A terminal year end report of Silan Agrifarm

• Main Author: Silan, Sheila Elaine D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Silan Agrifarm (Philippines); Family farms > Philippines > Cavite; Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_dsi/1; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=etdm_dsi
• Institution: De La Salle University

Silan Agrifarm is a one-hectare land planted with Australian yellow dragonfruits intercropped with red lady papayas. Yellow Dragonfruits were chosen since they were not yet available in the country and the farm was the first to bring the yellow stems in the Philippines back in 2018. On the other hand, Red Lady Hybrid F1 Papayas distributed by Harbest Company were used as papaya variey since it is high – yielding, sweet, vigorous and tolerant from ring-spot virus. The farm uses a holistic approach through Nutrition Farming Technology which focuses on growing commodities through intertwining microorganisms, minerals, macronutrients, micronutrients, minerals and humus. Also, the farm can save a huge portion of its finances since the owners can create their own fertilizers. Silan Agrifarm is located in Indang, Cavite which is 16 kilometers away from Tagaytay City. In 2019, Australian dragonfruits and papayas were planted at the farm with a vision of being the first and largest farm to produce nutritional, natural, top-quality yellow dragonfruits in the country by 2024 while its mission is to support consumer’s health by growing and producing fruits and vegetables through high-quality and environmental-friendly production system as well as to generate enough profits for its stakeholders. The farm started to harvest fruits when the pandemic started in March 2020. COVID-19 was one of the major threats faced by the business but focusing on the objectives of the farm which were: to establish a strong market presence in CALABARZON, to delight customers by producing safe and naturally grown dragon fruits and papayas, to provide long-term livelihood for the local farming communities and to earn good financial returns to its owners; helped the farm went through events we never imagined we would experience and generate effective strategies. The major strategies of the farm were: 1.) Setting Priorities and Time Management, 2.) Create a Rent Schedule, 3.) Create a Customer Database and Maintain good relationships with them, 4.) Do not be afraid to upgrade and use machines and equipment, 5.) Hire additional employees when needed, 6.) Maintaining the quality of our produce, 7.) Use of Online Applications like Mobile Banking and ride-hailing apps, 8.) Producing through Natural farming methods, 9.) Branding the yellow dragonfruits as a special fruit, 10.) Harvest and deliver at the same day. Furthermore, the farm also took opportunities like selling online, use online banking, expand our product line, and join free webinars and online trainings. The pandemic also opened doors for the farm to help our countrymen most especially the frontliners. We had three (3) socially responsible activities in the past year. The First one was entitled Support Our Frontliners where we gave 1,240kg of papayas. The second one was the Distribution of Agricultural Products in Support to COVID-19 Pandemic through SciaCAT Project of Cavite State University where we gave 950kg of unripe papayas, and the third one was entitled, Food for the Cagayanos where we gave 700 kilograms of papayas for the people of Cagayan Province who were severely affected by Typhoon Ulysses. For the future, the farm would like to expand its land for more production of yellow dragonfruits and papayas. We are also looking forward to venturing into vegetable production, value adding, and becoming an agritourism site. In addition, Silan Agrifarm is planning to become an intergrated and zero-waste farm since it will is not costly to reduce and recycle wastes. All of these will soon be available and can be seen in our future website. It is one of the plans of the farm, to have our own website where the tourists can book their tours at the farm and buyers can directly order from our website.