Haight’s Farm, a 7,400-foot elevation farmland plateau in Paoay, Atok, Benguet, is taking innovative steps to combat the devastating effects of the ongoing El Niño phenomenon on the local crop agriculture industry. Situated near the treacherous Halsema National Highway, this historical farm and birthplace of modern highland farming techniques has witnessed losses exceeding PHP 1 billion due to the drought.
Edward Haight, President of E. Haight Farm Trading and Chief Advisor at an Agtech startup, expressed grave concerns about the future of Filipino farmers and farmworkers. “The trajectory for our local farmers is not improving, and we are losing hope in finding better policies or laws that prioritize their welfare over traders,” he stated. “Government assistance will remain a dream if the process is too challenging for small farmers to understand.”
In response, Alexander Miguel Mercado, the Project Lead of an Agtech startup, is spearheading the Fog Catcher and Water Harvesting Project. This innovative initiative aims to involve private sector companies, startups, and enterprise corporations in strategic partnerships to address social and environmental problems at the grassroots level.
“This is the first and only project of its kind launched in the Philippines using engineering innovation with LEGO-like building process of Fog Catcher and user-centric construction feature within a five-hour team activity.” Mercado explained.
Building fog catchers as a team activity and providing verifiable decarbonization data for carbon neutrality will benefit private sectors in many ways. It turns typical CSR initiatives into a legacy, provides supporting data for Enterprise Companies’ ESG Reporting, and builds sustainable farming communities.
This Farmer-Impact Startup Entrepreneurs partnership represents more than just hope for the Philippine crop agriculture industry. It’s a community gathering of business leaders and executives recognizing and taking action for grassroots-level solutions that directly matter.
Ready to Get Involved?
Message from the Chief Sustainability Officer,
Kevin Martin dela Cruz
“The agriculture value chain needs to be continuously monitored, improved, and supported given its vital importance to any citizen. Food security, livelihood development, and environment preservation can all happen if skills and resources will be invested in sustaining this from the ground up. Attaining sustainability is not just measured through specific environment-related metrics, but also through the changes in the behaviors and processes in response to day-to-day challenges in the community. Given this, sustainability requires the close involvement and ownership of the people and related agencies to make it happen through knowledge exchange and strategic cooperation.”
