Young farmer from Buguias earns PHP54,000.00 a month planting cucumbers in greenhouse

Cordillera - Integrating technology, innovation and of course hard work can produce incredible results to the earnings of farmers.

A young farmer from Benguet is earning around Php54,000.00 a month planting cucumbers in a greenhouse. 

Sergio Capsuyan, 29, a farmer from Abatan, Buguias is reaping the benefits of the knowledge he had learned in Japan. 

He was one among the youth members of the Buguias-Japan Agricultural Trainees Association (BJATA). He is also one of the Board of Directors in the said association. 

The association was organized for the members and trainees who acquired the Japanese agricultural and technological skills to apply them in their local farms in Abatan. 

Capsuyan said that he can earn an income of Php54,000.00 in one month or one cycle of weekly harvest by planting at least 8 beds of cucumber. He attributed his bountiful harvest from using a greenhouse  given to him by the Department of Agriculture Cordillera (DA-CAR) High-Value Commercial Crops Development Program. 

He said that it is very productive to grow crops in a greenhouse because he can control and maximize his irrigation including his production inputs. 

Capsuyan also shares how he mitigate insect pests in his crops by applying a method called fertigation. This is by fermenting a sack of chicken dung and 4 liters of Mukosako in a drum of water. This will become a liquid fertilizer that helps in the growth of plants and acts as a repellant to insect pests.

Mukosako is a wood vinegar condensed from a chimney attached to a fire chamber where wood and other combustible materials are burned. 

Fertigation is indeed a very good natural combo of fertilizing the soil and controlling pests not to mention the splendid production volume and quality wise. The raw materials used are organic, inexpensive and harmless to both humans and the environment.

Capsuyan also grows vegetables in the open field but he said that in terms of quality and productivity, greenhouse farming is the best.

Capsuyan was very appreciative to the help extended to him by the BJATA, the DA-CAR and other DA agencies that promote new technologies, new vegetable crops, crop programming and market development to young farmers like himself. 

Very soon, Mr. Capsuyan will receive a certificate as a Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) practitioner from the DA. 

source || Robert Domoguen Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/robert.domoguen/posts/2829156093762948