The Malaga grandad whose farming tips went viral

It all began about six months ago. Dani, one of his 15 grandchildren, had decided to start his own vegetable garden and began asking him for advice. One day, while Manuel was explaining how to do things, Dani decided to film him so he could refer back to his explanations whenever he needed to.

“He posted it on social media so that other people could understand it too,” says Manuel.

The video was posted and, to their surprise, it went viral. “It turns out there are lots of people who have vegetable gardens but don’t know how to do certain things,” explains Manuel.

Since then, the account '@lagranjadedani_' has continued to grow. The pair currently have around 165,000 followers on Instagram, 79,000 on Facebook and 90,800 on TikTok.

The story started to take shape when Dani returned from the Philippines, where he had spent four months travelling. “I came back specifically because I really wanted to spend time with my family; above all, with my grandfather, who loves the countryside,” he explains.

It was at that point that Dani decided to set up a vegetable garden. Whenever he had a question, he turned to his grandfather. Their conversations eventually became short videos that Dani saved so he could refer back to them later.

One of the first videos he posted was of Manuel picking an orange. "He was in the video picking the orange and I asked him, ‘Grandad, what are you doing?’” The response had an unexpected impact.

"In just one day, it had 200,000 views, and loads – thousands and thousands – of supportive comments,” Dani recalls. He then posted another video with his grandad. And the same thing happened again.

"That’s when that grandad-grandson bond was formed, where he’d explain to me what he was doing, how to do it, and I’d be the apprentice.”

"The formula worked because, behind every piece of advice, there were decades of experience. When he tells me about these tips, I go straight to my plot and try them out. And it turns out they work… because he's tested them over many, many years,” Dani points out.

That practical nature of Manuel’s advice is precisely one of the keys to his success on social media.

"He’s made an impact on social media for that very reason: because those tips work. And there are loads of people commenting on his posts every day.”

Manuel has been working for practically his whole life. “I’m 82 now, but I still go out into the fields and enjoy working. I don’t want to get ill just so I can keep working,” Manuel says. “The thing is, I never stop; I’ve just got loads of energy.”

His connection with the countryside began when he was just a child. “I left school when I was five, and started working when I was eight. I’ve had very little education, very little.”

Throughout his life, he has also worked in construction and other trades, but he has never stopped farming. “I’ve always had plots of land because it’s always been my dream,” he says.

His knowledge stems from a time when, for many families, learning to farm was a matter of necessity. “I learned so much because we were out in the fields day and night. We slept in the fields. We worked in the fields. That doesn’t happen anymore.”

Now, decades later, Manuel is keen to share everything he knows with his grandson: “I’m always there for him because he loves it and so do I – let’s not kid ourselves.”

Manuel’s success isn’t just about the figures. A large proportion of the comments he receives come from people who see their grandparents and relatives in him.

“There are lots of comments comparing me to their families, and they’ve brought me to tears,” explains Manuel. He reads many of the messages he receives. “I enjoy reading them; they really mean a lot to me, because people appreciate and praise me… and my grandson even more so,” he emphasises.

Most of their followers are in Spain, with 20 per cent coming from Malaga. But they also have followers in Italy, Argentina, Uruguay and even Germany.

Manuel’s success also highlights a problem affecting the countryside: the ageing workforce and the difficulty in attracting younger generations.

He believes that today’s young people have other priorities. “They’re better qualified, better educated, and they don’t want a life on the land,” he points out.

For him, part of the problem lies in the working conditions. “Young people see that you get very hot, you sweat a lot, you work hard… So someone who works in a factory or an office usually doesn’t want to work the land.”

Just this month, the latest ‘Direct aid and rural development' report has been published. Compiled by the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund (FEGA), the report details that over 40 per cent of farmers are aged over 65, whilst young people account for barely 11 per cent of the sector.

However, Manuel has also seen a different side to this trend thanks to social media: “There are loads of young people who leave comments, who have their own vegetable gardens thanks to us, and who are learning a great deal.”

For Dani, that reaction was a sign that there was a need to be met: to revive and share knowledge that is at risk of being lost.

Manuel and Dani’s project is beginning to extend beyond social media. They both plan to set up an academy for traditional agriculture, offering both face-to-face and online courses. The idea is to fund part of the project with the revenue generated by their Facebook and YouTube videos and to collaborate with professionals in the sector.

Dani says that they want to develop the project at a steady pace: “We need to analyse it very carefully, because we want to do things properly. And for his sake, because it’s his legacy.”

They also plan to explore other formats, including creating podcasts for Spotify and publishing a book that Dani is already writing.

Despite all the projects that have sprung up around Manuel, for Dani the most important thing isn’t the figures, the videos or the followers, but the time he spends with his grandfather. “I’d feel empty if he weren’t there,” he explains.

And perhaps that is the real secret behind the success of the Manuel Bonilla phenomenon: having turned a relationship between a grandfather and his grandson into a way of passing on knowledge that seemed destined to be lost.