Tramline narrows farm-market gap

CROP FARMERS in two hinterland barangays in Cebu had to travel at least 10 kilometers of dirt road to reach the main road that connects Balamban town to Cebu City.

By the time they got to the Transcentral Highway, almost half of their produce have been damaged. Moreover, they must add P2 per kilo to the fare to transport their crops.

This may not be the case anymore.

An agricultural tramline system—a moving cable attached to a carrier—has been built to help farmers from Barangays Tabunan in Cebu City and Magsaysay in Balamban in moving their produce to sell to the city proper.

An 850-meter diesel-fed cable runs from Tabunan, the main station, to Sitio Capioan in Magsaysay, transporting at least 250 kilos of vegetables in a metal carrier per trip. It is controlled through a panel board.

P1.3-M grant

The tramline was built through a P1.3-million grant from the Bureau of Post Harvest Research Extension (BPHRE) of the Department of Agriculture, city agriculturist Joey Bacalayon says.

Construction started in August last year and was completed in April. Although several test runs have been conducted, the tramline has yet to be turned over to the City Agriculturist’s Office.

Bacalayon says the operation of the tramline would be handled by the barangay and the Tabunan Forest Warden Farmers Assocation (TFWFA).

“This will help us a lot because transporting our produce will be faster even during bad weather,” Lucrecio Soon, TFWFA head, says in Cebuano.

Hired movers

In the absence of a paved road from their village to the Transcentral Highway, farmers from Capioan and the neighboring Barangay Sunog II had to hire workers to carry their produce to the plaza in Tabunan about 5 kilometers away for a fee of P1 per kilo.

The task was not easy. The carriers must negotiate a steep slope, cross a river and make an uphill climb before they could get to the plaza and load the crops to jeepneys and trucks that would bring these to the highway.

Soon says truck and jeepney drivers would collect P1 per kilo to take the produce to Carbon, the city’s biggest public market.

With the tramline, the distance had been cut short from 10 km to 7 km. It will take only 10 minutes for the produce to reach Tabunan through Capioan. From Tabunan, the farm products are loaded to jeepneys bound for Carbon.

Damage to produce will be minimal.

Tabunan and Magsaysay farmers grow eggplant, tomato, string beans, beans, yam, ginger, banana, macopa, guyabano, avocado, sweet corn, coconuts and other crops.

More tramline systems

The harvests are brought to Carbon on Thursdays and Sundays.

Soon says the United Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative had earlier applied with the BPHRE for the tramline project grant, but it disbanded before its request was approved. The bureau allocated P3.7 million for tramline projects in Cebu City.

Soon then formed the TFWFA in January.

Another tramline was built using BPHRE grant in the mountain barangay of Sudlon in the city. It is 730 meters long.

According to Bacalayon, more tramline systems will be put up in Barangays Tag-bao, Taptap and Adlawon.