The Boss is an ARB

For so many years, majority of the farmers in our country depended mainly on the meager wage paid to them by the landlords in exchange of their labor in the farm. And this earning, evidently, wasn’t able to sustain the day to day needs of the farming families then, and still a sizable number of them now. This farmer’s living condition prompted the government to implement agrarian reform programs in the country. Most prominent of which is the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

These programs effected considerable change in the lives of the Filipino farmers, gradually transforming them from mere workers, into owner-cultivators and entrepreneurs. With the land and various interventions provided by the government, many farmers have now successfully augmented their farm production, enabling them to increase their income and do business at the same time.

This has been the story of a farmer from Casiguran, Sorsogon, in the name of Amador Mansus Masarate – a farmworker turned owner-manager of a well-run agri-enterprise. An enterprise that has also been helping stimulates trade in his place, and creates employment opportunities for his immediate neighbors.

Masarate is an upland farmer in a landholding owned by Tucidides De Castro located in Brgy. Escuala, Casiguran, Sorsogon and at the same time he used to be a laborer of Severino Listana whose property is located in Brgy. Inlagadian, Casiguran, Sorsogon sometime in 1977. “My salary during those times was only six pesos a day, and earns nothing when off season comes. I resorted to selling bamboos that grows in his property in order to make both ends meet,” he recounted.

In those times, Listana’s property has an abundant plantation of abaca but it was in catastrophe due to the virus infestation. So, he transformed it into coconut land. Then, agrarian reform was implemented covering this property. Unfortunately, Masarate did not find luck to be chosen as one of its beneficiaries. He was rather given 2.4076 hectares upland from De Castro estate. In 1995, he got his Certificate of Landownership Award (CLOA) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and immediately was installed thereon. Since then, he and his wife Maria Freda Blanqueza Masarate planted it with tomatoes, pineapple, banana, red pepper, eggplant, bitter cucumber, petchay, and cabbage. They plant these crops depending on its season. They use the rotating method in planting vegetables.

As a farmer, Masarate practices diversified farming, and adopts technologies such as UNLADSAKA, PALAYAMANIN, Hybrid Rice Commercialization, Multi-Storey Coco-based production, KASAKALIKASAN, FFS-Vegetable Production, and Greenhouse vegetable production.

The investment he has poured in for all his crops was almost P400,000.00. This capital returns back close to P1million in earnings, with the following breakdown: P112,000.00 at P32.00/kilo for tomatoes; P150,000.00 at P25.00/kilo for red pepper (these are for summer season crops); P150,000.00 at P20.00/kilo for bitter cucumber (this is usually planted in December); P150,000.00 at P30.00/kilo for eggplant; P150,000.00 per cropping of pechay and cabbage (but there are years that they have no plantation of these kinds); P20,000.00 at P8.00/fruit for pineapple, but that comes from only ¼ hectare plantation out of the total 1 ½ hectares pineapple plantation. “The pineapples are already aging, they need to be replaced in order to bear more and bigger fruits,” explained Masarate. For coconut, they earned 27,802.00 per 45 days for the 4.5 hectares plantation, however, upon the establishment of Peter Paul Philippines Corporation (PPPC), the largest manufacturer of coconut water drink, they opts to sell the fresh fruits. Just recently, they earned P23,303.00 out of their P9,200.00 investment. Apart from that, he was still given the privilege to manage some parts of coconut land in the nearby barangay by his former landlord, Listana. This year’s (2014) latest harvest is 700 cocofruits.

The Masarate also venture in poultry and livestocks. At present, they have fifty (50) chickens which just started in “paalaga”.  But these are only for household consumption. They have three (3) carabao’s from their P14,000.00 investment. Previously they have six (6) cows but this year, they removed them all. “They usually roam under the coconuts, then we discovered that their urine caused the decrease in coconut’s yield, so we removed them,” explained Masrate.

     Their large scale vegetable production has prompted them to buy two (2) service trucks to transport farm products to the market, these trucks are also “for hire”.  With the help of the farm-to-market road project of DAR under ARISP II, his trucking and other businesses have been doing well so far.

The finished product of coco juice which 

were given to Masarate by the producer.

       Last January 2010, they started venturing on copra trading with an investment of P100,000. They earn P3,000 a week for this business alone. Nowadays, most farmers prefer to sell the fresh cocofruit because it is more practical than doing the tedious copra production. Masarate buy them for P8.00 per kilo and sold it for P9.00 in the PPPC at Sorsogon City which he delivers once every two (2) days. As per record, his latest coco fruit delivery is 8,000 kilos.

       Furthermore, he was also tilling a more than 3 hectares (2 has. before) riceland of his mother-in-law in their barangay which is also an awarded land from Filomena Mateo. Out of his P60,000.00 investment, he earned a total of P224,400.00. This riceland is irrigated, but in summer time the water that flow is very few. It is tilled twice a year but because of water shortage, only one hectare can be planted, except in December.

Amador M. Masarate while counting the amount of coconuts
delivered to them by coconut farmers in their area.

      Due to the expansion of his farm, he has hired laborers to aid him. He has seven (7) regular employees (13 before) who he paid P200.00 per day and a free 5 times a day meal (breakfast, AM snacks, lunch, PM snacks, and dinner). The once poor and underprivileged farmer Masarate, is now a boss.

Masarate and his family are now enjoying the comforts of life. They can now buy things they could not afford before, like electrical home appliances, furniture and motor vehicles. Add to these the modern farm implements they’ve acquired, such as hand tractor, thresher, and other mechanized tools. “But the Department of Agriculture has told us that we’ll be a recipient of a new hand tractor and a thresher,” said Maria Freda. In 2009, during the celebration of UNLADSAKA, Amador Masarate was awarded as the “2009 Gawad Saka Provincial Outstanding HVCC Farmer”. Moreover, the Provincial Agriculturist Office has chosen Masarate’s farm to be the site of green house where he can grow cabbage and cauliflower. “Sadly, that site was one of those that have been damaged by a strong whirlwind that throws some houses,” said Masarate.

Jessa, the daughter of Amador Masarate who at her 

very young age is already managing 

her very own sari-sari store.

But that is not the greatest challenged the couple had encountered in their life, it’s their willingness to help other relatives by giving free education. “We have already invited some nephews and nieces to stay with us so that we can provide them education, but after graduating high school, they leave,” said Masarate. Their eldest son is also one of those who quit school after third year. On the other hand, their youngest daughter, Jessa is very industrious in her studies. She’s in grade five now. This summer vacation, she was provided by the couple a “sari-sari” store which she personally managed. “She asked that from us because even when she was yet in prep, she is already fond of selling. At first, her store is just inside our house, now we had already set up a booth. When school days come, her sari-sari store is close but its content will be transferred again inside our house so that I can attend to it,” explained Maria Freda. Indeed, their neighbors are amazed seeing a very young businesswoman in their community.

“I am not boasting about what I achieved. I am just doing my duty as a land tiller while living in simplicity. It is my delight to help the community in the reduction of jobless residents and to aid other family members especially those young ones to have an access to education. To sustain the blessings which God bestow upon us, we have to share it with others and treat that values as a mission,” said Masarate.

The Family of Amador Masarate with their service truck.

According to him, their finances are mostly collectibles. Sometimes, there are borrowers who don’t pay unless they call a police. They have always wanted to do house repairs, but because they lack cash on hand, they were not able to do their plans. “Hopefully, when you come back, our house is already renovated,” said his wife.