The musings of a wandergeselle about faith, literature, music, dancing, culture, food, travels, art, fashion, photography, life experiences, and everything in-between from journée to journée.
Hi, beloved readers! I’m going to share with you today a quick video I made featuring our farm and some of our developments there. Because life is not all about being broken or heartbroken. 😉 And whether heartbroken or not, I am always busy doing something, especially if it is for God and His kingdom. 🙏
I recommend watching this when you’re ready to sleep because my sleepy voice will lull you to sleep. 😅 I also would like to share with you an essential item that’s also part of my emergency preparedness checklist – a reliable dog tag where you can attach important keys and a whistle.
This dog tag is in my everyday bag, and I always wear it when I’m at the farm. But you may want to include this in your Bug Out Bag (BOB) just to make sure you won’t forget to bring it with you during an emergency.
Is there a camera phone out there that doesn’t have a default selfie filter where your irises are enlarged and your pupils are dilated?
Though I also suggest hiding this dog tag underneath your shirt because people might think you’re in the military (if you’re not), and it might cause you more harm than good, especially when “chaos” starts. A construction worker at the farm actually thought I was a police officer when he saw me wearing the dog tag.
He asked me, “Ma’am, pulis ka tabi kay an kulintas mo…?” (Ma’am, are you a police officer, because your necklace..?) I told him that no, I’m not a policewoman and that my dog tag was given to me by my brother (he’s the real military officer 😃).
Dad’s my contact person in case of emergencies.
If you plan on having one made for you and your family, I recommend purchasing military-grade dog tags because they are highly durable. You won’t have to worry about them breaking off easily. 👍
“Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.” – Genesis 2:15
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” – Deuteronomy 31:8
“Halimaw” or “beast” – that’s what our local farm workers would call the harvester. The harvester is just one of the agricultural mechanization upgrades built and designed to make palay harvesting time and cost-efficient.
The downside? Palay harvesting using a harvester simplified the harvesting process, thus, now only required a few farm workers. This means only one thing – we will only hire farm workers who will carry the sacks of palay from the rice fields to the side of the road. They are called here in our local dialect as “parasabak.”
The Process of Palay Harvesting
Before the harvester was invented, there were 3 stages in the palay harvesting process. The first stage is harvesting palay using a sickle, and this usually takes about an entire day. Then it is followed by threshing using a thresher that also takes about one day depending on the size of the rice field. And the last stage involves carrying the sacks of palay to the road.
For shipping and logistics, it will depend on the farmer if he owns a truck that will transport the sacks of palay to the rice dealer or rice miller. Palay producers operating on a macro scale usually own trucks as this will lessen the shipping fees.
But for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) like ours, we coordinate with the rice trader to transport the sacks of palay to their warehouse. There is actually a 4th stage in palay harvesting, which is drying the harvested palay and having them milled before selling the finished product, which is rice, to the market. The selling price of milled, dry rice is higher compared if the farmer sells the palay right after harvesting.
The disadvantage though of the 4th stage is that the unpredictable weather now makes it difficult for palay farmers to sun dry their palay. The profitability of palay relies on two factors – moisture content and yield percentage. The higher the moisture level, the lower the price of palay.
Other Farming “Beasts”
Other “beasts” in palay farming are the tractors, and just recently, the transplanter. My sister was able to talk to another rice farmer who is also a member of the farmers’ association that my Dad is currently a member of. She shared that a transplanter provided by the Department of Agriculture (DA) will be delivered soon and can already be used for the next cropping season. I’d like to commend the efforts of the DA, headed by President Bongbong Marcos, who’s currently the DA Secretary, for their continued efforts to help alleviate the challenges encountered by farmers in general.
The DA has an extensive set of initiatives to ramp up agricultural production, and I will highlight the importance of these initiatives, which will most likely change every year to adapt as we enter a climate emergency. The entrepreneurial mindset of farmers also needs to be tapped to increase their income from selling their agricultural produce. Connecting them to a wide range of markets through public-private partnerships will go a long way to ensure that not a single agricultural product will go to waste, and farmers will get their expected ROI.
So to answer the question is agricultural mechanization here for the better, my answer is “yes.” I guess, it will all depend on the generation of farmers. Because my Dad is a bit apprehensive about trying these new technological advances and innovations as far as agricultural mechanization is concerned.
Personally though, I am all out in trying all these farming innovations as part and in support of the Climate-Smart Agriculture advocacy. For as long as agricultural mechanization remains environment friendly and maintains low carbon emissions, then we maximize utilizing it.
All Hail To Women Farmers
I also noticed that there are now more and more women farmers venturing into agriculture, a popularly identified masculine industry. Now that I get to closely observe how palay production is being done, I must admit that men really do get the upper hand in the agricultural industry. Physical strength is the main component in accomplishing most of the farm tasks.
Dad’s Personal Assistant, that is, to rescue Dad in case he trips and falls. 😉
This is something that women, in general, do not have unless we’re Hidilyn Diaz. Agricultural mechanization is somehow the great equalizer in performing farm tasks without any gender bias. I actually want to try operating the harvester if it follows the same mechanism as an ATV. lol Transformers is my favorite movie of all time, so you guessed that right, I like machines.
And yes, my Dad’s a retired Civil Engineer and when I was still a toddler, he would bring me to his office when there was no babysitter. So, I get to snoop around them big trucks when he’s busy signing papers.
What I dislike though being in his office is that when I’m hungry, he would give me Skyflakes for snacks. Uhm, Dad, Skyflakes and toddlers don’t go really well together. But I do love Skyflakes now because they’re actually my “pantawid gutom” during exam days and “hell week” in college.
