Youth, future of agriculture
AS ANOTHER year begins, the agriculture and agribusiness industry are once again reminded of the reality that most of the farmers are also inching towards retirement.
There could be a huge generational gap in farming as fewer younger individuals are getting involved in the sector.
The fear that the sector will not gain fresher and more dynamic prime movers in the future is said to be sown by the prevailing perception of farming as a least lucrative job and more tedious and only a fallback for those who have failed to finish or even start a degree. Youth are more enticed to take courses that they believe pay better and give them leverage.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said a closer look at the industry reveals it is not just tilling lands and getting hands dirty but a stream of opportunities.
“The common tradition and perception are that agriculture will be the least that you go to when all else is lost in education. Halimbawa, bumagsak ka, drop out ka, punta ka sa agriculture (Example, you go to agriculture when you are failed or dropped out in school). It should be the other way around. Dapat educated po ang ating nasa agriculture (We need more educated people in agriculture),” DA undersecretary for operations Ariel T. Cayanan.
He said the agency has been streamlining programs that would involve the youth in the complete value-chain.
The Department of Labor and Employment JobsFit 2022 Labor Market Information Regional Report bared that in Davao Region, there is a current demand for Field Technician Agronomist which requires a bachelor’s degree in agriculture.
“[It is a] position that will help the industry to promote products to the farmers and big landowners,” the report said.
The report cited data from the Department of Education in Davao Region (Deped-Davao) noting that as of November 2016, horticulture with 1,114 enrollees and agri-crop production with 768 enrollees ranked fourth and ninth, respectively in the Top 10 Technical, Vocational, and Livelihood (TVL) senior high track in public schools. There were a total of 19,647 students enrolled in TVL in 2016 and Deped-Davao projects that the same number of students will graduate in 2022.
The report from the Department of Labor and Employment-Bureau of Local Employment (Dole-BLE) further reported fewer chemists, agronomists, and agricultural applicants and has recommended the offering of new agribusiness industry-related degrees in state universities and colleges (SUCs).
The government and the private sector have launched various initiatives to lure more youth into the industry.
DA, for example, is currently offering incentives and scholarships to college and university students taking up courses in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, or veterinary medicine through Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund-Grant-in-Aid in Higher Education Program (ACEF-GIAHEP) as a way to encourage more youth to take these courses.
In 2019, DA has proposed an allocation to finance the agricultural enterprises of young farmers and has urged local leaders to make agriculture more profitable.
“The youth will not be encouraged to go into the business of food production if they do not see its economic benefits,” DA said in a release.
A coffee industry player in Davao City believes the interest of youth in agriculture and agribusiness is just waiting to be tapped.
Gina Ellorango, the owner of a third wave coffee shop in the city who also runs a coffee processing training, said the majority of her students were between ages 16 to 40 years old.
In the latest seminar she conducted in Maragusan, Davao de Oro, she shared most of the participants who signed up were in senior high or college.
“You will really see their interests from the way they ask questions and participate in the activities,” she said.
Those who graduated from her coffee academy were also inspired to go beyond just learning coffee postprocessing. They eventually ventured into coffee farming and further established their own coffee shops, thus completing the knowledge in the value-chain.
Ellorango is optimistic that by exposing them in agriculture, by showing them the value of the industry and by supporting their interests, the sector will be sustained.
“They do not know that on the farm there is money that you do not see. There is ecotourism, agritourism, you can do that. Show them the future. Mind setting lang yan,” she said.
This has been proven by an infomediary campaign that was launched in the Philippines around 2015.
Researcher Jaime A. Manalo IV said among the outcomes of the campaign is the shift of the students’ initial college degree preferenced to agricultural courses.
“In another school site, there are 60 students who all proceeded to take agriculture-related courses in college,” Manalo concluded in his report Youth and Agriculture: the Infomediary Campaign in the Philippines, an action research led by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).
The agriculture stakeholders are optimistic that their efforts will yield best results.