In the radio program, Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura, which we co-host, we have been featuring a lot of agribusiness people, big and small, who are immensely successful in their projects.

One trait is that these successful agri-people are extremely hard working and with a lot of business sense. Danilo Baylon of Candaba, Pampanga, readily comes to mind because he is really a very hard-working fellow who rose from rags to riches.

We featured him on the cover of Agriculture Magazine some years back when he was raising ducks and at the same time distributing feeds manufactured by a big feed mill. At that time, he was working 16 hours a day attending to his business. As a college student in Baliuag, Bulacan and in Manila, he used to be a security guard. He was also a balut vendor in Quiapo on the side while studying.

When we first wrote about him, he was a most successful duck raiser and feeds distributor, making him a multimillionaire at the young age of less than 40. When we met him at a livestock and poultry show in Manila more than a year ago, we asked him about his feeds distribution business.

He said that he iwas no longer working for the old company. He has already put up his own feedmill! And the latest we have heard about him was that he is already a big broiler integrator. Just like the big integrators (San Miguel, Swift, Tyson, etc), he now has his own contract growers of broilers. Which means, he has created a ready market for his feeds.

Another hard-working agri person we met is a lady who used to be a laundry woman but who is now a successful grower of high-value vegetables. She is Wilma Sampilo of San Ildefonso, Bulacan. She went into serious vegetable production after attending a seminar on off-season vegetable production at the East-West Seed Company some years back.

We also admire her industriousness as well as her business sense. She grows vegetables continuously throughout the year and even works on the farm at night, especially when there is moonlight. She says that it is much more comfortable to be working on the farm at night.

Of course, the successful agripeople we have been featuring are not only industrious, they have creative strategies in timing their crops, selection of the crop to grow, marketing and other aspects of farming.