Mountain tramline to help Cebu farmers

IN the hinterland barangays of Tabunan, Cebu City  and Magsaysay in Balamban town, midwest Cebu, concrete  farm-to-market roads are scarce.

But  farmers can  soon transport  their vegetables and fruits in midair to waiting trucks below.

This is done through a tramline, an 850-meter  cable system that traverses the two barangays.

The system was built through a grant issued to the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Post Harvest Research Extension.

Cebu City Agriculturist Joey Bacalayon said the Tabunan tramline can transport 250 kilos of fruits and vegetables at a time.

With the tram, it would only take 10 minutes to bring fresh produce from sitio Capioan in barangay Magsaysay, Balamban to Tabunan in Cebu City.

Lucrecio Soon, head of the Tabunan Forest Warden Farmers Association , said the group looks forward to the tramline’s launching this month.

“This will be of great help to us because this will hasten the transport of harvest to the uplands especially when there is heavy rains,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Last Wednesday, three men, including Soon, boarded the tramline to check  its operation.

Without  the tramline, harvest from sitio Capioan and the neighboring Sunog II has to be   carried by  helpers to the Tabunan plaza  five kilometers away at P1 per kilo of harvest.

Hired hands have to go down a steep slope, cross a river and climb to the Tabunan plaza, where dump trucks and passenger jeepneys wait.

“When there is a rise in water level, crossing the river is very difficult,” Soon said.

Tabunan farmers going to  Capioan have to take the same route.

Vehicles loaded with fruits and vegetables from  Capioan then climb 10 kilometers of dirt road before reaching the Transcentral Highway.

Then  farmers are charged another P1 per kilo of harvest for loading on delivery trucks headed to Carbon market.

“Sometimes the  vegetables get damaged during the transfer,” said Soon.

The tramline system comes in monocable and bicable designs.

The monocable tramline uses a single-cable loop designed to carry loads spaced at a parallel interval while the bicable tramline uses a traction cable and track cable.

The bicable tramline is suited for long- distance transport and for areas with steep slopes.

A bicable will be  used in Tabunan, a  P1.3-million system built by the national government.

Another 730-meter bicable tramline was also built in barangay Sudlon 1 in Cebu City.

The tramline projects in Tabunan and Sudlon 1 had a P3.7-million budget

The Tabunan tramline was built on a property owned by Soon’s wife, Leonilla.

One end of its cable system is in barangay Tabunan while the other end is in sitio Capioan in barangay Magsaysay in Balamban town.

The main station is in Tabunan. Fueled by crude oil, the  tramline has a brake, clutch, accelerator and panel board to control its movement.

With this, trucks loaded with crops  travel seven kilometers to the Transcentral Highway,  reducing possible damage on its cargo.

Soon said San Narciso Builders, a Consolacion-based contractor, won the bidding for the tramline project. They started work  on August 2010 and finished in  eight months.

Soon joined other workers in the project.

“Based on what I observed during the construction process, I could say that the project is safe and durable.  This may even be used to transport people when there is bad weather,” he said.With reports from Correspondent Edison delos Angeles