Why Invest in Agriculture
So, if you’re planning on investing in agriculture, I encourage you to start now even if it’s just a small parcel of land. Agricultural investments are feasible, and they’re a good source of passive income if you have the basic know-how, can hire a farm manager, or have been farming for a couple of years already. There is also a long waiting time between planting and harvesting seasons that will allow you to still have a professional job or side hustles so you can have other sources of income that will serve as your buffer funds.
We need agriculture because it is the only industry that produces food. Without food, it will basically be the end of humanity. This is the part where I’d like to thank and appreciate all of our farm workers who have been our loyal constants for the past decades from one generation to another.
It is my prayer that God will give me and my siblings the wisdom to provide them with more livelihood opportunities in the farming sector so they will also have a continuous source of income to provide for their families. God willing, project diversification might be the solution that we are looking for. And yet, not our will but His will be done always.
So yes, all the zebra stripes that my sister and I got because of the multiple tan lines we have are all worth it. Because if we want to go deeper and get to the core of all the farming issues and challenges that every farmer faces, it really requires that we go out there in the field, figuratively and literally, and get our shoes soiled.
Supporting Local Farming Communities
Another challenge with working in a very masculine industry is people management when the leadership is led by a female. I am observing their responses if they have the social stigma that women should only stay at home, or if they are just plain shy talking to women. 😀 But generally speaking, most of the locals here are good-natured people. Their lives are simple, and yet are rich in genuine connections bound by camaraderie, a true sense of belongingness within the community, and a deep attachment to their environment.
This is also the reason why my approach in managing our farm workers, especially the older ones, is to tell them about a task or a goal, then I ask them how we can accomplish it. I am not a micro manager so I don’t want to hover around our farm workers to see if they are doing the tasks right. I am actually surprised that they know more practical applications that actually work and provide good results.
With this data on hand, farm owners can now incorporate actual data gathered with farming innovations backed by research and conducted by scientists. I believe this is how we bridge the gap between conventional and modern practices – a necessary strategy utilizing this generation’s IoT (Internet of Things), which will in turn provide a more lasting, effective, and promising outcome.
Anyway, I’ll cut this short before it becomes a 100-page thesis. lol If you have any questions regarding palay farming, rice production, and the like, please don’t hesitate to write them down in the comment section below.
As always, “many are the plans of man, but it is the Lord’s purpose that will prevail” (Proverbs 19:21). Thus, let’s “commit our plans to the Lord, so He can direct our steps” (Proverbs 16:3). 🙏
P.S. Speaking of innovations, I am searching for portable and high-quality but affordable coconut graters that can be used at home. Bicolanos love using coconut milk when cooking vegetables and fish viands. Like this Bicolano fish dish called “Taguktok,” which is Dad’s favorite. I already modified it though because I used a different type of fish. We usually use “Buraw” stuffed with green chilis, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and ginger seasoned with salt, vinegar, and pepper. We have a lot of coconuts here at home since we’re also into copra production, but I just don’t know how to grate them manually. This doesn’t make me less of a Bicolana though, does it? 😉
I lack food presentation skills because I’m already tired cooking. lol
“Whoever has ears, let them hear.” – Matthew 11:15
For Dad, it’s the literal meaning. I’m so grateful that he’s finally agreed to wear hearing aids after decades of convincing. lol Ah yes, never underestimate the power of persistent persuasion.
Speaking of persuasion, I get to use it a lot in my line of work (advertising), and also here in my blog (in case you didn’t notice 😉). But objections are very much welcome – more diverse minds, more POVs.
I would’ve loved to accompany Dad today at the Bicol Ear & Hearing Center in Legazpi City along with my brother and 3rd sister. Unfortunately, Dad had a task for me at the farm. Because I’m a self-proclaimed farm girl daw. So, dapat panindigan. 😀
This is not your regular grass, but it’s wild. I chose it for foraging purposes, but not for human consumption. I know, it doesn’t make sense. lol But only for now. More deets in my succeeding articles.
I will be posting more often here since I’m reactivating all of my social media channels for upskilling purposes. And I hope to learn new ideas from the WP community. I’m lovin’ the new feature, btw. I can’t wait to answer the prompts for better community engagement. Great job, WP! 👍👍
Here’s something to beat the Monday blues:
Let’s dance to the beat, shall we? ❤
P. S. I can’t wait for Dad to try out his new hearing aids 2 weeks from now when we get them at the center. 🙏
We all have this picturesque dream of living on a farm someday – an escape from the chaos of the city. Yes, it is indeed a beautiful dream, but it can also be a nightmare if you are unprepared.
Farming is a calling. It is not for everybody, and it is not a walk in the park. It is also not just about growing crops, harvesting, and selling them. Or putting up a homestead as “bahay bakasyunan” and everything will go well.
To help you decide if a farm life will best suit your needs or not, here are some of the disadvantages of living on a farm based on my observations and the challenges we have encountered:
Security of the Area
I placed this as the top priority among the farm tasks. Now that inflation and global economic recession are likely to worsen in the coming years as experts predicted, anything on your farm is of value to anyone who does not have them. Trespassers and stealing will be a common challenge at the farm.
Just recently, may mga umakyat ng bakod namin dito sa main house in broad daylight to harvest our rambutan. To think na nasa poblacion ito at hindi sa bukid, we have 3 guard dogs pa, and andito lang din kami sa bahay. Pina-blotter namin sa barangay dahil may mga kapitbahay na nakakita sa kanila.
Sa bukid naman maraming constant na trespassers at paguwi ay may mga dalang ni-forage nila galing sa mga tanim sa loob ng farm. Nanakawan din ang farm house namin ng sink, mga pinto, etc. back when walang nakatira doon.
