In 2010, Fr. Lisondra and the enthusiastic and hard-working tribal people established the agricultural arm of TEP with the goals of 1) creating short-term income by increasing the variety and output of subsistence crops to sell in the marketplace, 2) creating reliable long-term income through sustainable animal and vegetable farming, all while 3) addressing large-scale environmental degradation caused by deforestation.
It did not take long for some of the dreams to come to fruition. In 2011, a poultry farm and nursery were established near the centrally located village of Kilegbeg.
The nursery will supply farmers in the 20 villages with seedlings to plant on their deforested land. As of the end of 2012, the nursery has grown and distributed 15000 cacao, 10000 abaca, and 5000 coffee seedlings to farmers for planting.
In early 2013 a grant from one of our major partners allowed us to start growing 200,000 seedlings (cacao, coffee, guyabano, pili, and rubber) in the nursery, later to be planted by 200 farmers on 200 hectares of land. The GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) will subsidize each properly planted hectare with a monetary grant for additional seedlings. When the plants begin to mature in 2-10 years, a portion of the produce will be turned back to TEP, some to be designated for teachers’ salaries.
Fr. Nestor also established the poultry farm, which, according to projections, will eventually have 40,000 chickens. This is a contract-growing farm for broiler chickens, linked to a company who will supply all the chicks, feeds, chemicals, technology, and market. One of the purposes of having this project is to have bountiful supply of organic fertilizer/soil amendment to help reclaim deforested farmland, thus continuing the circle of sustainability.
For the future, TEP will run seminars in farming techniques, business, money management, and more, to guarantee the long-term success of the farmers.
We are happy to acknowledge the assistance of 2 NGOs – ACDI-VOCA and COCOPAL. They are the ones who assisted us in the training of 400 farmers. They also provided technical assistance in managing our new nursery. They are a tremendous help on the technical aspect of the nursery and the cacao farming in particular.
Seedlings growing in the nursery
Deforested land reclaimed with cacao, coffee, rubber, and coconut palms