by Petronilo V. Casuga Jr.
On April 27, 2010, on the occasion of the Farmers’ Unity Meeting organized by the Bangon Pilipinas Party (BPP) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, I got the chance to listen to Nanay Tessie about her family’s situation as rice farmer in Muñoz.
“We had difficulties with our finances”, she said. “The loans we got from the traders were spent mostly on the children’s school expenses and farm inputs i.e. fertilizers and pesticides. Even before the harvest, our crops were already committed to the traders to pay off our loans and they (traders) dictate the price of our produce in most cases. There was very little left to us.” This was how Nanay Tessie, member of a multi-purpose cooperative (MPC) in Munoz Nueva Ecija, summed up her family’s situation. continue reading…





