MindaNews » The woman farmers of Ibuan and Hawilian.

By Keith Bacongco
March 8, 2012

LANUZA, Surigao del Sur (MindaNews/07 March) – Who says farming is plainly a man’s work, and women should not do it simply because they could hardly endure this backbreaking job even if the family’s survival is at stake?

This isn’t so in the case of women like Gloria Bolando who shares this tedious job with her husband apart from doing household chores at the same time.

Bolando, a Manobo mother of six in sitio Ibuan, barangay Mampi maintains a four-hectare abaca farm in addition to growing sweet potatoes or camote, banana and vegetables for sustenance. Her husband plants corn and other root crops in a separate tract of land.

With their parcels of land located in different parts of the village, she makes sure she could work for a day in one of these farms. But on Sundays, she has to rest because they have to go to church.

Nestled in the mountainous portion of this coastal town, sitio Ibuan is home to both the Mamanwa and Manobo tribes who are growing abaca in the slopes of the village for a living. One can reach here via barangay Agsam, which lies along the Lanuza-Surigao City national highway. The main mode of transport is habal-habal or single motorcycles, although four-wheel drive vehicles can negotiate the dirt road depending on the road condition.

In an interview, the 53-year old mother said she inherited the land, which is part of the ancestral domain, from her parents.

“This was already cleared by my parents a long time ago, they have been planting root crops here for hears, “ said Bolando as she stood on top of a fallen log beside the abaca and banana farm, which is nestled in the middle of the forested slope.

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