They say that you can’t be an OFW forever. At some point, you will return to Philippines, invest in something worthy and grow old here.
Ramona M. Pastor or simply “Neth”, owner and cooperator of HN Organic Farm was working in Singapore for 10 years. When she suffered from an eye injury in her work, she decided to go back in the Philippines in 2017 to develop their 19-hectare inherited farm in Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro.
Without a doubt, she was determined to cultivate their farm. However, at first set of her feet in the farm, she said that she didn’t know where to start because aside from coconut and other fruit-bearing trees, it was dominated by tall grasses and weeds. Little by little, she was able to clean and study the terrain and condition of their farm.
Bee-ginning of Sweet Success
It was by accident that she found out the benefits of propolis, a resin-like substance with high medicinal and therapeutic potential which the bee produces.
“Sometime in 2018, when I saw the medicine of my daughter for her skin asthma which costed her PhP 5,000 in Philippine peso, I discovered that it has propolis substance as major ingredients of that medicine. When I saw the picture of a bee, I realized that the kind of bee exists in our farm,” she shared.
Neth said that long before she returned to the Philippines, she has been fascinated with bees and butterflies, that’s why she joined organizations of bee enthusiasts across Southeast Asia. Thus, when she learned that there were bees residing in the farm, she sought programs in agriculture, particularly on beekeeping.
She enrolled in University of the Philippines – Los Baños (UPLB) to study beekeeping for three weeks. During her short course, she learned the proper management of bees and value-adding of bee by-products. She shared that one of training modules was a forest immersion to have keen observation of bee’s behavior.
Right after her course in UPLB, she started converting her farm in an eco-friendly farm where bees could thrive. She started practicing Integrated Diversified Organic Farming System where she added other farm components such as vegetable, herbs and spices, her-so-called “weedicinals” (weeds with medicinal properties), “weedibles” (weeds that could be eaten), more fruit-bearing trees, and several ornamentals including hoyas and philodendrons. Likewise, Neth integrated poultry and livestock in her farm. She also began attending various trainings in agriculture, particularly in ATI.
After a year of development, HN Organic Farm was certified as Learning Site for Agriculture (LSA) under Livestock Program. It was given financial assistance amounting to PhP 150,000.00 and an enhancement of PhP90,000.00. LSA is a program of ATI which assist farms practicing applicable agricultural technologies and employing doable farming strategies.
“I am very thankful to ATI for giving me this kind of assistance. Not all farmers have the opportunity to be assisted to further improve their farm. And I am very honored,” Neth said.
The Home of Native Bees
HN Organic Farm is named after her parents Honorio and Nelcy. It also coincides with their slogan “Harmony with Nature” and farm description, “Home of Native bees.”
According to Neth, the farm situates in a 19-hectare land but she only utilizes two hectares for farming. The rest were devoted to forest where the native bees reside.
In her farm, what dominates most is the native stingless bees locally known as lucot. It is quite smaller than the wild bees. She said that she reproduced the stingless bee using three methods - the coconut shell, bamboo and box-type method.
“For instance, from their feral bee colony which served as their habitat, I cover them with coconut shell. When I see that they accept their new home and wax the coconut shell, I will add another shell to have a strong colony,” Neth said.
She also shared that she never collects honey from the feral colony, only those outside the feral to keep them producing honey all throughout. Neth said that in one coconut shell, she could harvest at least 250 grams to one kilogram of honey depending on the strength of the colony.
Neth is also using induction method when bringing a quite large wood with feral colony from her mini forest. Induction method uses clear hose connected from the hole of a feral colony (found at the sides of trees, wood and stump) to a wooden hive boxes and leave them for a month or so to establish a strong colony. With that method, it enables her bring more bees in her farm without disturbing the forest as their natural habitat and does not create any violation from Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Aside from native stingless bees, Neth also grows wild bees and Apis mellifera, an imported bees donated from her friends from United States of America.
Bee-nefits of Beekeeping
Neth said that there are so much benefits derived from beekeeping. In her farm, she observed that the production of their coconut, mangoes and other fruit-bearing trees was increased overtime because of the bees which served as their pollinators. She also sells some of her Apis millefera for P50.00 each as therapeutic treatment for arthritis.
Aside from these, she revealed that during summer time (April, May, June) which is the peak season, she could harvest up to 50 kgs. of honey from her more or less 300 colonies. With these harvest, she could make 200 bottles of honey out of it.
