Forty and above is the new twenty.
While most people have their careers planned out by the age of 20, Kharen A. Pascual and Telma M. Santiago are just getting started.
Starting anew
Forty-year-old Kharen of Brgy. Estrella, San Mateo, Isabela used to be an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Hong Kong like her husband who is still working in Taiwan; this was her way of helping provide for the needs of her family until the pandemic came about. For her children’s sake, she chose to go home to take care of them.
Events were not smooth-sailing. Prices of necessities started to rise, and they were barely able to budget their day-to-day expenses.
“I don’t want to live up to the saying, ‘naghihintay na lang ng babagsak’, so I tried to look for a way to help with our family’s financial needs,” she said. That’s when Kharen became interested in growing vegetables.
According to her, even though her parents owned a farm, she never thought about growing vegetables until she realized how beneficial it could be.
Unlike Kharen, Telma, 62, also a resident of Brgy. Estrella, is used to growing vegetables.
“We just pick the veggies and save more on food,” Telma said.
Telma, who grew up in another province, went to Isabela with her family to work as a caretaker before deciding to settle there for a good more than two decades now.
“In our place before, there were almost no job opportunities, earning money was difficult and so was life. Here, there are lots of things to do to earn. We could farm, sell, and even fish,” she compared.
Taking steps forward
Persistent to learn and manage their vegetable farm, Kharen and Telma participated in a Farmer Field School (FFS) on Vegetable Production Under Good Agricultural Practices after they were approached by a barangay councilor.
This FFS is a training component of the ‘Gulayan sa Palayan at Pagnenegosyo sa RiceBIS Communities’ project of DA-PhilRice Isabela, which aims to pull up the net income of rice farmers by training them on how to grow vegetables sustainably and profitably. This is jointly implemented by the East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) and DA-PhilRice since 2020. The project was introduced in 12 barangays and was coordinated with them through the San Mateo municipal agriculture office.
For six months, the FFS enrollees underwent a once-a-month session, in which they were taught on crop diversification. EWS-KT allocated 500 m2 to each of the participants and regularly monitored their progress on vegetable production. The farmers also learned how to establish a market system for their produce.
While they held sessions at Estrella, demonstrations were done in not-sofar Brgy. Marasat Grande.
“Aside from the sessions and demo, we were also sometimes called for urgent and important meetings so we (classmates) saw each other often,” Kharen said.
To further optimize the opportunity, Kharen and Telma did not mind spending on farming tools. Kharen invests in the basic useful tools such as shovels, net fencing, pole pruners, and rechargeable sprayers. Telma, invested in a hand tractor.
Reaping the fruits
After graduating from the FFS on Nov. 7 2022, the two women and fellow 48 field schoolers are now on their way to reaping the fruits of their diligence and efforts.
Kharen continually works on her farm that now includes a 1.2sqm area, which her uncle allows her to use in exchange for voluntary help and support for his living expenses. She grows vegetables for the famous dish ‘pinakbet’.
Now that she can earn money through contact buyers and by retailing in the public market, Kharen has gained more confidence as she can help make ends meet for her.
“Vegetable farming was challenging at first. But now that I am able to count profit by doing this, I can feel life becoming somewhat easier now that I am able to help my OFW-husband,” she exuded pride in herself.
For Telma, now dubbed as the ‘Upo Queen’ for harvesting 7,414 pieces of bottle gourd that were sold for P130,238, anyone can tell that she has found success in pursuing vegetable farming as a career.
“My husband, Rodrigo, used to be against me growing vegetables as there is too much physical exertion and it requires a lot of time and attention. He somehow got convinced and is now very enthusiastic on helping me,” Telma said.
Besides upo, Telma also grows ampalaya, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, Chinese cabbage, and more, which she also sells in the market through contact buyers.
According to her, the change that she achieved through vegetable farming is very visible in her family’s life, and she thanks DA-PhilRice, EWS-KT, and the local government of San Mateo for this success.
Kharen Pascual and Telma Santiago are just two of the proofs that there is no age cutoff in passionately pursuing a career, and that gender does not limit the capacity of an individual when it comes to agricultural works.
