Encouraging Farming: Microbusiness Perspective

Conventional wisdom says the Filipino is allergic to farming. One article claims that only 3 out of 100 agriculture graduates return to the farm. Others prefer a white collar job as researcher, consultant, teacher or government bureaucrat.

I think there is some degree of romanticizing involved whenever we think of the situation. I'd imagine people decrying the loss of a tradition. People often use the farmer as the epitome of hard work and perhaps some people think other forms of work are not as noble as manual labor. Perhaps people complain of the softening of the Filipino for favoring more cerebral work.

Is manual labor really so abhorrent? If that's so why are teachers heading out to other countries to become domestic helpers? If status is important why are doctors becoming nurses in foreign lands? Why are there a whole lot of English speaking waiters heading for cruise ships when they can be call center agents here? I think for the majority it's about the economics, about the money and what it can do to improve life for the family. 

It's not that people dislike farming, it's that farming simply does not pay as much as other jobs, even other physical jobs. And there isn't much being made to encourage farming.

Aside from the usual woes of  poor roads and lack of financing, other conditions compound the problem. Take harassment from armed groups. If that happened to a trader, the police will be taken to task for the problem. How about smuggling of foreign farm produce? The Bureau of Customs hardly gets any culprits yet it's impact on food security is onerous. 

If we need to get over the perception of a farmer my suggestion is to think of the farmer as an entrepreneur as a micro or small scale businessperson. Someone who farms his own land is just like the sari-sari store owner or the ceramic artist or even the online writer. Just the same, we need to create an environment conducive to the activity. That's the reasoning behind the techno parks and special economic zones as well as tax incentives. I don't see  why it shouldn't be the same for farming.

If we want more farmers we should also get rid of the armed hooligans and smugglers. The authorities should be doing that anyway, It's a service already in the budget unlike further infrastructure that requires outside financing. Just get the police and customs to do their job and it will be a good start.

next: Cerebral Farming