3 down – 23 to go

Despite the heat, the participants arrive early on their motorcycles or riding public transport. They come from all walks of life and different localities. Some are former OFWs, others are teachers, some high school or college graduates looking for alternatives to being mere employees or being unemployed, farmers hoping to find new knowledge, retirees seriously considering the trade and others who once tried to get into the business but failed due to lack of one thing or another.

What they have in common is that they are all participants of the BMeg Fiestahan that is held annually all over the country. This year the “learn and earn” event on backyard hog raising is being done in 26 different municipalities all over the Philippines as far north as Tabuk, Kalinga province and as far south as Iligan province in Mindanao. So far we’ve been to Ormoc City, Tabuk, Kalinga, and Cauayan, Isabela. I’ve been joining the BMeg Fiestahan as a Volunteer Speaker alongside 2 experienced Veterinarians, as part of our advocacy to share knowledge with Filipinos living in remote places and provinces, who have the courage or boldness to raise pigs in their backyards as a livelihood but don’t have the necessary know-how.

After many years of travelling and mingling with people all over the Philippines, I’ve learned why many Filipinos fail in their attempt at establishing livelihood projects or small businesses.

The first is simply ignorance or the lack of information, teaching materials, and sadly illiteracy. While we pride ourselves as being a literate society, that generally applies only for those living in Metro Manila and urbanized localities in general. The rest may have gone to school but never went past high school. As far as trade information is concerned they still have to venture into the urban centers or town, in search of information and that is hardly available to the “common tao.” To make matters worse, what’s out there is not simplified or practical knowledge taken from day to day experience developed into pictures and stories that can easily be understood even by someone who is “No Read – No Write.” Yes, a picture paints a thousand words.

The next cause of failure for many is not having a business plan. Whether it’s a Sari-Sari store, a piggery, a beauty parlor, most people copy what seems like a profitable business or just get into the business with out specifics or particulars and end up in a “Gawa-Sira / Gawa – Sira” or perpetual state of construction and correction as they rebuild for an ever changing business direction without a plan to follow. The curse of most sari-sari stores is failure in accounting, reinvestment, and bad credit. A business that is dependent on cash flow instantly dies when cash is restricted or held up by “utang’ or credit. Everything is day to day and is generally located for the convenience of the owner by making “a hole in the wall.”

During BMeg Fiestahans, we point out that you need to know exactly what type and what part of the business do you want to get into. Will it be  “One pig – for personal consumption” only? Do you want to breed and raise piglets from one sow? Do you want to put up a piglet factory using several sows to produce many piglets to supply cooperatives? Or do you want to simply buy piglets and raise them into fatteners for meat? Or do you want to extend your profit by converting your fatteners into processed meats for better profit margins? What ever you plan on determines your amount of investment, type of structures, length of work per batch, risks and finally profits.

But even those who manage to gather information, let’s say through the Internet and have drawn up some sort of a plan, still get stumped by problem number 3 that is common to all would be producers or entrepreneurs: Lack or virtually no decent material available. In the hog raising “industry” where 65 percent of the produce comes from backyard hog raisers; the good breeding and rearing material is cornered by corporate farms. The small farmers often end up with inferior or low quality material sourced from fellow raisers within their barangay, town, or adjacent localities. Aside from lack of material, price is also a major obstacle that prevents the little people from getting better quality material.

Considering that an ideal pre-breeding sow or female pig costs anywhere from P15 to P20,000, how can a backyard farmer afford one? This is one area where the Department of Agriculture and the DILG should partner and be pro-active in dispersing stocks to every agricultural locality whether it be pigs, chickens, Tilapia or ducks. There is a serious lack out there and the government is the only entity big enough to help the small raisers to level up or improve their available materials. During the BMeg Fiestahan events, at least 10 female piglets are raffled of as a form of Livestock dispersal. This will somehow help improve what’s available in barangays in terms of genetics in a year’s time, but it isn’t enough. The DA still needs to do its job.

Last but not the least, producers fail or get discouraged because they don’t know how to develop their products beyond livestock. I remember back 20 years or more when the DTI and DOST had a ton of seminars for meat processing. That seems to have all stopped or disappeared and from the looks of it the training was given to urban “housewives” but not to todays thousands of backyard hog raisers who could benefit more in order to have better profits by processing meats into sausages and sweet meats.

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Whatever your field of knowledge, experience or expertise is, if you want to make a difference or maybe find something meaningful to do, especially if you’re a retiree, the simple act of sharing your stories and your experiences can make a world of difference for the illiterate or the inexperienced. It will also change you. God Bless You.

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