Outstanding farmer is a game changer

DEXTER MIAGUE prepares the seedbed for bulb onion seedlings in his farm at Brgy. Bagumbayan, Miagao, Iloilo. (OMA-Miagao Photo)

In life, one has to take risks sometimes to win the game.

An outstanding farmer awardee of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Dexter “Achong” Miague of Bagumbayan in Miagao, Iloilo took on the challenge to implement an innovation in bulb onion farming that no one has done before.

Miague, who is also a successful Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program borrower and bulb onion farmer, planted onions but not on a regular season.

“In farming, you have to test all the strategies so you would know in which you can produce more,” he said.

Miague said he scheduled his seed sowing activity on October 2, 2018 and targets to transplant them in November.

The farmer said he will brave the torrential rains and will not change his mind despite the possibility of the occurrence of typhoon in the last quarter of the year.

“If no one will implement this strategy in farming particularly for onions, no one will take risk,” he said.

According to the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMA) in Miagao, Miague made the bold statement and act as he wants to show profitability in innovative farming.

Miague established his bulb onion farm on January 4, 2018 and recorded on April 1, 2018 a net production of 5,200 kilos or 5.2 metric tons for his three cans with an average yield of 17.3 metric tons per hectare.

This year’s bulb onion venture of Miague increased the yield by 57.3 percent compared to last year.

He was awarded as the regional winner of the DA’s Gawad Saka as Outstanding Corn Farmer in 2017.

Gawad Saka is an annual activity of the DA which acknowledges our farmers, fisherfolk, and distinguished groups and individuals, who have excelled and made significant contributions in the development of agriculture and fishery sector in their regions and in the country.

Miague has also been a constant resource speaker for various training programs spearheaded by OMA and DA.

Recently, he represented bulb onion growers from Miagao during a consultative meeting with DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol at DA Central Office.

SOURCE: The Daily Guardian

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