From Agricultural to Pasture and Commercial Land: Its Cause and Effect

Last Monday, I left home around 6:20 in the morning and started walking to the main road or highway to look for a tricycle going to the terminal. While walking, I took pictures of various scenes that captured my eyes. I also took a photo of the farmland along the way while riding a tricycle to the bus terminal since I needed to ride a bus going to work. While waiting for a bus, I looked at the various scenes I’d captured as I looked into it, I realized changes had happened to our community and the nearby town.

During my childhood years or teenager, I could still remember these farms or agricultural lands nearby our house was planted with corn, mangoes, peanut, and sugarcane. It was cultivated and planted by the owner. But right now, these agricultural lands are already barren and turns into a pasture and commercial Land. It was already covered with grasses and other vegetation and grew abundantly. Cattle, calves, carabao, goats, and other livestock or domesticated animals were fed on it.

Why does this land is not cultivated? What is the main reason why farmers did not cultivate their land anymore and left it barren and turn into grassland. I remembered the saying learned from one of my professors in college, “There is no barren land, but there is only a barren mind”. Does their mind barren too? Simple because , they lack knowledge on how to cultivate such land ? Or they lack knowledge in agriculture since their parents, who were real owners and real farmers, died already? These are the questions bothered in my mind and I’m worried about this situation. To whom do we blame this? Is there a right person who could explain this scenario? Maybe our government has a significant role in this. Our farmers need support coming from our government officials.
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Many of us do not want to engage in agriculture. Farmers sold their agricultural land and converted it into commercial land aside from pasture land. Buildings were built, and others were turned into commercial spaces. Look at that picture above, it was a sugarcane plantation, but now it is a gasoline station and Commercial spaces. These situations caught my attention. Becoming an industrialized municipality and even a country may damage our ecosystem, environment, and our primary sources of food.

Agriculture is our country's backbone. It is essential to our country's economic growth and development. Who will cultivate our agricultural land if agriculture is not present? It will be turned into commercial space. Right? What might happen to our country if most of our Agricultural land is converted into commercial land? Of course, this will result in climate change or global warming and flooding. And that is what we are happening right now.

If most of our land will convert into commercial, where can we get enough supply of rice, corn, sugar, and other farm products? Our school children do not want to enroll in agricultural courses in college, despite having a free tuition fee. They want to live in this world with so much comfort. Not knowing that this life is temporary. If we will not educate the mind of our young generation on the importance of agriculture, then the time will come we have nothing to eat. Even how rich we are but if we don’t have enough supply of food, all of us will suffer. So, act now while it's not too late. Spread the love of agriculture for future generations.

. Thank you for reading and I hope that you learn something from this blog.