You might want to read articles re trespassing laws in the Philippines to get tips on what to do if ever you encounter a similar issue.
Barbed wire fences don’t offer much as deterrents, but are only useful as land markers to delineate boundaries. If you want to keep your farm secure, you have to invest in electric fences (quite expensive especially if you need to cover lots of ground area), CCTV cameras (lots of them), and other anti-theft devices.
Know the Surrounding Community
What type of community surrounds your property? If you plan on living at a farm after retirement, will your family move in there with you? Because if not, it might be too risky to live there alone or with just your spouse when both of you are senior citizens already.
Who else will you be living there with aside from your parents? Are your children willing to relocate and transfer homes, especially if they grew up in the city?
It’s best if you have neighbors whom you can call for help during emergencies. They are also the best persons to ask re the topography of the land especially if they lived there for quite some time already.
Assess the Area for Water Sources & Electricity Connections
A farm needs to have a reliable water source if the area is not yet covered by your local water provider. If the property is located near a river, make sure the river doesn’t dry up during the summer season. Also, is it near the main power lines? Kasi kung malayo pa, ang mahal mag-invest sa solar panels.
Determine Flood-Prone Areas
A river near your farm is a good water source, but rivers can also pose a serious threat during heavy rains and excessive flooding. You will incur more crop losses if the river near your farm is one of the major rivers in the area where all surface runoffs from the surrounding mountains converge.
Identify The Type of Soil
Identifying soil types is important if you plan to plant crops. Some soil types are not arable meaning you can’t plant anything. Also, if the farm is located on a mountain slope, it will be prone to landslides.
Accessibility to Farm-To-Market Roads
Ease of access to the town proper/city will lessen your transport expenses. The nearer your farm to a major thoroughfare, the better when transporting your products because you can save on fuel expenses.
If you need to cross how many streams and mountains to get to the farm, you will be cut off from civilization. In this case, seeking help during emergencies will be very difficult. If it’s also not accessible by any vehicle, all the more difficult when it comes to logistic planning.
Hiring Farmworkers
Hiring farmworkers to tend the farm so you don’t get overwhelmed by doing all the tasks yourself is an additional monthly expense. If you’re retired already, your pension might not be enough to hire a farmworker. On top of the regular upkeep and maintenance costs of the farm, you also need to consider expenses for your daily needs and maintenance medications.
Farm May Or May Not Earn A Decent Profit
Depending on the crops you choose to grow at your farm, you might not earn that much. Climate change and unpredictable weather patterns make it difficult for farmers to adjust and recover from any losses.
If you will have your farm rented out, there’s a high chance the property will be misused and after the lease contract ends, you might have more problems in terms of land degradation, nutrient loss, and biodiversity imbalance which will take years to restore. If you plan to convert it to a resort, the same concept will apply.
You might consider looking for an additional source of income later on. This will serve as your buffer in case of severe losses and damages to your crops during calamities. Your options will vary depending on your need. If you prefer a passive income, you might want to explore lease opportunities. Online selling looks like it will be a mainstay in the marketing strategies of different businesses.
Tedious (And Costly) Processing of Paperwork (Land Title, Property Tax, Land Survey, etc.)
There is no easy process in legalizing a property whether you inherited the land or bought it. Oftentimes you would need to go back and forth to different government offices in the province or city where your farm is located. Some paperwork may take months to be processed and for some, it may take years.
Image Copyright: Christine Lailani Ginete-Rome
Farming Requires Grit and Passion
To those who are interested to transition from the corporate world to the agriculture industry, the work environment will be very different. In a corporate setting, you will be working with air conditioning. At the farm, you will be exposed to the heat of the sun while working.
Being hands-on in the management of your farm also means supervising farm tasks daily. I am not in favor of micromanaging so looking for skilled workers who can perform the tasks well is a must.
If the heat of the sun is something you’re not comfortable with, then expect your comfort levels to decrease even more when bugs and mosquitoes start to pester you anywhere you are on the farm. There are also some farm tasks that you have to learn to do yourself, especially the basics. Farmers, in a nutshell, have tanned skin (with blisters from insect bites) and callused hands, even if you’re a woman. 😉
But if you are passionate about farming, these challenges will be your stepping stones to achieve your goal of living sustainably on a farm. Your own set of problem-solving skills will also be very different as well as your system in managing your team of farmworkers. They are skilled laborers, but most of them weren’t able to graduate from college. You do have an option to mechanize all your farming inputs to lessen the number of workers needed at the farm.
But personally, farm mechanization is my last resort. It is still our priority and goal to offer as many jobs as possible and help farmworkers and their families achieve a better life. If the new generation of farmworkers has stable jobs, then I believe that will be the only time we will shift to farm mechanization.
And then of course there’s another set of challenges when it comes to employee management, which I will no longer discuss here in detail.
Consider buying a farm if you have extra money you do not need and wouldn’t mind if the farm earns a profit or not. If this is your only investment fund like a retirement fund, you might be better off with another type of investment that will give you a fixed and consistent income. Again, acquiring and maintaining a farm requires a huge capital and might offer limited ROI to keep your farm sustainable in the long run.
“We can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” – Proverbs 19:21
A small portion of the 13-hectare property owned by my Mom and Aunt is allotted for coconut and copra production. My Dad no longer pursued the latter due to very low market prices. He decided to sell the coconuts instead as is right after harvesting.
ChallengesThat Farmers Go Through
The very strong typhoons that hit our province in the past years and the pandemic greatly affected the yield and the profit of coconut farmers. This made me ask the Lord what to do with any idle land that we have now. If we can’t use them for agricultural purposes, how else can we utilize them?