Moreover, she also trades the bee pollen to those who are engaged in medical fields because of the medicinal and therapeutic potential of propolis.
“Really, there’s a money in honey,” she confessed. “What makes it a bit different in other agri-enterprise is it requires less capital and less management,” she added.
Neth said that for starter, it requires a capital of more or less P5,000.00 for the materials to be used for the construction of indigenous ‘kubo’ (nipa hut) and others such as coconut shell, bamboo and wooden hive boxes. But if they have plenty of such materials in their farm, they could spend less than the said amount.
Beekeeping also needs less management for as long as long the farm allotted an area for bee pastures which provides food for pollinators. Further, it is necessary to take them away from their natural predators such as carpenter bees, gecko, frogs and birds, among others.
Stings of Success
One of the challenges she encountered in her endeavor is the unpredictable weather condition or climate change which affected the normal cycle of the bees. Apart from that, Neth said that as much as she wants to employ farm workers to help her in her farm activities but people in their area are not so dedicated to bee farming and perhaps not so familiar with the technology. Thus, she employs them only when needed.
Flowing of Honey, Flowing of Money
With continuous learning and seeking for improvement, Neth engaged in value-adding of bee-by products. Aside from honeybee, she also makes bath soap with bee propolis content. Her bath soap has four flavors such as guava, papaya, banana and milk and oats. In fact, these products were recognized by Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Tourism as Most Innovative Product in the 2018 MIMAROPA Naturally Agri-Trade and Tourism Fair.
Additionally, she has also learned to make lip balm, foot balm and lotion with an ingredient of bee-by products.
Apart from these, during pandemic, all her bottled honey was sold out, that she could not accommodate other requests for reservations. Other crops such as coconut, cinnamon and laurel bay leaves are also the major farm’s earners.
However, other harvested crops in their farm such as fruit trees, vegetables etc. got rotten thus, they strategized on how to make it more productive which they resorted to value-adding of products.
“It’s one thing that we strengthen this pandemic - on how we could add value to our products and not be wasted. Hence, we have resorted to processing of raw products such as binagoongang santol, calamansi concentrate and santol juice and the like and we make sales out of it,” Neth expounds.
Pollinating Knowledge and Skills
Neth being an ATI’s learning site cooperator also conducts free trainings on beekeeping, organic agriculture production and other livelihood seminars such as soap making, processing of products and baking and pastry.
“At first, people here thought of me as a silly woman who takes care of bees. Now, they have appreciated me and they start believing in what I am doing. They even go here for training,” she heartily said.
She also shared that when there are excess of harvest in coconut, she invited women, mostly wives in their community to teach different livelihood activities. Sometimes, some of them brought beehives to give or sell it to her. But she declined them most often, instead she explains how to reproduce them in their natural habitat for them to start beekeeping for a livelihood activity.
In addition, before pandemic, HN Organic Farm was open to walk-in clients who want to learn about and experience hands-on activities on the farm. But now, they are in an appointment basis to observe health protocols. They also organize volunteer programs in their community, some with Indigenous People.
Because of the success of HN Organic Farm, Neth is also invited as resource person by different agencies and organizations in Oriental Mindoro. Some paid her but most of them were for free. She said that it’s her way of giving back to the community.
A Buzz to Others
Returning here in the Philippine was worth it because she does what she loves and is passionate about and she also helps their community improve their lives, Neth says.
“As a Filipino, you will long to come back here in our country to stay for good, thus, you have to think of investment worthy of your time, of your capital and of your passion,” she said.
She also encouraged other farmers, even the women and youth to engage in beekeeping because it is not laborious and there is a sure market for it.
“If they are seeking a livelihood that is not so laborious, not cost expensive and with sure market, they can try beekeeping. They just have to learn, explore their area and innovate to succeed,” Neth said with conviction.
At present, Neth undergoes Trainers Methodology in TESDA to enhance her knowledge and skills in facilitation and training activities. She also intends to apply the HN Organic Farm to be a TESDA-accredited farm school farm school so they can reach and encourage more people, especially the youth, into farming.
Video of success story of Ms. Ramona Pastor entitled "Nadiskubreng Yaman sa Pulot Pukyutan could be watch at ATI MIMAROPA YouTube Channel with this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwdtB3CJj1c.
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