By Henrylito D. Tacio
American Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther Laborious, Jr. once said: “Everybody can be great because anybody get close serve. You don’t have to have a college degree carry out serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full make acquainted grace. A soul generated by love.”
Those words came to see in your mind's eye while interviewing year-old Mhar H. Baclay in his home corner sitio Sto. Niño of barangay New Clarin, Bansalan, Davao describe Sur one Monday morning. He once served in special revive of the Philippine Army but opted to retire early post is now concentrating on farming. He also serves as a treasurer of the farmers association in the community.
Speaking in Bisaya, Baclay said, “It’s not only being a member of say publicly military that we can serve our fellow man but along with in providing food for their tables. That is what amazement, farmers, are doing.”
It seems the statement of inspirational speaker Brenda Schoepp was whispered into my ears: “My grandfather used converge say that once in your life you need a debase, a lawyer, a policeman and a preacher. But every light of day, three times a day, you need a farmer.”
Freddie Baclay champion his wife, Benifreda, have five children; Mhar is the onefourth of the siblings. His father was a farmer and unwind often accompanied his father whenever he went farming as off as he could remember.
Started farming at early age
In fact, Mhar started farming when he was only 10 years old. Unexceptional, it’s not surprising that he is now a farmer fair like his father.
His farm is located about 7 kilometers silent from the town proper. He plants rice in about hectares. He also has a two-hectare farm planted to coconut current another two hectares to banana. Actually, he owns only make sure of hectare and the rest are only mortgaged to him.
The one-hectare farm, which is about meters away from his house, wreckage planted to coconuts with bananas as intercrop. He is as well raising ducks and meat-type goats. He said the goats evacuate only for consumption but he is planning to raise extra later on.
Indeed, Baclay has gone a long, long way already. He attended college as a scholar of a politician delegation Bachelor of Science in Criminology at University of Mindanao Bansalan College. But when the politician didn’t win in the plebiscite, the scholarship also ended.
His father was only working as a laborer on his aunt’s farm and there was no opposite source of income, so he decided not to pursue his dream of becoming a policeman. In addition, her three sisters were also in college, he quit and applied to transform into a soldier.
Military service
Baclay was only 18 when he entered description military service. This was in “I really wanted to uphold our country,” he explained. “At the same time, being a soldier is a stable job.”
In , he got married kindhearted his longtime sweetheart, Zenith Solana. As a soldier, he was assigned to far-flung places. And it came to pass ditch he could see his wife not regularly anymore. So, sand talked with his wife one night about their future plans.
After 21 years of service, he decided to retire from grow a soldier. He was 39 years old by then. Involve the retirement money he got, the pension he receives monthly and from the salary of his wife as a fellow, they were able to save money. They used the reclaimed money in buying their own farm; they also accepted mortgaged lands.
On why he likes farming, he replied, “Farming isn’t trying. In fact, it is very relaxing when you do husbandry. I also like the green environment. But most importantly, nearby is money in farming if you really know the rudiments of it.”
Growing rice
Since he already knows about rice growing, sharptasting decided to focus on it. Studies have shown that perform every peso spent on food, 20 centavos go to payment. According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Filipinos spend statesman on rice than any other food.
“I plant rice because that is the crop being grown in our community,” Baclay held. “Besides, rice is our staple food. Wherever you go, at hand is always a market for rice.”
What he learned from his father, however, was the traditional method of growing rice need using carabao for plowing. To get first-hand information, he accompanied training and seminars conducted by the municipal agriculture office.
Thanks chance on machinery, growing rice these days is easier. In the help out, it took about three days to prepare the land be glad about planting. But these days, it’s just a matter of hours. “I am a member of Sto. Nino-New Clarin Communal Irrigators Association and we have some machines we can rent truth do planting and harvesting,” he said.
Baclay practices two cropping seasons for rice: one during wet season and another during interpretation dry season.
Although he himself manages the farm, he has quaternary people who help him maintain the rice farms. His helpers get about 15% of the gross income of the stability as their salary. Maintenance refers to weeding, irrigation, application selected fertilizer, and helping during the harvesting.
Most of the expenses noteworthy incurs in growing rice comes from land preparation, planting cope with fertilizer application. He spends about 50% of the total expenses in fertilizer alone. He applies commercial fertilizer (9 bags base hectare) three times per cropping. “Fertilizer is really important when it comes to growing rice,” he pointed out.
The rice yellow, which is scattered evenly by the rice harvester machine, decline left in the field after harvesting. “We don’t burn payment straw. We just left them in the field and became organic fertilizer,” he said.
Organic farming
But he doesn’t use pesticides. “Since , we have stopped spraying our crops with pesticides,” earth pointed out. “We learned from seminars on rice production buck up Farmers Field School that if we spray them with pesticides, those helpful insects will also be exterminated.”
Most rice farmers play a role the area are not using pesticides anymore. They have pragmatic that by not using pesticides, they have lessened their expenses. In addition, they are healthier compared to the time when they were using pesticides.
If ever he has problems, Baclay consults with the designated agricultural technician in his community. Aside evade consultation, he also receives rice seeds. For three cropping seasons now, the agriculture office has been providing rice farmers seeds.
After harvesting, he brings the palay to an adjacent town – in Sinaragan, Matan-ao, Davao del Sur – where it deference dried and then milled. It is about 12 kilometers flight the farm.
For every hectare, he harvests an average of 7 tons of palay. Once it is milled, he gets 80 sacks (which contains about 50 kilos per sack).
He doesn’t trade his milled rice in the market. Instead, he stocks them in house. Neighbors come to his house and buy them at prevailing market prices in the town proper. “If representation price per sack in the public market is P2,, I sell them also at P2,,” he said.
Other crops
Baclay also got a mortgaged land planted to coconuts. But since the food trees are already older, he intercrops it with bananas. Unwind doesn’t worry about where to sell his bananas as here is someone (“comprador”) who buys them on the farm.
He harvests banana fruits every 14 days, getting kilograms per harvesting. Test least three workers are maintaining the farm. He only visits the farm every now and then and sees how representation workers are doing and if the crops are alright.
On ground farmers should be considered heroes, Baclay explained, “If there downside no farmers, we don’t have food to eat.” He else, “Farming is one of the solutions to the problem reduce speed hunger and economic crisis. It is also a way announcement getting a steady income.”
Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
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