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| Focus group discussion with members of the Layog clan. Photo by Michael Reyes, Jr. |
Our last destination for our permaculture journey is LayogCountry Farm in Tadian, Mountain Province. We were supposed to visit in
mid-October but Typhoon Ompong prevented us from doing so, thus the trip was
moved to November.
We travelled by van via Ilocos Sur (a first for all of us)
and arrived a few hours before our expected time of arrival. We were greeted by
Tex Layog, a proud Igorot and member of the Layog clan. He is the brother of
Flordelina Layog Olaussen (or Flor)—a permaculture designer who studied at Cabiokid, Nueva Ecija together with Enrico Navea of Lorenza’s Garden and Food Forest Farm in
Isabela. Flor, an OFW, was our initial contact for the trip but she had to go
home to Norway to be with her family.
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| The farm entrance. Photo by Jabez Flores. |
We weren’t the only visitors in the farm at that time. There
was a trio of American students and a German couple volunteering at the farm.
They found the farm on the internet. After a delicious lunch of pinikpikan (a
special chicken dish for special occasions) we proceeded with our usual farm
tour with Layog cousins Jeremy and Max. This was the highest permaculture farm
we have visited (around 900 meters above sea level) and going up and down the
mountain slopes was very challenging! As we went up the mountain side we passed
by native pigs, vegetable beds, a fish pond, fruit orchards, lots of coffee
trees, and native trees we couldn’t even recognize. As the air was becoming
thin, we finally arrived in Olaussen Permaculture Park—Flor’s pet project
bearing her surname. It was a beautiful sprawling garden strip with a rock
garden at the end. The team decided to gather data from this area because we
couldn’t study the 27-hectare property in 3 days!
Culture and food. These were the highlights of our trip here
in Mountain Province. The Igorots are permaculture designers and organic
farmers by default. They may not have a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) certificate but they have a special
relationship with nature. It speaks to them and they listen. They know how to
respect nature and the food they eat. And they know how to give back what they
take. This natural cycle of life is already part of their culture.
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| Researchers, Ara and Jabez, gathering data at Olaussen Permaculture Park. Photo by Michael Reyes, Jr. |
The question now is do indigenous people still need to learn
permaculture? Do they need to hear about a new concept? The answer is both no
and yes. Permaculture is mainly derived from indigenous knowledge and is
packaged for the consumption of our homogenized modern society. This was a point
made by Marit Parker in her article 'Why My Farm isn't a Permaculture Farm.' Permaculture brings people back to nature. Even
indigenous people are not immune to the lure of modern living, that’s for sure.
But what permaculture can offer to people like the Igorot is affirmation that
what they have done in the past is certainly the way forward toward a
sustainable and regenerative future. What we may call ‘permaculture’ today is
simply the ‘culture’ of some people.
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| Orientation with Lex Layog and the volunteers and staff of the farm. Photo by Michael Reyes, Jr. |
The vlog episode for Layog Country Farm will premier at 8 PM on YouTube and Facebook on February 21.
Side Note: On our way back home, we passed by monocropped
farms of high value crops in Benguet. It was a stark contrast to the
permaculture design of Layog Country Farm which blends practices such as
agroforesty and organic farming. It’s disheartening to see whole mountains
converted to single crop desserts. We hope that Layog Country Farm’s success
would influence its neighbors to practice sustainable and regenerative ways of
food production.
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