My siblings and I originally came up with a plan to use the farm to provide more livelihood projects in our local community. Given the situation now, however, farmers generate low income from their products due to travel restrictions. In other words, farming cannot be a reliable source of livelihood for the time being.
Seeking For God’s Guidance And Wisdom
I still can’t decipher what we can do, but I have a “tugging” that the livelihood projects will still push through in God’s perfect time. This goal can help thousands of residents from the metro who will be going to the provinces under the “Balik-Probinsya Program” of the government.
For one, they need land where they will build their homes. Second, they need to learn how to plant crops for their food while looking for livelihood opportunities. And last but not the least, sustainable projects are a must to make sure every family will experience that promise for a better life.
God’s Plans Are Better Than Our Plans
I was thinking maybe God intended our property for this purpose. What if God wanted to use our idle land to build a community, but guided by Biblical principles?
If this is a faith-based community, then first, there must be a church. Second, there must be a school that will teach all agricultural practices. Third, a mini-market for the residents’ daily needs can be set up and so on.
When my siblings and I were discussing these plans, our target is for the company to be a nonprofit organization. We never felt that God’s calling for us to utilize this property is to become millionaires. It is for the sole purpose of changing lives to a better one.
I can never be a millionaire by this world’s standards. I am not comfortable with the idea of hoarding wealth purely for self-enjoyment.
Imagine the cost of an original Louis Vuitton bag. With that amount, how many students from poor communities can you send to college on a scholarship? That $300 spent on a 30-gram bottle of caviar is enough to feed a family of 5 for 2 months.
A Christ-Centered Community As A Church
Imagine giving these families a chance to live life with meaning, purpose, and renewed hope. This is the very promise of Christianity, and sadly the false hope that is given by some politicians too.
Through Christ, the promise was already fulfilled. This will be the truest essence of being born again – a new life centered on God in a new community where they can experience God’s goodness and greatness.
Back to our end though, I know it is a very big responsibility. These may be our plans, and yet I know in the end God’s plans will prevail. And so, let His will be done always. 🙏
Still waiting for God’s instructions and His plans to unfold,
Hello, everyone! Nope, I haven’t forgotten at all to write anything here on WordPress. I just had a lot of things going on in the past weeks. God, however, never fails to remind me because though I was inactive for more than a month already, I still keep on getting blog “Follows” and post “Likes.”
Thank you, all, for dropping by my site and showing your love. May you be blessed as you read along and God’s revelations be known to you as well. ❤
From A Promise-Keeper To Another Promise-Keeper
I bet God’s reminder to me through all of you is His way of saying, “My child, don’t forget the promise you made back in 2013 when I saved you that you will make this online journal a testimony of your spiritual journey.” 😀
Yes, Lord. I haven’t forgotten at all. In fact, I now have 64 drafts. Some of them are half-finished while some drafts contain only one word to remind me about the theme of the story.
I originally came up with an editorial calendar to make publishing on a regular basis way easier. But, I guess that it is not how God really intended it to be since I write based on the Spirit’s leading, and it has always been this way ever since I started this blog.
Anyway, let me end the long intro here and start today’s topic, which is one of the reasons why I was hibernating here on WordPress – the family business in Bicol.
How the Rice Tarrification Law is Affecting the Rice Farmers Now
Several months passed since the bill was implemented, and Dad’s assumptions that it will negatively affect the rice farmers are right. When my brother, sis-in-law, and I went to our home province last September, a majority of the rice farmers all over the country are expressing their sentiments to abolish the law.
The cheaper imported rice may have been a solution to most rice consumers, but the local rice struggled to compete with it. This resulted in a lower buying price for the local rice – way too low that farmers no longer gain any profit considering the high expenses involved in rice farming from planting to harvesting.
Local farmers, in fact, had to borrow money in order to recover the losses incurred during this season’s harvests. My Dad plans to skip cropping seasons in the meantime that market prices for local rice are low.
The Rice Farming Business Through The Decades
Our rice farming business is an additional source of income, and our parents relied on it to support all our needs when we were in college.
My parents told us how their salaries as working professionals (grade school teacher and engineer) were not enough to support all our needs. Copra production is also another alternative source of income for my parents, however, the buying price of coconuts is also very low.
Both of my parents are retired now and receive a monthly pension. My siblings and I also have our own careers. But what concerns my parents more now is the situation of our palay farm workers who rely on the planting and harvesting seasons to earn an income.
My Dad told me that should we skip a couple of cropping seasons (that’s every 6 months per annum), our farm workers will have no other choice but to look for other means to earn an income. Most of them are skilled in rice farming only so looking for other types of jobs will be difficult for them.
Some of them will leave their families behind to come here to Manila and work as construction workers. My Dad fears that those who do not have this privilege, considering the expensive bus fares going to Manila, might end up joining the New People’s Army to get money to feed their families.
Support the Local Rice Farmers
The plight of rice farmers has created an uproar on social media. There were several collaborations and joint efforts done to support the local farmers such as what Session Groceries is doing. However, only the rice farmers located near and within Metro Manila will benefit from these collective efforts since a majority of the demand all over the country comes from the metro.
For those who are in far-flung provinces such as our rice farmers in Bicol, this isn’t an option. Because selling rice in Manila would mean costly trucking and handling fees. Our only option is to sell our palay to rice traders in the region.
As I type this, I can’t help but feel a little emotional. I have seen the difficult process of producing rice, the stress involved, the resources needed, the amount of money shelled out, and how some of our farm workers would ask my Dad for their salaries in advance to support their immediate needs.
They have been a part of our family for several generations now – yes, we already consider them as a family because they are the ones responsible for keeping our rice farming business running. We just finance the entire process, but they are the ones who do all the hard work, which is extremely difficult. Agricultural work is indeed and entails hard labor.
