“When simple is more than enough, you will feel happy more than enough!”
This quotation from Mehmet Murat Ildan (a multi-awarded Turkish novelist, thinker and playwright) crossed my mind, as I came to know Janrey Casionan, one of ATI-CAR’s scholar under the Academic and Technology Integration Education Program or ATI-EP. The scholarship program was designed to empower interested Out-of-School Youths (OSYs) to become the next generation of young farmers. The scholarship was funded under the 4-H Program and ran from December, 2016 – May, 2017.
This quotation reflected Janrey’s perspective of life. Let us get to know him more.
The Hike: A Prelude to the Interview
Janrey lives in Brgy. San Marcos, Alfonso Lista Ifugao. Their barangay is a predominantly corn-producing area, a product that Alfonso Lista is known for. During the scheduled interview, Janrey met us at the Brgy. Hall of San Marcos. It has been years since I last saw him. He now grew his hair, a jungle bolo hangs in his waist and wears long-sleeved shirt and rides in a motorcycle. He smiled to greet us, parting his red lips and showing his red-stained teeth as a result of chewing momma. He seems happy to see us.
From the barangay hall of San Marcos, we slowly drove around 20 minutes of rough road into a drying pavement where we left our service car, since their place cannot be reached by our vehicle. I cannot see houses around except of corn fields that span as far as the eyes can see. We then hiked around 2 kilometers of rough and slippery road across corn plantations to get there. Luckily, the effect of typhoon “Florita” was not that severe in their area.
During our hike, I was able to prove again, that the word “near” is relative. It varies from one person to another. But for Janrey, a 2-kilometer hike along slippery and muddy rolling hills is “near.” The terrain, coupled with heat, forced me to rest from time to time to catch my breath. After around 45 minutes of hiking, we finally reached the site of his project.
Right away we documented the various components of his farm while there is still sunlight. After documentation, we settled for the interview.
His Dream Job
Janrey grew up in a farming family of 10. His father, Mang Dante, is from Mt. Province and Aling Margareth is from Mayoyao, Ifugao. He is the 6th of the 8 siblings. He finished his secondary education thru the Alternative Learning System (ALS) of Department of Education in 2018 (as part of the curriculum under the ATI-EP scholarship).
It has been my style to ask my subjects (specially youths) about their dream or what they wanted to become. I don’t know why, but it gives me a thrill to know their answers and whether or not they fulfilled their dreams. So, without exception, I also asked Janrey about his dream or what he wanted to become in life. To my disbelief, Janrey casually answered “I just want to become a certified farmer.”
I have thrown that question several times in my conversations with youths, but it was my first time to hear such an answer. I never thought that there are still youths who prefer farming against white collared jobs. I am mystified by his answer. Is he for real? What does “certified farmer” mean? I ignored my thoughts and continued with the interview.
Influenced by his friend, Janrey’s first dream is to become a soldier. However, when he got accepted in the ATI scholarship, he had a change of heart. With their engagements with various LSA proprietors, Janrey, was inspired by the story of Mr. Rogelio Marsan (a School for Practical Agriculture of ATI), who according to him, proved that there is money in farming. After soul searching, he realized that there is no peace in the life of a soldier and that he cannot supervise his family, thus his choice.
He has been criticized for his decision. According to him, bashers sometimes argue that there is no hope in agriculture. However, his decision is firm. He argued that his grandfather is a farmer and his father is a farmer and yet for generations they were able to survive and live decently and happily. Sometimes, there are misunderstandings but it is part of life, he said. He cited others whose job is not agriculture but ended up being hard up in life as well. He also cited that there are also rich who have all the material things in life but are not happy, he further justified. He believes in the usual dictum that agriculture can provide the basic needs in life as long as you are industrious.
His ATI Scholarship Journey
According to Janrey, he has no plans of going to college. He is done with learning only theories. He wanted actual application/practice of technologies. So, when he learned about the scholarship from his friend who is working as a job order in the municipal agriculture office in Alfonso Lista, he half-heartedly decided to give it a try.
