IT IS JUST A NUMBER
Wondering what that number is? That is the average age of Filipino Farmers according to recent studies. Literally, the Filipino farmer is a dying breed.
If this average age of our dying Filipino farmers doesn't bother you, let's imagine the following:
Our Military Force with an average age of 57. If war breaks out, will they be able to defend us?
Our doctors and nurses with an average age of 57. Should there be an epidemic (hope not again), will they be able to continue caring for our sick?
Think of any other professions with an average age of 57 and imagine the consequences.
SENIOR CITIZENS
The thing is, the professions mentioned are far from reaching that average age. Except for one- Filipino Farmers.
This is one stark reality. Our farmers are dying, both literally and figuratively.
We know that doctors and nurses are important, even the military or any other profession. Our life would be difficult without them. But it is much more difficult if we don't have people producing our food.
NO FARMERS, NO FOOD
One may live without visiting a doctor or needing the protection of the police or military. But not a single person could live without encountering the handiwork of a farmer. After all, WE ALL EAT. We need people to produce food. We need farmers.
DYING BREED
But farmers are declining.
Currently, we may have an oversupply of nurses, teachers, IT professionals. Some end up working in a call center or seek greener pastures abroad. Most of them are still looking for a decent job. While farmers are gradually disappearing.
Every year, our population increases. The need for food increases as well. Yet, our farmers are becoming critically endangered like a Bornean Orangutan. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure that there is a problem.
THE STIGMA OF BEING A FARMER
So why is it that the number of our farmers keep on decreasing? The stigma of being a farmer is instilled in our brains early on. I am speaking from experience here.
Oftentimes, I would hear a farmer say- I am working hard to send my children to school so that they would not end up like me- a poor farmer who doesn't know how to read and write.
I am not saying that farmers should not wish for their children to have a good education and eventually better fortune. But this is one of the many reasons for the declining number of farmers.
Early on, we are being conditioned that farming brings no good. We are told to be whoever we want to be- but not a farmer.
BE WHAT YOU WANT TO BE, JUST DON'T BE LIKE ME
As you have been made aware, we have a surplus of graduates in some professions. I would assume that they all know how to read and write. And right now- some of them are having a hard time feeding themselves. This, I think, is the greatest irony.
Our forefathers- the uneducated farmers, know very well how to feed themselves. Yet, we have an abundance of educated people right now but are barely getting any food on their plate.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING A FARMER?
Being a farmer- as a profession is lowly. This has become a stigma. Can't we all change this? Nothing is disgraceful in being a farmer. Let's go back and let's encourage our youth to be educated farmers.
Daniel Webster aptly said-
Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.
If we all realize again that our farmers are the founders of our civilization, probably one day, people would start to ask- HOW TO BE A FARMER?
And if we are lucky, maybe a bunch of them will decide- I WANT TO BE A FARMER!
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