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.
Our rice fields are located in different areas of the town and a bit far from the farm. This is the reason why I have such great admiration for my Dad for his strength, patience, and wisdom to manage all of them and several teams of farm workers.
I believe it was somehow easy for Dad because he used to work as a Civil Engineer and Chief Superintendent at the National Irrigation Administration in our town. It was part of his duties as an engineer to monitor the irrigation system in the rice fields.
Rice Farming Through The Years
Back when I was young, we used to cook food for our farm workers during the harvest season. But as our parents got older and my siblings and I came here to study and work in the city, they had to let go of some of our usual practices in farm management.
Not a single day passes by though that I don’t include them and our agribusiness in my prayers. I have this dire need to go to the province now, stay there, and give them a hand with what needs to be done at the farm and the ricefields.
When God Dictates Your Timeline
However, my husband is tied to his job here in the metro, and he remains my top priority. The calling to go back to the province may be too strong, but God is asking me to stay for now.
I had my worries, my questions, and also my fears. But God assured me He got everything under control.
A Year Of Blessed Harvest
True enough, for last year’s palay harvest, Dad reported an all-time high yield. My parents said it was a miracle given the extended drought. Our province was also hit several times by strong typhoons last year but Dad was able to harvest the palay grains at just the right time.
My Dad’s rice fields were also selected to be the demo farms for the hybrid rice grains provided by SL Agritech. He was given an allowance for the land preparation and fertilizers and in return, a certain percentage of the harvest will go to SL Agritech.
The Good News Means God Is Everywhere Anytime
These were all the good news that will testify that indeed, God hears our prayers. I still have a little bit of those fears as to what could happen in the future.
But I know God will be there in every step of the way to guide us, provide for us, and strengthen us. I am sure every business owner out there has the same qualms about the future of several industries in the country given the economic recession.
Our Business Outlook In The Future
And yet not every “low” will forever be a “low” in the same way that not every “high” will forever be a “high.” The only assurance that we can get is that in every season of our businesses, God is with us always. That should replace our fears with faith, our worries with peace, and our uncertainty with hope. 🙏
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. 🙂
Before I begin the actual article, I’d like to share an update to those of you who have been following my blog posts lately. And let me begin by saying, thank you to all those who prayed for my checkup – the doctor’s initial assessment turned out negative. BUT, she suggested I still undergo the 2D and 3D mammography tomorrow. We will get my other test results tomorrow, too, but it will be assessed by my doctor on Saturday. The battle is not over yet, not yet.
But life must go on – I am still breathing and I am still walking. So, let’s keep the ball rolling. 😉
What Do Experts Have to Say About the Rice Tarrification Law?
For today’s article, I will be sharing about the Rice Tarrification Law recently signed by President Rodrigo Duterte. Since a majority of our family’s agribusiness revolves around rice farming, I had to do a lot of research on what this law entails and what are the different opinions of industry experts on the matter.
Here are some of the articles I was able to dig up:
The Rice Tarrification Law basically proposes a better alternative to consumers by lowering the market price of rice through minimal import restrictions, and importers pay a 40 percent tariff only. Tariffs collected will be distributed to farmers as incentives and financial assistance which the government will provide through programs irrigation, new grains, fertilizers, etc.
This law also aims to eliminate rice traders and middlemen since the tariffs will go directly to the rice industry, experts said. But along with the elimination of rice traders in the agri system sprouts two new challenges – rice cartels and rice smuggling.
The latter poses a new threat since there will be those who will try to evade paying the tariffs imposed by the Bureau of Customs. The challenge to the government is this – will there be other security agencies who can monitor the imported rice that comes in? For one, we don’t have enough border patrols.
The emergence of rice cartels would also mean an even stronger market group to compete with. The challenge here is this – will small-time local rice farmers, who cannot pay enough for the tariffs, get the chance to buy imported rice or still have a chance to sell their produce locally and earn a decent profit?
Yet another challenge is this – with the unresolved cases and ongoing graft and corruption in the country, what is the assurance that the farmers will receive their due share of the tariff proceeds?
When I called my Dad and Mom last Saturday to check up on them and talk about this matter, as expected, the conversation lasted for 2 hours. 😀 That’s one thing about our family, it is like a debate team. We love to discuss, analyze, and assess matters with little oppositions and contradictions here and there but can honestly escalate to an actual debate later on. lol Just kidding. 😀
My parents advised us to let this year pass since this will be the adjustment period, so to speak, for registrations and all. Next year will be the time to assess whether this new law will indeed benefit the local farmers or not. I suggested to my parents that if this means producing rice for personal consumption only, maybe it is about time we explore other crop ventures – the initial proposal of my siblings and I for the new family project.
