CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)--"Is it profitable to be a farmer? Why don't we rephrase that: is it profitable to be poor?"

Joel Rudinas, a Department of Agriculture-10 consultant, shared that there must be a shift in the way we think about farming and farmers.

"Most, but not many, of our farmers naa man jud dira sa kalisod (they are in difficult situation), and these usually affect the small farmers, but farming and farmers can also evolve, especially when lands are consolidated, making it bigger in scope to make farmers more productive," Rudinas shared.

Meanwhile, Reynaldo Cabanao, farmer director at DA-10, said, "Every time you eat, you think of a farmer."

In Talakayan sa PIA, DA-10 emphasized the role of our farmers, who, as we all say, "produce the food that we eat."

Cabanao shared that for the second or third year, the DA has allocated P5 Billion just for farm mechanization; meanwhile, the policies of the government have changed.

"Sa una, pangayuan pa ka og counterpart. Karon, para matabangan gyud mo sa pag-asenso grant na, we have machineries given as all grants to FCs and LGUs. Sauna, dili common nga makakita og harp combine harvester, moingon lang ta sa US lang ta makapalit ana. Karon, muadto ka sa mga regions, sa mga probinsya naa nay harp combine harvester," he said.

(Before, you were asked for a counterpart. Now, to help you improve your livelihood, it is already through grants; we have machinery given as part of all grants to FCs and LGUs. Before, it was uncommon to see a harp combine harvester; we would say we could buy that in the US. Now, you go to the regions; in the provinces, there is already a harp combine harvester)

Anyway, he said there is a need to adjust because sometimes the cultural practices in the lowlands are not compatible. "So there needs to be changes within the cultural practices of our farmers so they can adapt to the machinery," he added.

"By nature, ang tao man jud makalitan kung naay kausaban, even in our personal life kung naay kausaban, mura ta og dili, mura pud ta og gusto (By nature, a person will still get shocked when there are changes, even in our personal life if there is change, we could say yes, we could say no)," said the farmer-director.

But the challenge especially for the Department of Agriculture, is to continuously educate because there are technicians through the local government unit (LGU) and departments and divisions within the department whose job it is to conduct information and education campaigns.

"But again, change is always something that everybody is not ready to take, but when they finally realize that this is good for them, they will adapt to it," Cabanao said.

There is a gigantic task in achieving food security.

What stands between us? It is the farmer.

"Gusto ta nga sufficient ta sa pagkaon, di nato na maabot kung dili ta muagi sa atong maguuma kay sila man ang gatanom and the producers," Cabanao said.

(We want sufficient food; we cannot attain that if we do not go through our farmers because they are the ones planting and the producers)

"We see that they are in a difficult situation because we have not given them the priority or the care; we also see that because of that, our food security is lacking, so in every move, we import," he added.

"We need young farmers. Ato gyung pabakuron atong agrikultura pinaagi sa pag-recruit para dugang pang mag-uuma nga batan-on (we will help rise back our agriculture in the form of recruiting to add farmers who are young)," he said.

"Is it hard to love agriculture? No way, it is most easy to love agriculture," affirmed Joel Rudinas, DA-10 consultant.

"You can start small and be productive with that same small area; before you needed vast land, but now it is not anymore; the trend is going up, so you can see a watermelon that is designed hanging," he said.

"Sometimes what challenges us are the conditions or situations that seem to be discouraging us, but for me, within agriculture is the solution," Rudinas said. (JMOR/PIA-10)