I see the RTL as a form of oppression to the entire local rice farming industry. If it will not be abolished and market prices for local rice don’t go back to normal, we have to start looking for better alternatives that have lasting solutions.
Just Wait Because God is Always on Time and Never Late
I have been asking God for answers as to why this has to happen. Why let Your people suffer? Why let those who are in the seat of power abuse those who are already disadvantaged? Why let the strong continue to oppress the weak?
And yet through those questions, God asked that I trust Him completely. He may not have revealed what His plans are and yet there is the assurance that He is working something good behind it all. He is always working even if we don’t see it.
Unfortunately, one of my personal struggles is being patient. I already learned a lesson on patience the hard way in terms of my career. It’s God’s calling I work from home. But since I am expecting positive results once I obey Him, I end up doing the other way around when my expectations aren’t met.
The last office job was God’s final warning for me. After just a couple of weeks working in an office setting, here came the health scare once again. I felt persistent pain in my chest, which prompted me to resign and go through several medical checkups.
Warnings To Heed
To some of you who don’t know yet, breast cancer was consistent in my family’s history starting from my great grandmother, grandmother, then to my Mom. They’re all cancer survivors.
God made me realize that the daily commute weakens my immune system faster. I believe God is telling me that He still has more for me to do and if I want to live a fulfilled life, I should obey His calling.
Aside from the health scare, the work-from-home setup also allows me to work anywhere. This means that if God calls me to be in my home province and help Dad manage our family business, I can go there anytime without disrupting my work schedule.
Setting Priorities Right
This isn’t as easy as it sounds though since the reason why I am still here in Manila is that hubby’s work is here, and he is still my first priority. Hubby doesn’t have any background in farming, and should we decide to live in Bicol for good, it will be a major change in his life. I think hubby isn’t ready for this shift yet.
And God knows that, too. So His answer was this, “Tin, wait. I am still not yet done working. You just have to wait.”
For someone like me who always do things according to the plan, impatience always gets the best of me. And yet, this is where God is teaching me the greatest lesson. Though I must admit I sometimes haggle my way through His plans by asking Him to give me even just some glimpses of what He intends to do.
God will reveal some of His plans and yet they are not always a clear picture. Because “His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” He can only show us portions of His bigger plans, bits and pieces of them, because that is only how far our human mind could comprehend.
I have realized later on that God’s wisdom is not meant to be grasped nor even understood. It is only to be received in faith that will show our complete trust in His power and His sovereignty above all things.
A Glimpse of Future Investments
I don’t have the wisdom of God to put the pieces of a puzzle together. And yet, in these pieces that God reveals along the way, I can make out one word – HOPE.
The Bicol International Airport was set to be completed by 2020; the Bicol Fish Port is half-finished; the construction of the SLEX 4, which will cut 3-4 hours of the travel time from Bicol to Manila and vice versa, has already started; and SM is starting to build several branches in key cities in the Bicol Region including the city closest to us, which is Sorsogon.
Our hometown may not experience this rapid growth in urbanization just yet. But when it happens, it will also increase commercialization in the province which will then boost local revenues.
This means better employment opportunities and a better quality of life for everyone. I am praying that those who live in the provinces will no longer have to go to Metro Manila and search for stable job opportunities. Besides, the metro will also reach its saturation point. Time will come when it will no longer be a conducive and habitable place to live in given the traffic, congestion, and pollution.
A Shift in the AgriBusiness Industry
Some farmers fear it will be the dawn of the agribusiness industry if most of the lands will be converted to real estate developments. We’re hoping that not all of the agricultural lands will be converted and utilized for commercial and residential projects. We will still have a need for farmlands to produce vegetables, other crops, and raise livestock and address the increasing demand in food supplies.
I wrote in my previous article, “Agribusiness: The Future of Today’s Economy,” that agribusinesses will have a high demand as long as the local government will patronize local products. In our region, God is just starting to establish the market.
So this must be the reason why He is asking me to wait. My siblings and I are initially planning on utilizing another portion of our farm for organic farming and other projects. Our goal is to help the local community and use the idle land according to how our grandparents wanted it to be utilized.
We proposed the idea to our parents but they are not really open to it since it’s a new venture, and they’re unfamiliar with the entire process. My grandparents have grown vegetables but only for their daily consumption. My parents don’t have enough knowledge and experience growing organic vegetables on a wider scale.
The Plan
Competition may be tough. But with the increase in commercial establishments, especially in the food industry such as local restaurants, there will be a high demand for a wide range of agricultural products.
Commercial establishments will start looking for local suppliers as this is cheaper compared if their suppliers will come from the North such as in Benguet where most of Metro Manila’s vegetables are coming from. But can you grow one type of vegetable only and be the supplier for an entire region? Yes, it is possible. One hectare can already provide you a truckload or more of produce. If you own a huge parcel of land, you have more options for growing different kinds of crops.
My parents said this will be difficult since there are certain crops that will only grow on a particular type of soil. If these are vegetables, especially the leafy ones, they don’t have deep root systems. They thrive on rich topsoil. Some of them can be grown in pots just like what I did here in our condo.
I came up with a plan to conduct a“pilot testing” for several vegetables by planting a couple of them in our backyard to see which ones will thrive and which ones won’t. The soil in our garden can be tested along with the soil taken from our farm to compare if they are the same or not.
The experiment will run for an entire cropping season. Determining the crop that is best suited to a particular type of soil will depend on the crop yield. If the crop produced a higher yield, then the percentage of it becoming a profitable venture is also high. It will also include all the expenses for organic fertilizers as well as the labor, and then I will compare it to the market price of the selected crop.
