A 28-year-old farmer has improved his father’s farm in Bacnotan, La Union by innovating duck meats and turning them into unique products.

Geneva Gañalon, daughter of a farmer who raises ducklings, thought of adding value to the farm’s products and concocted what is called “duck binagoongan”.

“My father started with ducks but what I saw was that he doesn’t have processed products made of ducks. So, the ducks are the only ones that people see as pulutan (food paired with liquor or alcohol) and salty eggs,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday.

“Actually, the duck binagoongan is the only one here in the Philippines. The duck binagoongan we have is like a sauce for a dish or dipping sauce also or can be a viand by itself. It lasts for one year but we develop it through natural preservatives,” she said.

Gañalon, a Gawad Saka awardee, joined and won the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Young Farmers Challenge Program in 2022.

She started G’s Duckery in 2022 which later became an integrated farm and food processing center. The grants awarded to her were utilized for the farm’s improvement.

Gañalon said her farm grow ducks from ducklings using natural feeds including golden kuhol (snail), which is a pest in the farmlands that she buys from the farmers.

“So, we have a social enterprise which is our farmers here in our community, we buy their ducklings for our processing because our duck production is not enough for our processed products,” she said.

The farm’s products are showcased in trade fairs, available in select schools and at the Hive Pasalubong Center of Bacnotan, and can be ordered online through their Facebook page.

“Actually, for our production per month, it reaches 600 to 1,000 per bottle,” she said.

She also has plans to export the farm’s products.

Gañalon said other products they sell include pastries and “dinakdakan” (Ilocano delicacy traditionally made with grilled pork face and liver).

Her farm also produces honeybee, which they supply to the Pasalubong Centers, as she partnered with the Bacnotan Beekeper Agriculture Cooperative in the town.

“Through the help of our government and our local government unit here in Bacnotan, our industry grew fast because it’s new and the innovations are new,” she said. (PNA)