ADVOCATING THE SMALL-SCALE FARMING SYSTEM
BASED ON CURRENT TRENDS, the farm sizes for every farmer are getting smaller due to land conversion for other purposes, plus the division of estates by the heirs of older farmers. However, many farmers think they can only become successful in farming if they have a bigger farmland. If these two situations continue to prevail, many small farming families will eventually abandon farming and in the long run, be forced to sell their farmlands. This scenario might compromise the local food supply in the very near future.
URBAN FARMING APPROACH Taking into consideration the problems that hound many farming communities, Reynic S. Alo of RVN Farms and executive director of the Federation of Multi-Sectoral Alliance for Development in Bacolod City decided to venture into small-scale farming.
During the later part of 2014, he transformed a piece of land in Villa Emmanuel, Barangay Blumentritt, Murcia, Negros Occidental, measuring about 1,750 square meters, into a small farm. Alo said this could provide potential farmers with hands-on experience in the small farming business, and eventually be used to develop a profitable model which can be replicated by other farmers.
ADOPTABILITY He called his farming system the “Diversified, Regenerative, and Intensive-farming Ventures for Economic and Environment-Upliftment” or DRIVE-Up for short.
Alo says he practices regenerative technologies at his small farm, like applying organic and mineral elements which can rejuvenate soil fertility while restoring the microbial activities of the soil. He is also adopting other farming techniques like using an improvised greenhouse, a drip irrigation system, and doing container gardening using sacks, plastic bags, and halved soda and water bottles.