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Manila Bulletin,
Agriculture, Thurs., Sept. 17, 1998 |
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Couple
invests in farming, grows fruit trees in Tanay
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Agri Plain Talk by Zac B.
Sarian |
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The happiest gentleman farmer we met last week was
William Yao Jr., a young businessman managing the
family's construction supply business in Makati.
Reason: He made his first sale of his
rambutan at
the Sunday market at Sidcor Resort.
He sold just 120 kilos at P50 per kilo. The amount
may not be very significant to other business people
like him, |
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RAMBUTAN
GROWERS OF TANAY. |
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but to him the experience was most
exhilarating. The feeling was something he has never
experience before.
Of course, that was just the first harvest he made and
sold. There are many more to come because about 150 of his
total 305 rambutan trees have fruited with an estimated 10
kilos per tree. His varieties are the Rongrien and R-162
which are considered top of the line.
His farming started in 1995 when he and his wife,
Jeanet, decided to invest in a 7-hectare property in Tanay,
Rizal. They are the third owner of the property but the
previous ones did not really develop it. |
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The land itself was not that expensive but the cost
of development was no chicken feed. He had to spend
half a million pesos to have electricity and water.
Another big expense was the access road.
And then, of course, the cost of planting materials.
But that did not deter the couple to pursue the
development of their dream farm. |
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DURIAN IN TANAY |
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They regard their farm as a wise investment. In the
long run, they expect not only to recover their investment.
They also anticipate the satisfaction they will derive from
farming which could not be quantified in terms of money.
Since they did not know much about commercial fruit
production, they asked the help of Bernie Dizon to establish
their orchard. They planted large planting materials so that
the waiting period would not be long.
They also have more than 200
durian of the Chanee
variety. A few of them have already started producing one or
two fruits each. Next year, William hopes many of them will
be more fruitful.
They have also planted more than a hundred tropical
lychee trees supplied by Bernie Dizon. Lychee is sturdy
trees that has been proven to fruit under local conditions.
Other fruit trees they have planted in lesser number
include king mandarin, Perante orange, pongkan orange and
duku lanzones.
Aside from fruit trees, William has also planted more
than 3,000 mahogany trees and 1,700 neem trees.
He really takes care of the fruit and forest trees he
has planted. They are regularly fertilized and during summer
they are watered. He is thankful that they have good source
of water for irrigating their plants. They are not really
affected by the El Niño. |
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