This single parent, entrepreneur, and diversified farmer specializing in stingless bees caught the eye of the organizers of the National Search for Outstanding Rural Women 2022 after winning the regional search in October.
Leizel Grajo, 39, tends to pineapples, red Panama passion fruits, coconuts, a fish pen, and hundreds of colonies of stingless bees in her family’s farm in Casiguran, a coastal town in Sorsogon, about 600 kilometers south of Manila. Grajo’s father, an agriculturist, acquired the land years decades ago. Known as The Colony, she also raises chickens and pigs, and grows flowers to sell to guests.About 70 percent of the income of The Colony’s bee farming is generated by bee colonies.
“We cannot congest all the colonies together in just one place,” she explained. “If they cram together in just one place, the food sources may run short to sustain them all.”“We regularly observe for any weak colony,” she said. “We look for a new place where food sources can adequately support and sustain them. Then, we pull them out and relocate them to that place.”“When the place is rich in resin, the colony is strong and can quickly seal their hive,” she said.
The Colony dehydrates the bee pollen to lengthen its shelf life. They sell bee pollen at P2,300 per kilo. It’s Grajo’s older brother, Leo, who introduced stingless bees in the farm in 2010. Leo got interested in stingless beekeeping after he saw it in Brazil. So, he bought feral colonies from locals, who collected them from the wilds.
Grajo started commercially bottling red Panama passion fruit juice only about last year, during the pandemic.Handicrafts, like women’s bags, are also displayed and sold at The Colony Café in their main farm.
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