Extension service is not about money. It’s about working and helping others to achieve their success. Recognition is just a bonus.”

This is the statement of John Belamide, an agricultural extension worker (AEW) in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro and 2014 National Winner for Agri-Pinoy Rice Achiever’s Award in AEW category.

Young people are running away from farming now. Everyone is going to the city and it seems like nobody likes to work with the soil anymore. Ironically, farming provides food on the table. However, we are convinced with numbers and figures, since we need money to survive. What if you can earn P2 million a year just by tilling the soil, will it ring a bell?

FROM POLITICS TO FARMING

Journey’s Farm:

A paradise in a backyard

Can you imagine a paradise in your own backyard? Even with a 1,200-square-meter lot, you can transform a small area into just like the Journey’s Farm.

Journey’s Farm in Iba, Zambales with variety of flowers, vegetables and fruit trees; a fishpond; native pigs and chickens; and, rabbits. Owned by Joey Alvior and his family, the farm is named after the couple’s fifth child—Journey

Walking the talk: the beginning of Journey’s Farm

Rice is considered as a staple food in Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines. This makes farmers a vital part of society. They farm to provide food for the people. This includes Rosemarie Centina, also known as “Tita Mayeth”, a 61-year-old farmer who hails from Luisiana, Laguna.

Early beginnings

Tita Mayeth is the eldest in a brood of 10 and, as a child, her parents taught her how to farm. She and two of her siblings ventured into rice farming as it was through this that her youngest siblings were able to finish college.

Other than honey and sugary products, bees have something sweeter to offer.

Aside from being a lucrative source of income to farmers, beekeeping is now becoming a promising job for people who want to have a stable income.

Other countries have enlisted beekeeping as one of the most in-demand jobs today. Countries like Canada and Australia offer as high as $4,000 or close to P155,000 salary a month for workers in this industry. Filipinos are already part of the beekeeping industry and employment agencies have been constantly sending workers abroad since 2006.

The question of whether to go organic or not wasn’t much of a choice for Genes Estialbo, a retired agricultural technologist and now a staunch organic advocate. After her daughter and husband died from diseases attributed to unhealthy lifestyle, she now devotes her entire life to organic farming to ensure safe and healthy food for her precious grandchildren and loved ones.

The Barren Land