Water is also scarce. All the rest of Abilay Sur depends on artesian wells. The village is not even reached by the water pipe of the Iloilo Water District. The only source, aside from the artesian wells, is rain.
He’s not on a drinking binge. Nepthalie Betito is just trying to show how he makes his own organic fertilizer where beer is an ingredient. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel)
So, Betito thought of a way for his family to survive.
With enough rainwater to irrigate his two-hectare land, Betito devoted it to vegetables and rice. With enough water to use, he is assured of a weekly income from the vegetable plants for the summer.
He has a plot planted with alogbate, another plot planted with eggplant, siling labuyo, ampalaya and okra. He and his wife only had to haul buckets of water from the cistern every other day to water these plants.
Now he earns at least a thousand per week from the vegetable garden. They also augment their food for consumption with the African Hito that they also grow in these cisterns
But on top of this, he also applied what he learned from the Department of Agriculture (DA) seminar on how to create organic fertilizers and pesticides.
A dried up irrigation canal of Sta. Monica in Oton municipality, Iloilo. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel)
From garlic, crude sugar, and beer, Betito can make his own organic pesticide. Several other concoctions he learned from the DA he is using now for his garden.
Among them is the Oriental Herbal Nutrient, a concoction of ginger and fermented juice of banana, stalks, bamboo shoots and crude sugar.
Benito even makes use of leftover rice! By mixing it with a kilogram of sugar, cooked rice, Betito comes up with a home-made fertilizer.
As a result of these practices, Betito’s place looks like an oasis in a desert-of-a-village in Oton.
Unfortunately, not too many farmers in Oton knew what the Betitos and the Mansili’s practice.
To popularize it, the local government will give awards to the practices of farmers like Betito and Mansili during the Katagman Festival in May. (Cheryll D. Fiel, davaotoday.com)
A dried up irrigation canal of Sta. Monica in Oton municipality, Iloilo. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel)
Harsh land. This is how the ricefield looks like during summer in Sta. Monica, Oton, Iloilo. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel)
