During the day, the farm managed by a cooperative in sitio Pandayan, Balete, Batangas, is, literally and figuratively, a beehive of activity.
Thousands are hard at work, with each and every one busy performing the task assigned by the female boss. In fact, a visitor will find it hard to talk to anybody here, except perhaps the caretaker of this busy bee farm.
The story of how the Honey Bee Producers Cooperative came into being and developed into one of the few producers of ‘native’ honey around is pretty much like the story of how a colony of bees is formed.
Individuals making a living on their own from harvesting honey from the wild suddenly woke up one day to the realization that it would be more beneficial for them to form a cooperative. “ It wasn’t exactly a sudden decision,” says Bernardita Linatoc, chair of the cooperative. The idea was really introduced by a development worker from the Department of Agrarian Reform assisting residents of Sitio Pandyan, most of whom are agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
Since its inception in1994, the cooperative has obtained loans from various institutions- the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Agriculture, and the Landbank of the Philippines in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry.
“ Those were just small amounts, which we easily paid off,” adds Linatoc. Encouraged by the success of their honey-making business, the cooperative decided to enter the big league. “We felt we were ready for a bigger loan, so we looked for an institution that could help us increase our dream production capacity.” It was also through the DAR that the cooperative touched base with the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center .
The application for a P1.15 million-loan was approved by the TLRC’s Strategic Technology and Livelihood Development Group. But this was only after the group thoroughly checked on the cooperative’s credit record and capability to pay based on the project’s viability.
“ It was not just the monetary aspect. We were also aware of the potential impact that the project would have on the community and even the industry,” said Group Manager Luis Guanio. Honey Bee Producers Cooperative is one of only two or three producers of ‘native’ honey in the country today.
“ It is native in the sense that the bees that produce the honey are really endemic to the place,” said Jovito Catapang a Board Director of the cooperative. The cooperative breeds the “laywan” ( Apis Cerana), A specie only found in the Philippines . (There are others abroad but not exactly the same.)
Other local honey producers, though they claim to be also “native,” actually breed the Apis Mellifera, an imported specie.
The idea of establishing a bee farm was introduced by a foreigner. But his venture failed primarily because the mellifera variety, which is more prone to diseases and is less robust than cerana.
A resident though of doing the same thing, but instead used the cerana, which abounded in the locality because of its lush vegetation. The experiment yielded positive results. In fact, the person who first tested the idea became the one of the core members of the cooperative.
“ Just like the bees, we are ready to depend our cooperative. Maybe not by dying, but by living a life of hard work, patience and prayer,”
Just when they thought everything was doing well, Mother nature stepped in. “ Two years of mostly rainy weather were really bad for the bees,” remembers Catapang. As a result many of them drowned and hundred of colonies perished.
If it had not been for the bad weather, the bee farm would have had 1,000 full fledged colonies producing at least 1,000 kilos of honey every month. At 150 per kilo, the cooperative should have been making between P70,000 to 80,000, less the production cost. This would have been enabled the coop to pay off the debt in full.
“ Fortunately, the TLRC understand our predicament and is not as strict when it comes to collection,” says Marissa Galario, Manager of the cooperative.” Still we have an obligation to fulfill, and we will not back out of this.
Experiments are ongoing to increase the quality of honey that the bee farm produces. If the quality is raised, the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, Laguna already has a ready market for the honey. Eventually, it may have to come head-on with the problem of meeting the production quota.
While waiting for the results of the experiments, the cooperative is also hard at work. Selling all the products that can be derived from the bees’ work- not only honey but also pollen, wax, soap, honey wine and surprisingly, even vinegar.
“ There’s hope as long as all of us stick together and work hard to survive. What’s at stake here is not just the survival of the cooperative, but also of our community and the future of our children,” says Galario, In the bee colony, there are the ‘soldiers’ who are ready to sting anyone perceived to be a threat to the colony. The soldiers do that despite the knowledge that they will die afterwards. (Bees die after they lose their sting.) “ Just like the bees, we are ready to depend our cooperative. Maybe not by dying, but by living a life of hard work, patience and prayer,” says Galario. “ After all, saving our community and our future is worth all the individual sacrifices we make.”
