By Joe Espiritu
Bohol Sunday Post
Some barangays have been thinking of providing livelihood projects to their constituents. It is easier said than done. It will need a lot of effort by the community workers to teach the residents how to run their endeavor. And that would be the hardest part especially if one is dealing with fisherfolk.
The culture of the fisherfolk is different. They live on the hunting and fishing stage of civilization. Their initial investment is on the fishing gear. Unlike the farmer, fisherfolks do not produce. They do not plant. They let nature do the growing for them. They only harvest. Since they do not plant, they do not care or tend what they have planted. They only harvest and after they harvest, they do not use their assets carefully to make them last until the next harvest season. And since harvest times can come at any time of the year, they do not manage their assets carefully.
However, the fisherfolks do not live an easy life. Sometimes the catch is scarce. Sometimes stormy weather sets in and stays for long periods especially during monsoon seasons. All they can do is live off their meager assets since they have no proclivity of using them judiciously.
To them, sustained effort is tedious, a thing to endure until one can benefit from its effects. Backyard gardening involves, tilling, planting, watering, tending, and weeding before one could harvest. If one goes into backyard livestock raising, he has to breed, wean, castrate if hogs, feed and clean before he could be able to sell his produce. With such outlook like those, introducing them to manage a livelihood project is not easy.
In temperate countries, one has to work to survive. There are at most five months in a year to grow ones food before wintertime sets in. Both the farmer and the fisherman have to produce food and make money until the cold prevents them from venturing outside to work. The farther north one lives, the shorter is the production time so one has to scramble to amass enough reserves to tide him over the long cold season.
Here we are living in a tropical country, which has only two distinct seasons, the rainy and dry. One can fish at any month of the year, so he is assured of a whole year round income. Stormy days will come but it will stay for at most a week only. A fisherman can be assured of a living the whole year round even if it will just be enough to get by. If one has no old age pension, he can rely on his children to keep him alive until his time is up in this world. So why kill onesse4lf working?
However, the slow tempo of life is disappearing. There are more mouths to feed and the catch is getting scarce. The sea can no longer afford a decent way of life. Past administrations have pumped in money to induce the fisherfolk to find another source of income. Without proper preparation, the grants and dole outs had gone to waste. Perhaps this time a better program is to be introduced.
Before a grant or dole out is to be offered, recipients will have to undergo some sort of indoctrination and a course in entrepreneurship. Only those who have passed the course will be provided capital. At the same time market research will have to be conducted. Assurance of product sales will have to be provided. If and when the project is abandoned through sheer laziness there must be someone who will be able to pick it up. Since this will be introducing another way of life, the process would be slow and tedious but there is no other way.
Bohol Sunday Post
Some barangays have been thinking of providing livelihood projects to their constituents. It is easier said than done. It will need a lot of effort by the community workers to teach the residents how to run their endeavor. And that would be the hardest part especially if one is dealing with fisherfolk.
The culture of the fisherfolk is different. They live on the hunting and fishing stage of civilization. Their initial investment is on the fishing gear. Unlike the farmer, fisherfolks do not produce. They do not plant. They let nature do the growing for them. They only harvest. Since they do not plant, they do not care or tend what they have planted. They only harvest and after they harvest, they do not use their assets carefully to make them last until the next harvest season. And since harvest times can come at any time of the year, they do not manage their assets carefully.
However, the fisherfolks do not live an easy life. Sometimes the catch is scarce. Sometimes stormy weather sets in and stays for long periods especially during monsoon seasons. All they can do is live off their meager assets since they have no proclivity of using them judiciously.
To them, sustained effort is tedious, a thing to endure until one can benefit from its effects. Backyard gardening involves, tilling, planting, watering, tending, and weeding before one could harvest. If one goes into backyard livestock raising, he has to breed, wean, castrate if hogs, feed and clean before he could be able to sell his produce. With such outlook like those, introducing them to manage a livelihood project is not easy.
In temperate countries, one has to work to survive. There are at most five months in a year to grow ones food before wintertime sets in. Both the farmer and the fisherman have to produce food and make money until the cold prevents them from venturing outside to work. The farther north one lives, the shorter is the production time so one has to scramble to amass enough reserves to tide him over the long cold season.
Here we are living in a tropical country, which has only two distinct seasons, the rainy and dry. One can fish at any month of the year, so he is assured of a whole year round income. Stormy days will come but it will stay for at most a week only. A fisherman can be assured of a living the whole year round even if it will just be enough to get by. If one has no old age pension, he can rely on his children to keep him alive until his time is up in this world. So why kill onesse4lf working?
However, the slow tempo of life is disappearing. There are more mouths to feed and the catch is getting scarce. The sea can no longer afford a decent way of life. Past administrations have pumped in money to induce the fisherfolk to find another source of income. Without proper preparation, the grants and dole outs had gone to waste. Perhaps this time a better program is to be introduced.
Before a grant or dole out is to be offered, recipients will have to undergo some sort of indoctrination and a course in entrepreneurship. Only those who have passed the course will be provided capital. At the same time market research will have to be conducted. Assurance of product sales will have to be provided. If and when the project is abandoned through sheer laziness there must be someone who will be able to pick it up. Since this will be introducing another way of life, the process would be slow and tedious but there is no other way.
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