During our recent visit to my hometown in Bulan, Sorsogon, our main purpose was to ask my Dad about the particulars when it comes to palay production. It included the financial report, the key Bicol terms used, and the step-by-step process.
Palay production is one of the oldest businesses in the family for generations starting from our great grandparents. Although the lands being utilized for palay initially belonged to my Mom as an inheritance, it’s my Dad who managed them for the most part.
My Mom and my grandma (aged 72 and 94 now) some decades ago visiting the farm.
The aftermath of palay harvesting.
Engr. Daddy Farmer
There’s a reason why God chose Dad as Mom’s better half – he’s a civil engineer and formerly worked as a superintendent at the National Irrigation Administration (NIA). It was part of Dad’s tasks at work to oversee the irrigation system of the rice fields. A majority of Bicol’s lands is being utilized for agriculture and farming.
Dad and his palay superheroes. 😉
Dad, who is now 78 years old, was very impressed with what digital technology can do especially when I showed him the Microsoft Excel template I made for the financial report. That is, compared to his log notebooks now that are torn and tattered from constantly flipping the pages back and forth. 😀 And he does every computation manually and I’m like, whew, old school computation will be the death of me. Seriously.
Going back to Dad being an engineer, it was only now that I realized the extent of Dad’s responsibilities. All I know back when I was a kid is that he goes to the farm on weekends and on weekdays, he reports to the office. He held two offices – one in our town and one in the city as an OIC (officer-in-charge) during the later years of his service.
Indeed, being an engineer is no joke. But Dad is just the right person to manage the farm. How? It’s part of his duties as an engineer to manage a team, conduct accounting and financial reports, analyze how the irrigation systems work, make an assessment of risk factors, and a whole lot more of engineering stuff.
Bicol’s Farming Industry
Palay and rice are Bicol’s primary agricultural produce followed by copra (cooked coconut meat processed and converted to coconut oil). Through time, this type of agribusiness proved to be feasible enough although as of late Dad said the ROI from palay harvest dropped compared to the previous decades. One reason for this is the government’s decision to import rice abroad.
Rice planting season.
Circa 2010: Behind me is Bicol’s most popular tourist attraction – the perfect cone, Mt. Mayon and the source of the primary agricultural produce, rice.
The harvested grains.
Summer harvest.
My siblings and I plan to venture into organic farming. But, our parents said it can follow at a later date. I agreed because organic farming will be relatively new to all of us and it involves a wider scope of farming and management requirements. For now, it is just right that my siblings and I are learning everything we can about it first.
My parents plan to utilize a big portion of the larger farm based on the existing agricultural products we have and were proven to produce at a steady rate. I think this is my parents’ way of making sure the risks will be minimal compared if we will utilize a huge part of the property for an agricultural venture that we haven’t tried yet.
Transporting the harvested coconuts.
Some of the locals in our town dry this up and place several of them in a vase as preserved flower replicas.
Ripe coconut meat should be hard enough before harvested and converted into copra.
Dehusked coconut fruit.
There are still lots of uses for these coconut husks. I am thinking about combining it with soil as mulch or potting medium.
This is how Dad’s coco superheroes lay down the coconuts before cooking.
The cooking has just started.
Where there are smoke and the smell of coconut oil, there are coconuts. 🙂
How it looks like when they’re all cooked.
This is how it looks like up close.
My parents are open to the idea of organic farming. First things first though – establish in-depth land preparation to make farming management easier. The paperwork requires a long processing time though. So while waiting, I asked God for His leading what we should do for now. His answers led us towards the next steps – new opportunities came along in all forms depending on how God sees them fit for His purpose and according to His timeline. I sometimes can’t grasp how we can benefit from a particular opportunity, for instance. But later on, I get to understand why.
While in Bicol, I was able to talk to my parents and my 3rd sister who’s staying with them about my parents’ vision for the farm. Unfortunately, our stay was too short I wasn’t able to show them me and my other siblings’ vision for the farm in the long run i.e. social enterprise, retreat center, etc.
But that can also wait. My parents know best, anyway, which must come first since they’ve been in the industry for how many decades already. And yet I know the farm will benefit more from combining traditional ideas and farming practices implemented by our parents and new insights and innovative technological advancements from us.
Some 20 years ago. 😀 Me, our niece, and my 3rd sister.
Businesses Then and Now
Every business must fare well when it comes to adaptability if you want it to be self-sustaining and thrive in the industry – a transition from the old to the new or a mash-up of both. This is similar to what I learned from a recent financial seminar I attended – have multiple streams of income. In other words, you have to keep your options open.
In business, I believe there is no “best of both worlds” policy but always a “win-win” situation. This setup is suitable if you want to avoid major losses that can lead to your business/es going bankrupt. Having not just one type of investment will assure you of a win-win case because you don’t have to borrow money from lending institutions in case one investment channel is losing income instead of earning.
While talking to my parents and my sister, they shared other developments bound to take place in our town. And I felt nothing else but very relieved to hear the news. I even told my brother that the future is indeed very bright for the family project. I continued that it is not without a purpose when God placed a desire in our hearts to utilize the property back in 2017. It is about time – God’s perfect time. And yet, we still rely on our complete trust in God and how He wishes things to take place as well as the pacing.
