NAVAL, Biliran (PIA) – Who would think that a former security guard-turned-vegetable farmer is now harvesting 2,000 kilos of eggplant twice a week?
And because of that, he is now able to contribute to the Kadiwa ng Pangulo Program, which was envisioned to bring farmers’ produce closer to markets so that Filipinos can buy agricultural produce at a lower cost.
Back in 2008, Aproniano Pedro “Ipi” A. Mataganas, now 34 years old, a father of six children, and a former security guard, started to show his interest in vegetable farming with the notion in mind that his family will consume his farm produce while also earning an income to provide for his family’s needs, since he is no longer working as a security guard.
Mataganas, one of the vegetable farmers in Almeria, confided in a recent interview in his almost two-hectare rented vegetable farm located in Sitio Bliss, Pulang Bato, that he is earning P60,000 a month and an estimated gross income of P1.4M a year by selling assorted vegetables produced from his farm.
Biliranons can now purchase his harvested eggplant and other vegetable products such as ampalaya, okra, sayote, squash, chili, and watermelon at affordable prices in the Kadiwa Center of the province.
The town of Almeria, where Mataganas lived, was assigned in the production of eggplant and okra as per clustering of vegetable product under the “Gulayan sa Probinsya ni Governor Gerard Espina” program.
Gov. Espina had envisioned at least making the province a vegetable basket in Eastern Visayas, thereby complimenting the Kadiwa ng Pangulo program, which was launched in Biliran July 17, simultaneously with other local government units across the country.
The governor actively participated during its launching, as well as the other municipal mayors, heads of national government agencies, and department heads of the provincial government. (MMP/RSV/PIA Biliran)
