Well, i am a weekend farmer, sometimes even remotedly managing. I live for long stretches of time (like two weeks to a month) in Manila before returning to General Santos to tend to the farm. My brother even described me as an "internet farmer", because many of the things I do I learned from the internet through research and browsing.
When I am physically present in the farm, I love to do the chores myself, but I do more of the thinking for them, rather than the laboring part. I have two young men doing the farming labor side for me, plus one good employee who supervises according to my plans and leads the execution of those plans. When I am around, I do the supervision and constant education of my farmers, who are only high school graduates. I got them from far away Cagayan de Oro areas, learning long ago not to hire from local guys who knows the ins and outs of the farms around our area. Familiarity with people around has many negative aspects,including the compromising of security both physical and biological. The less my farmers know of the community the better I am convinced that I will not be losing my goats, pigs, or fruits and vegetables to "friendlies" from the neighborhood. We keep the gates of the farm constantly padlocked and closed, because it has been our experience that whenever we allow locals to enter, something will turn up missing soon enough. If we need help or have to hire for extra labor during some seasons, we always keep our eyes on them until the works are completed.
Our farmers here are on monthly hires, with free one cavan of rice monthly, while the other foods they need they have to produce or source from the farm itself. We provide them with farm housing, so they stay in the farm 7/24. The fish can be taken from the running waters and irrigation passage ways, the mollusc shells abound in there. Fruits and vegetables can be had if they plant or forage around, and these too are plentiful. Chickens, ducks and eggs are now available. We require them to do a FAITH gardening (Food Always in the Home) as taught by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center of Bansalan Davao del Sur. Seeds and technology I take the cudgels for them.
Lately I have given them free hand to make decisions on improving and developing the farm by themselves, having noticed they would always wait for instructions from me or my supervisor, and that may not be handy all the time considering we are off-premises having to do other works away from the farm. It seems they welcome this new development, and I hope it will invigorate them to work harder, with their own initiatives picking up quickly. I also promised them year end incentives if the production and sales do pick up.
I was told the income rewards on the farm may not be that great, compared to other industries. But the psychic profit and the resulting physical exercises and exposure to the fresh invigorating atmosphere do really provide me with wonders and respite from my otherwise heavily pressured Freight Forwarding daily tasks. I do miss the farm whenever I am in Manila, and it doesn't get any better than this whenever I allow the sunshine to make my day in the farm.
