At 35 years old, my hobbies when I was younger do not appeal to me anymore. And thanks to the pandemic, outdoor activities, which would have been the go-to activities of people of my age, cannot be availed of in the meantime.
But the active boy in me needs something to be busy with for mental health’s sake. I live in an urbanized locality in Paranaque City and who would have thought that the new hobby that I would fall in love with is – of all possible hobbies – farming.
It all started last January. Our subdivision was planning to implement a one-side parking policy and I felt the need to lease a nearby vacant lot so that I could use it as a parking space. When I was already using the leased lot, I noticed that an ample space at the rear portion is too good not to be utilized. Thus, I started clearing the extra space from debris and weed, and fenced it with big rocks. Then I tilled the land, and planted it with corn, squash, carrots and okra seeds.
The vacant lot was just in front of our house and I would visit it twice a day – right after waking up in the morning and at around five in the afternoon. During those visits, I would be carrying my sprinkler and an extra pail of water for watering the land.
The moment you see a seedling sprout from the soil, it gives a different kind of happiness and sense of accomplishment. This after the hard manual labor of tilling the land under the sun, watering it on a regular basis, and offering so much of your time, as well as sweat and blood. You won’t understand the feeling until you experience it yourself. So I won’t judge people who would go visit their plants time and again for no reason, just to stare at them, and sometimes talk to them. I’m guilty of it as well.
As weeks go by, my plants start to grow bigger. So I was enticed to plant more seeds such as ampalaya, papaya, eggplant, and kangkong, among others. This all paid off as I started harvesting corn and okra on the third month. While the others are almost ready for the picking.
As much as I fell in love with farming, I realized, during my laid back moments, the accuracy of the song verse “magtanim ay ‘di biro.”
My farm is just around 4 feet long and 12 feet wide. And that already required hard manual labor from me. From the 10 corn stalks that grew, I was only able to harvest 12 corn cobs. They all tasted good but their appearance is not as appealing as those being sold in the market. A technique must be observed by the farmer to get a perfect produce – both taste and appearance – so they say. And after harvesting my corn cobs, I need to pull out the corn stalks and need to plant anew. I was also able to grow several okra plants but would only harvest 1 to 2 okras from time to time.
That being said, the hard manual labor being exerted by our farmers just to produce enough supplies for us to buy in the market is being compensated way too low in that I would go so far as to say that what we are doing to them should be considered a crime.
Our farmers need to be appreciated more. They deserve more. And if I would go more specific with my suggestions, our Government should be paying our farmers with regular salary. That’s what they deserve. Anything less than that is an insult to their contribution to the society.
Mabuhay ang mga magsasakang Pilipino! Maraming salamat po sa inyo.
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