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S.M.N.I. Truth That Matters

... does not want to live the same life and so our farmers are getting older and older. What can be done there? Because you were saying that in a sense you need more information, you need to teach the farmers more techniques, incapacitate them in many ways...

... and yet what we're seeing is declining enrollment in agricultural colleges across the country. How do we make them interested again in agriculture?

I agree with you that it's becoming alarming that we only are about 57, 58 years old in terms of the average age of our farmers and by one or two decades from now we do not have a farmer...

Secretary Darcy, 12 years last year.

... to be able to produce our food. So we have in our chamber, just an example, we have this PICAPI, the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, PICAPI Next Gen.

Okay, the younger generation.

Our children, they group together, we group them together. They call themselves AgriPAP.

AgriPAP.

AgriPAP, that's what they call it.

That's interesting.

And what is interesting is that they have new ideas, brilliant ideas, and for them agriculture is sexy.

Okay.

We just need to download this and serve as an inspiration perhaps to others that there's money in agriculture.

And with the technology, with geotagging, using the satellite, finding out what kind of crops and what are the markets, how much is being produced so that you will know what is lacking, that is what you produce.

What I do as an experience as a farmer also is I go around my town.

That's in Nueva Ecija, right?

It's in Nueva Ecija, in Talavera. And if I don't... I'm trying to find out what is not being planted.

Okay.

So that is what I will plant.

Okay.

So I plant the chili, the sigang and so on.

And that means a lot of money.

Okay.

And just a simple strategy.

All right.

And if you have the technology, you have the drones and the satellite feed on the water being planted, where it is being planted and what is needed, where you put the irrigation, where there's water.

This can be done by the youth.

They are techie, you know?

Yeah.

And the market, especially the market.

They're very innovative, the kind of products they do, innovations they do in packaging and so on.

Right, right.

These are things that are sexy.

It's making a lot of money.

Can you talk about your farm?

Because I understand you have quite an impressive setup.

Carabao milk production, you know?

And dairy farming in the Philippines is one of those, correct me if I'm wrong, is the one that really needs development and investment, right?

But you've done it.

Well, I'm just one small fish in a big pond.

Okay.

And I chose Carabao because Buffalo, because all the other multinationals are selling cow.

Okay.

So they're playing basketball and playing football.

I see.

So apples and oranges, we're not competing.

You carve your own playing field.

It's a niche.

And there are other niches.

And you can produce more.

There's so many thousands of kinds of varieties you can produce with the milk.

There's several cheeses, ice cream and so on, confectionaries, cakes and everything.

It's coming from milk.

Yes.

So we are importing, last year we imported $1.6 billion of milk.

Wow.

We produced less than 1% of our milk requirement.

Wow.

And that's a niche.

And the competitive advantage of milk, if you have fresh versus reconstituted milk in Tetra Pak or something,

then you are at edge because some people, especially on our market segments,

they are buying the product not on the price but on the value they get from the product.

Right.

And I think that's one thing that we're trying to capitalize on.

We are not competing on the price.

Right.

We're competing on the quality and the value you get from the product.

Right.

There are other products that are very, very sensitive on pricing, especially the raw materials,

but not on some other products that what they look for is the value they get from that product.

Now, you know, that's an interesting area.

I went into livestock farming myself.

And one of the problems I encountered, and I was into dairy goats, right,

but breeder stocks were very difficult to source.

And the ones that are available were very expensive.

Do you have the same problems with caravans?

I know there's a livestock program with the Department of Agriculture,

but the problem there sometimes is the availability of the stock, right?

Well, dairy is a century business.

Okay.

Holland did it in 800 years.

Okay.

Australia, New Zealand, 350 years.

Wow, okay.

Even the United States, 300 years.

So we're still early.

We're not even 50 years.

Yeah.

Even in other agricultural products, in fruits, when you put berry trees, it takes a while.

There's a cycle.

Okay.

