Visiting the couple, Marcelo and Catrien Carpio in Shilan, La Trinidad, opened another session for us to hear another lifetime learnings.
A family of seven, the couple is proud to recognize that through farming their children were able to finish their studies. At present, all of them are into managing the anthurium production and the couple is still providing guidance to their children on this matter.
Farming, indeed, is their family’s life recognizing that farming is their main source of income. The couple have been an active partner of the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist of La Trinidad, Benguet. Seeing how their family works towards farming, they were endorsed to the Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Training Institute- CAR in 2022 as a partner of the Department to advocate the farm family showcasing their anthurium and apiculture activities.
The couple’s first engagement into the anthurium production was way back in 1991 when the commodity was introduced in the Region. Catrien can still recall her attending trainings and seminars facilitated by the Benguet State University on anthurium production. Together with fellow farmers in the area who were interested to engage in anthurium, they formed an association. The Department of Science and Technology-CAR granted them a loan to buy black net and planting materials from BSU. Henceforth, the couple is among the few who sustained the anthurium production until now.
Accordingly, their community used to plant other cut flowers like gladiola and aster. For the family, they also cultivate highland vegetables, primarily for family consumption.
The perks of tending anthurium
Their personal experiences tell that anthurium production is for them, especially for Catrien, who was a nursing mother at the time they embraced anthurium production.
Catrien shared that cultivating this crop gave more time for her to attend to their children because she can visit and water the plant at her convenient time.
Most of the fellow anthurium growers who started with them gave up because compared to other cutflowers, they can harvest the flowers after three to four months with a higher income as she termed it ‘one-time, big time’. But for them, they already set their mind that anthurium indeed is for them, that up to the present, it is a major farming enterprise in their family farming activities.
The anthurium production serves as family farming activity for them and of course, becoming family bonding for them. For the children, anthurium production is part of their growing years. The children helped in ways they can-like weeding, harvesting and sorting. The couple usually are responsible for doing heavy tasks like watering and fixing the nets. These moments made them closer and more resilient to face the challenges ahead of them.
During the earlier years, Catrien recalls, they were able to sell the runners first more than the ‘flower’ itself. With the runners already being harvested and replanted, this prompted them to avail loan from a cooperative to buy net to expand their production area.
They recalled that after two years of waiting for the ‘flower’, finally, they were able to sell this to the market.
“Excited ka agkita ti ‘flower’, ken mas marketable ta mabayag kasla plastic, says Catrien. (We were excited to see the ‘flower’ because it will really take longer months for these to grow. It is more marketable as this will not wilt easily).
“Napintas ti ag uray (for anthurium flowers to be harvested)– jay panag uray mi ngay after all isuna met gayam nagpa eskuela ti anak mi.
Uray bassit ti harvest, ada nga one dozen, ipan ilako ni Mister ijay Baguio ket alaen met jay suki mi. After that igatang na met ah ti seda mi.
Ta siyempre, habang bumaybayag dayta, maipromote presyo na, ada kan nga sizes nga medium, large ken XL. Nakasort en dayta nga ipan mi ijay market.
Kanyami, inan anusan mi ta ada gumatang. Continuous ti panaggatang jay suki nga market mi gapu ta faithful kami agdeliver uray sag gabassit. Jay suki mi, haan naimot nu ag advance kami ti bayad (para usar ti pamilya) ta ammu da nga continuous ti produce mi. Umabot nga seven years jay maysa market mi ditoy Baguio ngem kailangan mi ag kita ti market ijay Manila, haan nan kaya ag-idispose ditoy Baguio ta nag-increase ti production”.
(It pays to wait for the anthurium flowers to be harvested. After all, this helped in the schooling of the children. Even if we harvested only a dozen, my husband, Marcelo, would sell it to our buyer. In return, he will buy food (viand) for the family. As the years go, the price also increases and we deliver the flowers already assorted into sizes (medium, large and XL). We patiently engaged in anthurium production and made sure to sustain our delivery because we already had a market in Baguio City who believed in us and continuously buys our produce. We needed to expand our market to Manila because our production increased.)
As said, they are also marketing the runners. The couple made sure to provide technical assistance to those buying runners from them. To them, giving technical advice on anthurium production is their way of ensuring that the buyers will not fail because, if possible, their buyers will not need to experience the challenges they encountered especially during the first year of their anthurium enterprise.
Honeybee enterprise
Aside from the anthurium production, the family is also engaged in apiculture. Similar to the anthurium, their involvement and passion with the honeybee and honey production goes beyond the income these enterprises offer to them. Their personal stories testify the bittersweet of engaging with bees, yet to them, these are worth experiencing.
Catrien, particularly is involved personally in tending the honeybees. She really is a bee enthusiast, and she knows the characteristics and story of each beehive in the area-from the responsiveness of the colony, the attitude of the bee queen, the worker bees and the soldier bees.
Their passion in apiculture led them to meet fellow honeybee enthusiasts, especially the beekeepers who are working in other countries. It is worth sharing that their apiary becomes a haven to these beekeepers. Accordingly, these fellow beekeepers are like family because they opt to stay in their site during vacation (from work tending bees abroad) and help them take care of the honeybee production. Further, these beekeepers freely share their knowledge and experiences to the couple.
The family testifies that the cutflower and honey production help them so much during the rainy season. The honey flow usually comes in during the cold season. Although the market demand is not that high, the honey produce is good enough to sustain the inputs for the following year for as long as there are no strong typhoons or long rainy season that affects the honey production. The honey produced is being marketed to the Timpuyog dagiti Umanamong iti BSU Internal Guarantee System (TUBIGS Inc.) or popularly known as BSU organic Market.
Overall, their apiculture activity is an epitome of their advocate towards safe and sustainable farming. The organized honeybee producers in the area paved for the community to embark into safe farming. The members and other farmers nearby are having the sense of responsibility to take good care of the honeybees as they believe that these are good pollinators to their plants for them to have bountiful harvest in return.
Together, the Carpio Family pursued farming- a testimony that working together as a family- in good and bad times, they will be able to survive the adversities of life.
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