If It is God’s Will, He Will Make a Way
And yet these are all just plans, and these plans may change or may never be fulfilled depending on God’s will. Right now, it is about waiting on His perfect time and acting according to His instructions. I asked for God’s guidance that if my plans are indeed part of His plans, may He lead me to the right resources and the right people who can help me and my siblings in this endeavor.
As typical of God, He never fails when you ask, especially if you are doing the tasks according to His will and His plans. Here are the links I found. Yes, I know, they are quite a lot, but they are all a very good read. Who knows, maybe God will also give you the answers you’ve been waiting from Him through these articles. 🙂
While typing this article, I am also listening to my favorite playlist on Spotify, and it’s just timely that the song by Sinach was played twice. I believe this song is meant to be the perfect ending for this article focusing on this one thought – God will make a way for He is our Way Maker. ❤
I am posting two versions – the original version sung by Sinach in 2017 and the cover version sung by Leeland in 2019. 🙂
With all the skyscrapers being built all around us, we can also expect a higher demand in commodities within the metro. When there is a high demand but limited supply, we can then expect an increase in the prices of goods.
What we can ask ourselves at this point is why is it that there is a limited supply? When I go to the provinces, I see a lot of idle lands that are not being utilized. If we are going to utilize them for crop production, this will then increase the number of supply and there’s a possibility the prices of the commodities and goods will also decrease once they reach the city where the demand is high.
This is easier said than done though because there are a lot of factors that are preventing farmers from utilizing agricultural lands on a wider scale. These factors are what my siblings and I are currently addressing in our endeavor now.
Photo courtesy: Unsplash
Agribusiness Venture
My family’s engaged in palay and copra production for how many decades already, and yet there are a lot of things that we still don’t know about agriculture and farming.
So I searched through the web what I can learn about agribusiness and farming. I was able to dig out a lot of online resources, and I’m actually enrolled in these online courses now. One of them is DA’s e-learning portal and this is how it looks like:
This is what currently preoccupies me most of the time and probably the reason why God was firm in telling me I can’t have a full-time job at the moment. For a more comprehensive free online course, you can check this one out:
My family and I are currently in this season of gathering all the necessary information we need to make sure the project will push through. Our long-term goal is for the project to be sustainable enough and can be passed on from generation to generation.
It is the project’s mission to promote sustainable agriculture and support the local food movement. The following are the definitions lifted from Wikipedia:
Sustainable Agriculture
“Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways based on an understanding of ecosystem services, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment.
It has been defined as “an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term”, for example to satisfy human food and fiber needs, to enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends, to make the most efficient use of non-renewable and on-farm resources and integrate natural biological cycles and controls, to sustain the economic viability of farm operations, and to enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.[4]
Key Principles
There are several key principles associated with sustainability in agriculture[5]:
The incorporation of biological and ecological processes into agricultural and food production practices. For example, these processes could include nutrient cycling, soil regeneration, and nitrogen fixation.
Using decreased amounts of non-renewable and unsustainable inputs, particularly the ones that are environmentally harmful.
Using the expertise of farmers to both productively work the land as well as to promote the self-reliance and self-sufficiency of farmers.
Solving agricultural and natural resource problems through the cooperation and collaboration of people with different skills. The problems tackled include pest management and irrigation.”
Local Food Movement
“Local food (local food movement or locavore) is a movement of people who prefer to eat foods which are grown or farmed relatively close to the places of sale and preparation.
Local food movements aim to connect food producers and food consumers in the same geographic region, in order to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local economies; or to affect the health, environment, community, or society of a particular place.[1] The term has also been extended to include not only the geographic location of supplier and consumer but can also be “defined in terms of social and supply chain characteristics.”[2] For example, local food initiatives often promote sustainable and organic farming practices, although these are not explicitly related to the geographic proximity of producer and consumer.
Local food represents an alternative to the global food model, a model which often sees food traveling long distances before it reaches the consumer. A local food network involves relationships between food producers, distributors, retailers, and consumers in a particular place, where they work together to increase food security and ensure economic, ecological and social sustainability of a community.[3]”
Aside from conducting our own research, the season demands we also look for mentors. As they say, if you are looking for mentors, seek for thought leaders who have been in the industry for a long time. And thank God for giving us the right ones at exactly the right time.
My brother, sister-in-law, and I are attending a “Farm For Profit” seminar by Semilya sa Kinabuhi founder, Sir Dodong Cacanando, tomorrow. Then next Saturday, I am attending an online seminar entitled “Money Machines: How To Create Passive And Active Income At The Same Time” by Bro. Bo Sanchez.
Ah yes, all I can say is that God has been so faithful to us during this season. He has prepared everything we needed at this point and I know He’ll be with us all the way. 🙂
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” – 2 Corinthians 9:8
I believe, too, that this is not just a plan that He reserved for me and my family alone. This might be the start of collective efforts among the body of Christ (every one of us) in addressing some of the social issues that we’re currently facing such as the recent price increase in commodities.
In this regard, I would like to encourage everyone reading this to consider venturing into the agribusiness sector. And I hope that you will also be able to get a lot of ideas and insights from the opportunities and what I have learned, which I will be sharing in my future blog posts (including our future failures, if there will be any). 🙂
Always Learning
What is constant in every season is that God always provides us with new opportunities to learn all about this new endeavor. When I graduated from college back in 2008, I was able to get a job as a communications assistant for the deaf and mute. Through this job, I learned all about the struggles that persons with disabilities (PWDs) face every day.
It was such an eye opener for me. So when I resigned in 2010, I had a new goal – learn more about how I can help alleviate the challenges of PWDs and hopefully put up my own foundation in the future for special children who can’t afford expensive therapies.
