Story & photos by Oliver Samson / Correspondent
AND on his farm, Manases Evasco has pigs and chickens among coconut trees. The 34-year-old Evasco also has a shop selling hog feed.
It all began three years ago on a farm in Barcelona, Sorsogon, in the southern Philippine province of Bicol.
That time Evasco has already been working as a nurse for seven years.
He started with ten piglets. He bought all 10 and sold these when the piglets reached more than three months. The profits prompted him to gradually increase the number of pigs he grew.
He acquired breeder hogs to produce his own piglets and grow them for the local market of live hogs.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, he grew the number of his hogs to more than 120, leading him to seek more farmhands. He has eight sows and three gilts. He currently provides livelihood to seven farmhands at his piggery.
Evasco also saw the demand for hog feeds among backyard and small hog raisers in Barcelona.
In September 2017, he opened a hog feed retail store, initially catering to backyard hog raisers in a few barangays as his market.
“During the first months [of operating] we sold nearly nothing in a day,” he said.
Hogs, feeds
IN the early part of the second quarter of 2018, the number of hog feed bags that Evasco sold increased.
“The piglets consume much of the feeds in the entire process of growing hogs,” he said. “As the backyard breeders produce more piglets, I sell more feeds.”
He also observed that the price of piglets rose after he began buying piglets across town, benefitting backyard hog breeders who constitute the majority in the local hog raising industry.
A piglet sells in town for P2,300 on the average, according to Evasco.
He also buys piglets from backyard breeders while producing his own piglets using breeding materials acquired from different sources.
“I also take piglets as payment from backyard raisers for the feeds they borrow from me,” he said.
Currently, he sells an average of 520 bags of hog feeds in a month. His market now includes hog breeders and growers in the municipalities of Barcelona, Gubat and Bulusan.
Broilers, coconuts
ASIDE from hogs, Evasco also grows broilers. Last summer, he grew over a thousand heads. He has been growing broilers in the past one year.
The number of broilers produced by local growers is short to meet the demand for dressed chicken, he said.
Two years ago, Evasco and his fiancée, who works abroad, also acquired a more-than-1-hectare rice field that yields no less than 150 cavans in a single harvest.
This year, the couple also bought a coconut farm that measures four hectares in land area.
The natural spring in the farm, which can supply swimming pools with water, gave Evasco an idea they can develop a part of the coconut farm into a resort in the future.
The coconut trees can also be intercropped with cacao trees, he added.
“Cacao farming is also a profitable industry,” he said. “Cacao has a sure market as the global demand suggests.”
The cacao tree starts to bear fruits three to five years after planted, he explained.
He also opened a meat shop in the first quarter of this year becoming a start-up player in the local meat shop industry.
Meat shop, gamefowl
SINCE Evasco sells most of his pigs to local buyers, he supplies his meat shop with pigs slaughtered by buyers of his hog feed store.
One pig is butchered daily and two every Sunday to supply his meat shop with pork.
Currently working as a nurse at a religious community of Capuchins in Mandaluyong, Evasco goes home at least once in a month to oversee his business.
Arguably, Evasco was the first hog breeder and raiser in town who buys piglets in volumes from backyard hog breeders while producing his own.
He also saw a market in breeding gamefowl in the growing number of local aficionados. He attributed it to the increasing accessibility of gamefowl know-how and skills.
In the past, the cockpit held shows once a week only on Sundays. But in the last three years, the cockpit holds games three times a week, suggesting more demand for gamefowl.
He saw the coconut farm and its terrain ideal for breeding and raising gamefowl.
According to the Games and Amusement Board, a town could operate one cockpit per 100,000 population. A town with 200,000 inhabitants could operate two at a time.
Evasco may initially breed and raise gamefowl in partnership with an overseas Filipino worker and long-time friend, and produce a hundred roosters during their first breeding season.
“We will produce more once the bloodlines are proven,” he said.
They eye aficionados in Barcelona and neighboring municipalities as initial market.
Evasco saw gamefowl getting increasingly becoming a commodity not only in Barcelona, but also nationwide.
“One million of gamefowl are needed in one month across the country,” he said.
Hands-on farming
Evasco loves farming. And he sees the general condition in his town conducive to farming.
“Farming is a long-term business if properly managed,” he said.
Investing in agri-business also generates employment or means for locals to make a living as farm helpers.
As he spends most of his time in Manila working as a nurse, Evasco saw honesty and dedication to work of farmhands playing a crucial role in the success of a remote farmer.
Everything is audited every three months, he said.
“But the best way to engage in farming is by becoming a hands-on farmer,” he said.
Image credits: Oliver Samson