It Is Rare that you will find an Ecotourism Park and a huge piggery together in a farm resort complex. That’s because most people think that the usual foul smell of a piggery is not compatible with a resort which visitors on leisure trips patronize every day.
But both are found in the Dioko Farm Resort complex in Brgy. San Joaquin in San Pablo City, Laguna.
First, let us focus on the Ecotourism Park. If you visit the place, you will appreciate the many bright ideas that you can pick up from it. The owner, who loves to tell you that he is a high school dropout, has come up with a concept that he hopes will encourage young people to get into agriculture as an honest-to goodness business and livelihood.
The owner is 59-year-old Celso Dioko, who worked for about ten years in Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Japan. When he returned in 1990, he went into the hardware business and eventually into the construction business. Up to this day, he is very active in the big construction jobs like the manufacturing plants of a major soft drink company. In the meantime, he entered public service and is now the vice mayor of Muntinlupa.
The Ecotourism Park is where Celso’s bright farming ideas are found and which most farm aficionados would be most interested in. Perhaps, those planning to get into the agritourism business could learn a lot from the Dioko Ecotourism Park. Virgilio, Celso’s brother is the resident manager.
As you enter the park, you will come across the Bahay Kubo. Of course, this is not the ordinary bahay kubo that you and I are familiar with. It is quite big and made of wood, steel, and concrete. What is remarkable is that all the vegetables mentioned in the “Bahay Kubo song” are growing very well around it. It is very educational for both kids and adults. For instance, linga or sesame that is rarely grown in local farms can be found there, heavily fruiting. So are batao, patani, singkamas, and all the others mentioned in the song. In addition, you will also see lemon grass and citronella and other crops.
This story is from the July 2017 edition of Agriculture.
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This story is from the July 2017 edition of Agriculture.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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