I took a master’s degree in Special Education that focuses on catering to the needs of children with disabilities. This season introduced me to the field of teaching but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish my master’s degree because God brought me to a new season yet again in 2015 – married life.
Before I quit my graduate studies, I used the teaching units I got from the classes I took to get my professional license. I do love teaching but after contemplating whether it is the career for me or not, I felt it in my heart to pursue my first love instead, which is writing.
I found an opportunity in the digital marketing industry. It was in 2017 when my writing career started. Everything was new to me, but I was eager to learn because I love what I am doing.
After a year, I have decided to let it go because God brought me to yet another season – focus on the family project which is the agribusiness.
God’s Plans
We really can’t see what God’s plans are and only God can tell. I have assumptions, but I can’t claim that these are God’s plans as well. What are my assumptions?
God gifted me with a talent in writing. From grade school until college, it was all a preparation. So, why take SpEd? It will satisfy some of the objectives of the family project which will include putting up a social enterprise that will teach young entrepreneurs and a foundation to help those in need (special children, orphans, etc.). The main objective of our project is for other people to benefit more.
As a licensed teacher, I can teach young students and it might not be in the area of my expertise which is English. But, it can be in the field of agriculture, farming, and entrepreneurship applying everything I will learn on our farm.
Why digital marketing? That is the trajectory of the future of businesses. Marketing using the traditional way can benefit a lot alongside digital marketing. The latter can boost the growth and development of a company not just in finance but in terms of creating partnerships and remaining competitive in the global market.
Writing plays a huge role when establishing the company’s online presence in the digital world. Businesses have to be at par with the rapidly evolving digital technology and storytelling is just one of the ways.
My brother’s comment before when it comes to my writing is this – you have such a flair for the dramatic. I told him that well, I was created to be a poet. 😉
My writing appeals to the emotions. This appeal is the reason why I love persuasive writing. I persuade my readers to know the Truth. But if they can’t find out what the Truth is after reading my posts, then I believe I haven’t persuaded them enough. 😀
Going back to God’s will and plans over my family’s endeavor, hubby and I were having thoughts to transfer homes back in 2017. We already have plans to start investing in our own home even if it is a small one. I shared it with my brother who then suggested we stay at my sister’s condo instead. He said that we can save more this way and get a house later on that is located in a place that we love.
We agreed that we will pay the association dues since my sister waived the rental fee (thank you so muchos, Ate Ayn!). At the same time, we will look out after the place for her since she and her husband live in Norway.
God’s Favors
I am extremely grateful for all of these because they were all favors from the Lord. Yes, my brother is right that this new season of us living in yet another new home will help us save a little. But we can do it even if I don’t have a full-time job. This means I can concentrate on learning all that I need to learn for our farm projects.
My other siblings don’t have the time to learn them all so it is my task to fill them in with all the info I can gather from my research. My other sister in the province will be my partner in applying what we have learned from the e-courses when I go back home. And yet our other siblings’ careers are important, too, in helping fund the project’s expenses.
My other sister and I have the time to learn so much but we don’t have well-paying careers and our other siblings have high-paying careers but they don’t have enough time. Combined together is now a perfect team to make the project work. I bet God is really the best project manager ever He knows the best persons to delegate certain tasks with. 😀
But then again, 5 heads are better than 1 or 2. So yes, I need all of my siblings’ wisdom in this endeavor. And I am glad I have their full support and cooperation. (Love you, my dear sibs!)
Put God First
With all the info overload I gathered from my research, I am estimating that it’ll take about more than a year to study all the business concepts when it comes to agriculture and farming. I am always seeking for God’s wisdom though on what to do with all the collated info.
As we all know, learning how to do something is actually very different from doing exactly what you learned a.k.a. theories vs. application. I realized we have a lot to learn in this endeavor and if we want our projects to be sustainable, we need to be equipped with the right business and farming concepts and be able to apply them well.
If you are to ask me why should we pursue this endeavor, it is because of this: how we build the world today is how we set the course of the future. That is, I don’t want the future generations to eat very pricey vegetables due to the high demand and low supply. Even if I don’t have kids, I still have high hopes that what we do now will impact the world later on for the better. That is, with God’s guidance as our “chiefest” CEO. 😉
To end this article, here’s a very inspiring message (the best commencement speech for me) from none other than one of the Academy Award-winning and most acclaimed actors, Denzel Washington:
P.S.
Please don’t blame me if ever you ventured into agribusiness and failed. 😀 Endeavors like this require consulting with God first and foremost because we all have our own God-given purposes.
Writing this postscript actually made me realize that pursuing the things that we don’t have can become only that – an endless pursuit. But if we pursue an endeavor by making good use of what God has already given us, we might actually find our purpose in and through them. 🙂
*Update as of 9/15/2018: “Farm for Profit” seminar was cancelled due to typhoon Ompong.
(This is an excerpt from this post I wrote back in November 2013 during Typhoon Yolanda. I thought this particular content deserves to have its own separate article with a different title this time.)
Wherever God would take me, whatever God would give me, I will bring with me two identities: first, I am a Christian, and second, I am a Bicolana.
I can never be prouder of anything I have and whoever I have become other than those two I have mentioned above.
Why a Christian? I am nothing and nobody without my God, first and foremost. My identity is in Him, and I believe I need not say more as it is what it already is. 🙂
Why a Bicolana then? Ahh, this is most likely where I’ll be explaining more.
I grew up in the province. I spent more than half of my life there. As of writing, that is. There’s no other place that I could ever call ‘home’ except Bulan. Yes, that is my hometown, a small town in the province of Sorsogon somewhere in the southernmost part of Luzon.
