Farmers eye industrial-scale  

ubi powder processing facility

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol Feb 4, (PIA)—Just how do you lure the Boholano millennials to take a second hard look at farming?

Prove that there is money, and that farming is not as hard as it used to be.  

The question came as a response to what Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar, who graced the annual UbiFestival in Bohol last week, posed the challenge to Bohol agricultural leaders: to motivate today’s gadget savvy millennials to wield the plow instead.

Long time farmer and current president of the Bohol Ubi Growers Association (BUGA) Esmeraldo Maligsa thinks it is about the money.

“Why would young people go to the farm where there is fast cash in motorcycle for hire service (habal-habal), he asked during the radio forum aired over DyTR.

Ubi, unlike other crops, is grown only in once cropping annually, and list patch preparation requires heavy manual labor, added his brother Celencio Maligsa, former BUGA president and now one of the winners for digital agriculture, where the government explores scientific farming.

Digital agriculture, is farming using new and advanced technologies, integrated into one system, to enable farmers and other stakeholders within the agriculture value chain to improve food production.

In Bohol where most farmers make decisions such as what crop suits the kind of soil, how much fertilizer to apply, and several production factors, farmers basically gamble until they see the effects at harvest time. 

In digital agriculture system, data is gathered more frequently and accurately, and combined with weather information, the integrated data is analyzed and interpreted so the farmer can make more informed and appropriate decisions, resulting in greater accuracy through advanced machinery, and real-time feedback on the impact their actions.

During the 20^th Ubi Festival, the government, in partnership with Smart Communications gave out a package of gadgets including android mobile phones, digital cameras and laptop netbooks to farmers in a bid to link them up with the technologies that are openly available on the web.

Tinkering with gadgets also incidentally is what most millennials could not refuse.

Next to the possibility of a cutting edge farming, is making farming palatable to young farmers and we can only do that by assuring money in farming, adds the older Maligsa.

With ubi which has a very short shelf life, stretching the supply to last the whole year is next to impossible, unless an industrial scale technology of processing ubi into powder can be put up here, the younger Maligsa said.

Raw ubi does not have a very shelf life, and they are seasonal crops that cant be planted in the wet or the peak of the dry season, that farmers are forced to sell their ubi fast and at cheaper prices because they’d rather earn little than see their crops waste and shrivel, Romulo Campoamor, another ubi farmer revealed over at Kapihan sa PIA.

While it would take three kilos of raw yam to make a kilo of ubi powder, the pulverized ubi fetches about over P400 a kilo and can last for over a year, he said.

The older Maligsa, who is also a certified farmer scientist, said they have already tried small scale ubi powder processing, until the equipment broke.

They said, they are asking the government now to help them put up the funds for an industrial scale ubi powder processing in Bohol.

Resident farmers of Corellla Bohol, the Maligsas, along with Romulo Campoamor of Montesuerte Carmen said they are putting up a demo farm to train the youth about farming (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

EXTENDING UBI’S SHELF LIFE. With ubi surviving in less than a few months, farmers are forced to sell their harvest fast or be left with shriveling crop. With an ubi powder processing equipment that includes pressure cookers, graters, convex dryer and packaging machine to automate the process eliminates human touch and extends ubi life span to over a year, says Esmeraldo Maligsa, BUGA president. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

UBI POWDER POWER. With ubi soon to be available in its longer shelf-life powder form, farmers are expecting to earn a bit and make ubi available year-round, said Esmeraldo Maligsa, president of Bohol Ubi Growers Association. With him at Kapihan sa PIA is his brother Celencio, former BUGA president and a farmer scientist, sharing their ideas about how to make ubi farming a profitable . (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)