TADIAN, Mountain Province -- Layog Farm became the first agro-tourism farm in the province accredited by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as certified by the Provincial Small Medium Enterprise Development Council during their visit on July 14 as part of the Small and Medium Entrepreneur’s week.
Owner Flordelina Layog, who prefers to be called Auntie Lina, shared how the farm came to be and the best practices on their ways in terms of handling and managing a farm.
A sociologist by profession, Auntie Lina sold her property in France and invested in the 26 acre land in Kayan West, Tadian.
Working abroad was great but the calling to come home couldn’t wait and founded the farm on May 21, 2013.
Fifty years ago, Auntie Lina’s father had introduced them the value of the land. Their father believed that the land is a source of life and will provide whatever one needs. Instilled in her mind all the memories and advices given by their father, she pursues her dad’s dream.
Auntie Lina proudly shared she decided to put the farm to life again, putting into practice the good agricultural techniques, but at the same time do it with the infusion of 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 sustainable,” she said.
For someone who experienced climbing up and going down the mountain carrying harvest agricultural produced to the market since there was no road during their time, Auntie Lina wanted her children to be proud of having their parents as farmers.
“Farming is a profession in itself. I want locals employed here in the farm to be proud that they are farmers,” she added.
Layog admitted opening the farm was not easy and was difficult for her to leave the farm while it was starting to operate, but she had no choice because she sometimes had to go back home to France and Norway to visit her children.
Managing the farm to what she refers to as “remote control” or phone call every time she was not around was even harder. Despite this, she did not quit and believed that no matter how rough the road is, she will make it.
After all the problems, it does seem that all work Auntie Lina put into the farm paid 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 have stayed and worked at the farm for a week or two at most.
There were also those who were from 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’s, bamboo planting, making patopat and other tasks where they can learn about farming.
The volunteers worked six hours a day and during weekends, they went out and visited other areas or tourist spots.
With the presence of volunteers from different countries, intercultural exchange was experienced by the local farmers and other volunteers.
They learned from each other’s culture; most importantly, the experience gave the volunteers a chance to learn the culture of Igorots as farmers, how they live, and what they treasured most.
Layog Country Farm is willing to cater to individuals who are interested to experience farming the Layog way.
A registration of P1, 500 for the one to two (maximum) week- stay is needed. Layog Country Farm has two cottages that can accommodate a total of eight volunteers at the same time.
Each cottage comes with a furnished kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. The bedrooms is shared by two persons and the cottage has a capacity of four persons. Aside from the board and lodging, food is also provided which generally are harvested from the farm.
The farm has been accredited as a training site by the Agricultural Training Institute of the Department of Agriculture in January 2016. Recently, it is again the first ecology- oriented farm to be accredited as a tourist destination in the Cordillera region.
DTI–Mountain Province provincial director Juliet Lucas commended the management of the Layog Country Farm for its very fast-paced development. While things cannot happen overnight, Lucas remarked development in the farm is visible examples which are the inclusion of bamboo propagation, vermi-culture composting and others.
Aside from being ITO and ATI accredited, it was also accredited as a training site and an Agri-tourist destination. Those are manifestations that the “remote control” management of Auntie Lina did help.
For Auntie Lina, farming is a passion. This is the reason why she does not mind flying back and forth to the Philippines to oversee her dream farm and visiting her children in Norway and France. As she said, “you cannot delegate the passion to another.” (Laycha Marra and Alpine Killa/PIO-MP)