Let’s even the odds!
Every time Channel 2, 5 or 7 airs features on aquarium fishes and pets, my friends in Cartimar are so ecstatic because the month after broadcast will surely be a profitable month with increased sales. When a prominent TV news anchor talked about double dead pigs sold in Balintawak market, it caused a sharp fall in the sales of pig and pork
nationwide. When a TV celebrity said that if you eat chicken in the New Year, the rest of the year will be bad because chickens represent “Isang Kahig – Isang tuka,” my friends in the poultry business said many contract growers went bust. The TV personality never even knew the damage she caused to the poultry growers.
For the last 3 years I have been learning about the actual operation of a “backyard piggery.” I have enrolled and graduated and have a certificate in the “Basic Course of Pig Husbandry” at the International Training Center for Pig Husbandry in Lipa City. And after many additional courses, I have become a volunteer moderator-lecturer for BMeg feeds “Fiestahans”, teaching the “Ay Mali” or mistakes to avoid, to even the odds because backyard farmers are up against so many challenges.
These Fiestahans are a joint project of BMeg feeds and their provincial distributors and involves 20 to 30 people, take one month to prepare, uses up 20 big boxes of information materials, raffle items, and gifts most of which are sent by air cargo, and the event costs around 300 thousand each. What makes it all worth it is that the average attendance of 1,200 to 1,800 people, mostly retirees, OFW families, farmers, teachers and many plain simple folks looking for a living.
Thirty to 40 percent enter the “business” with absolutely NO knowledge. The second challenge is putting up their piggery or poultry in their backyard, which often brings conflict with neighbors or barangay/village officials due to smell and water pollution issues. Third, they use inferior materials such as piglets or sows we call “Chop Suey” meaning low quality in-bred or potentially stunted pigs.
Even if you get the best site, the best material, you are still up against 5.8 months of hard work to see a “sow” through her 3.8-month pregnancy and 2 months to raise piglets to sell. If you want to earn more you can grow the piglets to market size after 3 more months or a total of 8.8 months. Then you have to find buyers and that’s when you meet the “Viajeros” who send in several teasers to chisel your farm gate price and frustrate you by not showing up after agreeing to buy everything, so that when the actual Viajero comes a few days or a week later, you will grudgingly sell all, at an even lower price because the longer the pigs stay with you, the more your little profit disappears from feeding ten to 12 hungry mouths.
Then comes the greatest insult to hog or poultry raisers; an Undersecretary from the Department of Agriculture, that does not provide free information or training, does not provide good materials through animal dispersal, or provide assistance and protection from harassment of LGUs shows up on TV or Radio saying the farm gate prices are still relatively high and can be reduced by 3 to 5 pesos per kilo; on a 90 kilo pig that would be a 450 peso loss or reduction in profit.
The consumers readily agree to anything that can save them money but don’t realize the fact that a “farmer” only makes P483 to P500 profit for one piglet sold and that only happens if his sow produced 10 live piglets or above. Anything below that is a loss and the “lugi” factor or losses gets worse the lower the number of piglets produced and sold per batch. If he decides to wait longer and sell full grown pigs for slaughter it is generally accepted that the farmer’s profit per pig is about 1,500 to 2,000 pesos. Now see what happens when you reduce P5 per kilo or P450 from an average profit of P1,750; you get P1,300 net profit divided by the 8.8 months it took to produce one pig; the farmer basically made P147.72 for every month he put in. Even with 10 pigs in a litter he would only make P1,477 a month, which is not even the minimum daily salary in many provinces.
Imagine that! An average family could finish P147 worth of pork in one or two sittings. A farmer on the other hand only earns P147 for every 10 kilos he produces per month per pig. We need to even the odds. If a Usec from the DA wants to look good, he should get a job at the DTI and work with the BIR to go after the Viajeros and retailers who make 50 to 72 pesos per kilo X 90 kilos or 4,500 to 6,480 pesos per pig in less than 48 hours! Stop punishing the farmers for the mortal sin and greed of Viajeros and merchants!
Aside from knowing the right problem or who the problem is, we also need a law that specifically protects farms and agricultural lands from unregulated URBANIZATION that is eating up traditional provincial settings. A “Land Use” law is too generic and does not insure our National Food Security nor does it require the DA, DENR and the DILG to specifically give assistance to farmers, help resolve their issues with community members and officials and insure their stay at their location through technology, design, farm and business management. High quality feeds, the use of probiotics and natural good bacteria as well as water recycling and composting are so advanced alongside proper management. However, because of our sanitized, sterilized and deodorized urban lifestyle many people no longer know the difference between a natural farm smell and what is really stinky. Some people don’t even know what animal produces the food they eat or reaches the table!
Pre-existing farms must be protected – not discriminated!