Tadian, Mountain Province- “Good morning! Welcome to Layog Country Farm!” was the greeting coupled with a welcoming nod, sweet smile, and lovely relaxed pace and grace of the owner of this farm in this municipality as she offered a cup of fresh lemon grass tea that made every visitor feel at home.
It was an extraordinary experience for the members of the Provincial Small Medium Enterprise Development (PSMED) Council during their monitoring visit at Layog Country Farm on July 14, 2016 as part of the Small and Medium Entrepreneur’s week.
The farm is owned by Ms. Flordelina Layog who prefers to be called Auntie Lina. During the visit, she shared with the members of the PSMED Council how the farm came to be and its best practices in farm handling or management.
A sociologist by profession, Auntie Lina sold her property in France and invested it in the 26 acre land in Kayan West, Tadian. Working abroad was great but the calling to come home couldn’t wait so she came back and founded the farm on May 21, 2013.
Fifty years ago, Auntie Lina’s father had introduced to her the value of a parcel of land. Their father believed that land is a source of life, wherever you may be, one way or another it will provide for you. Instilled in her mind all the memories and advices given by their father, she pursued her dad’s dream.
Auntie Lina proudly shared to the group that when she decided to bring back the farm to life again, applying the good agricultural techniques learned from the community’s forefathers was her best option but coupled with modern sustainable farming technologies and systems. It was her dream to retain the farm, retain the mountain, and retain the good cultural and sustainable farming practices of “our forefathers. I have my own identity. I am an Igorota. We have lots of practices that are good and sustainable,” she said.
From someone who experienced climbing up and going down mountains carrying agricultural produce to bring to the market since there was no road during her younger years, Auntie Lina want children to be proud of their farmer parents. “Farming is a profession in itself. I want the locals employed here in the farm to be proud that they are farmers,” she added.
She admitted that opening the farm was not easy. It was difficult for her to leave the farm every now and then while it was starting to operate but she had no choice because she sometimes had to go back to France and Norway to visit her children. Managing the farm by “remote control” or phone calls every time she was not around was even harder. Despite this, she did not quit. She believed that no matter how rough the road was, she would make it.
After all the problems, it does seem that all the work, sweat, tears and blood Auntie Lina invested in the farm are now paying off. Recognized by the International Tourism Organization, the farm accommodates volunteers from the Work-Away Group. These volunteers come from different countries and have different professions. So far, volunteers from 32 countries had stayed and worked at the farm for a week or two at most. There were also those from the Visayas and Mindanao. The youngest was a three-year old Chinese volunteer and the oldest was a 62-year old engineer from Finland. These volunteers were given tasks such as planting fruits, vegetables and flowers, weeding, vermi-culture composting, taking care of the livestock, bamboo planting, making patopat and other work from which they can learn what farming in the Cordillera is all about. They worked six hours a day and during weekends, they could go out and visit other areas or tourist spots of interest.
Having foreigner volunteers resulted in knowledge and intercultural exchanges being acquired and experienced by the local farmers and the volunteers. They learned from each other but it was more of the foreigners learning the culture or ways of life of Igorots as a people and as farmers.
Individuals who are interested to experience farming the Layog Country Farm way may volunteer as the rest did. A registration fee of Php1, 500 for the one to two (maximum) weeks of stay has to be paid. The farm has two cottages that can accommodate a total of eight volunteers at the same time. Each cottage is complete with a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. The bedrooms can be shared by two persons and the cottage can accomodate four. The fee takes care of the board and lodging and the food mainly comes from the farm.
The farm has been accredited as a training site by the Agricultural Training Institute of the Department of Agriculture on January 2016. Recently, it is the first ecology oriented farm to be accredited as a tourist destination in the Cordillera and is now considered an organic farm.
Provincial Director Juliet P. Lucas of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)–Mountain Province commended the management of the Layog Country Farm for its very fast paced development. While things cannot happen overnight, Lucas remarked that development or changes in the farm are obvious such as the introduction of bamboo propagation, vermi-culture composting, among others. All this show that the “remote control” management of Auntie Lina was effective enough. But things could be a lot better if she could be around most of the time.
Auntie Lina’s secret? For her, farming is a passion. Thus, she does not mind all the trouble and expenses her alternating her time here and in Europe entail. As she said, “you cannot delegate passion to another.” **Laycha K. Marra & Alpine L. Killa, PIO-MP
