September 8, 2021
Why are our farmers poor?
Philippines is a self-proclaimed agricultural country. It gloats its richness of natural resources. It takes so much pride of its wide plains and verdant lands yet the people who nurture and nourish those soils are sinking of poverty. As I look over the bright, green fields in front of me, I could not help but ask the farmer why. Why are they not the richest ones when they are the ones providing the whole country our food?
I asked the farmer about their issues. And I realized how cruel the system of things are. Because of poverty, the farmer have always faced the problem of lack of capital. There are no enough money to use initially in farming. With the lack of capital, it is difficult and even impossible to purchase the needed inputs. The prices of agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers are increasing. The farmer, with his lack of capital, cannot afford to buy these high cost inputs. In tough times, the farmer resorts to loans and credit he struggle to pay because the profits in farming are not always rewarding. This results to falling into debt and continue the cycle of poverty. They keep going back to their poor state and keeps getting worse.
The more I listen, the more I feel hopeless of the situation. Many like do not legally own their land. The farmer depends on renting. They keep relying tenancy or contract-growing arrangements to which I thought was so u fair. It is like becoming a slave or a laborer with no control of the crops he is working hard to grow. Isn’t it cruel to work so hard in a land you don’t own and receive compensation you can not fully possess? Moreover, The quality of the land he farms is also deteriorating. Because of the heavy use of chemicals, soils become less unhealthy make it harder for farmers to till. More and more problems keep arising. You will wonder how much are they working hard, things does bot go well.
With the helpless and unfortunate state of our farmers, most people now are not interested in farming. Farmers struggle to find helpers needed to farm. There are not enough people to employ, unlike before. There is shortage of labor. The farmer struggles with high cost of labor demanded by some helpers he invites. Sometimes the laborers are not motivated to work and prolongs the period of time in labor. Some of their workers are not efficient enough. Cruel, isn’t it?
One painful problem of farmers is that they lack knowledge and education. Pursuing new agriculture methods are unimaginable for them. The farmer admitted to be lacking in knowledge about this area. Majority of the farmers are not educated and they do not know how to start nee technologies in this because of lack of awareness and knowledge.
Truly, it is a wheel of hardships that keeps spinning. Our agricultural sector, especially our farmers, are in the state of helplessness. Many of us does not even want to continue our tradition of farming anymore. Because who would even want to work so hard for something that will not even give you fair outcomes? The fact that calamities like typhoons keep destroying us makes farming more risky. Yet, we should not abandon this sector.
Closing Thoughts
Our government has the authority and the resources to make things better. Our food security lies on how productive and progressive our agricultural sector is. What we need are sound policies and immediate implementation of those policies. It is high time our higher-ups to see the needs of our farmers. They should focus on it rather than giving the sector bare minimum attention. It’s been so long since we have been telling them to help our farmers more. But we should not stop calling them out. Keep demanding so that every farmer will receive what they deserve.
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At this juncture, I want to say thank you for reading! This has been @Stories4U. I hope you are well entertained!
Let's hope for better days. Not all days are bad. Good ones will also come.