Her name is Rosalina Malubay, one of the pineapple growers from Baranggay Mabilo II. Before, she was among the poorest family with primary source of income focuses on agriculture. But when she was awarded by the Agrarian Reform Program with a 2.2 hectares, things started to change.
She was encouraged to plant pineapples but she had no money to buy the plants and fertilizers. Hence, she decided to join the farmers’ cooperative as a member. With the help of the cooperative, she attended different trainings like pre – membership seminar, cash flow analyses, good agricultural farming and value chain of pineapple in collaboration with the Department of Agrarian Reform.
Therefore, she was able to access a cash loan to support her in farm activities. Wherein she was also provided with technical assistance by the agricultural technician of the cooperative including the weekly monitoring of her project.
She is now an accredited farmer in Good Agricultural Practices, a technical protocol and guidelines about pineapple production. After several months, her first pineapple plantation harvested a good size with total volume of 10,000 pieces amounting to sixty thousand pesos (Php 60,000). As additional income, the small fruits and the leaves were sold to cooperative for juice processing and fibre making. Thus, she was able pay her debt and generate her own capital. Now, she is a productive pineapple grower which improved her living.
