Nu panpanunutek ti istorya ti biyag ko, makasangit ak. (It brings me to tears when I think of those memories in my life.)
A resounding statement from a man tested by life’s experiences – a father, a brother, a farmer leader, and an advocate of natural and sustainable farming, Mr. Ashley Lamaton, a Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) and a learning site on agriculture (LSA) owner at Kadaclan, Barlig, Mt. Province.
A jolly old fellow as we see him now, yet his life was filled with challenges, who then in return, embrace farming as his life.
Ashley was born in Barlig but spent more of his younger years in Paracelis to earn a living. He first worked as a farm/ranch worker then and with his saving he bought parcel by parcel of land in the area. Buying lands was his former boss’s advice, which he is thankful until these days.
Starting a farm was not that easy as he thought it would because he needed fund to develop the farm. He did start with what he have that time, and establish his linkages with agencies like the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI). The BPI partnered with him in the implementation of the RP-German program in the area. Partnering with other agencies provided him additional knowledge, skills and inputs to his farm activities.
He was articulate to advise fellow resident in the area to also plant fruit and cash crops, which they followed seeing his farm slowly being developed. Later, he became an advanced farmer and a farmer leader in the community.
While starting his own family, he managed to do his own business and helped facilitated their farmer cooperative to grow. It was then an ideal life for him but his life was shattered when one night, a life changing tragedy took place.
Filled with pain and anger for what happened that night and the chance to seek revenge, he did not chose to. Instead, he sold all his properties in the area and bought lands in Barlig. He returned to his hometown to have a new life all over again. Definitely, starting all over again was not an easy process for him. He also tried to venture into construction activity just to ease the pain.
But at the end of it, farming was the best resort and his strong faith that God is able to restore what have been lost to something better.
Slowly, he developed the land he acquired and inherited into productive farms-mostly into heirloom rice and coffee production. Farming became easier for him, as he loves reading publication related to/with agriculture and attending trainings and seminars thus putting these information and knowledge into practice.
He again rose to become a farmer leader in the municipality serving as MAFC for years. In 2010, he was designated as the Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) on heirloom rice, the One-Town-One-Product (OTOP), of the Farmers Information and Technology Services (FITS) Center based at the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist of MLGU Barlig.
He was chosen as the MS mainly because he practices more advance farming activities in the community. Specifically, for heirloom rice production, he applied composted sunflower leaves to his rice field as fertilizer to increase yield.
With that practice, the PCARRD thru HARRDEC funded the implementation of the Science and Technology-Based Farm (STBF). This certain project aims to apply science-based technologies while sustaining the indigenous way of rice farming to increase the yield. Instead of just adding the weeds removed from dikes of the field and wait for these to decompose in the rice field, he shredded alnus leaves and sunflower and compost these for 60 days and used as basal fertilizer. He also applies uniform planting distance of the rice. As a result of the project, this provided his 250-square meter demonstration farm with a yield of 60.25 kilograms of heirloom rice compared with the 40.25 kilograms of rice from the demonstration farm where traditional farming practices were applied.
Unfortunately, at present, he stopped his heirloom rice production and concentrated more into coffee, nursery and integrated farming. The heirloom rice production nevertheless was sustained by his fellow rice farmers in the area producing heirloom rice for international market.
In June 2017, he was certified by the ATI-CAR as LSA as partner of providing extension services in the area. The fund support was used to construct a training hall and improve lodging rooms being used now as training venue by different agencies.
As MS and LS owner, he keeps on innovating his farm activities. Coupled with knowledge and skills from seminars and trainings, he applies what he deemed applicable to his farm. Aiming both for sustainable farming and financial stability, Ashley needed to innovate on his farming activities while sustaining the linkages he had made.
Prior to becoming an MS, he was able to establish his linkages with various agencies- both government and non-government especially on coffee.
Between 2007 and 2008 that he learned about the Cordillera Green Network (CGN), an environmental NGO based in Baguio to help transform communities in the Cordillera mountain region into models of sustainable resource management. The initial activity was that the CGN bought his 28,000 pieces of coffee seedling provided that he will distribute the coffee seedlings for free to fellow farmers. CGN provided trainings on nursery establishments, coffee production, composting, and mukosako among others.
