Successful Oil palm lady farmer Ms Aids Bacus Embalzado BlancoBorn to a family of farmers and agri entrepreneurs, who says being a woman is a hindrance to become a successful farmer? Oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is a crop that is gaining popularity and is already grown by many farmers not only in Mindanao but also lately in Palawan. This is considered a very profitable and a high value crop with its vast uses in food products, cosmetics, medicines, etc.

One exceptional oil palm farmer, is a lady named RENFREDA “Aida” BACUS EMBALZADO BLANCO (married to PA Capt. Noel Janiola Blanco) of New Cebu, President Roxas, Cotabato. Amazingly, she’s the first oil palm lady farmer of North Cotabato. With the earnings she saved as an overseas Filipino worker (she’s now a Canadian and American citizen), she decided to invest in twenty (20) hectare oil palm production in 2000.

Largely influenced by her cousin, retired Professor and oil palm expert, Mr. Reynaldo S. Callano (of USM, Kabacan, Cot.), she also sought the help and technical expertise of AGUMIL Plantations Incorporated (Agusan). The company provided her with oil palm seedlings and technical experts where they assisted her in planting the twenty (20) hectare plantation. Distance used was 9.5m x 9.5m, triangular with a total of 2,560 trees for 20 hectares.

Because she’s a farmer at heart, she practically loves spending her whole day in the farm. In all her A view of Aids' 20 has. Oil palm farmfarming activities, like fertilizer application, pests and diseases control, weeding, etc. She personally and closely supervises her workers, and oftentimes she also joins them in these activities. She even climbs her oil palm trees to get rid of wild ferns growing in its trunks and explains that they also compete with nutrients with her trees. Her first harvest was directly sold to the company (Agumil), and she acknowledges with gratitude the very close supervision and monitoring of the company in all her undertakings. She noted her peak harvest on the sixth year and beams that the cost of production plus the cost of her farm were already returned/plowed back to her. She harvested 4 – 6 bunches per tree at 40 – 55 kgs per bunch (@ P8.20/kg).

In fact, with the very productive undertaking she experiences in oil palm production, she again planted her 15-hectare inherited farm in 2008,and another five (5) hectares at Barangay Sagcungan also in President Roxas, Cotabato. In this particular area, she basally applied five (5) kgs vermicompost per tree, fertilize every six (6) months and applied Seedgrow, which is a commercially produced nano-based technology biofertilizer which was suggested by a very good friend Engineer Glenn Castillo. She was amazed that her trees are so healthy, they started bearing fruits at eighteen months after planting, and she also noted there were fourteen(14) bunches in most of her trees.A view of her 15-has.2-year old Oil palm trees which bore fruit (most with 14 bunches) at 18 months from planting

A farming tip she shares, keep your area as clean as possible to ward- off breeding sites and places for rats, insects, etc.  To supplement her organic fertilizer consumption, she has also invested in vermiculture which currently supplies her fertilizer needs. One more farming tip she offers is the use of rhinoceros beetle trap. This very destructive pest destroys oil palm if not controlled. A trap composed of bagasso or sawdust is strategically placed and scattered in the farm. The beetles would find them and stay and lay their eggs in these traps. This traps will then be opened every fifteen days to gather the adults, eggs, and larvae and then burn them. This will limit, if not, wipe out the pests.

So far, she has not encountered problems in this venture, except that her trees were also affected by the long dry spell (el nino) that our country has experienced lately. Presently, she’s into farming interventions( like organic fertilizer application) for her trees’ fast recovery and she is very optimistic enough that very good harvests shall come again in the next few months. This empowered lady agri-entrepreneur is also an active member of the Board of North Cotabato Palm Oil Growers Association, member- Kidapawan City Agriculture and Fishery Council and the Philippine Palm Oil Development Council.

Besides being busy in her farm, she also shares her technology to other interested farmers on palm oil production. Just recently, she beams with pride because a widow townmate came back to her to say “Thank You” for encouraging her to venture into oil palm production, and said it was already the family’s source of income in sending her children to school. Asked of her future plans, she non-abashedly replied “more oil palm farm expansion!” Husband and wife team, together with a relative bestfriend Inday have already scouted a big area at Bukidnon where they hope to duplicate their success in this booming agricultural venture. True enough, with all her sacrifices and hardwork, there’s no sweetest feeling than savoring the taste of success. For inquiries: 09287506796.

Pictorials
Aids calls this rest-house as "payag"	Very healthy Oil palm plantation
Part of her 20 has. Oil palm plantation	Harvested Oil palm fruits ready for delivery