A likely typical farming community

Time was when almost every farming household hoarded stocks of corn stacked at its corner “swambi” or “sibay.” Like squirrels or teeming ants hoarding food, the old farmer never lacked corn to grind in their native stone “galingan,” or rice grains (“tepasi”) for pounding, when other sources get depleted. The more affluent farmers hoarded then their unhusked rice in the old “buri”-woven huge “bakiran” for storage.

 Now almost every rural family solely depends on the neighborhood store to buy a kilo of rice or corn grits to cook. Throughout Cebu now, there are no forests, but only hills or hillocks covered with small trees and brushes of vegetation and undergrowth undisturbed for years. Seldom are there small patches of cultivation or “kaingin” for corn staple, cassava, banana, and/or assorted root crops and vegetables, as sources of food, and/or for sale.

 Hill farming has long been dying and, the average age of farmers now is in the ‘60s or late ‘50s. Sadly, their children are averse to farming, especially those with secondary or higher education. Tilling the soil is unwritten taboo to them as they acquire education beyond the elementary.

 Some bright children who graduate college still depend on very competitive employment. The 2-year vocational graduates in auto-mechanic, welding, electricity, etc. also depend on private employment. Those with skills and experience work in shops, not their own. Many finally resort to driving “tricycles/trisikads/habal-habal,” rather than in farm work.

  Good for the lowland farmers, either their own, or tilling others’ lands on sharing basis. It is of easier cultivation with plows, and devoted to varied vegetables, like, string beans, ampalaya, eggplants, okra, squash, and assorted root crops that are saleable in the market. This lowland farming has become more productive with fertilizers, and water supply from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) irrigation system… But the hill or mountain “kaingin” that used to clutter the hillsides and arable mountain sides, has long become extinct.

 Very few exceptions though, like, Jose of Ilaya, Cabadiangan, and 83-year-old Dencio in Cambayog, who are still engage in hill cultivation. For instance, Jose cultivates about half of the 4-hectare southern face of towering Kamasyang overlooking the Cabadiangan valley. As incentive, the corn he plants is his exclusively, but he shares one-forth of his proceeds to the lot owner from banana, assorted vegetable and root crops sold, that is, beyond his family’s consumption.

 For “agaw” Dencio, he tills a small patch himself, despite his old age, as he proudly proclaims his good health, with no problem in climbing or descending the hillside. Incidentally, his 70-year-old neighbor fetches water half a kilometer away along a steep hill.

 Perhaps, the agricultural community of Cabadinagan is typical of all farming barrios, with its simple lifestyle and rural culture depicting the rural life. Like many barrios reached by electricity, many households have television sets. They are up-to-date in TV news info programs and socio-cultural drama series as their favorites. The better-heeled have bought for product transport the ubiquitous “multicabs”, or at least motorcycles, to traverse the asphalt-paved 5-kilometer road to the poblacion. A few even have luxury vehicles, especially the professionals and merchants as Cabadiangan is the permanent home of a great number of varying professionals.

Despite the dying hillside farming, these areas are nature’s reserves in case lowland cultivation may not suffice the livelihood of the barrio folk. While city or urban life with its various occupations and livelihood problems that entail mostly stressful situations and complex problems, the barrio folk are only prone to suffer physical fatigue, and lesser mental stress.