As heat worsens, Isabela farmers shift work to midnight

MANILA, Philippines — Long before sunrise, when most Filipinos are still asleep, 47-year-old Marlyn Pascua is already knee-deep in a rice field in Alicia, Isabela.

For Pascua and dozens of fellow farmworkers, the workday begins not at dawn but shortly after midnight.

As early as 4 p.m., she goes to bed to get enough rest before waking up at around 11 p.m. By 1 a.m., she and 29 other farmers are already transplanting rice seedlings across the vast fields of Barangay Salvacion.

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“Agraraep kamin (We start planting the seedlings),” they told the Inquirer, explaining that some workers even begin as early as 11:30 p.m. to maximize the cooler hours before sunrise.

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For Pascua, this schedule has become a necessity rather than a choice.

She has spent four decades working in rice fields, having started helping her family farm when she was just 7 years old. Over the years, she has watched the heat become increasingly unbearable.

“The heat is no longer bearable. That is why we take advantage of the cooler weather from midnight until early morning, until around 7 a.m.,” she said while walking across the fields under the night sky.

“If you work at midday, you become dehydrated, your blood pressure rises, and your body becomes weak,” Pascua said, adding that what farmers fear most is suffering heat stroke.

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Although the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration has stopped issuing daily heat index bulletins following the official onset of the rainy season, the heat index in Echague, Isabela, still reached the “danger” level of 42 degrees Celsius on July 2.

READ: Pagasa pauses heat index forecasts amid rainy season onset

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Despite working through the night to avoid extreme heat, the pay remains meager.

For every hectare planted, Pascua and 29 other workers divide a total payment of only P10,000. If they finish one hectare during their shift from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m., each farmer takes home around P333.

That reality reflects a much broader struggle faced by Filipino farmers.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, farmers and fisherfolk recorded the country’s second- and third-highest poverty incidences in 2023, at 27 percent and 27.4 percent, respectively. Indigenous peoples posted the highest poverty incidence at 32.4 percent.

READ: When those who feed the nation are the poorest: Farmers, fisherfolk in deepest poverty pit

Before indigenous peoples were classified as a separate sector, however, fisherfolk and farmers consistently ranked as the country’s poorest groups, with poverty rates of 30.6 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

READ: Fisherfolk, farmers, rural communities poorest in 2021 — PSA

For Pascua, the long hours, dangerous heat and low wages are compounded by another burden: working land they do not own.

She said farmers like her have remained landless throughout their lives and urged the government to extend more assistance not only to landowners but also to those who till the soil.

Her appeal echoes the long-standing position of former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, who said the poverty endured by Filipino farmers and fisherfolk is rooted in centuries-old landlessness.

READ: Day of the Landless: The failed promises of land reform in PH

Mariano, who previously chaired the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), told the Inquirer that wealth from agriculture continues to flow to a small number of landowners and corporations while rural workers contend with worsening landlessness, land grabbing and the effects of global food and economic crises.

He also noted the growing dominance of large corporations in agriculture, citing mega-mergers and multibillion-dollar deals involving companies that control seeds, fertilizers, agrochemicals, farm machinery and food production.

“We have seen mega-mergers and multi-billion deals between companies that have control over the global seed market, agrochemicals, fertilizers, farm equipment and machinery, and the entire chain of food production,” Mariano said.

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“Conglomerates are now among the world’s largest food producers. They have made a profitable empire while trampling upon the lives and livelihoods of farming families and rural people,” he added. /dm