A Golden Harvest: The fruit of Hard Work and Courage

Good day everyone! How's your day? Well, if you will ask about me, I'm doing good and I'm excited to share with you the life we had in the countryside.

Edited in Canva

This photo was taken a month ago during harvest time. My father and brother, along with our neighbors, worked for over a week harvesting rice. It takes three months or more to grow these crops (grains). Farmers invest a great deal of effort from planting to harvest. Sometimes, farmers consider rice farming as taking a bet. The process involves a long wait of consistent heavy rains (since we lack a reliable water supply system), seed selection, seedbed preparation, land preparation (including weeding and plowing), which is costly because few own plowing machines (it cost almost 1,000 pesos per hour). Labor and food costs for the rice planters are also significant expenses. After planting, farmers must purchase fertilizers and pesticides, pray for consistent (but not excessive) rain, and must consistently do weeding to ensure healthy crop growth. The biggest challenge is that even if crops escape pests, the summer heat may still ruin the crops before harvest.

After all our efforts, these crops have grown, and this is what it look like. It's so satisfying; all their hard work has paid off. You can truly say they succeeded in this endeavor. Maybe all of you are wondering, the harvesters were paid through a sharecropping arrangement known as "pitohan," where they received one-seventh of the harvest.

Edited in Canva

Looking them, brings back my memories. Back then my siblings and I used to help our parents in the field. I used to ride also in a “balsahan” – a carabao -drawn cart that carries sack of rice. I can still remember their faces; how happy they are regardless of being tired working all day together with the other harvesters.

Anyways, I was really happy to share to you how proud I am to all farmers out there. I hope that I inspire you all that it is all worth it to have courage. Thank you so much for reading this one up to the end.

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