Bongabon, Nueva Ecija
September 1, 2004
Carlos D. Marquez, Jr.,
Philippines Today
via Seameo Searca
Resty G., a 37-year-old seasonal farm worker in this onion hub,
limped toward the plastic mat spread on the ground where the
sorted onion rejects were placed to dry, taking advantage of the
sun that finally shone after three days of continued rain. The
market-reject onions are his share from the recent harvest.
His mood was affected by the saddening state of onion growing
not only in this town, 78 percent of whose people (population
86,619) depend on the 28,700 hectares of onion-dominated farms.
Bongabon farmers are feeling the weakening pulse of the contry's
onion industry.
Resty's financier, Antonio Santiago, a rural bank manager, said
a wide part of Bongabon's onion plantation is now being eyed for
Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn production.
"That is after the losses we experienced, and the dive in the
market price, since imported and smuggled onions have dominated
the local market," Santiago sighed.
The Nueva Ecija-based Union of Growers and Traders of Onion in
the Philippines (UGAT) said unchecked smuggling that has been
compounding the problem brought by importation is sealing the
death of the country's onion industry.
About half of the country's red creole onion harvest of around
201 million kilos this year are still in cold storages in Nueva
Ecija and Bulacan, besides the still unsold stocks in Pampanga
and Metro Manila.
It was found out that the 120 (40-ft) container vans authorized
by the Bureau of Plant Industry to bring into the country yellow
granex, or white onion, from China were found upon their arrival
mixed -- almost half of it, it was said -- with red creole
variety.
Besides this, 18 more container vans with the same red creole
onions were made to slip through the Bureau of Customs, said
UGAT chairman Erlinda Abad.
Lucena Ceña, UGAT director, said the death of the local onion
industry, foretold since the Philippine Senate ratified the
General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade in 1995, will result in
the economic displacement of thousands of onion farm laborers.
There are 13,400 hectares of farmland devoted to red creole
farming, and 2,200 hectares for yellow granex, in Nueva Ecija,
Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, Ilocos and the Visayas and Mindanao.
Each hectare is the lifeblood of about 120 seasonal farm
workers, Ceña said.
Following the production flow in a hectare of an onion farm, the
laborers needed include: eight men in land preparation to work
in six weeks, 30 planters and 30 weeders for three weeks each,
two men each in fertilizer and pesticide spraying, which should
cover four months, and about 35 harvesters.
At the postharvest stage, about 24 laborers are also needed in
hauling, weighing and shipping of the product from the farm to
the cold storage plant. These workers, like Resty, earns half of
the net income after the inputs and other expenses shouldered by
the farm owner had been deducted.
Of the per-hectare average harvest of 400 bags of onions at 28
kilos each, a producer could get P235,200 at the storage cost of
P21 a kilo. He will deduct the average per hectare production
cost of P85,000 and he will have P150,000. Half of this, or
P75,000 goes to the laborer, based on the existing practice in
Nueva Ecija, after five months of work in the farm.
"This is what those smugglers are taking away from the poor
onion planters," Ceña said.
As for Resty, like the other flexible Novo Ecijanos, he will
just go where his financier is planning to turn to with the
waning onion production.
"We will just try planting Bt corn," he said lamely.
They have no prepared production plan yet for Bt corn to compare
with the ailing onion industry. |