rural development - Oxfam Pilipinas

Gerondio Ayson is 54 years old. He lives in Esperanza, on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. He is married to Teodora (also 54). they have 4 children who have all now left home. They take care of two grandchildren. Jerondio and Teadora are both vegetable and rice farmers and have half an acre of vegetable gardens. They inter-crop a huge variety of veg including cucumber, green beans, peppers, jute, loofah, green chilli, eggplant, squash and banana. They learned about inter-cropping and making organi" title="Gerondio Ayson is 54 years old. He lives in Esperanza, on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. He is married to Teodora (also 54). they have 4 children who have all now left home. They take care of two grandchildren. Jerondio and Teadora are both vegetable and rice farmers and have half an acre of vegetable gardens. They inter-crop a huge variety of veg including cucumber, green beans, peppers, jute, loofah, green chilli, eggplant, squash and banana. They learned about inter-cropping and making organic fertilizers at Oxfam's Climate Resiliency Field Schools. Jerondio used to only farm rice but after a stroke he decided to move to the lower lands and start growing vegetables as well. The work is better suited to his health as cultivating paddy requires long days working in the sun but vegetable gardening can be done at night when it's cooler. Photo: Tessa Bunney/ Oxfam

The magnitude of ongoing and planned agricultural investments, as well as the positive and negative impacts that such investments have brought about in the past, call attention to the need to provide safeguards to local small farmers and smallholders wanting to involve themselves in such deals. In particular, the current regulatory framework guiding agricultural […]