Waterlily Handicrafts Website

INTRODUCTION

The advantage of this study is that the target users will easily view the products and its prices and will have enough knowledge to the business and its operation. The target market for water lily handicrafts would be predominately the local market of wealthier Filipinos, overseas Filipino workers, expats and foreigners. The local government unit of Paniqui plans to engage on supplying water lily handicrafts for wholesale to a number of domestic distributors and retail networks.

The aim of water lily boxes, baskets, and handbags will primarily be environment conscious consumers who do not use plastic bags or plastic containers. These consumers and other unaware consumers will be targeted through direct marketing and direct and indirect advertising campaigns backed up by the local government unit of Paniqui, the Provincial Government of Tarlac, and the Department of Trade and Industry.

There are three main market targets for the water lily handicrafts. The target for the water lily fashion items (mostly handbags, slippers, wallet, etc.) will be established domestic handicraft wholesalers and retailers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, as well as exporters for the United States, Japan, and European markets. It is anticipated that domestic sales to cater to the large tourism market all over the Philippine islands will make up the majority of water lily fashion itemsales.

The target market for water lily handicrafts (mostly lampshade, decorative household products, placemats, etc.) will initially be the Filipino community living abroad. This embodies a significant market, as there are many Filipinos working around the world-over 860,000 not mentioning Filipino immigrants, so the overall potential market size is large. The main potential competitors would be other communities all over the country who also started this water lily weaving project, as this is promoted by the Department of Trade and Industry to local government units with trouble with the pesky water plant. Another is handicrafts made of other indigenous materials. Water lily products could compete well on the basis of price with other indigenous materials as the raw materials are freely harvested.

The distinctive promotion about the water lily products is that they are well crafted by hand utilizing indigenous materials and the designs are decorative emphasizing the Filipino heritage. Also, the use of the product is very helpful to the environment as it substitutes the use of plastic materials and at the same time ceases the clogging of flow of water on rivers and creeks.

However, the selling price of the handicrafts is very reasonable. The handicrafts could also be made to order. The problem of the target users was they want to have an easy transaction to the Water lily Handicrafts , so we are developing a website entitled Water lily Handicrafts Website for them to use and to have a solution to their problem about all their needs to know about the business.

Project Context

The water lily project started as a livelihood program for the Paniqui women, out-of-school youths, and senior citizens organized by the Local Government Unit of Paniqui. Management is directed by the Municipal Mayor with the help of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office. A wide range of products like shoes, sandals, slippers, bags, baskets, wallets, pouches, belts, trays, placemats, boxes, tissue holders and many others can be crafted by Paniqui folks using stalks of dried water hyacinths. The Program is in coordination with the Provincial Government of Tarlac which also gives the needed promotional and advertising campaign with the national agency, the Department of Trade and Industry who assist the weavers for needed training and development.

It started from 12 housewives to 25 women and youths and then to 50 within a year. Handcrafting eventually became a constructive activity for people who were once dawdling outside their homes playing cards and getting drunk the every day. Some weavers take their work at home with the whole family joining the making of the water lily handicrafts. While others chooses to work at the Paniqui Livelihood Center were materials are readily available.

A household would earn roughly around three hundred pesos (Php 300) weekly during slack season and about six hundred pesos (Php 600) weekly during peak season. Before it became a livelihood program last August 2008, the conceptions for these water lilies are pests to the community as it hampers the flow of water in rivers and creeks during heavy rains causing flooding in the area. It is projected that by the fourth year of operation the total income for the workers from handcrafting activities could increase roughly 3 times by the year 2012.

Purpose and Description

The purpose of the study is to provide a website to the community of Paniqui, Tarlac for the Waterlily Handicrafts for them to easily promote and advertise their products.

Objectives
The aim of the study focuses on the development of the proposed Waterlily Handicrafts Website.
Some of the objectives are:

1. To help the citizens of the municipality of Paniqui, Tarlac to promote their products online. 2. To have an easy transactions to their customers through the website. 3. To save manpower when it comes to selling the products through the availability of the website.

Scope and Limitation

The system is an online business transaction of products. It is primarily indicated to the residences of the province of Tarlac. It is a user friendly system that is capable in making an easy transaction in order to provide good service to customers. The system is limited only for business transaction of the products. The delivery services are within only the area of Tarlac province. With regards to the purchasers of different provinces, products will be delivered by other national delivery services (eg..2 go). Further the system will only accept payments on cash basis.

