When it comes to farming, the first thing a person thinks of is hard work, physical labor, and the stamina needed to care for crops and livestock. Because of this, there are stereotypes that farming isn’t a job for women, especially young women.
But with how the world has progressed today, we all know that isn’t true. Agriculture is more than just physical labor, and there are a lot of tools available to fill the gap of labor and strength.
Agriculture can be a field for women, and this is what Princess Anne Marcos, or Millennial Bukid Girl, strongly advocates for. Millennial Bukid Girl (MBG) is Marcos’ platform to promote agriculture to women and millennials and to make entry to farming less overwhelming for beginners.
Marcos is driven to promote agriculture to her audience in hopes to strengthen the sector in the country. (Princess Anne Marcos)
An agri advocate at heart
Marcos is a graduate of Industrial Engineering from University of the Philippines Diliman, a course obviously far from agriculture. However, the mindset she developed from this course paved the way for her interest in farming.
In 2019, before she graduated, Marcos was able to settle all her university affairs and had time to return to her hometown, Paombong, Bulacan. Upon arriving there she noticed something.
“I saw that our land was vacant,” Marcos said. She thought that the empty, unused land her family had was a waste and wanted to maximize its potential. “As an industrial engineer, the usual concept is waste management and optimization, so that made me think ‘why don’t I try to raise goats or cows?’”
That started Marcos’ curiosity for agriculture. She and her older brother invested in goat-raising and breeding, eventually turning the land into a farm optimal for livestock. Her curiosity developed to become a passion, and Marcos found herself joining social media communities focused on farming and raising livestock.
*Marcos has her own agribusiness raising, breeding and selling goats. (Princess Anne Marcos)*
“One time I asked how to cultivate a mango tree [on Facebook] because our land had a history of growing mango trees,” Marcos said. “Then someone commented immediately, saying my account was fake because I was a woman and I was young.”
That’s when Marcos realized that there is a stigma surrounding women in agriculture. It was as if interest in agriculture and fisheries were limited to a certain gender, age, and social status. This ignited something in Marcos and she was inspired to change the narrative.
She started the Millennial Bukid Girl, her online persona promoting agriculture to women and the youth. “You can notice that it had the words ‘millennial’ and ‘bukid girl’ because I was highlighting being a millennial and being a girl,” said Marcos.
Since she spent years in the metro, Marcos knew that there were a lot of urban folk interested in farming and gardening. However, she was told that entry to the field was intimidating and overwhelming. “I realized that it was good to have a platform for beginners where they can watch experiences of other ka-bukids so they can be inspired to start.”
Marcos was driven. In the same year she established MBG, she also founded her non-profit organization, Iyong Tanglaw. This NGO had the goal of extending help to her Paombong folk through projects such as clean-up drives, giving relief packs and supplies, and sponsoring scholars.
*Marcos’ NGO, Iyong Tanglaw, has projects to help the local farmers, fisherfolk and people of Bulacan. (Princess Anne Marcos)*Showing and living the bukid life
Marcos was previously featured by Agriculture Online as one of the young agri-Youtubers to watch. She calls her audience and her fellow agri-folk ‘ka-bukid’, and her videos are centered on her farming journey as a beginner and featuring different farms and agripreneurs from provinces such as Bulacan, Laguna and Rizal.
READ: A good harvest: YouTube agri-creators on the rise
She didn’t want to hide her mistakes as a new farmer, so she was transparent with her audience in order to assure them that farming can be learned. “For me as a beginner, there’s a big chance that the journey won’t be perfect or it won’t be smooth, so it’s a learning experience,” Marcos said.
The other side of MBG is featuring different farmers or agribusinesses. “I’m happy because I can help the ka-bukid to promote their products,” she said. “Just like the boatmaker for fisheries, he thanked me because he gained clients from Pangasinan, places like those.”
Marcos featuring a fiberglass fishing boatmaker in Paombong, Bulacan. (Princess Anne Marcos)
But when Marcos isn’t interviewing agripreneurs or seeing through her foundation’s projects, Marcos tends to her own farm where she raises and breeds goats and cows.
“It’s passive income. When I have a lot of goats, for example I have 30 goats, I would sell the goats to interested buyers,” Marcos said. “My [business] is still small in scale, so the community in Bulacan are my only clients for now.”
Marcos’ goat farm is a business she shares with her older brother and her family also has fisheries and a poultry farm, but Marcos’ true dream business is a piggery. To fulfill that dream, she saved up her earnings from her previous corporate job and invested in 30 piglets.
“But ASF happened,” Marcos said. ASF, or the African swine flu, is a highly infectious viral disease that affects both domestic and wild hogs. While it is harmless to humans and other livestock, it is fatal to pigs. All of Marcos’ piglets died due to ASF. “That just might be my greatest heartache in agriculture.”
But Marcos is determined. Despite the initial failure, she is still saving up to start another piggery. “I even want to call it Prei-ggery, because Prei was my nickname in school.”
Nothing stopping this agri-woman
Marcos doesn’t seem to run out of ideas to help promote her municipality’s agriculture scene.
For the first half of 2023, she is planning to establish a social enterprise highlighting her hometown’s specialty, Sukang Paombong.
“It’s made from nipa palm and it’s very organic. It just has to be fermented and nothing else will be mixed,” said Marcos. “I want to preserve our culture as Paombongeños.”
Marcos said that there isn’t much marketing for the product which is why her people don’t see it as profitable. Lands with nipa palm are converted to fisheries, which she finds alarming. As a proud Paombongeño, Marcos wants to raise her hometown’s product and continue its heritage.
Besides that, Marcos continues to spearhead projects of her foundation and extend help to her community by partnering with brands and services that can improve their lifestyle. So far, she has partnered with companies that gave fishermen free slippers and flip flops, haircuts, and other products.
She also continues to create content as MBG for her audience and to broaden her community. She said MBG has become a community of learners of teachers because while she is able to give tips to beginners, veteran farmers, on the other hand, comment on her videos offering better tips for her and everyone. “[The only struggle I have] is it’s hard to edit because I have a lot of work,” Marcos said with a laugh. “I don’t have a team so everything is my own effort.”
*Marcos featuring dragon fruit farmers in Calaca, Batangas. (Princess Anne Marcos)*
Marcos is truly driven to promote and improve the people’s opinion on agriculture. “My background is not at all agri, it’s engineering and I’m into community service,” she said. “But I’m showing that if I can do it, given my background, why can’t others?”
Marcos is heavily inspired by other influential agri-women she met during her farming journey, which is why she wants to be the inspiration for the women of her generation and the next ones.
As an agri advocate, Marcos leaves these words, “The pandemic has highlighted the importance of the agriculture and fisheries industry given the issues that we encountered in terms of food security. It is time to stop the stigma that the interest in this field should be dictated by a person's age, gender, or even social status. It is time that our generation contributes towards that.
“I hope to see the Filipinos to be more engaged and could see farming as a sustainable way of life. I have always believed that with the right government support and renowned youth interest, as well as maximization of the current advancements, our country can gradually have an agricultural revolution that will lead to the prosperity of our nation.
“Let's continue to empower one another in the field of agriculture!”