ILOILO City – Western Visayas’ farmers are not getting any younger. A few more years and they would give up toiling their lands, and they are leaving them – to whose hands?
“Sin-o ang mabulos sa aton kaumahan,” asked James Ogatis, regional information officer of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Barely becoming senior, 57 is the average age of Filipino farmers.
Involving the youth in agriculture is the DA’s strategy to address the aging population of farmers and the dwindling number of professionals.
“We need more youth,” Ogatis said. “That is why gina-intensify gid naton ang pag–engganyo sa ila nga mangin involved sa farming.”
Agriculture should be pursued, especially by the youth, as it is the core of the country’s food security.
How can the youth take part in agriculture?
According to Ogatis, the DA has a program called Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs or KAYA.
“Pwede sila ka send sang ila nga mga proposals kon ano nga (agriculture-related) business ang ila patigayunon,” said Ogatis.
Under the program, through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, DA will provide up to P500,000 capital access to fresh agriculture graduates.
Ogatis also said the DA is also offering scholarship programs, especially to the sons and daughters of farmers and fishermen, through its Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
Under these scholarship programs, the beneficiaries have to take up Agriculture as a college course or any agriculture-related courses.
Ogatis releaved that ATI, an attached agency of the DA, has qualified three children of farmers from Western Visayas, particularly from Barangay Agusipan, Badiangan, Iloilo; Oton, Iloilo; and Negros Occidental. These scholars will be sent to Taiwan for technical trainings on farming.
He also said there were agriculture graduates who did not venture into farming physically but instead were hired in government offices. Some also preferred to work abroad.
YOUTH IN AGRI-BUSINESS
Ogatis said some groups of young people in the region are venturing into agriculture-related businesses.
“As per observation namon sa field, na-realize sang aton mga kabataan kag aton mga young professionals nga there’s money in agriculture. Kon makita naton, ang investment sa agriculture sector, ga-amat amat naman dugang,” said Ogatis.
For instance, Ogatis cited the members of the Agusipan 4H Club in Agusipan, Badiangan, Iloilo. They were mostly children of farmers.
“May mga projects sila – sagud sila native chicken, may mushroom production sila, into polvoron making (mushroom polvoron and cacao polvoron). With the help of Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), ongoing ang ila production sang dairy ice cream,” Ogatis shared.
Another example is the 4H Club in Hamtic, Antique.
“Isa ini ka example nga sa aton sector sang agriculture indi madali–dali madulaan sang manug–obra ukon manpower. There are still mga youngsters nga willing mag-get involved sa agriculture,” Ogatis stressed.
AGRI INTERNSHIPS
Meanwhile, another new program of the DA which also aims to develop competent, highly-skilled and employment-ready agribusiness professionals and entrepreneurs is the Mentoring and Attracting Youth in Agribusiness (MAYA) internship program.
Recently, out of 198 applicants in Western Visayas, 16 qualified.
The MAYA program, conceptualized by the DA in 2020, will provide experiential-learning and mentoring to agriculture graduates aged 20 to 30 years old.
“After the one-week basic orientation and expectation setting, they will have the leeway to choose between employment track or entrepreneurship track as their internship pathways,” as stipulated in Memorandum Circular No. 14 series of 2020 by Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
To keep them abreast of the different mandates and programs of the DA and the necessary tools in the workplace, the interns would undergo a preparatory training and mentoring at the DA office until April 9. They shall then be deployed for their 20-week onsite internship, and shall spend another four weeks for intensive management training module.
Interns who will select the employment track will augment the workforce in the different operating units of the DA, while those who want to pursue the entrepreneurship track will immerse with the identified farmers cooperatives and associations (FCAs) in the region.
DA through the Bureau of Agricultural Research listed 808 qualified MAYA interns nationwide who applied online.
Of these, four were from Aklan; one from Capiz; five from Iloilo; and six from Negros Occidental.
Certainly, more are needed./PN
