Empowering Women through Corn Husk Handicraft Making

From trash to cash.

The most joyful day of a farmer is upon seeing the crop on maturity stage. After three months of careful management, Alona Daal, a corn farmer of E.G. Montilla, Las Nieves, Agusan del Norte is so excited to harvest her corn field.  After removing the bushel, she just leave the corn husk and other wastes in the farm to let it decompose to incorporate back the nutrients to the soil.

However, she confided that some of her co-farmers resorted to burn farm wastes. But setting farm wates into fire poses an environmental hazard and a violation of the Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003) and Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 which prohibit open-field burning, including burning of farm wastes.

One of the farm waste or trash in the corn field is the corn husk, the outer protective covering of an ear of corn. In rough estimate, Caraga Region accumulated around 23.1 ton of corn husk per harvest season.

But do you know that instead of treating corn husk as a trash, there are people that considered it as a gold.

Corn husk can be transformed into very attractive decorative products such as flowers, dolls, gift items perfect for any occasion such as a wedding, graduation, special ceremonies and occassons or just plainly for house and office decorations.

Seeing the potential of the products and to empower women to help augment family's income, DA Caraga through the Corn Program conducted recently a Corn Processing Utilization Training in Butuan City.

The participants who were mostly farmer’s wives were taught on creating gift or decorative products utilizing corn husks through the resource person Ms. Lucila Esdrelon, a retired employee of the Provincial Agriculture Office of the Province of Agusan del Norte.

Notably, few men also took part in the training with equal eagerness to learn the craft.

Lucila Esdrelon appealed to the farmers, not to treat corn husk as farm wastes but an opportunity to earn more.

“Lot of decorative products can be made out of corn husk where wives can maximize their time and help contribute to family’s income,” she said.  

Editha Dedomo, Rural Improvement Club (RIC) Federation President of Esperanza, Agusan del Sur said that she is so happy that she was chosen as one of the participants on the said training as it enhanced her knowledge more on the handicraft making.

“I’ve been doing this craft for quite sometime. During graduation time,  lei out of corn husk is a sought after products, so I can make money of out it, or gift items during a wedding, so it is really a big help for my family,”

Meanwhile, Annabelle Coral, Vice President of the City of Cabadbaran Abaca Handicraft Makers Association Incorporated shared that corn husk handicraft making needs patience and perseverance since you need to give attention up to its minutest detail of the design to come up with an attractive and elegant product,’ she said. 

After the training, various decorative and gift item products had been made that surely capture the eye of the would be costumers. A decor product from corn husk could be sold from P75 and as high as P500.00 depending on its size and intricacy.

Indeed, there is money in trash (may pera sa basura). (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)

 

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Sam Fischer-This City Cover

Bahandi Sa Kaumahan April 13, 2020 edition

Bahandi Sa Kaumahan april 6, 2020

Way of Truth

DA Caraga, BAI and LGU Forges Effort to Prevent Entry of ASF Virus

As the clock is ticking for the country on in its campaign to prevent the entry of the deadly African Swine Fever (ASF) virus, the Department of Agriculture Caraga, Bureau of Animal Industry and local government units pooled its resources to shield the region from the entry of the said virus. 

A stakeholder’s forum on ASF was conducted by DA Caraga through the Livestock Section yesterday to aware swine industry players in the region against the disease.

The virus that posed danger to the swine industry had lately encroached 15 countries in Africa, Europe and some parts of Asia.

“Currently there is no vaccine and medications to fight back the virus, hence, it is a fatal disease,” Dr. Dale Franco Llentic, Caraga Regional Veterinary Quarantine Officer said.

He explained that ASF is a highly contagious hemorrhagic viral disease of domestic and wild pigs of all ages, characterized by high fever, loss of appetite, reddening of the skin and hemorrhages of the internal organs, and death which follows between 2-10 days on the average and mortality can be as high as 100%.

“The only way to contain the disease is through culling or depopulation of the swine in an infected farm such as what had been done in China,” he said.

Historically, the first outbreak was recognized as having occurred in 1907 after ASF was first described in 1921 in Kenya, Africa hence its name has been derived, and it is a reemerging disease on swine.  

However, he clarified that the ASF virus would not affect human. “Physically, ASF virus would affect human but the impact is on economic aspect, since it is a big loss of the swine industry if the entry of such would not be prevented,” Llentic emphasized.

He said that they are focusing on its monitoring and surveillance on the major point of entry in the region such as in Nasipit Port, Lipata Port in Surigao and Pulang Lupa, Trento Agusan del Sur.

The provincial government of Agusan del Norte established a quarantine area in Carmen, Agusan del Norte.

“Quarantine effort is critical in this time so our personnel had been fielded to strictly implement the procedure,” Llentic said.

Entry of domestic and wild pigs and their products including pork meat and semen from affected countries are strictly prohibited based on the memorandum issued by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol since last year.

Edelmira Luminarias, Livestock Program Coordinator appealed to all livestock stakeholders to support the campaign against the entry of the said ASF virus.

“I am appealing to all livestock stakeholders as well as the public to support our effort to prevent the entry of the virus. If you have kin abroad, especially from affected countries, advised them not to bring in as pasalubong any pork products when they got home.” Luminarias said.

Caraga Region’s inventory on swine, as per Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data of 2018, there are about 214,486 heads in smallholder raisers or backyard and 11,301 heads on commercial raisers. (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)

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Gov’t Support Propels Rise of Caraga’s Corn Industry

Strong government support and favorable weather condition have paved the way for the rise of the corn industry in Caraga Region on last year’s cropping season.

Based on 2018 corn performance data, Caraga Region posted positive in comparison to previous 2017 data in terms of area harvested, production and the yield.

As per Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) record, in 2017 the area harvested for the corn in the region was 34,034 hectares with a total production of 119,980 metric tons (MT) and an average yield of 3.53 MT per hectare.

Last years’ performance exceeded the 2017 record, with 36,699 hectares area harvested and produced 135,627 MT with an average yield of 3.70 MT per hectare.

In comparison, the area harvested from 2017 to 2018 posted an increase of 2,665 hectares or an increase of 8% while the production posted an increase of 15,647 MT or 13% while the yield increased with 0.17 MT or an increase of 5%.

Melody Guimary, DA Caraga regional corn program coordinator said that last year’s increase was due to favorable weather condition for corn production and the support extended by DA Caraga to the farmers.

“Our support to corn farmers had led the way for an increase of Caraga’s performance in corn industry in 2018,” she said.

DA Caraga had distributed around 60 million pesos of agricultural equipment for farm mechanization and post-harvest facilities in 2018 such as farm tractors, corn picker, combine harvester, compact corn mill, vertical dryer and other.

Aside from mechanization support, DA also continually extended technical support through training, corn seeds and ameliorant, and market support.

‘This year, 2019, we are hopeful that the momentum will continue for better production and looking forward to more vibrant corn industry in the region,” Guimary said.

She said that for 2019, the corn program is targetting to increase the corn production from 135,627 MT to 152.000 MT or an equivalent to additional 3,000 hectares of corn area.

“Though our projection is not that easy, we are closely working with the local government units (LGUs) in identifying new areas for corn production that would eventually contribute to the increase of our production for the current year,” Guimary explained.

With an open mind of the farmers to embrace right farming technology and favorable weather condition, Guimary is optimistic that 2019 would be another great year for the corn industry in the region. (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)

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