 to offer equitable prices to banana farmers. Three years after, the coop realized the need to directly link with banana chip processors. It was at this time that the UDP provided assistance in establishing the direct link with the Commodities Corporation (ELCOCO). The company enabled the cooperative to increase its canvassed volume of Cardava from an average of five tons per month to ten tons per month for two years. The coop plans to expand their banana trading to four other nearby villages hoping to generate more jobs in the next three years. From banana dicing, it plans to engage in actual trading of Cardava. However, in most case traders back out from buying their banana, the coop suffers the ‘pain’ and ‘loss’ of looking for other buyers for Cardava, that are left along the streets for pick-up. It teaches them realities of business, as well as, planning ahead for problems they would face in the future.
The surfacing of big markets for Cardava ushered in by the banana chips industry has dash hope for the coop. With the town’s campaign for Cardava production and the mayor’s aggressive promotion in planting 10 hectares of land per village with Cardava, the coop’s goal is more doable now. The coop also provides cash advances to both member and non Cardava growers since 2001 as subsistence money in between harvests. It also set-up a fund for hospitalization, also known as the ‘emergency fund’, seeing the difficulty of its members (excluding non-member) to look for funds to pay their medical expenses in times of need.
From a few hundred pesos working capital in 2001, this gradually increased to about P12, 000.00 pesos in June 2004. As of now, the coop treats cash advances as short-term loans with an interest of 2% per month and a 3% service on a pre-paid basis. The coop’s finances show an improving performance with assets increasing from P9, 396.00 in 2002 to P9, 487.00 in 2003. Assets continue to increase by about 50% from 2004 to present. Aside from this, the coop has no external liabilities except that of the dividends and patronage refunds payable to its members.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Albagan’s past…
The condition in Albagan, depicts that of Mt. Matutum, it was told that in the past, had lush forest and wild animals. It is now has three hectares of forestland and eight hectares of plantation forest, this was brought about by the illegal logging of forest trees and worsen by kaingin, the slash and burn way of farmers. The natural springs were not spared resulting to gradual drying up, which threatened the water sources, adding to this was the El Niño phenomenon hitting the village.
Majesty amidst devastation…
Mt. Matutum, which stands at 2,086 meters overlooking the South Cotabato-Sarangani-General Santos growth area in Southern Philippines. It was declared in 1964 as a forest reserve to protect 14,008 hectares of its forest cover from illegal logging, timber poaching, hunting, and other destructive activities. It was March 1995 declared as a protected landscape as a way of safeguarding the integrity of the traditional interaction between people and nature that, over time, has produced an area of distinct character with significant aesthetic, ecological and cultural value.
During the early part of the 1940s, settlers from various parts of the country came to Albagan through the National Land Settlement Administration that facilitated their settlement. Logging concession, that granted timber companies to cut trees in commercial volume, followed in the 1960s. Later when concessionaires abandoned their logged areas, it became a rehabilitation site with government pouring in social, economic and infrastructure support.
Evolution of a village-based enterprise…
In October 2001, the UDP came after a series of activities following the sustainable community development process; an upland barangay association was organized.The association came up with the community watershed plan as their basis to pursue development and environmental management work in the village. The village enterprise development project was implemented through the Mahintana Foundation, Inc. As a result of an organizational diagnosis, the association was able to define their respective roles and identify various potential village enterprises and prioritized seedling production and marketing.After the business planning, MFI engaged the village into the production of indigenous species such as Lawaan, Bakan, Nato, Hindang, Igem, among other. They did not find it difficult to produce seedling, however, the only buyer for their seedlings is the same service provider assisting them. In this sense they are defenseless against the MFI when it decides to stop buying; either by environmental excuses or sudden change of preference. On the other hand, data on the market reveal that there may be a large market apart from the MFI that waits to be tapped.
