LADY FARMER. Macon Marcelino Dawey displays her vegetable seedlings at the Kadiwa Market at Laoag City Capitol on Friday (Nov. 24, 2023). With the encouragement and support of the government, she was able to expand her Dawey Integrated Farm firm, proving that there’s money in agriculture. (PNA photo by Leilanie Adriano)
LAOAG CITY – After working for nine years in a microfinance company in the Philippines and as a financial expat in Myanmar, 37-year-old Macon Marcelino Dawey decided to quit her job to become her own boss and prove to naysayers that, indeed, there’s money in agriculture.
True enough, Dawey is starting to reap the fruits of her labor one day at a time as she is now being sought by farmers and plant enthusiasts for her fruits and vegetable seedlings, using a customized three-wheeled vehicle to reach out to more clients.
“They say that there is money in agriculture so I wanted to prove it myself,” Dawey told the Philippine News Agency on Friday.
This writer is among the early birds who bought her fruits and vegetable seedlings at the Kadiwa market, situationed in front of the capitol at least once a month.
However, the lady farmer said being successful in agribusiness was not as easy as one would imagine.
She set up Dawey Integrated Farm in Barangay Maan-anteng, Solsona, Ilocos Norte with the support of her former co-worker, Juna Pearl Samar from Leyte.
"Through research, we started in hog breeding but we lost a lot due to the African swine fever. We also tried vegetable production but we are hard up in marketing our products,” she narrated.
Then the pandemic came.
But rather than going under, Dawey said it opened up a novel opportunity for their budding agribusiness -- catering to the needs of so-called plantitos and plantitas (plant enthusiasts) by producing quality seedlings for them.
An unexpected boost also came from the local government, which suggested that they should be producing more seedlings to cater to the needs of farmers.
“At first, sales were low in the local market, but with the help of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other support agencies of the government in the production and marketing of our products, we were able to establish links to bigger markets that prefer to buy from us because of the quality of our seedlings,” Dawey said.
She said they are using vermicast (worm castings) and carbonized rice hull for their seedling production, and F1 hybrid varieties for greater yield.
Individually potted seedlings are sold at PHP10, PHP20, and PHP50, while seedlings in trays are sold at a wholesale price of PHP250 per tray.
Aside from producing hundreds of seedlings of papaya, eggplant, pepper, tomatoes, okra, and other lowland vegetables all year, the Dawey farm is also engaged in tilapia and hito (catfish) production as well as free-range chicken and native hog production.
To further expand its market reach, the Dawey Integrated Farm in Solsona town has been joining trade fairs and pop-up bazaars organized by the government.
“We are very thankful to the local government, the DA and the government agencies for their encouragement, and invaluable inputs and support,” Dawey said,
From being an office girl and an overseas Filipino worker, this lady farmer-entrepreneur has shown that there is indeed money in agriculture if you put your heart into it. (PNA)
