As in any job or career, if ‘S 11’ is the only thing in focus, then one may be jaded when first getting into farming. Little do people know how labour intensive farming is. And there is no weekend, public holidays or medical leave as you can’t put the growth of a plant on hold. What you need is a good team of dedicated farmhands, one responsible and experienced ‘mandur’ and management you can rely on to ensure the workload is shared and the workflow continues. With good teamwork, modern-day machinery and well-planned schedules, the workload can be made a little lighter, even fun. We are able to testify to this from our many experiences, one such with ubi kayu, also known as cassava or tapioca. Although it is said to be a lazy farmer’s crop it can’t be said at harvest time. A kerepek (crisps/chips) maker sought our tapioca and first purchased one tonne then returned for more. “The quality is good as after frying, the kerepek is golden brown, light, fluffy and crispy,” the buyer of our ubi said. There was once (or twice) when we harvested over two tonnes in a day. It required lugging tree by tree, then twisting and turning the tuber root vege lose (some as heavy as 3kg and 5kg), followed by packing them in gunny sacks. Then ferrying these sacks, weighing anything from 70kg to 90kg each on kapchais to the access road is something else. Watch our video to see how our skilled and strong farmhands make it seem so easy. When harvesting this crop, there is no time for long breaks, just a quick packed meal had under a tree to meet the pick-up time. Together, workers and management have harvested over seven tonnes for this buyer who was kind enough to give us some packets of tapioca crisps to try. Like Arnie’s famous line “I’ll be back,” this buyer too said he’ll be back, but to buy more of our ubi kayu.