Sorsogon consists mostly of coastal areas surrounded by beaches of all sand colors from white, pink, to black – you name it, we have it. Rich in natural resources, fishing and farming have been the sources of livelihood with almost all the Bulanons (that’s how we generally call ourselves).
Fishing
If there is one value that being a Bicolana has taught me, it would be this – knowing your roots. In other words, learn to look back from your humble beginnings. Bulan is the one thing that has taught me how it is to be humble and to be grateful. Humility bespeaks when the heart is in awe of the mediocre. I know you are going to agree with me right there.
I came from a family of farmers. My parents, my grandparents, and the parents before them all came from humble beginnings. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them. Gratitude is what I could offer to my ancestors for the sacrifices and hard work that they have invested in providing the best for their families.
I came from a generation wherein I didn’t have to go to the fields and do the farming myself, and go home with sweaty clothes covered in mud just to pay for all of my expenses and supply my needs. An experience I never had to go through, and yet something that I would want to go through.
CIRCA 1980s: My mom, aunts, uncles, and my grandparents.
They say that for someone to appreciate the value of something less than its market value and more of its sentimental value, you have to work hard for it and have it like how it is usually done and achieved. You have to sweat it out, so to speak.
I was listening to the podcast of Pastor Christian Flores regarding Victory’s new series entitled “It’s Not About The Money” two Sundays ago, and he mentioned the story of a farmer and how this farmer had invested his earnings in acquiring an even bigger barn where he could store more, which actually resulted in his own destruction.
That made me think about our farm, our farmers, and what we really get from it. For starters, our farmhouse did not change, though many years and decades have passed. We are earning just enough, and we are still living frugal lives, though we have acquired some possessions through time – still, I think it is not about the money. Money, for us, is something that has to do with survival, but never to accumulate great wealth and live grandiose, rich lives.
I might be speaking out of righteousness here, but if you will personally ask me, that is how I think it should be. I do not wish to dwell on this matter then and will just leave all the explaining to our Pastors as they lead us on with the series – a reason for you to stay tuned for our upcoming podcasts or better yet visit a nearby Victory church: http://victory.org.ph/. (Sorry for the shameless plugging, but I felt you would understand it better if the explaining would come from our church leaders).
victoryqc.org
This is the season of harvesting, and when I went home during the holidays last November 1 and 2, I chanced upon the last harvest in our farm. I have skin asthma, and as much as I should be staying away from hay, I know it would not stop me from going along with my Dad. I suffered the consequences later on – my cough got worse, and itchy rashes came out that lasted for about a week, leaving black spots on my skin, which then stayed on for about how many months.
The last time I was with my Dad during harvesting was when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I could still remember how our parents would ask us (not really me, as I was way too young, but my sisters and brother) to help in drying the “palay” we had harvested so they could be sold to the millers for a good price before they then sell it to the market.
Yes, how could I really forget all the scurrying here and there, to and fro, when dark clouds come, and heavy rains start to pour. It only means sweeping the grains, piling and covering them up as FAST as you can to prevent them from getting wet, thus lowering the chances of getting a low price as “palay” buyers measure the moisture content of the rice grains. The drier the grain is, the higher its market value.
Threshing of palay.
My Dad is not a farmer per se. He is a civil engineer who juggled two occupations at the same time – that of a farmer and a superintendent at the National Irrigation Administration in the Bicol region (officially at San Ramon, OIC in Masbate and Sorsogon City). He is now 74 years old, retired from his engineering career, and yet a continuing farmer. I have always admired my Dad, who, at his age, still manages to do what he would always do at the farm despite his arthritis, gout attacks, hypertension, cataract, and other illnesses of the aged. Although we don’t dry the harvested rice grains anymore to lessen the stress level of all the scurrying and hurrying, tending the farm is still a lot of busy work to do.
I went to the farm with my Dad not to harvest the grains myself and have them threshed out but witness how it is usually done. I have to get into the particulars as to how to do this and that. Well, I might consider farming as my job someday. Yes, “Tin” the farm girl. *wink* I think I heard my Kuya’s sarcastic chuckle back there again. Haha Yeah, right. And yes, I wanted to observe how our farmers do it – our trusted and loyal workers. I admired them more than I have admired an office employee (no offense to office-based workers). But hard labor is no easy job. Exposed in the heat of the sun, bending over for hours either planting rice seedlings or harvesting them, soaked in mud or inhaling the itchy hay dust when threshing are, for me, among the most challenging tasks.
I closely looked at all of them. I saw Tio Digoy and Tio Kadog – they are the oldest among all of them. They have been working for my Dad since I was a kid. Now, their sons are working for us as well. I have learned to love them for all that they have put up for me and my family. I am praying that through us, their sons, daughters and grandchildren will one day have a better future because of their parents and grandparents’ hard work. Though that means we might lose workers in our farms, it would also be equivalent to giving everyone the chance to have better lives than what they have now.
I am praying too that someday there will no longer be a need for manual labor and everything will be run by machines operated in a clean office from planting to harvesting rice. That goes as well for harvesting coconuts and converting them into copra. The team of Tio Digoy also does them for us. Skilled, they really are. My family and I will always be grateful to them. We will always be grateful to Him for any blessing that He has bestowed as well as for His guidance and protection not just to me and my family but to our skilled workers and their families as well.
Nope, that’s not it because this is what I usually do:
“Tin, The Farm Girl”
Quite the opposite, right? Well, aside from washing the dishes, cleaning the house, feeding the pets, etc. and having a little vacation time actually. We have no helpers or house maids back home and here in Manila, by the way. As it is written in the bible:
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” – Matthew 10:45
Let’s all live a life of servitude, shall we my dear brothers and sisters? 🙂
The Journeyman's Moments 