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE/SYSTEMS
FOREIGN LITERATURE

Once considered a nuisance, the once lowly water lily is creating ripples in the agribusiness word because of its various economics possibilities.It is a free-floating perennial aquatic plant native to tropical South America. With broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves, it may rise above the surface of the water as much as one meter in height. The leaves are 10-20 centimeters across, and float above the water surface. It has long, spongy and bulbous stalks. The feathery, freely hanging roots are purple-black. An erect stalk supports a single spike of 8-15 conspicuously attractive flowers, mostly lavender to pink in color with six petals.

Experts call it water hyacinth but to most Filipinos it is known as “water lily.” Water hyacinth (scientific name: Eichorniacrassipes) is considered the most productive plant on earth as it yields more than 200 tons of dry matter per hectare per year under normal conditions. On water containing high concentrations of sewage, it yields up to 657 tons of dry matter per hectare.“The plant is far more productive than the crops that have been carefully cultivated by man under near-ideal conditions of fertilization, irrigation, and pest control,” wrote John Bunton in an article which appeared in Far Eastern Agriculture.Water hyacinth was introduced into many parts of the world, including the Philippines, as an ornamental garden pond plant due to its beauty.

But today, it is considered a pest as 10 plants could produce well over 650,000 offspring within eight months.In Laguna de Bay, for instance, water hyacinth is considered a nuisance. “These plants now cover some 20% of the lake’s surface area,” said Edgardo Manda, general manager of Laguna Lake Development Authority. He added that such proliferation threatens survival of aquatic species there since these plants block sunlight’s penetration into the water.That is just one of its ecological impacts. Water hyacinth also reduces biological diversity, impacts native’ submersed plants, alters immersed plant communities by pushing away and crushing them, and also alter animal communities by blocking access to the water and/or eliminating plants the animals depend on for shelter and nesting.

In Lake Victoria, African fishermen have noted that, in areas where there is much water hyacinth infestation, the water is still and warm and the fish disappear. They also complain that crocodiles and snakes have become more prevalent. The physical problems brought about by water hyacinth are now common knowledge. Water hyacinth mats clog waterways, making boating, fishing and almost all other water activities impossible. Many large hydropower schemes are suffering from the effects of water hyacinth. Currently, there are several popular control mechanisms for preventing the spread of or eradicating water hyacinth: biological, chemical and physical control. Each has its benefits and drawbacks.

Chemical control is the least favoured due to the unknown long-term effects on the environment and the communities with which it comes into contact. Physical control, using mechanical mowers, dredgers or manual extraction methods, is used widely but is costly and cannot deal with very large infestations. It is not suitable for large infestations and is generally regarded as a short-term solution. Biological control is the most widely favored long- term control method, being relatively easy to use, and arguably providing the only economic and sustainable control.

In some parts of the world, researches have been done to make water hyacinth into a profitable crop instead of a serious pest. In Bangladesh, the Mennonite Central Committee has been experimenting with paper production from water-hyacinth for some years. They have established two projects that make paper from water hyacinth stems. The water hyacinth fiber alone does not make a particularly good paper but when the fiber is blended with waste paper or jute the result is reportedly good.Similar small-scale cottage industry papermaking projects have been successful in a number of countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia, and India.Another application of water hyacinth is the production of rope.

The fiber from the stems of the water hyacinth plant can be used to make rope. The stalk from the plant is shredded lengthways to expose the fibers and then left to dry for several days. The rope making process is similar to that of jute rope. The finished rope is treated with chemicals to prevent it from rotting. In Bangladesh, the rope is used by a local furniture manufacturer who winds the rope around a cane frame to produce an elegant finished product.In China, it is common practice to mix water hyacinth in a pig swill containing a variety of other vegetable waste matter. The mix is boiled for hours until it is reduced to a mash. Coconut meal, fish meal and groundnut cake plus corn and rice bran, are often added to the mash.

Five percent of water hyacinth in the total diet of pigs leads to significantly weight gains. But feed containing 30% of more of hyacinth can reduce weight gain by over 90% . These tests show that water hyacinth as a feed for animals must be used with great care. Water hyacinth is also a good feed for fish. For instance, the Chinese grass carp is a fast growing fish which eats aquatic plants. It grows at a tremendous rate and reaches sizes of up to 32 kilograms. It is an edible fish with a tasty white meat. It will eat submerged or floating plants and also bank grasses. The fish can be used for weed control and will eat up to 1840% of its own body weight in a single day.

