Lea Santiago’s Love For PH Farmers And Her Full Heart For “Gawat”

Lea Santiago is not your typical female when it comes to thinking about agriculture – she is advanced. But in revealing her age? Googling for it, or what year she established her agriculture business setup Our Farm Republic (OFR), I can’t find the information. Anyway, I got interested in her when I saw the Facebook sharing above – “Our Farm Republic” is not your typical name for an agriculture setup.

She is from Mangatarem, southernmost Pangasinan, sandwiched by Zambales in the west and by Tarlac in the east. “Mangatarem is primarily driven by agriculture[1]” (Wikipedia). And I must say, also in need of modernization.

On the website “Our Farm Republic,” http://ourfarmrepublic.com, Ms Lea’s OFR says:

We’re an integrated, diversified, organic farm in Mangatarem, Pangasinan that promotes agri-tourism and organic agriculture. We offer training and seminars, farm tours, fresh produce, and livestock.

What strikes me about Ms Lea is that I can feel her enthusiasm about PH Agriculture that I do not feel with other advocates of aggie enterprises, either male or female. And of course I was first struck by the fact that this lady comes from Pangasinan, my home province, and by her faith in organic farming, which first I came to appreciate myself 55 years ago, reading American pioneer Edward H Faulkner’s book Soil Development. (If I may guess Ms Lea’s age anyway, she wasn’t born yet at that time.)

Whatever her age, Ms Lea’s IQ must be high. Not a graduate of Agriculture, she has taken to organic agriculture like a duck takes to the water. The news release of 01 February 2021 says[2]:

A former two-term Marikina councilor and newbie to the agricultural industry is on a mission to eradicate “gawat” – the Ilocano word for “scarcity” – one farm at a time through Our Farm Republic (OFR). OFR is an integrated, diversified, organic farm in Mangatarem, Pangasinan, which promotes modern techniques and best practices among rice farmers through the support of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

The RCEF is national. Ms Lea thinks national, then local. Consider  the name of her farm: Our Farm Republic. The website does not explain the choice, never mind. But I’m interested in her initial interest in the Ilocano gawat, as I am an Ilocano myself, and from her province.

Gawat is an intriguing phenomenon.
Gawat is scarcity in-between plenty and plenty.

First plenty: Planting time when you (must) have funds for inputs – seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, labor. Next plenty: During harvest time, when you can sell your harvest. In between, 4 months at least, the Ilocano farmer has no money – gawat.

So, how does the Ilocano farm family survive during the gawat, which happens 2x a year? The family borrows from usurers, who are usually family or friends, but who if you borrow P5 will charge you P6, hence the term five-six, 5-6.

So! You have to provide farmers financial assistance – which the PH Department of Agriculture has been arranging for since William Dar became Secretary of Agriculture in August 2019, thank you Sir!@LIBs

 


[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangatarem

[2]https://pia.gov.ph/press-releases/releases/1065567

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