MORE PANGASINAN FARMERS ENJOY BENEFITS OF CORPORATE FARMING

February 9, 2025 Provincial

LINGAYEN CITY, Pangasinan

The Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPAG) reported that since the Pangasinan Corporate Farming (PCF)
started in 2022, more farmers enjoy abundant harvest making their economic lives better. According to Provincial
agriculturist Dalisay Moya, about 66.03 hectares were planted, which resulted in a yield of 4.93 metric tons per
hectare during the dry season from 2022-2023. She said the total yield in the next dry season, 2023 – 2024, which
covered 418.44 hectares, went up to 5.10 metric tons per hectare.

She added that during the wet season meanwhile in 2024, a total of 633.40 hectares was planted and yields are
expected to be robust and potentially increase in production. The PCF was introduced by Pangasinan Governor
Ramon V. Guico III innovative program. Major projects under the program outlined by the governor are rice production, corn production, high-value crop production, and fishery production.

Said program was aimed in enhancing food production and transform farming into a lucrative and sustainable economic enterprise through the so-called convergence approach among farmer cooperatives and associations (FCAs), local government units (LGUs), the Department of Agriculture (DQ) and its attached agencies, different
national government entities, the private sector, and financial institutions. According to the OPAG, 54 FCAs which have a total of 1,448 individual farmer members benefited from the program. The office added that the program
provided input support to farmer-beneficiaries in which 5,057 bags of organic fertilizer were distributed.

Also, some 9,668 bags of inorganic fertilizer were given to enhance yield and soil health. During the dry cropping season of 2023-2024, palay harvest posted an increase of about 13.59 percent, which translates to 12 cavans per hectare increase from the previous dry season of 2022-2023. The OPAg said that farmer cooperators can now enjoy an increased average yield per hectare of 4.49 metric tons or 90 cavans. This would translate to more income which the OPAg pegs an average increase of 101.33 percent for each farmer or an additional P35,030.00 net income per hectare.

On corn production, a total of 740 metric tons were produced under the program in 2024 up by 18.88 percent to 32.56 percent or 6.23 metric tons to 9.177 metric tons from the previous year. Production cost has been reduced by as much as P9,722.00 per hectare. Moya said under the corporate program, farmer members undergo class and technical training on the control and management of pests, specifically army worms. Farmers are also trained on the latest pest and disease management methods, she said.

Farmer Francis Montamarzan, a member of Doliman Farmers Association (DFA) in Infanta, Pangasinan said that when they are still farming the old way, their harvests are limited and sometimes went to wastes because of improper farming method. He said that when new farming techniques and also the introduction of appropriate technology plus them being organized, their yield went up while improving their agricultural lands. DFA member-farmer Eudecia Melo said that because of the program where they underwent trainings and seminars accompanied by practical application on the field, their expenses on farm inputs were reduced and their income doubled.