Philouise’s Weblog

Strawberry fields forever

The Barangay Agriculture and Fisheries Committee (BAFC) Ordinance is on its third and final Reading scheduled for August 10, 2020.

The city has already lined up some projects for these BAFC to participate in. First will be six green houses for strawberries, one to be a model farm in the City Vet and Agriculture Office and the five to be given to the following pilot barangays; Loakan Apugan, Minesview, Middle Rock Quarry, Lower Dagsian, Bakakeng Norte/Sur. There will still be 19 greenhouses to be implemented next year. This is also in line with the ordinance to pioneer 5 BAFC.

My interest in strawberry fields was re kindled with a visit of Brenda Solang Sudaypan and Sol Langay to the office showing me some big strawberries. I was giving my divided attention as I was late for an activity at the city hall grounds. But I could see their determination that I hear them out. So, I sat down and they related to me that there are strawberries in Santo Tomas. At that time, I thought all the strawberry fields are now in Benguet. But it is not so, because when we were kids, there were strawberry fields in North Sanitary Camp, across the river from our home.

So that afternoon, out of the bag of Brenda came out the King Strawberries and I thought she was joking. It was the biggest and reddest strawberries I saw for a long time. Anyway, they told me of an association that is involved in agriculture and so I asked what can I do for them, we did not have a clear idea of how we can work together. So, I suggested that one day we will do a farmer’s market. And told them to inform the barangay of what can be done, we tried to schedule them for other activities.

Then they sent me an invitation for the induction of their new set of officers, that was the time that we finally made a farm visit and also their induction in the presence of the Highly Urbanized Cities Agriculture and Fisheries Council. (HUCAFC) the Barangay Officials and Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan. After the induction and snacks, we went for strawberry picking and farm visit before we finally walked around and talked on some ideas towards a plan. That time we were talking about farmer’s market and an Agri Tourism for the Bilis, Santo Tomas.

We envisioned an Agri Tourism project composed of a parking lot, a registration kiosk, a view point, a snack bar, strawberry picking, vegetable store, a souvenir shop and a photo booth. The idea was to have a walking path that goes around and also up to the view point. That sharing did not have a second chance to be discussed as the pandemic ensued. It was to be a community project and not privately run.

The farmer’s market was also discussed with the members of the barangay council specially Kag Ike Picpikan and the PB Cawaing. It was good because the barangay had their first farmer’s market during their anniversary this year. It still has to be seen how they can make it more responsive to the needs of the farmers and the general public.

Going back to the strawberry fields, the city has now realigned the mushroom project to the strawberry project by providing 6 greenhouses this year and another 19 units by next year. This will encourage the production of strawberries in the urban and rural barangays of the city. This will revive a product that has a big market in the city of Baguio.