From the Editor: Winning Traits of Successful Agri People
DURING OUR SEMINAR/FORUM which we hold every Sunday in our farm, one lady wanted to know what some of the traits that make agri people succeed in their farm projects are. HARDWORKING, INNOVATIVE - Some of the successful agri people we have interviewed are really hardworking and innovative. Jose Madriaga of Tay-ac, Bantay, Ilocos Sur is one of them. He is a high school graduate who has been named Farmer Hero by a big seed company because of his success in growing vegetables and other high-value crops.
Madriaga is really hardworking. He plants his crops throughout the year so that cash flow is non-stop. He can do that because he has water pumps to irrigate his plants whenever necessary. He is so hardworking that he would work even at night irrigating his field. He is also very innovative. For instance, he intercrops his onion with tomato so he can harvest two crops from one parcel at the same time.
He practices relay-cropping so there is continuous production from one area. For instance, when his Maserati shallot is 50 days old, he dibbles corn seeds in appropriate distances on his shallot paddy so that he will have something to harvest not long after he has harvested his onion. DANILO BAYLON - Another fellow who is a hardworking and innovative agri entrepreneur whom we met many years ago is Danilo Baylon of Candaba, Pampanga. He was then a big raiser of ducks and a distributor of feeds for a big feed mill. His is a rags-to-riches story. At a young age, he was a tricycle driver. He was also a security guard for a bus company in Baliuag, Bulacan and also in Manila while he was a working student taking up mechanical engineering course.
At the time of our first meeting, he disclosed that he worked practically 16 hours every day. At 4 o’clock in the morning, he would plot the routes of his trucks delivering feeds. At 7 o’clock, he would bring his young children to school. After that, he would do the rounds visiting his customers. SMART STRATEGIES - Aside from being hardworking, Baylon had smart strategies in his business. He always pays cash for everything that he buys, for instance. Why? So that he can ask for a big discount. He is also very disciplined. He said he never gambles, never drinks, and doesn’t womanize.
When we met him at a livestock show several years back, he informed us he was no longer distributing feeds for the feedmill that earlier hired him. That’s because he had already put up his own feedmill. He had also become an integrator. That means he had contract growers of broilers. And in 2018, an engineer acquaintance of ours told us he was building a R150- million feedmill for Baylon. MAKE IT A HABIT - Some other agri people are successful because they had made a good deed into a habit. Something they would do regularly. We remember Pat Dugan, for instance. He is a long time friend who has been a weekend farmer for many years developing several hectares in Batangas