NorthMin still has majority of its land for agriculture despite its fast growing economy. With growing economy comes in population increase as people will flock to the cities to make a living which will result to a huge demand on food at our table.
Statisticians expect that in the next 4 decades the global population will increase to an estimate of 9 billion. In relation to food demand, on a 2014 study conducted by Dr Paul Teng, a Adjunct Senior Fellow in Food Security in the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, said that Asia tops the region where most hungry people are living. We assume that China and India has contributed in terms of population count.
Yearly in the Philippines, we are faced with numerous food shortages such rice or in livestock. As the demands increase – shortages surface. Almost weekly we see stories presented in the news on the scarcity. Worst, we see farmers suffer behind all of these.
We took a trip up towards the bounty haven of Bukidnon, a 45-minute drive from Cagayan de Oro, not to take a vacation but to see a farm and its owner. Our goal was to understand the role of farmers in food production and the economy.
We met Mang Ben, owner of more than 20 hectares of corn farms. Farming has been their family’s source of living from the moment that he laid his eyes on earth. He recalls that most of his siblings were able to finish their schooling because of the hard work their parents had done.
He has been farming for over 3 decades and just like the saying on TV Patrol – “Ang buhay ay weather weather lang.” he has experienced a lot of downfalls in planting crops – such as weather stresses and pests. These factors would mean lower quality and in quantity yield. A sad reality.
Mang Ben was all smiles telling us how he survived and getting through different challenges. He also shared to us that ever since he has been planting Dekalb corn seeds – he has seen drastic improvement on his yields. He added that they have seen resistance to corn burrows when using the seeds.
Mang Ben also took us to a portion of his farm and taught us how to harvest corns and even demonstrated how corns reproduce (LOL).
Do note that these corn seeds are sold to farms and being fed to pigs and chicken. That is explains the food chain.
No matter how progressive a country may be – farmers will still play a big role. We’re glad that farmers like Mang Ben is taking advantage on the the advancement of technology.
He is a living testament that Dekalb seeds have changed their lives.
30 decades. Ageless guy lol