The Making of "The People’s Farm”
By Dexter Villamin

I used to be working in pastry department of a 5-star hotel in Manila and my speedy promotion as Pastry Chef inspired me even more to take advantage of the opportunity to work abroad as an Executive Pastry Chef in Bangkok, Thailand.

I considered myself as someone who was at the right place at the right time as I eventually became a sales manager in a company whose business was about the importation of pastry related food products primarily agricultural products like meat and dairy. Such a varied experience probed to be the turning point in my career as I ventured into establishing my own food related business in Bangkok. As a natural consequence of my newfound profitable business endeavor, I had to visit countries in Europe where I attended various food exhibits and seminars on agricultural food products and the accurate sourcing of the same.

Indeed, it was a very fantastic career development in terms of profitability, broadened horizon and learning experience and in the midst of my early successes; it dawned upon me the realization of greater opportunity in agri-business since agriculture is the source of food production and is the key to food security. I realized the potential of agri-business in a country like the Philippines (where I came from) with vast natural resources and vegetation to sustain large scale and widespread livestock raising project for instance. I realized also the irony behind the fact that many Filipinos were trying hard to be able to work abroad when in reality, greater opportunities thrived in their naturally very rich native land.

Finally, I realized then that it was the right time to be at the right place once again and when that inherent sense of social responsibility and nationalistic fervor got the best of me, I decided to come home for good. I then began the propagation of agriculture based socio-economic endeavor initially by way of goat breeding and raising notwithstanding my meager financial resources for that purpose. With the common good foremost in my mind, I prepared myself for the expected greater challenge ahead as I strengthened my faith in the perfect guidance by the Divine Providence to get me through.


In the beginning, it was hybrid goat raising

It was actually during the last two (2) years of my stint as OFW (following my multinational exposure to seminars on livestock based food production and processing) when I began to seriously entertain the idea of livestock farming. Within that period, I underwent months of serious study and research about raising different kinds of farm animals.

Upon learning the intricacies of livestock raising, I began to plan a revolutionary approach in livestock farming which would include the widespread sharing of superior livestock genetics. This was in connection with my vision: an integrated effort in livestock raising among  stakeholders whose solidarity of purpose shall ensure sustainable and progressive mass reproduction of hybrid offspring. My objective was to upgrade the quality of our country’s native livestock and in the process, institute an innovative and profitable livestock farming never before experienced under the country’s agricultural setting. I then decided to begin with hybrid goat raising which I considered as easier to manage and more economical in terms of handling cost, feed cost and energy cost compared to swine raising.

But then, large scale goat raising would not be possible without the required many hectares of farmland for that purpose and incidentally, I did not have even a small farm of my own to begin with. It was just fortunate that I met and got acquainted with an owner of a 12-hectare unproductive farmland in Lian, Batangas. The farm owner, upon learning about my goat raising livelihood project and related socio-economic advocacy was so sympathetic that he agreed to have his farm be used according to my purpose under a long term lease agreement at a meager yearly cost.

Towards the end of 2014, I, together with a handful of helpers, began the preliminary preparation of the said farm in an effort to make it suitable for goat raising. I then bought two (2) native pregnant does from one of my neighbors in the farm and then imported three (3) Boer goats for cross breeding purposes. While such initiative maybe looked upon as a very humble beginning, it was on the other hand a symbolic foundation of an agriculture based socio-economic endeavor and I felt proud of it. I then registered this social entrepreneurship program of mine with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as DV Boer Farm.

There were many skeptics along the way and only few trusting relatives and connections participated in my early goat raising livelihood program. But instead of being discouraged during those trying times, I was forced to increase the level of my determination to accomplish my mission. Consequently, I saw myself through during those eight (8) months or so of painful “gestation” and then afterwards, the “birth” of the SEC registered DV Boer Farm Corporation which inspired me even more.
 

DV Boer Farm, The People’s Farm

The DV Boer Profitable Goat Raising Livelihood Program which was earlier launched and promoted in my official facebook accounts https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000181949536
and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009479965681 shortly went viral catching the attention of Filipino livestock farming and agri-business enthusiasts both here and abroad. My social media promotion of goat raising and later the cattle raising projects paved the way for more people to develop that spirit of agriculture based entrepreneurship. Those people learned the simplified yet profitable way of livestock raising even if they didn’t have their own farms. They only have to avail the services provided by the DV Boer’s own farm complete with its facilities, manpower and technical expertise to ensure successful livestock raising and breeding processes or the “Pa-iwi System”. This simplified way of large scale livestock raising coupled with its inherent socio-economic relevance served as motivating factors for many of those people to come forward and join the system.

The number of people’s participation to our “Pa-Iwi System” kept on increasing (following the series of seminars abroad aside from the occasionally scheduled on-line seminars or webinar). Hence, to accommodate the influx, DV Boer Farm had expanded by way of establishing satellite farms or sub-farms (we have two in Pangasinan, one in Sorsogon and more to be established nationwide in the very near future).

Undeniably in two years’ time, this "Pa-Iwi System", an innovative large scale livestock raising project had so far successfully motivated the participation of OFWs and people who considered themselves as agri-business stakeholders and therefore, its looming replications nationwide had become predictable. Hence, the vision of success kept lingering on me in more ways than one as I also saw: a vision of OFWs homecoming for good; a vision of Filipino workers not wanting to work abroad; a vision of massive employment for jobless people; a vision of agricultural and socio-economic growth; a vision of improved quality of livestock; and finally, a vision of people moved into action by their solidarity of purpose and happily enjoying the raising of livestock at the People’s Farm…then I thanked God!