alex felipe
A House in a Carrot Field
©Alex Felipe
In October 2003 11,105 hectares were awarded as ancestral land to the Tala-andig tribe that has inhabited the area since before the founding of the Philippine republic.
Mia (as it's locally called) is composed of many small hamlets in the valley between Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan, each differing in appearance and status.
When I visited in late March 2005 I was housed in "Centro," the most developed of the hamlets and the only one with electricity. It was an odd halfway-house kind of place, it straddled older and newer ways of life. Some of the homes were wood and bamboo structures without electricity, while others had TVs and a second floor.
In all the hamlets pigs, chickens and cows were everywhere, and pretty much everyone's income was still bound to the land. The most common crop were carrots, but cabbage, potatoes, and corn are also grown. The problem though was the lack of transport infrastructure and the reliance of middle-men to sell the produce.
While I was there the carrots were being harvested and sold for a measly P5 (approx $0.10USD) a kilo. At the beginning of the harvest season the carrots were going for around P20-30/kg, but then with the rush to harvest the market was flooded and within days the price dropped.
At first glace most of the land seemed covered in crops, on closer inspection you'd see that a lot of the land lay barren. You see, some of the people didn't have the start up capital to farm their land, or they preferred to bypass the uncertainty and either work for wealthier individuals, or for the large asparagus agri-corp on the mountain. A lot of these people (especially those in the former group) were the poorest of the poor in the region. Local landowners paid as low as P50-P70 a day ($1-1.40 USD) to adults and even less to children. The main draw came from a reliable salary paid daily and thus not having to wait until harvest to get paid an uncertain amount.
This shot was taken in Salavan, a smaller hamlet of less than a couple dozen families. The simple wood home in the middle of a carrot field faces the public square and is fenced around by bamboo. The kids posed by the window as I was there and I had to make a choice of whether to get closer, or to change to a longer lens, or to just shoot. I chose the latter.
A House in a Carrot Field
©Alex Felipe
In October 2003 11,105 hectares were awarded as ancestral land to the Tala-andig tribe that has inhabited the area since before the founding of the Philippine republic.
Mia (as it's locally called) is composed of many small hamlets in the valley between Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan, each differing in appearance and status.
When I visited in late March 2005 I was housed in "Centro," the most developed of the hamlets and the only one with electricity. It was an odd halfway-house kind of place, it straddled older and newer ways of life. Some of the homes were wood and bamboo structures without electricity, while others had TVs and a second floor.
In all the hamlets pigs, chickens and cows were everywhere, and pretty much everyone's income was still bound to the land. The most common crop were carrots, but cabbage, potatoes, and corn are also grown. The problem though was the lack of transport infrastructure and the reliance of middle-men to sell the produce.
While I was there the carrots were being harvested and sold for a measly P5 (approx $0.10USD) a kilo. At the beginning of the harvest season the carrots were going for around P20-30/kg, but then with the rush to harvest the market was flooded and within days the price dropped.
At first glace most of the land seemed covered in crops, on closer inspection you'd see that a lot of the land lay barren. You see, some of the people didn't have the start up capital to farm their land, or they preferred to bypass the uncertainty and either work for wealthier individuals, or for the large asparagus agri-corp on the mountain. A lot of these people (especially those in the former group) were the poorest of the poor in the region. Local landowners paid as low as P50-P70 a day ($1-1.40 USD) to adults and even less to children. The main draw came from a reliable salary paid daily and thus not having to wait until harvest to get paid an uncertain amount.
This shot was taken in Salavan, a smaller hamlet of less than a couple dozen families. The simple wood home in the middle of a carrot field faces the public square and is fenced around by bamboo. The kids posed by the window as I was there and I had to make a choice of whether to get closer, or to change to a longer lens, or to just shoot. I chose the latter.