Buguias, Benguet, which boasts of producing some 80 percent of all temperate vegetables in Benguet, has been seeing its farmers leaving for greener pastures in foreign countries, the municipal agriculture officer divulged last week.

BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat

BUGUIAS, Benguet (336 kms. North of Manila)– This town, which boasts of producing some 80 percent of all temperate vegetables in Benguet, has been seeing its farmers leaving for greener pastures in foreign countries, the municipal agriculture officer divulged last week.

Many Buguias gardeners go to work in farms in North America, Europe and Asia, said Municipal Agricultural Officer Asano Aban, who mentioned Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan as among the favorite destinations for local gardeners.

In Japan they usually work as trainees for three to six months. “As trainees, they earn much more than their earnings here,” Aban told Nordis. He added farmers also learn new farming techniques, especially in areas of agricultural technology, which they apply when they come home.

Many get recommendations from him, considering that he has authority to certify that the applicants have experience in growing temperate vegetables.

He said the OFW phenomenon in Buguias has been lingering for years. He said farmers opt for employment abroad to ease financial hardships.

No Elf for the local farmer

Aban attributes the capability of farmers to acquire delivery trucks or build concrete houses to their incomes as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

“Apay kabaelan ti ordinaryo a gardener to gumatang ti Elf?” (Can an ordinary farmer buy an Elf?) he asked, referring to a popular brand of light delivery trucks.

According to Aban, the law of demand and supply and the impositions of international trade have greatly affected Benguet farmers’ income. He said imported vegetables are far cheaper than locally grown vegetables because farmers in foreign countries have government subsidy to lean back on when market and natural disasters strike against their produce.

“Palalo daytoy umayan ti imported a nateng” (Vegetable importation has adverse impacts on our farmers) Aban said referring to liberalization in agriculture which resulted from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of the World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO).

Fighting the law of supply and demand

The farmers have to contend not only with importation but also with decrease in demand coupled with oversupply. There are times when there is too much cabbage in the market that farmers just leave them in the fields to rot, causing them more losses.

Benguet Gov. Nestor B. Fongwan initiated a plan to regulate the planting calendar so as not to flood the market with just one kind of vegetable at any given time. The project last March got some P400,000 ($969.70 at last March’s average exchange rate of $1:P41.25) when Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Benguet. (Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat)

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