The drought situation has been getting worse every year since 2012. I have always listened to the government’s advice on water management: if they tell us not to grow, I don’t. So I stopped growing rice off-season in 2013 and have instead been growing Japanese melon because the price is good. I knew nothing about it but in the first year I had just 40 melons left over out of 300. The following year I tried a new method and managed to grow 400 melons out of the 700 I originally planted. These days I can grow about 600 melons and harvest all of them. 

I sell melon at B15 per kilogram. I invest about B5,000-B6,000 in each crop and sell for a total of around B50,000. This year I grew two crops. So yes, it’s better than growing rice. 

I’m a farmer. It’s my profession. And we all eat rice including me, so what’s the point in buying other farmer’s rice if I can grow my own? I also don’t trust other farmer’s rice, since mine only lasts three months after hulling—think how many chemicals must go into bags of rice on supermarket shelves for them to sit there for so long.

Learn by doing and adapting quickly. I worked in a factory for 16 years before I became a farmer. I was promoted to supervisor because I learned quickly. My factory sent me to Japan for three months of training. They dismantled a machine and my task was to put it together again over the next three months. I did it in one week. I used to spend a lot of time strolling around farms. Farmers have taught me that if you want to do something, just go ahead and do it and then learn from the results. In the early ‘90s I was bored of my working environment in a factory so I decided to quit and become a farmer, like my parents. It was hard work, which is why I didn’t follow them initially, but now there is good equipment to help farmers with their work. 

It’s in my blood. I have been growing rice since I could walk. All my savings I would spend on machines like tractors that cost B200,000. I used to grow rice three times a year and sell it at private mills. But after I calculated the money, I realized I was only making B50,000 per year. The cost of fertilizers and machinery meant I was barely breaking even. We needed to change our methods and grow higher quality produce, so several years ago I formed a group with my farmer friends to sell seeds for growing rice. Now I can sell at B20,000 per ton while the market price is only B7,200-B8,000 per ton. 

I can proudly say that I made the right decision. If I still worked in the factory, I might get B1 million when I retire, but life there was not happy. My parents never saw my face and I spent my time getting drunk after work. I run the risk of being bitten by snakes working in the rice field, but I’m definitely happier than I was as an employee as I have more time with my family. 

People in the city might view me as poor as I still have debts, but I feel they are poorer than me. I have land but they don’t. My oldest daughter has told me she wants to study agriculture and I’m really happy about that. I told her that if you want to be a farmer, you are luckier than most because you have land from your parents that most other agriculture students could only dream of.