He was interviewed by Mr. Ronan Soriano, a corn expert and a former staff of ATI-CAR. During the interview, Janrey was hooked with Ronan’s statement, that a stalk of corn can bear 5 cobs and that if he wants to know how, he should take the scholarship to learn it. Being a corn farmer, this solidified his decision to apply for the scholarship.
When he was accepted to the program, Janrey felt mixed emotions. He felt fear and doubt, because he doesn’t know what is in store for him and he fears the new environment where he is considered a stranger. He also thought of his family’s welfare because they will lose a helping hand. On the other hand, his family also feared what might happen to him since it was the first time he will be separated from the family.
Despite all these, Janrey pursued the scholarship program. According to him, he is tired of being hopeless when their crops are attacked by pests and diseases because he doesn’t know what to do. He realized that, if he will go through the scholarship, there is a possibility that he can learn new ways of farming that will enhance his knowledge and skills as a farmer. His desire to learn and to discover kept his hopes high.
According to him, his routine as a scholar is somewhat boring but challenging. To lessen the boredom, he usually goes at the ATI-CAR’s urban garden and converse with the workers. One of the challenges he experienced is dealing with co-scholars with various personalities and culture. He remembered an instance when a fight ensued between scholars because of these differences. To avoid drama, he just tried to get along with everyone.
His family showed support by checking on him from time to time and by sending additional allowance. When I asked if there was an instance when he almost gave up and quit, he answered that he was determined to finish the course and that there was no instance that quitting came to his mind.
According to Ms. Jam Balingan, the focal person for ATI scholarship program, Janrey is an industrious and responsible scholar who actively participated in every activity of the program. No wonder why he graduated at the top of his class with a Leadership Award.
His Life After the Scholarship
After the scholarship, Janrey endeavored to gain more knowledge in farming. He stayed in the farm of Mr. Villafuerte Camat (one of LSA cooperator of ATI-CAR in Lamut, Ifugao) to supplement his learning in the program. He said that his exposure in the 6-month program is not enough. There are some technologies (e.g. feed formulation) that interests him during the program but unfortunately, he did not fully observe the outcome because of lack of time. So, he decided to stay with Mr. Camat to learn more about organic farming.
Janrey claims that he learned a lot of ways of organic farming and he is now applying them in his farm. However, the concept and value of multi-cropping/diversified farming struck him the most. In fact, when I asked what change can he contribute to his community, he answered that it would be to encourage and convince his fellow corn farmers to adopt the multi-cropping system. He said that their present practice of corn monocropping is very risky because if pests hit, nothing will be left to the farmers. Whereas in multi-cropping, if one crop is affected by pests, there are still the other crops that the farmer can harvest and sell to have funds to start all over again. If the price of corn drops, their income is severely affected. Whereas in multi-cropping, if the price of one component drops, there are still the other components that can offset the loss income. In a way, this will make their farming more profitable and resilient, Janrey said.
The Benefits of his Experience as ATI-EP Scholar
Considering the short duration of the program, I am interested to know if really, there were benefits that he got from his experience as a scholar. So, I looked at him in the eye and asked him to answer me honestly. He replied “a lot”.
According to him, the scholarship provided him a sense of direction. He learned how to plan for his life. In fact, Janrey influenced his two younger siblings to pursue enterprise development and animal science as a course so that their agriculture venture will be complete and interconnected in the future. He has this vision of turning their farming into a family enterprise that has both crops and livestock component as well as the business aspect.
Moreover, aside from the farming technologies, his social skills improved. Janrey learned how to properly mingle with others and he confidently said that he can now converse with confidence to almost all types of people and personalities.
