FARM STANDS STRONG AFTER TAAL VOLCANO ERUPTION AND NOW, AMID THE HEALTH CRISIS

AFTER THE DEATH of a loved one, Michael Maranan, President and CEO of Taal Mananan’s Farmville, realized the importance of producing food not just for his family, but also for the community.

Maranan, who was raised on a farm in Batangas, decided to build his own farm with the initial goal of providing healthy food for his family. “At first, I just wanted to produce food for my family’s consumption, and then eventually, when I saw that the real food is not just for us, but for everybody, I decided to expand [the farm] to be able to share it to everyone,” said Maranan.

Taal Maranan’s Farmville is an agritourism site in Taal, Batangas that measures about five hectares and that offers family-friendly activities, accommodation, farm-to-table meals, and more.

Besides offering healthy food and attraction to the public, Maranan’s mission is for the farm to pave the way for people to learn natural farming while creating remarkable memories with their families at Taal Maranan.

A SOURCE OF PRODUCE

In terms of food production, they grow high-value crops such as different varieties of lettuce, kale, and Japanese cucumber; local crops including eggplant, okra, sitaw, pechay, papaya, squash, upland kangkong, and tomatoes; as well as herbs and spices like basil.

They also cultivate native plants and trees like banaba, bignay, mabolo (Diospyros blancoi), paho (Mangifera altissima), galo (Tinospora cordifolia), and gac fruit (Momordica cochinchinensis). Some medical plants available on the farm are oregano, turmeric, and ginger. Aside from these, the farm also nurtures the only olive tree in town, which Maranan obtained from Israel.

In growing and maintaining crops,

Maranan’s farm ensures to abide by the guidelines of the

Philippine National Standards in Organic Farming. Their fertilizers are made from fruits and vegetables, which they get from the farm. They also use vermicast and carbonized rice hull (CRH) in land preparation. For pest control, they place net bags and insect traps as an alternative to pesticides.

According to Maranan, introducing natural farming and sharing how it differs from non-organic methods to people is the only challenge they continually work on. To amplify its importance to more individuals, they offer free seminars and training on Maranan’s farm. Through these, they also get to explain the reason why naturally-farmed crops hold higher selling prices than those of non-organic goods.

The harvested crops are added to the meals served at the farm’s restaurant and some are sold to online and walk-in buyers. They also supply goods to their regular clients including restaurants that are mostly Korean restos. They sell mulberry jam, kale juice, and banana heart steak out of the farm’s produce too.

In terms of the people, Taal Maranan consists of 10 farm workers aside from the set of employees assigned to other departments. Their farmers are from the provinces of Quezon, Bicol, and Batangas. Maranan ensures that they all have statutory benefits and other necessary work assistance.

A FARM DESTINATION FOR EVERYBODY

In 2016, this family’s vacation place was turned into a farm destination when they opted to open it to the public not just to share their knowledge on farming, but to give jobs to the locals as well. From the concept of the online game Farmville, one of the farm’s highlights is the fun and creative rooms and cottages that are patterned after gigantic-size vegetables, fruits, animals, and more.

They also offer various relaxing activities that are fit for all ages like glamping, tree-hugging, and animal feeding. You can also experience picking fresh crops on the farm like lettuce, okra,

and basil. This is a strategy that Taal Maranan’s Farmville has intentionally offered to make their visitors engage in farming.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE TAAL VOLCANO ERUPTION

When the Taal volcano erupted in January 2020, Taal Maranan’s Farmville was one of those who got heavily devastated. As an agritourism farm site, it marked a huge impact on the farm; the estimated amount of damage from the eruption was about a million pesos. Maranan says, “We lost 80% of our guests who are visiting the farm and buying our produce because of the fear that the volcano might erupt again. It took time to recover because the alert level three was still in effect.”

After the explosion, they removed the damaged crops, cultivated the land, and started sowing seeds again. A month later, they were able to open the farm to the public again, just in time for Valentine’s day. Since many were not able to visit them, Taal Maranan made a way to reach the customers through door-to-door delivery as they managed to market their produce through the online platform.