In August 2016, along with other coffee farmers in the region, the Peace Wind Japan thru CGN facilitated their visit to East Timor. During the visit, they were able to learn personally the coffee harvesting techniques and post-harvest processing of the country. One learning he got from the travel is that the use of post-harvest machineries made from iron such as depulper and huller is not encouraged. As an output and requirement from the travel, he was able to devise a depulper made of wood that he is presently using in his coffee processing.
The sustained partnership with CGN provided him market link of his produce. He maintains to supply coffee green bean (CGB) to CGN. His broom making production, which requires a specific size, already established an exclusive Japanese market link.
With the partnership, he was able to endorse three scholars sponsored by the NGO. A regular visit by the CGN partners, mostly Japanese, conduct regular visit to him and his farm.
His nursery, located near his house, is one of the few accredited private seed nurseries in the region by the BPI to produce coffee - Arabica (Red and Yellow Bourbon) seedlings. Further, he was able to establish as well partnership to DA CAR that provided him coffee/cacao dryer. ATI CAR becomes a family to him especially the MS federation in CAR.
Believing in land stewardship, Ashley needed to adopt the best applicable and innovative practices to his farm. He basically believes in natural farming applying integrated and multiple cropping in the farm in his three farms located in different sites; two of which are planted with coffee trees while the certified LSA farm is located near his residential house.
In his coffee farms, he integrated alnus and ipil-ipil as shade trees. Serving as a wind breaker, these trees as researches proved, help improve the stability of slopes liable to erosion and being nitrogen-fixing trees they can improve degraded lands.
Encouraging sustainable farming, he slowly developed the adjacent area near his house into integrated farm to become the show window of his farming practices. The sloping 8,000 square meter area, is planted with various crops like coffee, tiger grass, rattan, bamboo, banana, trichanthera, gabi, and other fruit bearing trees. He added fishponds for tilapia production and is also raising native pigs in the area.
Aiming both for sustainable farming and financial stability, he even incorporated this advocacy in the name of the farm- The REAPER Farm which means Reduce Emission Activities Prepare Economic Results.
Essentially, in natural farming, he says that space and depth for planting coffee and other crop trees do not require a certain space and depth. Accordingly, the nutrients are found on the top most part of the soil thus the roots will compete nutrients on this part. As such, there is no need to follow a certain depth for planting crops. Every now and then, he just adds soil or mulch to cover the roots. For cases that the crops will be planted in dug parts, there is a need to supplement with fertilizers, and obviously to him, he applies compost as fertilizers.
He practice multiple cropping so that the crops will supplement each other, but be sure that they will not be overcrowded. For example, the alnus, trichantera and caliandra are nitrogen-fixing plants, the banana is a phosphorus producing crop, while the tiger grass and betel nuts are planted to supplement calcium needs within the area. In the starting years of his farm, he just planted different crops mainly to supplement nutrients for each other. Fortunate, these crops eventually provided additional income to his family. The tiger grass are the source of his for broom production. Unexpectedly, the betel gave him bigger income for a certain time especially that betel nuts are in demand in the area and nearby locality.
Additionally, to his farming practices, he prefer to remove crops that do not allow other plants to survive in its surrounding. These plants only compete with nutrients but do not supplement the needed nutrients for other crops to grow. Further, he reiterated the common knowledge to the farmers that one will be able to know if the soil is good if there are six or more different kinds of plants (to include weeds) living.
Getting older in number, still, Ashley is active in his farm activities. Definitely, he can now enjoy the fruits of his labors and take a break from farming – because his children; two of which are now working while the other is still studying. He chose to do farming until these days and continue advocate sustainable farming thru the REAPER’s farm.
Ashley, recalling his past experiences, now can also laugh while sharing his story. If possible, he doesn’t want to remember that night, yet he needs to because that event served as the major turning point of his life. Lastly, he says, God will able to restore what you have lost but chose to commit your thoughts to Him.
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