Other fish such as the tilapia, silver carp, and silver dollar fish are all aquatic and can be used to control aquatic weeds. Water hyacinth has also been used indirectly to feed fish. Dehydrated water hyacinth has been added to the diet of channel catfish fingerlings to increase their growth. It has also been noted that decay of water hyacinth after chemical control releases nutrients which promote the growth of phytoplankton with subsequent increases in fish yield. Another agricultural use of water hyacinth is by turning them into green manure or as compost.

As a green manure, it can be either ploughed into the ground or used as mulch. The plant is ideal for composting. After removing the plant from the water it can be left to dry for a few days before being mixed with ash, soil and some animal manure.In Sri Lanka, water hyacinth is mixed with organic municipal waste, ash and soil, composted and sold to local farmers and market gardeners. In Bangladesh, farmers have started producing fertilizer made from water hyacinth.

LOCAL LITERATURE

The Water Hyacinth Weaving Enterprise, which provides livelihood to over 200 families, was set up by the Villar Foundation and is given a boost during the day-long “Water Lily” Festival in July. The water hyacinths bear lily-like flowers, which has moved locals to call it water lily.To clear the Las Piñas River of this aquatic pest, residents harvest them and dry the stalks, which become the raw material for producing baskets, trays, slippers, and other functional and ornamental items.

The Festival features demonstrations on basket weaving, variety shows participated in by home-grown talents, trade fair featuring products made from water hyacinths as well as other products from the various barangay livelihood projects.In the Philippines, water hyacinth is dried and used to make baskets and matting for domestic use. The key to a good product is to ensure that the stalks are properly dried before being used. If the stalks still contain moisture then this can cause the product to rot quite quickly. Water hyacinth is also used to produce similar goods for the tourist industry.

Traditional basket making and weaving skills are used.The project is still very much at the idea stage and both a technical and a socio-economic study are planned to evaluate the prospects for such a project. Water hyacinth can also be used to aid the process of water purification either for drinking water or for liquid effluent from sewage systems. In a drinking water treatment plant, water hyacinths have been used as part of the pretreatment purification step. In sewage systems, the root structures of water hyacinth (and other aquatic plants) provide a suitable environment for aerobic bacteria to function. Aerobic bacteria feed on nutrients and produce inorganic compounds which in turn provide food for the plants.

Local Studies

Water lilies are known to thrive in bodies of water, growing up to a height of 40 inches. While they also provide useful organisms to underwater life, they multiply rather quickly and as such, clog waterways, block drainage systems, and cause floods. But these pesky water lilies, once seen as aquatic nuisances that would cause the Prinza River in Las Piñas to overflow now have an alternative use. Under the Livelihood Skills Program of the “Water Lily Weaving Project” of the Villar Foundation, water lilies are being made into handicrafts, launch livelihood projects and used as an effective tool to rehabilitate the very communities it they once adversely affected. Once harvested, the plants are dried under the sun and then cured in an oven.

Then they cut, and bent around a wire frame and dyed before they are woven into craft articles. The finished items are tissue holders, baskets, hampers, and other products. Each item is sold per piece and the amount of money one takes home depends on one’s diligence. Because output is directly rewarded, workers are motivated to be more productive. Cynthia Villar highlighted the importance of water lily in improving the lives of Las Piñas residents by declaring the 27th of July as the day of the Water Lily Festival.

Chapter 5
RECOMMENDATIONS
The researcher’s recommend that:

a. The other towns of Tarlac may adopt and use the proposed system in order for them to have an organize selling of their product. b. The province of Tarlac will have a centralized website to present different products of the different towns of Tarlac and to inform the other provinces/ cities in order for them to purchase. c. Further researchers/ feasibility studies will be done to improve the system to deliver a more efficient service to the purchasers. d. Card transactions will be acceptable in purchasing the waterlily handicraft products.

List of References
http://laspinascity.gov.ph/articles/9-water-lily-festival
http://www.villarfoundation.org/page?id=44&menu=4
http://lreed.smugmug.com/Nature/Peruvian-Amazon-Birds/15685586_jRQR2D/1186651147_2VxxR5q#!i=1186651147&k=2VxxR5q