The Department of Agriculture (DA) under its Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) has resolved a perennial problem on peak-season spoilage of calamansi in Oriental Mindoro, resulting in improved income for the province’s calamansi farmers.
From July to November, when calamansi production is at its height, many farmers would normally opt to let their harvests rot.
According to Rogelio Balba, a member of the project proponent Naujan Farmers Association (NaFa), the PRDP’s subproject greatly enhanced their income in times when calamansi prices in Manila drop, forcing many farmers to just let their produce go to waste.
“For many years, calamansi farmers would already feel happy even with the narrowest margin of profit during the peak season,” said Balba.
The results of the Rapid Appraisal of Emerging Benefits (RAEB) activity conducted by the PRDP’s Monitoring and Evaluation Unit however showed that with the trading center, the spoilage rate has decreased by 48 percent.
Balba also said the delivery trucks, which also form part of the PRDP I-REAP subproject package, has eliminated the need for the farmers to rent transport vehicles, increasing their profit further.
On the average, a one-hectare land fully planted with matured calamansi trees could generate in one fruiting season 35 bushels (kaing), averaging 50 kilograms each.
Based on this production, and assuming that the trading center would buy the fruits at P10 a kilogram, the farmer would earn some P17,500.
Other emerging outcomes identified during the RAEB activity include increase in production area (16 percent), increase in farmgate price (27 percent), increase in production volume (5 percent), increase in marketed volume (14 percent), and increase in income (115 percent). (Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz)