A Mountain Province farmowner's dedication to innovation

A year ago, I was given the opportunity to tour some farms in Benguet and Mountain Province with chefs and agripreneurs who were all looking for ways to shorten the line between farmer and customer, in this case, restaurants, as well as search for business opportunities that can lessen food waste.

- YVETTE TAN

One of the farms we visited was JLM Farms in Mountain Province, an organic farm that grows various produce for two prominent organic vegetable brands companies whose main clientele comes from Manila.

“JLM Farms stands for our name with my wife. J stands for Johnny, L for my wife Lolita, and M is for Marcos,” Johnny Marcos, the farm’s proprietor, said.

A key to JLM Farms’ success is Marcos’ willingness to innovate,

this can be seen by the large greenhouses that cover four hectares of his farm. He explained that he engaged in open field planting until he learned about greenhouse farming in 2020, which allowed him to diversify his crops. “We used to plant only two varieties: cabbage and potato,” he explained in Taglish.

A survey of surrounding farms will show that they, too, plant either cabbage or potatoes.