THE CURRENT STATE OF MARANAN’S FARM

Now that we are facing a crisis, Maranan added, “We take the situation as an opportunity to offer our farm produce [online]. We sell and deliver our fresh produce to our valued clients. By this, we can still give job opportunities to our employees.”

Due to community quarantine protocols that were set to halt the spread of the virus, they temporarily closed the restaurant. They also limit their guests to one family per day who would like to visit the farm. This way, they can focus on one family in sharing their farm practices and in giving them a better quality service.

In the future, Maranan aims to make their farm produce and goods available worldwide and to continuously help the community in providing more jobs and opportunities for them.

Photos from Taal Maranan’s Farmville

DURING THE EARLY MONTHS of the COVID-19 pandemic, community quarantine was imposed in Luzon, and other areas in the Philippines to contain the spread of the virus. One concern during this period was of food security.

Back then, gardening didn’t pique the interest of many as it does now. Dimamay’s solution to encouraging others was through leading by example, which then led her to start her own backyard garden.

Now in her 30s, Dimamay grows fruits and vegetables in her backyard garden which is slowly developing into a small farm.

INTERCROPPING RESULTED IN HER GROWING GARDEN Due to imposed lockdowns and quarantine measures, Dimamay said that she had time to tend to her backyard garden, which grew into a small farm called Milay’s Garden.

“Milay’s Garden is a one-hectare property located in Malabor, Tiabao, Antique. Almost half of it is planted with fruit-bearing trees such as pomelo, rambutan, custard apple, soursop, jackfruit, coconut trees, oranges, and calamansi mainly for consumption,” she said.

Her garden’s main produce, however, is the red lady papaya, which she intercropped with vegetables so she can have a continuous harvest of produce despite the different maturing seasons.

“The distance of one papaya tree to another is 2.5 meters by

2.5 meters. I planted early maturing vegetables like eggplant, tomatoes, okra, pechay, and chili in between so while I’m waiting for the papaya to mature, I can earn from the vegetables,” Dimamay said.

In order to maintain her garden and produce quality crops, she implements friendly farming practices such as vermicomposting, applying natural insect repellants, and using rice straws from neighboring rice fields as mulch.

Dimamay initially planted nearly 600 papaya trees when she began gardening but she lost almost 150 trees due to heavy rains and papaya diseases.

“I am not an expert; I am still learning. But the essential thing is to be very observant and notice the little changes in your plants because early detection of disease can help in the mitigation. Ask advice from fellow farmers. I joined an online forum and learned a thing or two from Google and YouTube,” the Provincial Board member said.

EARNING FROM THE PRODUCE

With a variety of produce growing in her garden, Dimamay hired a displaced worker who lost his job because of the pandemic to help her in maintaining and slowly expanding the farm.

She then took the opportunity of selling the produce online or through her family and friends as a means to make an income for both her and her farm worker.

“My gross income is around R35,000 to R40,000 where I also get the wages for the person who helps me out on the farm,” Dimamay said.

Presently, she plans to continue planting in her small farm as well as slowly develop it so when the health crisis is over, Milay’s Garden can be open to the public as a demo farm or a destination where people can appreciate and learn about farming for free.

“I [also] intend to turn it into a nursery to propagate seedlings that I can share with constituents to encourage them to grow their own food,” Dimamay said.

Growing your own food, according to Dimamay, is healthy and good for the environment because people are aware of how their food is grown, what’s inside, and at the same time, they can lessen their carbon footprint since growing food in one’s own backyard doesn’t need to be packed in plastics or transported from one point to another.

“I advocate [gardening] to people to make them understand as well as appreciate the beauty of growing their food, and to be self-sufficient. As of now, I actively share it on my social media to encourage more people, and I am giving out free seeds and seedlings,” she said.

Dimamay’s venture into backyard gardening started as an advocacy for her but it eventually became a profitable project for her. Still, she remains steadfast with her goal of encouraging others to start growing their own food.

Photos courtesy of Karmila Rose Dimamay