MANILA, Philippines -- In farming, as in any other business, it pays to have a good credit line. And to develop a good credit line, you have to be a good payer of whatever you borrow.

A good credit line is what has greatly helped Nelson Giganto expand his corn farming and financing operations in Brgy. Masiag, Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat.

Nelson may now be considered a relatively big player in the corn industry in Bagumbayan but he practically started from scratch when went into corn farming in 2005. He used to be a laborer in Marbel (now Koronadal City) in 2000. But in 2005 he relocated to Masiag to become a corn farmer.

There, he bought five hectares for only P20,000. He planted corn but in the beginning he could barely break even because of the weeds that competed with his corn. He later learned to plant hybrid seeds and to use herbicide to eliminate the weeds. That enabled him to make his corn farming profitable.

Today, he is considered one of the well off farmers in Masiag. He plants corn on 10 hectares of his own and also finances other farmers who are planting corn on 70 hectares. In financing, he advances the inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, herbicides and also cash for the cost of harvesting, shelling, drying and transporting.

He now has two big trucks for hauling the harvest of farmers as well as for delivering grains to the buyers. He charges P1 per kilo for hauling. He has also a mechanical corn sheller which he uses not only for his own harvest but also for shelling other farmers’ crops. The cost of shelling is P18 per sack of 80 to 85 kilos. The P9 is the share of the machine while the other P9 is for the laborers who operate the sheller.

Nelson confesses that his good credit line from the inputs supplier has helped him a lot in financing other corn farmers. For instance, he could readily withdraw 200 bags of urea payable 35 days later. In the case of seeds, he is given 120 days to pay. He said he does not pay any interest as long as he pays on time. Which he always does. If he does not pay on time, he said, he would be charged 8% interest.

The lesson here is to do what Nelson always does. Always paying his loan on time.

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Training program pays off — The high-value crops training program of SM Foundation in collaboration with Harbest Agribusiness is paying off. Several graduates of Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training Program have put to practice what they have learned and are succeeding.

One of them is Mrs. Delia Hillditch who participated in the batch in Babag, Cebu. After the training, she went back to her farm in Sibonga, Cebu and applied what she learned from the lecture and hands-on training.

Mrs. Hillditch said that the training taught her farm management that resulted in increased income; fertilizer management that resulted in 70% savings; crop selection, and the importance of hybrid seeds. First, she planted Red Lady papaya on one half hectare. Now she already has three hectares planted to this variety inter¬cropped with high-value vegetables.

Two years after the training, she expanded her venture to Bohol and Mindanao to meet the requirements of her buyers that include SM, Foodland and Metro Gaisano in Cebu.

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AANI mango seminar — Tony Rola will conduct a whole-day seminar on mango production on Saturday, April 16, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the St. Vincent Seminary on Tandang Sora, Quezon City.

Cacao forum in Davao City — The stakeholders of the cacao industry will converge in Davao City on April 28 to 29 at the Cacao Development and Investment Forum.

Farmers, technical experts, marketing gurus and investors will shed light on the current cacao situation in the country, challenges, opportunities, potentials, global and domestic market trends.

The conferees will also try to vali¬date the cacao roadmap which was earlier crafted for the coming years up to 2020.

There will also be an update on the latest program called CoCoPal which will encourage the cacao farmers to diversify their sources of income, to include coconut and rice.

CoCoPal project aims to improve the income and food security of 25,000 farmers in Mindanao, including a total of 125,000 indirect beneficiaries. The project will establish a total of 75 Village Technology and Extension Farms (VTEF) which are one stop innovative learning sites to be managed by different farmer groups.

The project also aims to improve postharvest practices, standards and infrastructure along the value chains, to enhance accessibility to improved technologies and productivity of processed products.