Last October 10, 2020, SIFI Livelihood Officer Cristina Poblador along with its Resource Person Mr. Carlito Indencia, City Agriculturist of Bago, visited livelihood beneficiaries from Hda. Candelaria Farmers Association in Manapla for an Assessment of its Peanut Nursery and intercrop with sugarcane.
SIFI made sure that in organizing the meeting, all proper precautions were followed for the safety and well-being of everyone. The first activity upon arrival was to trek to their targeted areas of their 3rd cycle peanut nursery and for Sir Indencia to evaluate and validate.
After the nursery area visit, updates of their peanut production were tackled. The first cycle of peanut nursery, which was harvested during August 2019, produced around 200 kilos from the 1.5 kilos of starter seeds that SIFI provided. Half of the production was set aside for the targeted 1 hectare intercrop with sugarcane and the other half was distributed among the members. The 95-100 kilos of seeds were then intercropped with sugarcane during November 2019 and after 4 months, a total of 1,380 kilos was harvested. Sir Indencia commended their production as very successful because it surpasses the national average production of 900 kilos per 1 hectare of intercrop. They sold their intercrop harvest (after setting aside seeds for nursery) at P50 per gantang and was able to earn P46,000. Their 2nd nursery was planted on clay soil which was a different area during May 2020 and was harvested on August 2020. The group experienced difficulty with the harvest because of the clay texture of the soil. They learned that it wasn’t ideal.
An action plan was formulated in October 2020 so that the Nursery production and Intercrop would yield better results on March 2021. Furthermore, the group is expected to undergo a training on peanut processing as the next step to their Peanut Business.
