Where Nature is Home
There are places that simply grow crops. And there are places that grow something more — knowledge, livelihood, compassion, hope.
On the rolling hills of Sal-ing, Balilihan, where the air is cool and the green stretches as far as the eye can see, such a place has opened its gates. On September 22, 2026, Victoria Farm Balilihan held its soft opening — not with loud fanfare alone, but with a quiet, rooted purpose: to make agriculture matter again, especially to the young.
The story of Victoria Farm began in the early 2000s, when a family began to till and tend a piece of Boholano earth. It was named Victoria, after the mother of former Governor and Cogressman Edgar Chatto — a name that carried love and memory into the soil, and made the farm not just a project, but a legacy. What started as a small patch of gradual work has, over two decades, blossomed into a living, breathing landscape.
The morning opened with a warm welcome from Atty. Edgar Chatto, who spoke not as a statesman but as a son — steward of a family story that continues to grow with the land. His voice set a joyful, grateful tone, as if to say: we have come this far because the earth allowed us to be here. As he tends the farm, he makes sure that he does it on a voluntary status as a private citizen and in his private capacity. He always believes that “we do not need positions in government to contribute our share in community and nation building . We continue to advocate on people participation and people empowerment.”
Then came the deeper message.
Angel Enriquez, Regional Executive Director of the Department of Agriculture Region VII, said what many have been afraid to say aloud: agriculture is something worth investing in.” Yet, the young are drifting away from it, their eyes turned to screens, to cities. We must make them see — not just that farming feeds the nation, but that it can be their future, their livelihood, their pride.” Her words framed the new Learning Center not as a tourist stop, but as an answer to a national question.
Mayor Esther Patrisha Chatto of Balilihan added her own voice, highlighting how a farm that teaches is a farm that builds a community — how when we teach a child to plant, we teach a town to prosper. She emphasized on her stand that the farm is a classroom where hardwork is learned and character is earned.
With that, the ribbon was cut. The blessing was spread . Prayers rose with the morning mist and Victoria Farm Balilihan was formally opened.
But this is no ordinary farm to visit. It is a nature-based learning site and science laboratory — a classroom without walls, where blackboards are replaced by rice paddies and laboratories are filled with clucking hens and dancing fish.
Here, you learn by doing. By holding a native chicken in your hands. By scattering feed for ducks. By learning ready-to-lay chicken and egg production, fish culture and fishpond management. By touching the soil for vegetables, by caring for fruit trees, by bending over rice stalks, by growing cacao and banana, by smelling fresh spices and herbs.
You can try your hand at basic farming, native food preparation, fishing, feeding and caring for poultry and livestock, fish harvesting, and cooking demonstrations that bring the farm straight to the table.
And because learning today lives both in soil and in signal, the farm has woven technology into its fields — QR codes that bloom like digital flowers beside crops, linking to integrated organic farming technologies, and free Wi-Fi that lets students research while standing in the middle of what they are studying, all in pursuit of sustainable food security.
Supporting all these are gentle, welcoming facilities: a food lounge where stories are shared, a training hall, kitchen and dining area, clean restrooms, audio-visual facilities, a viewing deck where you can watch the sunset spill over Balilihan, and hiking and foot trails that invite you to walk slowly and breathe deeply.
Everything is designed to make you linger, learn, and understand where your food truly comes from. As they say at Victoria Farm: sometimes, the best way to understand where our food comes from is to walk straight into the farm.
Yes, Victoria Farm — Where Nature is Home!