A need for alternatives…
Seedling production and marketing is viable for Albagan. However, demand for indigenous seedlings is highly seasonal and dependent to the whims of buyers. Although it is a good enterprise, it is deemed that other activities must be done on the side in preparation for lean period. The communities must therefore diversify to survive trying times.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tagaytay’s tracks and motivating profile...
The village is reached trekking the slippery ridge, surrounded with mountains, and nine rivers, sixteen creeks and thirteen springs crisscrossing the area. Tagaytay has hundreds of hectares of rolling clay and sandy loam suited to agriculture. The community is composed of tribal people that speak only their B’laan vernacular though they also understand Cebuano, which is widely used in the town. Six in every ten in the tribe are literate, being hardly able to read, write and do simple arithmetic. The high illiteracy rate, poor health services, unsafe sources of drinking water reinforced the sorry state of the people in Tagaytay.The predominant diseases that oftentimes led to death in the village include malaria, diarrhea, cough and colds with fever, ulcer and pneumonia. The village has one complete primary school with only four teachers serving them. It also suffers occasional flash floods and soil erosion due to denuded forests.
At the onset of development, problems and concerns on economic enterprise were noted to include the following: insufficient capital to start a business; inadequate alternative source of income from farming; ineffective trading and marketing support; lack of farm to market roads. The farmers also mentioned that there are some agri-infrastructure needs that have to be addressed. These include post harvest facilities, warehouse, solar drier, corn mills, and irrigation system and spring development. These needs somehow impede in the economic and agricultural production of the community. As a result, the agri-production is low thereby affecting the income of the farmers.
Despite the odds…
To hustle is to toil and work. This is what TUFAWA, the upland barangay association in Tagaytay did. Theirs is a story of how people manage to organize and unite to address their issues and concerns. However, the road to development is not easy for there are challenges to meet along the way.The association was organized in 2000 with the support from the UDP and registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004. It operates as an association providing loans and savings services to farmers and workers. It has a membership of 190 people mostly belonging to B’laan tribe and distributed among four sitios.
Through UDP assistance, the association has formulated its vision and goal statements. The association conducted trainings and activities along diversified farming system and agro-forestry. These trainings made the community realized the importance of protecting and restoring the environment while at the same time promote and develop sustainable farming system and eventually increase farm income.
Presently, the association offers vegetable production loans to farmer members. It collects the loan through its selling scheme of P1.00 per kilogram of vegetables. Other than this, it has income from the labor payments in the road rehabilitation activity funded by UDP. The association took charge of implementing the various activities jointly planned by the different stakeholders in the community with technical and financial assistance from UDP. Among the projects it implemented include the rehabilitation of the farm to market roads and some foot trails. The business development and planning workshops were held to develop a business plan, entitled the “TUFAWA Vegetable Production and Marketing Enterprise,” with the accompanying operation manual. The system installation and coaching facilitated major activities and installed the appropriate systems, which includes simple recording and bookkeeping for officers and members becoming familiarize with the actual business transactions.
In its first three months of operation, the trading center has facilitated the trading of vegetable with an average 16 tons of vegetables monthly. This operation of the trading center was made possible due to the enforcement of the municipal ordinance requiring all agricultural commodities coming from the other barangays to be traded at the ‘Bagsakan.’ The same ordinance requires all traders/ producers conveying vegetables through the municipality to present a pass slip from the trading center. A significant portion of the vegetable supply from the producing areas is traded and consumed locally while the surplus is marketed directly to Davao City, bypassing both Bansalan and Digos City.
In the assessment study conducted, it was revealed that Tagaytay is a producer of a range of vegetables that have sufficient market demand. Production scales maybe relatively small but there is still much room for expansion both in terms of potential production areas as well as market absorption capacity.
At present, it is apparent that TUFAWA does not have the requisite capacity to effectively engage in a vegetable trading despite the enthusiasm, willingness and the presence of entrepreneurial additives. But the community’s dream and willingness to pursue are still on.
