Risalio at 46, with wife Anita, 44, live a simple life of gratitude.
"If the basis of a success story is the material things, sorry to tell you, I don't have those things," says Risalio. For him, “success is not measured by the material things, it is measured by what is in your heart and what makes you a better person”.
Manobo couple Risalio and Anita Adatan can attest to the challenges of living in the remote mountain community in Sitio Bugwak, Barangay Nabaliwa, Pangantucan Bukidnon to survive and make a living.
The Adatan couple comes from a family of farmers. "Since childhood, we were hands-on in the farm as our parents involved us in farm activities," Risalio says. The farm is at 1,117 meters above sea level where mostly White Lauan “Shorea negronensis” and Corn “Zea mays” were planted.
"We wanted to make use of the land and its elevation that's why we planted coffee which can also prevent soil erosion", Anita added. Hence, they picked coffee wildlings and use the indigenous traditional planting method, “Tusok, Ligwat, Tanom, Tikang” (Pin-off, Harrow, Plant, Step) as a result their one-hectare lot has 2,500 Coffea Arabica planted mostly Typica and Bourbon varieties.
The partnership of Philippine Coffee Alliance, Inc. (PCAi) and Forest Foundation Philippines (FFP) for the introduction of the project entitled "Empowering the Coffee Value Chains of Forest Communities via Community Based Social Enterprises" provided them the opportunity to learn farm practices such as proper spacing when planting coffee and the proper storage and handling of coffee cherries from harvesting, drying and segregating.
With the knowledge gained from modern farming and the use of community-based post-harvest equipment, Anita is ecstatic to adopt the technologies whilst Risalio is eager to apply the newly acquired ideas and concepts of modern farming.