Sustainable agriculture for sustainable community. From an animal ranch, today, the vast pastureland of Pecuaria Development Cooperative Inc. (PDCI) is now a home for organic farming.

Today, PDCI is now one of the largest suppliers of organic rice in all leading supermarkets in the country. No wonder that this cooperative is a recipient of the `Gawad Saka Award for Best Organic Farm for 2007` given by the Department of Agriculture- Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards during the 4th National Organic Agriculture Congress. They have also been recognized by various agencies and organizations for their excellent products, projects, programs and services.


Struggle for a better life


In 1988, the 817.33 hectares of hilly, rolling and flat lands popularly known as `Pecuaria`, an animal farm, in Lanipga, Bula, Camarines Sur is submitted for Voluntary Offer to Surrender (VOS) by the landowners under Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law because of harassment from the outside forces. Subsequently in 1989, a struggle for control among farmer groups with different interests and leanings arose. The Department of Agrarian Reform negotiated, created and registered the Peace Council and Peoples Coalition for Unity and Agrarian Reform Integration Action (PECUARIA) at the Securities and Exchange Commission. These events resulted to the birth of the Pecuaria Development Cooperative Inc. (PDCI) on March 5, 1991 and its registration in the Cooperative Development Authority in September 30 of the same year.

With its mission `building the capability of the organization and its member families towards a productive and sustainable community through a principled partnership and efficient and effective organization and farm resources management,` the cooperative provides intensive trainings on organic rice production, processing and marketing to its 426 members. Also, it has a production loan, commodity loan and cash loan to support the farming of each member. Besides, a social health care program is offered by PDCI to its members.


Winning product


One of the major products of PDCI is the organic rice which is planted on the 130.87 hectares of the cooperative. It comes in different varieties like organic healthy rice, white, pink, polished red, unpolished red, brown, black rice, violet rice, aromatic and blended rice. The farmers used traditional methods of planting and their own-produced bio-organic fertilizer and other organic inputs to make sure that the rice plants are free from chemicals. The cooperative ensures that all their products are free from any artificial additives, not irradiated, GE/GM free and have lower nitrates level. Moreover, to maintain the quality of their produce, its production facilities are regularly inspected by the Organic Certification Center of the Philippines. Thus, the demand on their products in the national market is very high especially in popular malls and supermarkets such as SM, Robinsons, Puregold, Ever, Waltermart, etc.

In a province where in rain is very pronounced and the fields are well irrigated, rice farming is very appropriate. A visit in Camarines Sur, revealed that there is no definite rice cropping season. Some farmers are harvesting while the others are planting. Nevertheless, PDCI members and other farmers had a problem on how to dry their harvested grains.

`Nangangailangan kami ng dryer, yun dati ang problema namin [We need dryer, that is our problem before]` Mr. Juan Jollado Jr, secretary of PDCI said. According to him, their lack of dryer affects their production; there are times that they are delayed in supplying organic rice to their distributors.

`Actually, noon kino-control namin ang pagpasok namin ng palay kasi yung MPDP (Multi Purpose Drying Pavement) namin ay maliliit lang, noon ang binibili namin ay 'yung tuyo na. [Actually, we control before the volume of palay we buy because we only have a small MPDP, we only buy dried grains before.], PDCI General Manager Miller Bicaldo added.


Determined farmers


Because of the high market demand on their organic rice, the members of the Pecuaria Development Cooperative Inc. decided to purchase palay drying facilities. According to Mr. Jollado, they visitec different rice research and development agencies such as the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to search for dryers appropriate to their produce.

`Habang naghahanap kami ng dryer, nabalitaan namin 'yung ipinamimigay na dryer ng Department of Agriculture (DA) [While we are searching for dryer, we heard the news about the dryer that being distributed by the Department of Agriculture.]` Mr. Jollado said.

With that good news, the officers of PDCI consulted the DA-Regional Field Unit 5 in Pili, Camarines Sur on how to acquire a unit of the dryer. Consequently, they made a request and a board resolution to avail of the said dryer. In June 2008, the flatbed dryer that they have dreamed of is now installed at the PDCI compound. Thanks to the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE).

At present, after a year of having the flatbed dryer, the `PDCI's Organic Rice` is now available year-round. `Hindi na naaapektuhan ang production. On-time na yung-pagproduce. Kahit na umuulan, may available na kaming products. On-time na yung delivery. [Our production now is not affected (by the weather). We are now on-time on our production. Even during rainy season, we have available products. We are now on-time in our deliveries]` Mr. Jollado affirmed.

`Iba pa rin ang resulta ng tuyo sa flatbed dryer. Mas marami kaming naiimbak na palay.Mas maganda ang resulta compared noong wala pa kaming flatbed dryer. [Grains dried in the flatbed dryer are absolutely different. We can now store more palay. The result (of dried palay) is better than the times when we don't have flatbed dryer] Mr. Bicaldo added.

Furthermore, Mr. Bicaldo said that they expanded the area where they buy organic rice, `Nag-expand na kami ng area, lumabas na kami sa Pecuaria (sakop na rin namin ang) Pili, Calabanga, Libmanan at iba pa. Plano din namin magdagdag ng flatbed dryer. [We already expanded our area; we are now buying the produce of other farmers beyond Pecuaria such as Pili, Calabanga, Libmanan and etc.]`

`Kami ay nagpapasalamat sa gobyerno lalo na sa BPRE, sa DA na mayroong mga support na ganito. Kaya marami kaming improvement na ginagawa kasi gusto namin na magtagal para madaming mabebenipisyohan, kaya yung shed nito, inalis namin, nilagyan namin ng mas matibay kasi alam naman natin dito sa Bicol laging binabagyo. [We are thankful to the government especially to BPRE, to DA for having support like this. Thus, we make improvements so that many farmers will benefit from it. We replaced the shed with a stronger one knowing that Bicol is prone to typhoons.]` PDCI General Manager Miller Bicaldo ended.

Aside from the shed, PDCI also improved some parts of the mechanical dryer. They modified the furnace of the flatbed dryer from pre-cast panel into bricks. They said that bricks are more resilient to heat than the other materials thus it will have a longer lifespan. DA officials appreciated the effort of the PDCI members to improve the facilities given to their organization.

Furthermore, grain drying is not the only benefit members get from the flatbed dryer. They also get organic fertilizer from it through the technology taught by PhilRice. They partially burn the rice hull in the bio-mass fed furnace of the dryer to convert it into carbonized rice hull (CRH), the major component of their organic fertilizer.

Lately, the flatbed dryer in PDCI became a permanent property of the cooperative through a deed of donation given by BPRE.


Nothing succeeds like success


Today, the success of Pecuaria Development Cooperative Inc. in organic farming is beyond their dreams of having their own land and having their own flatbed dryer. The success of PDCI is brought about by the strong will power of each member to have self-reliant cooperative supplying organic rice to Filipinos nationwide. The success of PDCI is also the success of different organizations and government agencies that helped them in one way or another. Truly, nothing succeeds like success!