EDITORIAL

From Sakada to Abaca

"The Impact of Convergence On People

of MUPAI Barbaza, Antique"

by ELEANOR B. RIVERA

Antique is one of the　four provinces of the Western Visayas. It is composed of l8 municipalities, 14 are along the sea coast, three are inland and one is an island composed of six small islets. Antique has 590 barangays, 186 are along the sea coast and 404 are inland. Antique is a second class province.

Barbaza, 4th class town is 64 kilometers away from San Jose,　the capital　town.　 It belongs to the top five (5) towns in Antique with high poverty and malnutrition incidents.　It has coastal and upland areas, thus the livelihood of families are fishing and farming. The family income is inadequate to feed a family of five.　This is one reason why the heads of the families and the older male children work as sakadas in Negros Occidental.

Before the start of the convergence program in the four barangays of Barbaza, the family income was way below poverty level. They could not eat three square meals a day. Since these barangays are in the upland areas, their main livelihood is farming using the traditional methods. No government agency ever visited their barangays. They did not know of any government program on agriculture, and agro-forestry.

Malnutrition was prevalent especially for children below three years old. No health worker has visited them. Tuberculosis is one disease affecting the residents.

Most of the residents are illiterates. They do not know how to read, except to write their names. There is a school for grades one and two but most of the children do not go to school. For families that have relatives in the Poblacion, they send their children to work as household helps in exchange for the opportunity to go to school.

The houses of the residents are made of light materials like cogon and bamboos.　 The house are of one room which serves as bedroom, kitchen and dining room. There is no comfort room. They defecated or eliminated their wastes anywhere, that the area sometimes smells human wastes.

The DA together with the DENR, the FIDA, the LGU Barbaza, and the Province of Antique, converged to identify the alienable and potential lands for production of agro-forest products that may provide livelihood and income to families.

Thus, when opportunity came to the farmer families of barangays Mablad, Langka-on, Lumbuyan and Biga-a, they grasped it. This led to the upliftment in the economic conditions of the farmer families of the four barangays in Baraza.

These barangays are sources of sacadas recruited and brought to Negros Occidental to plant sugarcane, cut, and haul the harvested cane to trucks for transporting and milling to the sugar mills. They are contracted by middle men who get commission from the salaries of the sacadas. They pay the sacadas way below what they have agreed with the land owners. Thus, the sacadas can not get away with their loans from the middle men. The sacadas usually get 3 months advance salary from the middle men for their families left behind.

With the convergence program of the government, most of the sacadas accepted the challenge and slowly uplift their economic status in life.

DA, DENR, FIDA, LGU of Barbaza and the Provincial Agriculture office of Antique surveyed the area and conducted meetings with the farmers. They were informed of the functions of the different government agencies. At first, the farmers were hesitant. They were convinced later of the good intentions of the program presented to them.

Most of the farmers cut the abaca growing in the area according to practice of their forefathers as they didn’t know the scientific techniques on abaca fiber extraction. They practiced kaingin or the slash and burn method of farming and cut trees for charcoal making.

A program on progressive agriculture was approved and implemented with the assistance of different government agencies. Different projects were introduced as series of classes and trainings on modern farming and fishing were conducted.

The DA, constructed farm to market roads for easy access to the market. Technology trainings on Peanut Production. Poultry and Livestock production, Sugarcane and Banana production were conducted. Rice, corn, and vegetable seeds were distributed free to the farmers. Irrigation facilities were improved.

The DENR conducted Vermiculture technology training. It provided technical assistance in upland crops development, agro forestry reforestation and gender dimensions on climate change.

FIDA conducted abaca production technology training on site including values formation. Fiber extraction, Grading and Classification, paper making and Scrunch Making were conducted to give the farmers knowledge on product processing.　 Marketing assistance was provided to the farmers. FIDA provided a fiber stripping device.

Today, some 533.09 hectares are developed in Barangay Lumbuyan, planted with different fruit trees like jackfruit, mango, coconut　and bananas intercropped with abaca. Aklang Parang (a leguminous plant　for sources of nitrogen for plants)　kakawate and narra trees are also planted. Mungbeans, bush sitao and squash vegetables are being planted in the four barangays.

Before the year ends, farm families in the four barangays will harvest the fruits of their labor. /MP