For a cow to be able to be producing milk from calf, you need about four to five years cycle.

Right.

You need to bring them out, and then you take care of them, impregnate them before they get milk.

Right.

You can impregnate them also two and a half to three and a half years.

Right.

And then they are pregnant for nine months or ten months.

For buffalo, it's ten months.

For cow, it's nine months.

And then it's about four or five years already.

Similarly with calamansi or any cow or whatever.

But dairy as a whole, it's a century business.

Right.

It cannot be done in 10 years or 20 years.

I've been here for 35 years in dairy, and I'm telling myself I'm just starting.

So you have to be patient.

I see.

And patience, that's where the last one standing will make it.

It's interesting.

When we were talking before, you said you made an impact also on the local pea situation

because you gave farmers some stock, and then you had some arrangement with them.

They give you back.

Can you talk about that and how you expanded?

Our family is in politics.

Some of our friends and leaders perhaps might be supportive of some insurgency,

fighting the government because of frustration, economic reasons,

that you have to explain to them.

Because if it is economic, why don't we just do business?

Why don't you milk a carabao?

I don't have carabao.

I'll give you one, and let's share on that.

And they are now rich.

We started about 15 farmers.

We now have more than 4,000 farmers.

We are now getting from about 18,000 cities in Nueva Ecija from our milk.

My strategy and my mission and the purpose of our existence is to help the farmers.

So therefore, my strategy is not to produce and be able to have more herd

so that when I produce milk, I will no longer be buying the milk of the farmer.

And that is defeating the purpose why we exist.

So I need to put it more or less in the break-even volume

and buy all the milk of the farmers because that is the very reason why we exist.

Because if I cannot buy the milk of the farmers, I will not be helping them.

And then perhaps giving them more training, and also the government is doing that.

The Philippine Carabao Center is doing a great thing, doing a great job.

Also the National Dairy Authority is doing a great job.

It improved the competency of the farmers in terms of dairying.

I'm not jealous of it. Why? There's no reason to quarrel.

If you are producing, the entire country is producing less than one liter, one percent.

There's no reason to quarrel.

You just have to put them all together and let's work together and not compete.

As I said, I do not like to be a big fish swimming in a small pond.

I want a small fish swimming in a big pond.

That's where I want to be.

My competitors are not them.

The competitors are the ones in the market.

So that's where we strategize.

How do we convince more Filipinos to think like you and go into farming?

You said your children probably grew up with the business,

so they have their own ideas as well how to move it forward.

But for those who have not had that background,

how do you convince them that, hey, this is a sexy, this is a field that you can make money in?

What do you tell them?

It starts from the childhood, from the youth.

You know, my grandchildren, I bring them to the farm.

I give them some bags, and then I tell them, these are tomatoes.

Okay, all of you, pick up the tomatoes, and the most tomatoes you get, you get a prize.

And some of them, they are milking my cows, and they're good milkers.

They're, what, five years old, six years old?

Right.

It's just games for them.

Yes.

And when you hear them telling stories to their teachers in Ateneo,

wow, and can you imagine a third year, a grade three or grade two child telling your teacher,

this is how you milk a cow?

What will the teacher do?

When I was in school, and a long time ago, right,

I remember that we had the program where we had to plant, I think, eggplants was what we plant.

But I'm not sure, I don't think that's being done anymore, or done less.

Should that be brought back to the K-12 curriculum, you think?

That is my advocacy.

Okay.

We need to teach the children, we eat food not for the sake of eating.

Right.

We eat food for nutrition.

Right.

So it is not only rice that is nutritious.

Right.

There are other food.

Right.

As a matter of fact, rice is diabetic.

Anyway, at the younger age, they should know how to produce food.

Right.

At the younger age, and know what are the foods they are producing.

Right.

And before, as you said, in public schools, they plant some vegetables.

Yes.

And so that's a good.

I went to private school, and we were doing it.

