Here is another story of an empowered woman who, during her late 20’s has learned about agriculture and embraced it as a beautiful kind of life. Today, she vows to be an agriculture scientist someday.

“Bequeathing Indigenous Knowledge for the Next Generation”

Serving as the resource speaker of Episode 3 of Aggie Ps Talk season 7 titled, “Bequeathing indigenous knowledge for the next generation” was a woman of strength and courage that  broke  barriers and stereotypes against women. She was Ms. Nikole Ma. Nimfa Seno Alicer Kazemi, a farmer and the founder of Kalipayan Farms Agri Corporation located in Tenejero, Pulilan, Bulacan.

Ms. Kazemi explained that Kalipayan root word “lipay”  is a Waray term which means happiness. She also shared about her heritage as her family originated from Tacloban, Leyte.

The Kalipayan Farms Agri Corporation was put on August 13, 2016. It was born out of an insight into the importance of nutritional food and a longing for the family’s provincial life. It aims to build integrated family farm communities in a holistic lifestyle for improved nutrition and wellness, resiliency and profitability. Its mission is to pioneer and demonstrate a fully integrated and sustainable living environment, using appropriate technologies both traditional and modern, to share their knowledge with others for the benefit of the present and future generations.

The Kalipayan farms have organized farmers who practice natural farming on rice, crops and livestock. As it promotes natural farming, the Kalipayan farms use safe farming methods like crop rotation and inter cropping. They also use indigenous micro organisms that increase yield and immunity of crops, vermi composts and natural concoctions like fermented plant juices, fermented fruit juices as replacement of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and botanical sprays against insect pests.

The Kalipayan Farms have  an array of products and services.  They provide Farm Development through partnerships. Through this, their partners learn how to start their own farm by learning key concepts in farm planning, Soil Science, Crop Science and Pest Management. They also provide mentorship from technical experts, scientists, and private sector practitioners. Aside from the naturally produced rice and fresh farm fruits and vegetables, Kalipayan also offers sumptuous heritage recipes through the Kalipayan Restaurant Farm to table. They have vegetable mixes, coco puto, Iberian duck, vegetarian burger using banana blossom, vegetarian lasagna using mushroom and eggplant and a lot more.

Ms. Kazemi shared that just like any other agri-enterprise, she faced a lot of challenges in the farm from its inception up to the day to day operation but she treated those challenges as entry point for Innovation. In the onset of COVID-19 pandemic where mobility was limited, Kalipayan Farms needed to pivot by establishing  partnership in good food communities; created pop-up markets in Metro Manila for the produce to not go to waste; and  marketed products through social media.

As an advice to those who want to venture on this kind of  agri-enterprise, she encouraged them to start small; have a good plan before starting the business; and bear in mind that with every dream there is an equal peso value.

Lastly, Miss Kazemi was happy to share that there had been a lot of positive gains in natural farming and has proven the beauty that is gained from sustainable agriculture.

Watch the video through this link: youtube.com/watch?v=EtUjBQvT6A0&t=498s

(IMGesmundo)