 | Farming-Our Past, Our Present and Our Future |
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Farming has always fascinated me a lot even I was just a boy who grew up in the barrio where rice farming is the usual means of livelihood. It was constructed with an irrigation canal which operated in the 80's where we used as a "hang out resort for playing and swimming" with friends especially when there is no classes apart from the Guihao-an River which flows through the barrio. It was a very simple life then which molded my young mind to embrace farming until the present time. I have had the active involvement in farming during my high school days together with the lolo and lola in the farm not knowing that it would then be my point of interest in life. As a grown up, I started farming in 1997 when I decided to return home to my hometown (Butuan) wary of traffic and city lifestyles in Metro Manila. Since then, I am an active farmer though I am still working now, my work would still align to farming and be with the farmers from Surigao del Sur to Leyte and Samar and now in Marawi and Lanao del Sur.
Though, sadly more and more productive farmlands in Butuan have already been sold and converted to residences, commercial and institutional purposes. These areas expanding year by year not even our own neighborhood was spared from these developments. I might be wrong or they might be right or vice versa, I view farming as the very root of our physical existence. I am optimistic given this trend on consumerism, climate change, global unrest be it political or environmental - farming will again be at the forefront of human survival and farmers treated fairly well and with high respects.
I find the initiative of the ATI so helpful and economical where one can always be given chances to improve and enhance skills to whatever endeavors in the field of agriculture. Unknowingly, it made a practical approach when COVID19 pandemic hit us in March 2020 where gatherings are controlled if not discouraged until now in some parts of the country. This is a great innovation where farmers can access almost the entirety of agriculture at the fingertips. |