But I don't think it's disappeared somehow.

It depends on the parents.

I see.

I bought some pots, and plant some eggplant.

Okay.

We have palaya, and so on.

And I show my grandchildren about it.

When I'm planting it, the seedlings, I bring them.

This is how you plant it.

And then, about a few months after, oh, this is your eggplant.

You pick the fruit.

They will now realize that this is what you eat.

And then when we eat, they have the pinakbet.

This is what you plant.

Yes.

What you planted before.

So at the early stage, at the early age, it is the job of the parents to teach the children how to produce food.

Is that how you guys started?

You grew up seeing your parents, and then it caught on?

My parents are farmers.

I'm still a farmer.

I learned from when I was elementary, I'm already tilling the land.

I'm riding a tractor and flowing the land.

If not, my father will really hit you.

Every time, I studied in Manila, but when there is school break, we are there planting.

Early in the morning, about 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, we shovel manure of horses and mix it with poultry seeds.

And then mix it, and then we fertilize our tomatoes.

We do not have irrigation then.

I have to carry water in a drum.

When I was young, we were feeding our chicken.

We have backyard piggery at elementary.

So what I learned now, it's in me now.

I know how rice can be grown, the strategy, but I do some strategy.

Vegetables, I plant onions, I plant tomatoes, I plant ampalaya, and sitaw.

I know all of these things.

Corn, and that's where the forage of my cows and carabaos are now.

Why carabaos?

I was a laughingstock about 30 years back.

I was a laughingstock in our area because they put up the farm in the middle of the rice field.

They said, I'm crazy.

Because they know only carabao to be used for land preparation.

They don't know about the wheat.

So when it grew, it brought some calves and so on.

10 carabaos, it goes to 30.

Then people are going around, can we do and join you?

So I put up a Talavera Dairy Cooperative.

How many do you have now?

We have about 300.

But only those that are milking is in my farm, in the nuclear farm.

We have a nuclear farm, and we have a dairy network around it.

And the one that's growing, there's an outsourcing.

We are doing outsourcing already.

Very, very interesting.

Mr. Faso, thank you for your time.

I feel like we've only scratched the surface.

So many things to get into.

But before we go, maybe you'd like to leave our guests with a message?

Well, I would like to invite our fellow Filipinos to let us patronize local.

It might be a little expensive, but it comes a long way when you buy local produce.

It goes down to the backward linkage where it came from.

And it helps our country.

It helps the income of these farmers, of these people, increases.

And it will buy more.

It can create demand.

And it might be some of the things that you're doing business, clothing, textile, or whatever, or any luxuries.

They can afford this already because you have given them a chance to make money.

And it always is important that we have food in our body.

You do not plant.

Nobody produces the food.

Nobody plants, nobody eats.

Nobody plants, nobody eats.

And you don't eat, you die.

So food security is national security.

If government is looking at it, I am happy that the DBM made an announcement today that is still maintaining agriculture now as a priority.

Before, it's not a priority.

Now it's a priority.

Because now they know when the COVID hit, that food is important.

Food is important.

There is a geopolitical activity in the Asia Pacific region.

We do not know what will happen.

There's a climate change that's going on.

We need to have our own food autonomy.

Not only sufficiency, but security.

Because, as I said, you might be sufficient if it is not accessible and affordable, then it's not secured.

We need to make sure that it is affordable to all the people.

And the government has to come in.

The food stamp is welcome.

Food stamp is welcome.

So, again, please buy Filipino.

Thank you, Mr. Fausto.

Very well said.

And I think we'll have to invite you back because there's so much more to discuss.

But for now, sir, thank you very much.

I'd like to thank our viewers also for watching this program.

Thank you for those watching the replay.

And of course, thank you to Pastor Poloque Buloy for making this program possible.

This has been Business and Politics.

I'm Dante Klingkang, and I will see you next week.

Sir, malamit sa amin.

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