One strategy of successful farmers is to specialize in a crop that they have mastered to produce and to market.

Just like Eleuterio ‘Totoy’ Indic of Brgy. Sta. Elena in Tacloban City.

In the last three years, he has been planting sweet corn every month of the year, whether it is dry or wet season. Most farmers don’t plant sweet corn during the wet season but Totoy does because he knows how to solve the usual problems occurring during the rainy season.

His favorite variety is the Macho from East-West Seed because he says it is more sturdy than other varieties, especially during the rainy season. Strong winds may lodge it but the plants will stand up soon after.

He has a simple strategy. He usually plants each time just half a kilo of seeds totalling about 3,500 plants, good for an area of 1,350 square meters.

One crop a few months ago that he can’t forget gave him 1.5 tons out of that half-kilo seeds he bought for R850. He was able to gross P50,000 from that one planting and he estimates that his cash expenses did not exceed P10,000. He did practically all the land preparation with his own carabao. He also did the harvesting himself, as well as the selling.

And what did he do with his income from that sweet corn harvest? He used it to expand his little hut. It is now bigger and with GI roofing and cemented floor.

He and his wife do the marketing. They don’t sell to stallholders because they have found that they don’t pay on time. Sometimes, they don’t pay at all, according to Totoy.

So they sell their harvest to employees of the government (such as DPWH) and school teachers who pay cash. They usually pack their merchandise in three-kilo packs which they sell for P100 each.

Totoy also plants other vegetables like squash, eggplant and sweet pepper.

But these are mainly for the daily expenses of the household. The main money-maker is sweet corn of which one or two crops are grown each month. The income from sweet corn, according to Totoy, is for the education of his three children and for the improvement of his house.