The First Narrative: Why I started this blog?

Hello beautiful people!

I’m Mae Mercado, an agriculturist from the Philippines. I am working at an international research institution based in Laguna and my current job requires me to integrate plant pathology, molecular biology and genetics to produce scientific outputs that would benefit the society that we are living in. Aside from being a fulltime researcher, I also do brush pen calligraphy (IG: letterings_by_mae) and song covers (Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mae-antonette-mercado). I believe that my brain is wired to be scientific and artistic at the same time (I’m not the best in both areas though).

So why am I writing a blog?

I initially wanted to do vlogs on YouTube. I wanted to share my passion for agriculture to a wider audience. In the Philippines, Agriculture is a profession that is not liked by the majority, particularly people from my generation. Filipinos prefer working in the cities and studying to be engineers or doctors or accountants. In fact, the average age of Filipino farmers is 57 years old (https://www.rappler.com/business/160106-tan-caktiong-sti-agriculture-education-philippines). I’ve always wanted to inspire younger people to try and venture in agriculture because it’s a promising field. After all, the Philippines is an agricultural country and the agriculture industry feeds the people. My heart yearns to share my love for my course but I really do not know where and how to start. The idea of vlogging/blogging came to mind one night while I was contemplating about my life, hence the blog.

Aside from seeing agriculture-related and geeky posts, I also intend to share some practical aspects of pursuing dreams and making career decisions. For the past eight years, I’ve shifted from one career to another, in the hope of pursuing a Doctorate degree and becoming a scientist. At this point in my life, I am a few steps closer to that dream and I wish to share my journey with you as well.

Now, let’s see where this adventure (blogging) will take me. I hope that my narratives will inspire you, motivate you and make you interested in science and agriculture.

Supervising a transplanting demonstration during the Farmers' Field School Training of East-West Seed Philippines in San Isidro, Leyte (Photo taken by Ms. ADR Monreal)

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