Life of a rice farmer doesn't stop after harvesting. There are more process to be done before they can rest well such as the thing that I will talk about in this blog.
After a harvest, when the crops is not in good condition such as if it's not dry then we have to sun dry it immediately because the longer that it will stay in those sacks, the quality deteriorate even more. The excess moisture within the grains will produce molds plus the temperature inside the sack is hotter than normal when it's not dry. So instead of doing nothing and letting it go to waste, we decided to use the opportunity to dry it.
My weekend has been consumed doing this task together with my parents and cousins. As usual I woke up early even if my whole body don't have enough energy to get out of my bed. Because even if I'm used to the works in the field, still my body can get tired.
We're just lucky that we don't have to go to the road anymore just like the last time. The basketball court near our house is free atlast from various things that's why we decided to do it there.
After my breakfast I went to the basketball court immediately to reserve it for us since we're not the only rice farmers here in our place. If you want to use the court then you must be the one who will sweep it first just like what I did. Using a broom stick, I swept the whole area and after it we wait for it's surface to dry because the night before that day rained that's why it's a little bit wet.
When the surface is already dry, we will evenly scatter the rice grains within the court then we will use improvised tools to mix it, for the grains that's residing under it will get dry also. This process will be repeated until the desired dryness of the grains has met.
After it we will compile it at the center for it to be easily put back into the sacks later on. You need to straighten it up but I failed to do it as you can see in the photo below. It's just like that you've met on the same place but you're not destined to each other. haha.
For us we just did it the whole day and since the sun was burning up we only did it for 2 days, sunday and yesterday.
Even if the temperature made me to sweat a lot, I just endured it because if we will not endure it then we cannot gain profit from our crop.
Here in the Philippines if you want your products to be sold in a high price, you must do extra effort to make the quality good enough to pass with the standard they set. Especially in the field of rice farming, farmers are not given the right price for their crops. Even if the quality of the rice grains are top notch, still buyers will manipulate the price in favor of them. It's a huge problem which those who at the position can't see because they don't even go here in the field. In short, the sector of agriculture here has the potential to boom but I can't see their effort in running this sector. This is just my perspective here in our place and maybe this is the situation also in other places because we're in the same country after all.
As I've said in my latest blog yesterday that our rice has been harvested already but I can't help but to rant a little bit because I just can't accept the price they offered to us. It cannot be deny that the quality of our rice has been reduced due to the recent typhoons but still the price is not acceptable. Well no matter how I talk here it can't change a thing anyway but I'm hoping that my fellow filipinos here will know what's going on in this sector.
So what's the price they offered to us, it was 13.50 pesos per kilo that's why we decided to sun dry it for 2 days as I've talked above. This morning we went to the buying stations here and sold it. They get our crops with the price of 16, only 3 pesos has been added but it's a great increase already for us small farmers. With that price, it can give us a good profit already but still the loss is not covered with the profits because the damage was just to big.
Our capital before has been hit so we will roll it again on the next planting. Well it cannot be enough again since the price of the fertilizers in the market is still very expensive for real. It will put a heavy toll in our shoulders again so we gotta prepare for it.
And this is a portion of our life as a rice farmer again. If you've read this far friends, thank you for reading.