The Toll of Climate Change on Rice Industries
Local rice farmers are facing yet another challenge brought about by the extreme heat wave. Dad told me we are experiencing El Nino this summer – severe drought. The last time this happened was back in 2008. My Mom said time will come when intervals between seasons of El Nino will be shorter with the ever-worsening climate change and heat wave.
Extreme drought for farmers means lacking sufficient ricefield irrigation which will then result in lower crop yields a.k.a. less or no profit at all. According to Dad, farmers right now are in dire need of sufficient water supply since rivers are almost dried up. He shared how two farmers started to drill on their ricefields hoping to tap into a good water source such as a spring, but to no avail.
Every drilling activity costs 15k. This means that if you attempted to drill twice, you shelled out 30k already. It’s a big waste of money unless you were able to find a water source asap so you won’t have to spend more. If you’re unable to get the water supply that you need for your crops, they will all dry up with huge losses on your end than gains.
An Outpour of Blessings
God, in all these circumstances, was good to my Dad. Maybe it’s because I pray about the farm every night? 😀 Nah, I won’t take the credit because I know it is all God and God alone.
Dad shared how he “luckily” drilled through a major source with overflowing water and not just a trickle. It was more than enough to irrigate all his ricefields. I told Dad it was indeed a wonderful blessing and maybe he can share the water supply to nearby ricefields and ask the owners to pay for it since the water will be coming from our land.
I know they will take the offer than to let their crops completely dry out and earn nothing. Dad will be able to help other farmers irrigate their crops and save on drilling costs and he can also recover the amount he spent for drilling and pumping for water – a win-win situation.
By the way, the average pumping cost for ricefield irrigation is 150php per hour. So I asked Dad how long does it take to completely fill up one ricefield, he said it’s overnight and sometimes it takes days depending on the size of the ricefield. Indeed, there really is more to farming than planting the crops, letting them grow, and harvesting them without doing anything. Yes, it is nowhere close to gardening. I was totally wrong. 😀
What better alternatives do rice farmers have?
I browsed the internet for better options not just for our business but for other local rice farmers, too. I found online groups and websites where they share information and discuss different agricultural practices that are on par with the drastic climate changes – how farmers can adapt to these changes.
These organizations are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (UNIFAD), and Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD). You may check them out through their social media channels if you’re also in the agribusiness industry.
One topic that requires urgent attention now is about how climate change can affect biodiversity and how biodiversity, in turn, affects food production. I realized that my Dad and other rice farmers were just worried about water supply. And yet what I’ve found out was something more catastrophic than that given the alarming depletion rate of earth’s natural resources. This is where the imbalance comes in, which, in turn, can affect how we produce our food.
One scary thought, or rather, challenging question I had after my research is this – will our children or the future generation still have enough decent food to consume in the next decades or centuries, perhaps? I am promoting two advocacies now in agribusiness and they are sustainable agriculture and local food movement. These two encapsulate the mission of the new family project that my siblings and I are working on.
In our own little ways, what can we do to support these advocacies?
I’ll have to discuss this in the next article because this post’s too long already. 😀 But here’s one to motivate us to do something and this is also one of my core beliefs when it comes to creativity: “Where there are seasons of drought, there is ingenuity.” The geniuses of our time and the times before made a lot of discoveries and inventions out of a lack of something.
How to Be Good Stewards of God-Given Resources
But let us not forget that God owns everything that we have and we are only stewards of what He has entrusted us. He will be the one to provide us everything that we need so we can continue the work that He has tasked us to do.
I am praying for summer rain in Bicol and all other rice-producing regions. Rain during the summer season is a miracle. But I have a God who makes things possible and I believe in miracles because I have faith. So, I say, it will happen. 😉
And yes, I pray for a healthy body, too. Because there are a lot of things that I still need to do and my body’s the vessel to move around. But then again, not my will but His will and not my plans but His plans always. ❤
“The earth is the LORD’s, and all it contains. The world, and those who dwell in it.” – Psalm 24:1
P.S.
Is there any pill cuter and girlier than this? The bright pink got stuck in my head it helps me remember when I should take them. 😉
I’m also squeezing this article in real quick because I still have other articles to do at work until the end of this week. I just want to get this off my head – like lice. Off with your head! Errr, off with the lice! I mean, off with the thoughts. 😀
The Journeyman's Moments 