MANILA, Philippines – Some very ordinary plants are often taken for granted. Although, they are a favorite daily fare, they are usually planted in small numbers for home consumption. Like alugbati and other shoot vegetables, for instance. Many households just grow a few plants in their backyards for their own use.

But there are enterprising people who recognize the money-making potential of such ordinary vegetables. One fellow who does is Noel Zabala, 47, of Oton, Iloilo. Actually, Noel who is a former waiter in a big hotel in Manila, grows several crops with higher value than alugbati but he has discovered in recent years that the ordinary alugbati and three other shoot vegetables are a good source of modest but daily income that could more than meet his family’s daily needs.

Aside from alugbati which he planted on 4,000 square meters, he also makes money from the shoots of camote, saluyot and hot pepper. Right now, he is harvesting just 10 kilos of alugbati every day although, he could harvest much more. That’s because that’s the volume that his buyers in Oton and Manduriao can absorb. Anyway, he makes a daily income of P250 from alugbati. That amounts to P7,500 a month.

Pepper shoots fetch a much higher price of P60 per kilo. He has five long plots of hot pepper for shoot production and he harvests 6 to 8 kilos every other day. That’s P300 to P400 every two days, which translates to P4,500 to P6,000 per month.

Camote tops fetch P20 a kilo. Although his buyers need only P100 worth a day, he also grosses P3,000 a month from this. He has no harvestable saluyot at present but this is also a good money maker, according to him.

From the three shoots that he is harvesting, he grosses P15,000 to P16,500 a month. That’s enough for the basic requirements of a family man with two children. Which means that if other people in other places could follow his example, they could also make money from these very ordinary vegetables. The good thing about these plants is that they don’t require a big capital to start with. And they also don’t require very sophisticated facilities to grow them.

Actually, Noel makes much more money from farming by growing watermelon, lakatan banana, ampalaya, sitao and other hybrid vegetables from East-West Seed Company. We will be writing about his main projects some other time.