Furthermore, opportunities opened for him. People started to notice and respect him, especially Engr. Eugene Culimay, the Municipal Agriculturist of Alfonso Lista. Compared before, he is now offered trainings and seminars as well as partnerships. His attendance to trainings led him to be employed as an Artificial Insemination Technician (casual) by the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) for supposed to be 6 months. However, when he was to be assigned in Tabuk City, he decided to quit for personal reasons.
One good opportunity he got was the approval of his proposal to develop his farm to be funded by ATI-CAR.
The Fruits of His Proposals
With the help of Mr. Cristino Balancio, the head of the Partnership and Accreditation Services Section (PASS) of ATI-CAR back then, Janrey got an P80,000.00 grant from the 4-H program under the Extension Program for Agri-Fisheries and National Development (ExPAND). This program aims to provide extension support to proposed extension interventions of LGUs, SUCs, NGAs and the private sectors through catalytic financing and counterpart schemes. The program has two components namely: 1. The Training and Sustainability Support for Farmers, Farm Youths and Extension Practitioners; and 2. The Livelihood Support for 4th – 6th Class municipalities. Luckily, his proposal was approved under the category 1, in which one of the requirements is being a recipient of ATI scholarship program.
According to him, he used the P50,000.00 to buy the components of his farm and some farm tools. The P30,000.00 was used to purchase another lot from his grandfather that was mortgaged. He has both crops and livestock in his 1.5 ha. farm where he practices the learning he gained from his trainings on organic farming like crop rotation, crossbreeding etc.
He planted miracle plants which he claimed, can cure a variety of ailments (the fruit), thus the name. He also has dwarf coconuts, sweet guavanos, star fruit, bignay and native papayas. Janrey, prefers native papayas over the hybrid ones because his chickens love them more compared to hybrid ones (a sign that the lad is very observant). He also has citrus, lemon grass, katuray and of course bananas – a crop that Ifugao is also known for. In the entrance of his farm are 2 paddies of rice crops.
I noticed that Janrey loves fowls. He proudly showed me his prized Brahman chicken which he called King of chickens, which is really big compared to the native ones. Aside from chicken he also has ducks, Bengal turkeys and native pigs. He also has a water impounding area, which can be a potential fish pond. He also grows eggplant and okra in his main production area.
According to him, the farm is purely a corn area before the project came. Right now, he cannot maximize the area because some are rolling terrain. However, he planted 50 seedlings of durian and rambutan in the sloping part before to maximize the area but were destroyed by typhoons. Part of his future plans is to replant it again with permanent crops if fund will be available.
In terms of revenue, Janrey said that the farm does not generate a steady income yet. Majority of the produce were for home consumption, only those that are excess were marketed. However, there was a time that his onion venture gave him enough returns to purchase hogs, but unfortunately, they were killed by the deadly African Swine Fever. Only his bananas are giving him P4,000-5,000.00 a month.
As a way of giving back to the community, Janrey is giving free planting materials to those who visit his farm.
His Achievements and Future Plans
According to Janrey, he has not yet achieved great feats as a farmer. However, he decently claimed that if you ask for a young farmer in Alfonso Lista, his name resonates, especially in the agriculture office.
As a wrap-up question, I asked Janrey about his future plans for himself and the farm, and he answered “to become a certified farmer after 10 years.” There goes the mystery word again, but this time I did not let it slipped away. According to Janrey, a “certified farmer” means one who is successful enough to become an LSA, adopts farmers and youths and shares his practices to them.
After we wrapped up the interview, we walked to their house to meet his family. There, we saw ducks, chickens, goats and native pigs roaming around and vegetables and fruit trees planted on the perimeters. We also saw a stock of palay, a pumpwell, a wood stove, a makeshift comfort room and their simple house. But most importantly, we saw a simple but happy family that are supportive and proud of what Janrey has become. A picture that affirms Ildan’s quotation “when simple is more than enough, you will feel happy more than enough!”
Indeed, the great gift of happiness comes in simple packages!
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