‘The little and the unseen’

With her dark sunburned skin, dry frizzled hair, thin frail body and withdrawn demeanor, there was no doubt that Carina was representative of the hardworking women in the province. But don’t let first impressions or presumptions fool you.

I was doing a pre-interview chat with Carina for the BMeg Super Samahan Hog Raising Seminar in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, and ended up being amazed and inspired, realizing that even in dire straits people below the poverty line can teach us lessons in risk taking, courage, real resilience and honor.

For context, I was recently invited by BMeg feeds to host their new online show or podcast “Kita Mo Na,” where we visit far-flung locations, conduct hog raising seminars and hold live interviews of experienced backyard hog raisers along with Dr. Eugene Mende, the senior manager for San Miguel Animal Health products.

For this particular event, I had to fly an hour and 15 minutes to Cagayan de Oro (CDO), jump on a van for a four-hour drive to a mountain “resort” 20 minutes away from Gingoog City. We arrived at 9:30 p.m. and was pleasantly surprised that the resort was as cool as Tagaytay City.

We had it easy because the activation and production crews had to go days ahead, travel with a ton of equipment as well as BMeg products and giveaways. Plane rides and four-hour one way land trips are normal in staging BMeg Super Samahan seminars.

The next morning, I requested to meet the local guests before the interview and the first to arrive was Carina, a backyard hog raiser who experienced the highs and lows of hog raising.

It seems that jobs are hard to come by in the province and you are immediately at a disadvantage if your education is limited to elementary or high school.

Even worse is the fact that even if you managed to get a college degree, chances are you would be paid below minimum, as in P400 gross.

If you did get a job, you would be the equivalent of a domestic helper who is on call 24/7 instead of a five-day week employee. Carina also expressed her distaste for employers who curse and look down on people like her.

After working out her options and limited choices, she decided to do what many women in far-flung areas do – she went into hog raising. She somehow saved up enough money to buy three piglets and ran a credit line with the neighborhood animal feed store, whom she paid religiously.

After some time, the piglets matured into sows and all were soon pregnant. Carina counted the days with excitement, certain that the sows would give her tenfold of what she started with.

Then one evening the first sow turned feverish and sickly, then the second and then the third and all three ultimately perished. Not only did Carina lose her investment, but she also still had debts to pay.

While recalling her ordeal, tears rolled down her cheeks, showing how traumatic the experience was. But she kept her word, paid off her debts and studied where she went wrong.

She learned that a neighbor was ground zero for the infection, the feed brand she was using made the sows fat but not strong or stress resistant. The feed store owner told her to use BMeg Super feeds that cost more but are better quality.

Carina also concluded that she would be safer raising piglets to two months and selling them right away instead of six months just to breed for more piglets. From there, she started over.

Carina said that on average, she only made a small profit from selling the piglets but at the end of every month she made more than salaried employees paid P15,000 a month, didn’t have a boss and found joy caring for her cute piglets.

As she spoke, Carina intently looked me in the eye and said, with eyes almost pleading, “Sir, please keep doing these BMeg seminars for small people like us. No one sees us, no one teaches us or helps us. Kayo lang.”

Those words made me remember my “why,” why I join the BMeg Super Samahan seminars. We do it because it makes a difference for “the little and the unseen.”

Carina also asked us to bring attention to the plight of backyard hog raisers who risk their meager savings, go into debt and spend days, even nights, looking after piglets and sows, then lose money!

Why? Because well-known supermarket chains in the Visayas and Mindanao buy imported frozen pork and sell at P50 cheaper than local hog raisers. Local buyers of pork always quote supermarket prices to hog raisers.

As I hosted the “Kita Mo Na” live interview, someone in the audience appealed, “Please help small hog raisers find buyers. We feed our pigs continuously and we cannot stop feeding them like you close a faucet.”

“Can the Department of Agriculture consider buying from backyard raisers and selling them at their rolling stores?” Another asked: “Wala pa bang bakuna pang ASF?”

Perhaps it’s time for Secretary Kiko to give time and support for backyard hog raisers and not just the fisheries sector and rice farmers. The vaccine would do more for raisers than insurance that’s not locally available or affordable!

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