When a farmer bee-lieves

Empowering local community in Agri-Tourism

|Ace B. Edejer and Patrick P. Espinosa

“Before pa man mauso ‘yong term na agri-tourism, he already designed the farm ni Dad para
maging functional talaga siya, at the same time napupuntahan siya ng tao,” said Jekamiah “Jake”
Mactal, one of the shareholders, Cerana Farms Inc.
Agri-tourism is the combination of ‘agriculture’ and ‘tourism’. Based to the Spire Research, the
Philippines has the potential to rise Agritourism and basically, it involves agriculturally-based
operations or activities that draw visitors to a farm.
The Philippines has a total of 32 agri-tourism sites including the Cerana Farms Incorporated
located at Barangay Belbel, Botolan, Zambales. It is a Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Certified
integrated farm by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
– Approved Manufacturing company.

The Sweet of Honeybee

“Higschool pa ako when it started, that was 2003. Sa coconut talaga siya nag-start and bee keeper
siya.It started with proving people wrong kasi sinasabi nila na coconut oil is the worst oil. They
prove people wrong (dad), so sila ‘yong mga original people who got involved with virgin coconut
oil,” the 30 year-old Mactal told how the farm started.
Cerena Farms was founded by Ricardo “Ric” Mactal, a farmer at heart and a mechanical engineer
by profession. In 2004, it produced Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) and sell VCO-based value added
products.
“The name Cerana came from the scientific name of native honey bee. Tribute to honeybees siya.
Cerana is an orchard farm, multi-cropping set –up. Without pollinators, which is the honey bees,
this farm will not be functional. Wala kaming fruits,” the young Mactal explained.
As to studies, bee pollination greatly affects the growth of the produce. Pinoy Bookeepers’ Forum
expressed that bees communicate on a regular basis and bees spend 80 percent of their day out and
about learning the landscape and finding new sources of pollen. Twenty percent of their day is
spent communicating to their hive and they communicate through scents and dances, telling bee
partners of their findings and discovering to be efficient in their work.

Fulfilling social responsibility

Cerana farms provides help-service to the residents and supports educational needs, especially to
indigenous people in community. Most of the workers who manufacture their products are Aetas.
Through its seminars and trainings, workers are empowered with the necessary knowledge and
skills.
Though it is not a typical farm, Cerana produces products out of raw material they have planted.
Also, they provide and encourage people that there are unique products from their innovation.

“Cerena Farm helps a lot in this school. Actually all students who are in top 10 gets a scholarship
from the farm”, Dr. Aaron Camus said, school head in Loob-Bunga, Belbel Elementary School.
Education is the fund for the future. The school as an institution of foundation would motivate
parents as well as their children in studying because of the school incentives receives from the
farm. “Even the sports utilities, sila ang sumasagot. They have a big contribution in terms of
school needs”, he added.
The Cerana in terms social responsibility really engaged in helping the community.

Cerena’s Produce
“Ordinary people can actually turn this idle piece of land to become functional,” Mactal said.
Things are not impossible as Cerena proved that Zambales soils can grow coffee “So to prove
them wrong, I studied a barista course. I studied everything from planting to harvesting. From
ground up to the management. But you can walk over around right now and you’ll see varieties of
coffee there,” he declared.
Aside from producing the first Zambales finest coffee, the farm houses kamote, roselle, coconut,
cashew, langka, ube, kamias, bignai, duhat and other crops.
“People are always welcome. Other people will think na we are keeping everything for ourselves
but we want to share it to everybody. We would like to teach them what we know,” he willingly
answered.

Agriculture and tourism are two sectors that elevate the country’s progress. Just like what the bees
commonly do, working in harmony is necessary for the achievement of development which is fair
to local community.