Farmers in Sulop, Davao del Sur enjoy better trading now that there’s a better farm-to-market road.
The rehabilitation of the 4.32 kilometer road traversing three barangays of Luparan, Tagolilong, and Buguis facilitate easy delivery of agricultural produce in the interior part of the town.
The project, costing P6.33 million, was made possible with the equal sharing by the local government of Sulop and the Department of Agriculture’s Mindanao Rural Development Program (DA-MRDP).
The road benefits some 2,882 individuals and serves a vast agricultural land producing coconut, mango sugar cane, banana and corn.
“After the longest time, only recently do we enjoy higher income and comfortable travel from our barangay to the town proper,” said Tagolilong barangay captain Aurea Dayon.
Dayon recalled that in the past there wrtr frequent vehicular accidents due to the road’s deplorable condition.
Another problem the farmers faced was the high cost of transportation. Since the road is the only access of farmers to the town proper, they were charged high loading and travelling costs.
“Motorcycles used to charge P2.00 per kilo of banana or corn transported, so when a farmer sold 300 kilos that’s already P600 expense (for transportation). But today, the charge is only P1.00 per kilo, hence we save half of the previous cost,” Dayon said.
Farmers also had to sell their farm products at very low farm gate prices due to the very poor condition of the road which subjected farm produce to heavy damage while in transit.
On the other hand, some parents were forced to put their children in boarding houses because it was risky for them to come home late every afternoon, especially when it rains.
“A day’s rain would mean a week of difficult and perilous travel by commuters here. Whenever it was really necessary to go to town to sell our produce, we had no choice but to take the risk,” Dayon said.
“Travel time used to be about four hours, two hours walking and another two hours riding the habal-habal or skylab. Today, in only 25 minutes we are already at the town proper,” Dayon added.
With the improved road, farmers and the LGU are seeing the possibility of expanding their agricultural production.
Mayor Jose Simmy Sagarino said that people today are encouraged to produce more, which is evident during market day where there is more selling and buying activities.
“Improving access by road, especially in agri-production areas, is among the top priorities of my administration. And we are glad that we were able to realize that with the 50% percent counterpart of DA-MRDP,” Mayor Sagarino said.
Presently, 99 hectares of land planted to mango have the potential to be expanded to another 168 hectares; while the existing 595.8 hectares planted to coconut can be expanded by another 100 hectares.
The sugarcane plantation covering 307.33 hectares is now projected to be expanded another by five hectares annually in the next 10 years while the banana plantation of 31.8 hectares can be expanded by another 118 hectares in 10 years time.
Other livelihood activities that can flourish are livestock production and bamboo furniture making. [Sherwin B. Manual/DAMRDP]
