The Agri Mentor Me Program was initiated in 2017 by Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion with Arsenio “Toto” Barcelona, president of Harbest Agribusiness. Toto invited farmer friends to serve as mentors to new farmers. How ironic that farmers feed us but at times cannot even feed themselves. The farmer’s average age is now more than 60 years old, and their children don’t want to do farming anymore. So, who will feed us?

The Go Negosyo Agri mentors is a very active group. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Michael “Mike” Caballes, then Allied Botanical president, after a Vietnam visit reported that Vietnam is so much more productive in agriculture than us. That got all of us MAD — mad to “make a difference.”

Fast forward to last month, Go Negosyo Agri coordinator Abby Famadico organized a field trip to Bukid Amara, Mike’s new “baby” located in Lucban, Quezon. I went together with my “roommate” Atty. Ed, Baby Atanacio of Terra Verde, and Basil Bolinao, president of the Vanilla Industry Development Association. There we had a “reunion” with other Agri mentors: former Agriculture Secretary William Dar, now the senior adviser to “Kapatid Angat Lahat” (KALAP) as head of the agriculture program, Glen and Magel Villaroman, Alex Pasia, and Josephine Costales with son Reden, among others. Former Secretary Dar updated us on KALAP, its plans and the importance of agriculture in our economy. The issue of organic and non-organic also came up and a healthy discussion followed among the participants.

Bukid Amara is so picturesque, located in a valley surrounded by mountains with a man-made lake. It’s like a countryside idyllic Amorsolo painting, even more vibrant and colorful with so many lovely flowers in bloom. What’s amazing is Mike’s smart melon farming automated technology, the first in the Philippines, in coordination with the Department of Science and Technology.  I thought I was visiting another country using advanced technology as the watermelons were all uniform in size, in the same level, hanging from the vine in a greenhouse. The irrigation and plant nutrition are done using an automated dosing system that can be controlled remotely via the cloud. Climate sensors are installed, with climate data recorded and correlated to the growth rate of the crop.

What’s remarkable is that this dosing system was done by Alvin Valdez, Mike’s very own Go Negosyo mentee. Alvin is a computer engineering graduate from the Batangas State University. During the pandemic, Alvin helped his father in their farm, which opened his eyes to the challenges of farming, such as relying mainly on manual labor. He saw the need to support the community with his inventions that would revolutionize farming. Commendable, too, is Mike’s support to give a break to young inventors like Alvin. Atty. Ed had to ask Mike, “can we clone you?”

Another active member of the Agri group is Cherrie Atillano, UN Nutrition ambassador and AGREA Philippines CEO.  AGREA, focusing on sustainable agriculture recently teamed up with SODEXO On-site Services Philippines, a leading integrated facilities food company to uplift the livelihoods of local farmers by purchasing their produce directly. Sodexo is led by managing director Paul Depabrateem. Together, they created the Nourishing Workforce Sustainably- Sourced from Well-Nourished Farmers. Their plan is to purchase fresh produce of farmers all over the Philippines and supply these to commissaries preparing 50,000 healthy meals (designed by licensed nutritionists) daily for workers from BPOs, manufacturing and other service industries.

This initiative will hopefully also address the severe malnutrition issue affecting child stunting that can affect multiple generations, quality of life and economic development. It is so critical an issue that the Management Association of the Philippines, through President Dick Du-Baladad, urged the government to declare severe malnutrition to be in the national agenda as it has the effect of negating whatever demographic sweet spot advantage the Philippines has.   

Mike and Cherrie are two of the models of the Go Negosyo Agri mentors. There are many others who are “MAD”: Bernie Arellano, Ginggay Hontiveros-Malvar, Andry and Joji Lim, Mat Maderazo, Ed Canuto, Chit Juan, Sandy Montano, amd Eddie Guillen, among others. Thank you to Big Brother Joey and Toto for initiating the Agri mentors towards a better tomorrow.

Flor G. Tarriela was former chairman of Philippine National Bank. Former undersecretary of Finance and the first Filipina vice-president of Citibank N.A. She is PNB board advisor, Nickel Asia’s lead independent director, director of LT Group and FINEX. A gardener and an environmentalist, she founded Flor’s Garden in Antipolo.