The Philippines is running out of farmers. It doesn’t matter if we are blessed with different kinds of bodies of water, lands that are lush and fertile, and a climate that is favorable in growing various valued crops, livestock, and farm animals.
All of that is worthless… without farmers, all of us will be dead soon…. in a matter of speaking!

The country’s food security is at risk as millions of farmers and fishermen are getting too old (average age of 57) for what is back-breaking work and their children are not keen on taking over.
The younger generation, who saw their parents grow old and poor in farming, do not see agriculture as a lucrative career. They would rather go to the cities or migrate abroad than continue the farming tradition.

When a new generation refuses to farm, who will feed the people?

In comes the new batch! In a small municipality in the province of Batangas lived these cute little girls. They stay most of their time on their farm.
These twins go roving around their property doing all kinds of farm activity. The girls water most the plants and tree seedlings. Cut and trim leaves & grasses. Do a few farm chores and also play and get accustomed to their farm animals. A lot of activities for these 3-year olds munchkins. And on top of that, they are enjoying every piece of it.

The sisters, even with their very young age, balance their time and their farm activity with other interest and pursuit such as swimming, artwork projects and pre-school. The twins travel when they need to… back to the city or outside the country.
But their heart obviously belongs to the farm. Getting their hands dirty, seeing different kinds of birds & insects, and walking barefoot makes them feel more connected to the earth.

Sure, the influence of their parents made a huge impact on their enthusiasm in farming but these are exactly what we need to our economy and our country…. lots of little farmers just like them.

In fact, these new generations have the potential to be greater than their predecessors. They won’t just be farmers taking care of their land.
They will be considered entrepreneurs and businessmen, eliminating the “Greedy Middlemen” that used to kill and sabotage the small farms of the locals in the most province.

The new generation will innovate sustainable agriculture and food security. Make their crops and livestock more disaster resilient and better cross-border collaboration.
Armed with social media marketing skills and useful mobile application, the new batch of farmers will handle everything from the source, the end product, marketing, innovating, packaging, and even exporting to other countries.

I’m glad I’m able to know these family. They help me get a good source of cacao trees seedlings for my tree planting project.
We share the same vision and passion for developing agri-business aggressively. We are in the same vicinity of sharing light and wisdom to our children that even though some of them won’t be fully pledged farmers… the desire will always be there.

I don’t mind me being deprived of not having a daughter. Whenever I visit Rosario Batangas to get my cacao seedlings, these 2 little beautiful farmers will be more than enough to fill that hole.
From one old farmer to the new…. a better and more improved agriculturalist that will someday feed the whole country.