MANILA, Philippines — Make sure to get a copy of the March 2012 issue of Agriculture Magazine published by the Manila Bulletin. It is now off the press and is available in bookstores and Bulletin outlets in various parts of the country.

You will read about a corporate executive who gave up his high-paying job in the city to become a full-time organic farmer in the upland town of Majayjay, Laguna where he and his wife are growing a lot of organically grown lettuce, Japanese cucumber, French beans, culinary herbs and many others.

The husband and wife, Ronald and Josephine Costales, are enjoying their life in farming, much better than being a corporate executive in the city. They are probably making much more than what Ronald used to get as an employed executive.

The Costales Nature Farm is now supplying lettuce at the rate of one ton every week to clients in Metro Manila. The same is true with Japanese cucumber which is a favorite of Korean and Japanese restaurants.

What is remarkable in their operation is that they developed their steady buyers, providing them with their harvest throughout the year. Ronald said that when they started growing vegetables, they listed all what they can produce and went to talk to the restaurant and hotel owners in Metro Manila. They made flyers of their produce.

Ronald observes that the restaurant owners all along were looking for growers who could supply them with their requirements on a regular basis. That is why the Costales couple had to expand their area of production to ensure a continuous supply throughout the year. That’s one of the secrets behind their success. Now they are growing plants, livestock and fish on five hectares.

One interesting technique that they are doing to reduce the cost of feeding their chickens, pigs and fish is the use of duckweed which proliferates very fast in their ponds. The chickens and fish love to eat the duckweed, a kind of azolla.

Another very practical technique is feeding their rabbits with scrap trimmings of their vegetables. The rabbits are reared inside cages. The rabbit manure drops into a vermiculture bed where the manure is converted into vermicompost which they use for fertilizing their vegetables.

One of the high-value crops that they are growing is the French beans. They produce about 200 kilos of tender pods every week which sell for P180 to P200 per kilo. The young pods of the French beans are very tender and sweet. It is a cash crop that starts flowering when the plants are just a month old from planting. Harvesting could start at 35 days from sowing.

The Costales Nature Farms has now become an agri-tour destination. More than 80 participants joined the AANI tour to the farm a few weeks ago. The participants were really impressed by what they saw.

The Costales couple has also come up with a training center on organic farming. Costales himself does the lecture and demonstration parts.

When Ronald resigned from his corporate job in 2004, he did not really know much about farming although he came from a farming family in Bauang, La Union. Because he found the Ilocos too hot for his farming, he looked for a place in Majayjay where the climate is mild and there is a steady source of water. Water is very important in any farming endeavor.

What he did was to attend every seminar on organic farming that he heard or read about. He went to attend a seminar in Palawan at the Aloha Center run by an American who has been doing organic farming for a long time now. He also went to Thailand to observe successful farmers in organic agriculture.

There are many other interesting articles in the March issue. One of them is Management of Banana Fusarium Disease authored by Noel Provido from Davao. The author writes that Fusarium wilt, caused by a fungus, is the most destructive disease of banana plants. It is also called Panama Disease because it was first discovered there. The disease attacks the banana plant’s vascular system and obstructs the uptake of water and soil nutrients, resulting in wilting and the death of the affected plant.

There is also a report on the plan of the Department of Agriculture in creating a master plan to promote the coconut sap sugar overseas as an alternative sweetener in order to break into the $11-billion global market. The Bureau of Agricultural Research and the Philippine Coconut Authority are collaborating to undertake this month the holding of the First National Coconut Sap Sugar Industry Congress.

Pete Samonte, a regular contributor to Agriculture Magazine, writes this time about a former OFW who became rich by growing ducks in Balanga City in Bataan. The fellow is Alberto Tuazon, 64, who gets an average of 24,500 eggs weekly from his 4,300 mallard ducks. Another 60,000 eggs are coursed through him by neighboring duck raisers for sale to local dealers, and this nets him 10 centavos per egg for an income of P6,000 per week.

There’s also an interesting story about an organic farmer in Bansalan, Davao del Sur who was named outstanding organic farmer by the Department of Agriculture. The fellow is Benjamin Lao. He operates a diversified organic farm that includes coconuts, goats and many other crops. He is now a big producer of coconut sap sugar.

Tony Rodriguez reports another kind of success story. This is the story of Brgy. San Ildefonso in Magalang, Pampanga where farmers raise some 254 crossbred carabaos that are mostly used as dairy animals. The farmers derive cash from their daily milk collection.

Agriculture Magazine is the most widely circulated magazine of its kind in the Philippines.

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