“Always Tired & Always Poor” – The PH Farmers Whom Maeca Czarina Pansensoy Of Rappler Believes She Knows

Young Miss Maeca Czarina Pansensoy – a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University in Business Management,with Honors (from LinkedIn) – wrote Monday, 19 October 2020, an opinion piece, published by the independent-minded journalist group Rappler.com, titled “Palaging Pagod At Palaging Hirap: The Story Of The Philippine Farmer” (my translation: Always Tired & Always Poor). Awkward.

I call it “awkward” because it purports, without saying so, to summarize the life & times of Filipino farmers beginning we don’t know when – Miss Maeca does not preface title and first sentence with a time period of years. And she summarizes such life & times in only 460 words including title!?

I think her first paragraph says it all for her thesis:

Our farmers struggle with a history of injustice. They have been forced to till land they do not own, sell their produce at prices unequal to their labor, and carry a whole sector on their already aching backs – for a country that has forgotten to listen to them properly. As our country strives to move forward, we have forgotten to bring its foundation along.

“Our farmers struggle with a history of injustice.” Yes, Miss Maeca, the Filipino farmer has been forcedto cultivate the field he does not own, otherwise where will he & his family get their wherewithal?

They have been forced to “sell their produce at prices unequal to their labor.” Tell you what, Miss Maeca, please understand that:

(1)   Low prices are the dictates of the market, and farmers need to understand and appreciate that in order to help themselves!

(2)   Additionally, the farmers’ labors are uneconomic, or wasteful of resources, such as of seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, and irrigation water. I know all that personally, as I am a farmer’s son and BSA major in Ag Education graduate of UP Los Baños, 1965.

(3)   “And carry a whole sector on their already aching backs” – Ha! You produce food for those who cannot; now, why are you not well-compensated? Aside from your wasteful habits as a farmer, the merchants take advantage of you! (image of “empty pockets[1]” from Noun Project)

So, as a farmer, you have 2 enemies: Yourself and the Merchant! Do you recognize yourself there? Do you understand that you are a profligate farmer – wasting resources when you should not?

(4)   “For a country that has forgotten to listen to them properly.” If you are referring to the activist farmers, Miss Maeca, yes, we have not been listening to them properly, thank God. You know why? They’re wrong!

Miss Maeca, your farmers insist on land ownership as principal requirement for productivity. How many farmers are rich because they are landowners?

Instead of ownership, our Secretary of Agriculture William Dar is propagating the idea of farm consolidation (see my essay, “A Revolution Of Our Times! Landownership Out, Bandownership In[2],” 29 September 2020, Brave New World). Why? Economies of scale.

Miss Maeca, sometimes one can achieve success alone. But much sweeter it is when many succeed together!@517

 

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[1]https://thenounproject.com/term/poverty/

[2]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-revolution-of-our-times-landownership.html