In the farming community of Namnama, Alfonso Lista, Ifugao, there lived a couple named Kenneth Jacob and Susana Jacob who are both agriculture graduates from Ifugao State College of Agriculture and Forestry (ISCAF), currently known as Ifugao State University (IFSU). As a family of farmers, they own two hectares of land, two four-wheel tractors with rotovator, and a rice combine harvester which they manage with their son and daughter. Based on their narrative, their land was a bare mountain of grasses but later, turned into a fruitful farm that has various components. In fact, the large portion is being utilized for rice production, the parts are planted with fruit trees, and a certain area is used as fishpond and for livestock production.
The Humble Beginning
Life has never been easy for this couple. Admittedly, they were tried and tested by various challenges. In the name of a better future for their family, they both worked in the overseas. For five years, Mr. Jacob worked in a textile company in Taiwan while Mrs. Jacob worked as a domestic helper in Hongkong for almost ten years. After years of working abroad, they both decided to fly back to the country to build a family of their own. Through their savings and investments from working abroad, they started to venture into various businesses like supplying farm inputs, operating farm machineries, and lending capital to fellow farmers. At first, their businesses were doing well but because of the difficulty in collecting payments in which any other entrepreneurs struggle with, the couple eventually closed their lending business.
As the head of the family, Kenneth is in-charge of overseeing the farm and their businesses. To ensure the smooth flow of the farming activities, he does the supervising task and hires farm workers to do the labors. Farm operations, from land preparation to harvesting is mainly done by the farm workers.
As time passes by, he is becoming more interested in farming. He consistently goes to the field and observes every farming operation being done. To gain more knowledge, he actively joined farming-related seminars and trainings. In these endeavors, Mr. Jacob became more passionate in farming and gradually took over the entire management of the farm. Surprisingly, after he took-over, he noticed that his harvest increased compared to their harvest when he was still paying other farmers to do the jobs.
Banking his Hope on his Fellow Farmers
As his love for farming grew, his concern for the welfare of his fellow farmers also ignited. In 2018, he was elected as president of the Namnama- Lay-ong-Sinigpit-Irrigators Association Incorporated. According to Kenneth, being a leader of an organization is not easy. “Organizing or gathering them into a meeting is a challenge. You have to increase your patience and put extra effort,” he said. His role as a farmer leader became a big challenge for him that led him to believe the old sayings that “you cannot please everybody.
However, his longing to help his fellow farmers and his community kept him charging on. During his leadership the organization was able to acquire farm machineries like hand tractor with complete accessories, combine harvester, and a walk behind transplanter through the RCEF mechanization support. As per record, a total PhP 70, 000 as rent payment was remitted by Mr. Jacob to the association. Today, there are more than a hundred members of the organization already from the original 16 members in 2018.
With their concerted efforts, they were awarded as “Most Outstanding CARP-IC Irrigators Association in 2021.
The Faithful Convert
“Behind a man’s success lies a woman” so they say. While Kenneth is busy managing their farm, Susan does the household chores. At first, she strongly disagreed with her husband in joining trainings and seminars. She wanted to stop Kenneth doing farming operations as well and just leave it to the farm workers. Despite this, Susana still supported her husband, and over time, she learned the rope. One day, her husband obliged her to attend a Training of Trainers offered by ATI. She was hesitant at first because she thought that it will waste her time. However, as a loving wife, she agreed to her husband’s prodding. The experience was life changing for her. The training opened her eyes to the beauty of continuous learning.
She started appreciating the farming operations through her various exposure to the trainings her husband once participated into. In fact, she became more passionate about the venture and actively shared her learnings to their fellow farmers in their barangay. “As a woman and a wife, we play an important role not just in managing the household but also in managing the farm. We, women, could also do what men can do in farming,” she realized.
At present, all family members are involved in farming activities. Apart from being their livelihood especially amidst the pandemic situation, the farming activities serve as their family bonding, too.
“When it Rains, it Pours”
In 2019, unexpected opportunity opened up to the family. Staff from Agricultural Training Institute- Cordillera Administrative Region (ATI-CAR) led by Engineer Randy Soriano and Ms. Fe Villa, Agricultural Extension Worker of Local Government Office in Alfonso Lista, Ifugao were set to carry out a monitoring activity of the Palayamanan Plus Project which happened to be situated on the same barangay where the farm of the Jacob is located. It was a gloomy day when they arrived in barangay Namnama. They were exactly at the vicinity of Jacob’s farm when the rain poured down. Mr. Jacob noticed them and offered his house for temporary shelter while waiting for the rain to stop. Upon seeing the farm of Mr. Jacob, Mr. Soriano thought that it has a potential of becoming a Learning Site for Agriculture (LSA), an extension modality being used by ATI. He then briefly discussed the criteria and encouraged the couple to apply. Successfully, Jacob’s farm was officially certified as one of the ATI’s learning sites in Ifugao last December 4, 2019.
As a result of the great news that the couple has received, Mr. Jacob’s thirst for agricultural knowledge inspired him to attend more trainings such as the Training of Trainers (TOT) on In-Bred Rice Production, Training on Farm Layout, Design and Landscape, Basic Training Course for Inbred Rice Seed Production and Certification, TOT on Farm Machinery Operation and Maintenance, Pest and Nutrient Management, Training Workshop on Farm Mechanization Operation Management and Enterprise Development, among others. The said trainings significantly helped him improved his farming skills, knowledge and production. With his belief that knowledge multiplied by sharing, Mr. Jacob took the opportunity to apply and became a Farm School cooperator under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). As a Farm School, they will serve as training providers of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) modified Farmer Field School (FFS), a perfect venue to share his knowledge and skills in farming to his fellow rice farmers.
The Jacob Farm was the first to conduct a Farmer Field School in Alfonso Lista, Ifugao in 2019. The FFS is designed to train farmers on various topics such as pests and diseases management, soil fertility and water resources management, local varietal selection and purification, farm mechanization, marketing, record keeping and financial literacy.
Operating the farm school is hard, says the couple. Despite all the efforts and motivations, some trainees are still getting absent and some do not make it to the entire duration of the training. “It’s saddening because they will surely miss much,” Mrs. Jacob exclaimed. Another challenge that Mr. Jacob added is to strongly convince their fellow farmers to follow the recommendations and techniques being presented to them. “Despite all the positive testimonies and outcome explained and showed to them, they still insist on their old belief and practices” narrated by Mr. Jacob.
Despite these issues, the Jacobs persevered even more. They continued to encourage the farmers to learn new ideas and try new technologies and practices. Their farm school already facilitated three batches of FFS- one batch in 2019 with seventy-five graduates (75), ninety graduates (90) in 2020 and one hundred twenty-five graduates (75) in 2021.
Their efforts paid off and was given a certificate of appreciation for sharing the farm school’s Best Practice in Implementation of Rice Extension Services Program (RESP) from TESDA.
The Jacobs’ Teaching
As advise to their fellow farmers, Kenneth said “Do not concentrate in one commodity, try to engage in other activities, integrate other business into farming.”
“Always grab the opportunity to attend seminars and trainings whenever there is. Learning one or two ideas that will retain in your mind is already a substantial knowledge that you can always apply in your daily life” Susana added.
Amidst all the challenges, the couple is steadfast to continuously teach and conduct trainings for their fellow farmers. Thankfully, their aspiration even grew more as they started eyeing to become an organic agriculture program (OAP) training provider. They also started building a lodging facility and plans to expand their training hall to accommodate more trainings and trainees. Moreover, they also initiated more landscaping projects in order to add more aesthetic values to the Jacobs farm.
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