EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part of Dennis Tuskowski’s self-written story about their D’ Hydroponic Farm in Doña Helene, Basilisa, Dinagat Island. Here he mentions that aside from their hydroponic system they also grow flowers, trees, fish, poultry, livestock, sell processed products, and offer training courses for interested individuals. Through his story, we will also learn that the purpose of putting up a farm is not solely for their personal gain but also for the poor villagers to be uprooted from poverty by providing jobs and teaching the young on modern ways of farming.

“During the time we have been on our farm we have slowly been developing. Our goal was to make our farm self-sustaining so in case of calamity or something that would disrupt the food chain we could eat. As of this time we have about 100 producing coconut trees and about another 600 planted. We have some bananas, about 35 producing mango trees, between 6,000 to 7,000 pineapple plants, a few dragon fruits and lots of bamboos. In our hydroponics we grow: lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green mustard leaf, celery, azolla and different kinds of herbs. We are also experimenting with different crops like corn, rice, okra, eggplant, soybeans, just to mention a few. We also grow all the normal vegetables and flowers in our soil gardens. We are self -taught and learning on our own so I have taken it upon myself to try different plants, nutrients, and methods to study what works the best. We also have fish ponds both fresh and saltwater. We have 45 days of native chickens. We try to rotate about 150 broiler chickens by getting 50 at a time then every 2 to 3 weeks we get 50 more and so on. We have 1 cow and 1 pig that needs to be bred, we also have 2 geese, 2 turkeys, 8 bunny-rabbits with 7 babies, 10 guinea pigs, oh ya and 1 turtle. The reason for all of these is so that we can hopefully teach the small poor farmers different methods and get the younger generation interested back into farming through high tech farming. We are planning on doing a lot more training and seminars in the future. We want to give training on all the different types and aspects of farming. It would be great to become a one-stop learning site and farm school. I will go into more detail on the training in Our Dream Part 4. So, to all our followers and friends just remember to always follow your dreams and never give up. God bless you all.”

Q&A with Dennis Tuskowski

ATI: How many vegetables do you produce in a month or year?
Dennis: At this time we grow enough vegetables to supply our home, share with our workers, and Toniete takes and sells to the provincial building, municipal offices, and local people that they order from us.

ATI: What value-adding and other income-generating activities do you have on your farm?
Dennis: We do production where Toniete makes turmeric powder, turmeric tea and other kinds of teas, Chili Oil, Chili Sauce, Pineapple Juice, Pineapple Tidbits, Pineapple Marmalade, Coconut Juice, Lip Balm, Mint Malunggay Oil, and Citronella Candles.

We also do catering of foods for events here on the farm. We have sleeping rooms where we can house 30 people during seminars. We have a venue that can hold about 45 people for training.

We will be opening a Farm Store where we can display our products. We also want to get the local craftsmen involved and display their products for sale. We would also like them to do teaching of their crafts here in the farm. And we will sell some of the supplies for hydroponics that are not available anywhere in the Caraga area.

ATI: How many youths have you accepted as farm interns/OJTs?
Dennis: Agriculture is talking to us about that at this time but as of now we have not had any. We are also getting the paper works done to become a TESDA Farm School.

ATI: What trainings and extension activities do you offer in your farm?
Dennis: We have had various seminars here: Hydroponic Farming, Turmeric Processing, assistance for farmers with DTI, different training with the Agriculture Dept, and DOST.

ATI: Why did you become interested in hydroponics?
Dennis: I was interested in Hydroponics because the soil here is so bad with all the minerals and all the mining. In Hydroponics you use 80% to 90% less water than soil planting. We use NO herbicides or pesticides, less labor, very little problems with bugs or disease because most problems come from the soil. The plants get their nutrients straight to the roots. You get 20% to 30% more yield and 2 more harvests per year than soil farming. No hard laborers working the soil, no having to pull weeds because there are none. It takes very little space to grow enough food compared to conventional farming. What you can grow on 10 hectares of land in the soil you can grow the same amount in 1 hectare of hydroponics if you can afford the setup. Saves land and the forest.

ATI: What’s the downside of hydroponics?
Dennis: The initial investment can be an expense to start but we can teach people how to make a system for their home out of plastic bottles and other recyclables so there is virtually no cost. You have to oversee and check the system every day. Supplies are very hard to buy in this area because we are at this time the only Hydroponic Farm in the Caraga Region but we will be selling the main supplies here on the farm and they will be at a much lower cost than any that they can order on the internet.

ATI: What had been your farm’s contribution to the community?
Dennis: In the community we try to help where we can. Every Christmas we have a party for the poor kids from the area. We feed them a healthy meal, play games where they win prizes, and make sure all of them get a present from Santa before they go home. We usually have about 100+ kids. When we get 100% open and developed, we want to start a program for malnourished families. We have the highest % of them here in our area. We will teach them different types of farming, personal hygiene, and teamwork. They will help us with seedlings and planting and in return they will get a % of the harvest for their home. This will be an all free program to help better their lives. We also want to start getting the schools involved because we believe gardening should be taught in our schools by having a small garden for the students to take care of. We will also be having scholarships as funds allow. We supported many poor kids in the past by getting them back into school.

For inquiries, you may visit their Facebook page: D’ Hydroponic Farm Learning Site.