Teaching farmers how to fish

About an hour or so from the city proper, Marilog does not feel like part of Davao City. Understandably, because this third congressional district where the President of the Philippines lives is still thriving with dense greenery and with fruit bearing trees. It is because of this that Marilog became a leading exporter of fruits, giving it the title “Fruit Basket of the Philippines”.

In 2013, Henry Sy, Sr.’s SM Foundation donated a variety of tree seedlings to farmers of Sitio Upper Kibangay, Barangay Suawan in Marilog. This is part of the Foundation’s program called “Grow a Million Trees”, which supports the national government’s own greening program.

True to its vision of creating a sustainable Philippines with the environment preserved for generations to come, the SM Foundation chose to work with farmers who have the knowledge and experience on trees’ growing methods and to give them livelihood opportunities presented by the program.

Marilog’s farmers are only a few of the many recipients of the SM Foundation’s program. General Santos City, Naga City, Negros Occidental, Bulacan, and other parts of the country have also benefitted from this program to teach the farmers how to “fish”, proverbially speaking.

Working closely with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), SM provides saplings or seedlings and organic fertilizers that are good for up to three years when the trees are expected to be self-sustaining. In most areas, the farmers get to form their own farmers’ groups to help the farmers organize themselves and provide a support system from planting to the selling of harvested fruits.

Mrs. Marcelina Baron, a farmer from Marilog, said that SM’s donation has helped them in ways she did not expect. Before SM, there was no private corporation who has helped them get 100% donation of saplings plus fertilizers without asking for anything in return.

“Because of SM, we have the chance to earn profit without shelling out any capital,” said Aling Marcelina in Tagalog and Visayan. “We used to buy seedlings from our own money, but since it’s not enough, we could only produce enough for our own consumption. Now, we can have food on our table and still have more for our children’s education.”

Like Aling Marcelina, all beneficiaries of the Grow A Million Trees program get an equal share of income from the harvest among the members of their respective organizations. Those who previously did not join Marilog’s group are now willing to join after seeing the initial benefits that the group got from the cacao trees planted three years ago. They are harvesting 200 kilos every 15 days, which they are able to sell from P125 to P127 per kilo. The rubber trees, on the other hand, are expected to mature in three years. The latex that they will harvest from these trees can sell for up to P80 per kilo.

Trees that are donated are according to DENR’s recommendations, depending on what is endemic to each assigned area. Aside from cacao and rubber, SM has so far donated narra, benguet pines, molave, mulberry, pili, guava, mango, coffee, and other high yieldng trees.

This is the kind of empowerment program that helps farmers nationwide. SM Foundation’s “Grow A Million Trees” project supports communities not only for the present society, but will continue to bear fruit for future generations.