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” – Proverbs 19:21
Back to the news, I saw them all as great opportunities for collective efforts and a productive collaboration among the community, the government, and the private sectors. Right timing, indeed.
God is always a God of perfect timing, isn’t He? But we all know that perfect timing is always preceded by patiently waiting. No wonder we were also placed on a standstill with the developments to give way to these other major developments that will later on have a huge role in our project.
It reminded me of this verse:
“Look at the nations and watch– and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” – Habakkuk 1:5
What Is the News all About
My apologies for running around the bush though but here it is. 😀 Remember the Bulan Auxiliary Airport that I talked about in this article? The development will push through until it becomes fully operational and news has it that the developer will be Ayala Land Inc., one of the biggest, if not, the biggest land developer in the country. I still have to confirm this though.
In another news, the construction of the Bicol Fish Port in our town has started and is ongoing. Yes, next to farming, fishing is one of the bustling livelihoods in our town. Our coastal waters are thriving with fish sanctuaries says Dad. I am not sure if it has something to do with the geographical location of our town or God just made it be that way to serve His purpose. Uhm, I believe in the latter. 😀
Bulan’s coastline.
Yet another news is that the Legazpi International Airport in Legazpi city, the city’s second airport, is now almost done.
The news did not stop here because I still have one more although I am taking it only as a rumor since I lack substantial proof. There is a possibility of it not happening but it can also come true.
There is news going around of plans to utilize a property as a subdivision. This property is situated on the way to our farm. If this pushes through, I see it as another big market with consistent demand and as a (future) supplier, this is one big opportunity.
A Vision of the Future
I am not claiming I have the wisdom of God but what I only share are my visions, which again, cannot be interpreted entirely as God’s will. But maybe we can get a message from them.
I mentioned in a previous article that our town is a “sleepy town” because of the low revenues during most times of the year. With all these recent developments, it is not impossible that the town will no longer be “sleepy” once urbanization and commercialization start ramping up.
I believe it is not by chance when I mentioned in my previous articles that maybe time will come our town will be the supplier in the Bicol region of basic commodities from agricultural products to seafood demands. And not just in the Bicol region but even across the globe.
I guess I was claiming it in my heart when I said that it is my vision that we, the Philippines, can send these commodities to other countries as our way of helping them alleviate problems of hunger and poverty. At the same time, an increase in revenues will also mean flourishing businesses which will provide more opportunities for the local community when it comes to other sources of livelihood and income.
Yes, I see all of these promising opportunities as a way to boost the country’s economy and one of the ways to solve poverty. The Legazpi International Airport, the Bulan Auxiliary Airport, and the Bicol Fish Port are all reliable channels when transporting goods. Now, there are more options to transfer goods from one location to another and not just by land. This will help cut down logistics and shipping expenses and travel time and at the same time keep all your perishable goods in excellent condition.
Bulan’s Auxiliary Airport.
If your products are all in good condition when they are delivered to your buyer, you’re assured of having a regular client as far as the business partnership is concerned. And more importantly, consumers will have the best products and will get their money’s worth. I am a consumer also and for me, these two are very important when I purchase goods – good quality and worth my money.
God Closes Doors Because He Knows the Right One for You
In another news, another God-given opportunity came along. I tried a lot of doors but God kept on closing them either because they rejected me or it was I who declined their offers. Why? He reserved this one particular career opportunity. I actually prayed for this opportunity – earn income but the work schedule and location, which will allow me to manage the family project on the side.
I felt it in my heart to resign from my previous work after I asked God for His leading. I ended up with this new job where I get to deal with every data when it comes to real estate. Once again, it is like hitting two birds with one stone because it has something to do with properties. What I can gather from doing research at work, I get to apply it in our family project or vice versa.
“Land development is both an art and a science. It is an art that builds on creativity, instincts and vision to transform an idea from concept into reality. As a science, it systematically progresses through a series of activities to accomplish a successful outcome — a new development.” – Professional Builder
Amazing is our God, isn’t He? He never fails to work His wonders all throughout even though there were times that I had to suffer for a while because I was waiting for His right time. And yet, what I suffered is nothing compared to the glory that He has reserved for us in the future. And I am not just talking about the good things here on Earth but what is in store for us after death – life in eternity.
Sometimes I get to think that what I do and everything I do now don’t really matter in the end. Because we all will leave this place anyhow. But I guess that is not just God’s purpose for us – to wait for our dying day. His purpose was for us to do what He asked us to do while waiting. And for what? The way I see it is that all these things that happen around us are never for our own glory but for His glory.
He wants His Name to be proclaimed from here, there, and everywhere. Yes, nothing else but that. Nothing is far better anyway than leaving a legacy to remember by in God’s name. 🙂
To end this article, I’d like to share these verses which I stumbled upon Godpreneur’s IG profile (a reminder):
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
– James 4:13-17
Are you a business owner? You might want to ask God if our town will be part of your business ventures in the future, too. 🙂
From a Bicolana farm girl by heart,
P.S. Because plans will be just plans with inaction, hubby and I made sure to push through with our recent visit despite some trials which almost made us cancel the trip. Thank God for clearing everything and here’s hubby enjoying his first time to cut open a freshly-picked coconut using a bolo. 😀
The Journeyman's Moments 