Moment 74 - Harvest Time

In the Philippines, summer is the best harvest season. During this season, rice fields are ever busy until the last stalk of rice will be harvested.

 One day, I chanced upon a family who were busy harvesting in a rice field. I really admire these people who work hard night and day in order to feed their family.  Squatting all day and all night, harvesting the rice until the entire stretch of the rice field is done is no joke.  

As I talked to them, I learned that a portion of the rice field had been entrusted to them during the harvest season. They would usually start cutting the rice stalks at dusk, even before the sun rises. When the heat of the sun is no longer tolerable, they would rest and resume during the mid afternoon. But they would prefer harvesting the rice at night when there is a moon, freeing them from the scorching heat of the sun.

Since they don't own the rice field and were tasked only to harvest the rice, their share is one-tenth of the total harvest. Normally, the sharing is by the number of sacks. The owner will set aside first the number of sacks equivalent to his spending, like the seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc. For the remaining sacks of newly harvested rice, nine sacks goes to the owner of the rice field and one sack goes to them. They said that with the current state of rice they were harvesting, they'll probably receive three sacks as their share.  When I asked them  about the price of a newly harvested rice, they answered that it will not go over 900 pesos per sack. After receiving their share, they would sell it right away and buy commodities for their every day needs.

It is such a sad reality that people who painstakingly labor to earn a decent living would only receive that much. With the family that I encountered, the three of them could finish harvesting two hectares of rice for a couple of days. For the parents, the needs of the family will come first in their spending. But for the kid who worked with them, he would be lucky enough if he'll receive a couple of hundred bucks as his share.