BEFORE food is served on our table – from ginataang monggo to sinigang, paired with rice to have a complete meal – it takes days and months for the farmers to produce. Every grain of rice is important because it is produced through the sweat and blood of the Filipino farmers.
Farming takes back-breaking work and determination. Despite the great importance of agriculture and farming in the global economy, farmers face major challenges such as inadequate support from the government, high cost of inputs, low price of palay, and climate change.
These challenges are what pushed Christine Jodloman to help the Filipino farmers.
Being raised in a poor rural farming community, she observed the lack of young farmers and the lack of motivation of older farmers to nurture food. Narratives on agriculture in her community were also negative, mirroring the realities on the field. Her vision is to bring back the lost passion of Philippine agriculturists.
“Ironically, many of these food producers belong to the country’s poorest sectors and are vulnerable to hunger. This scenario continues as a cycle not just in my community, but in many rural farming areas in the Philippines,” Jodloman said.
This realization led to the establishment of Food Secure Philippines, a movement where young farmers empower rural farming communities in North Cotabato to achieve a sustainable farm-to-fork-lifestyle.
This non-profit organization was inspired by the project Palay (Program Accelerator on Local Agripreneurship for Youth) Initiative, a winner of 2016 Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Small Grants Competition funded by the US-Embassy Manila. This initiative is a five-day intensive program designed for the participants to learn business and technical skills on the use of technology and entrepreneurship in agriculture to contribute to the socio-economic development of their food and farming system.
The target participants of the Food Secure program included the unemployed children of farmers, aging 18-30 years old in Midsayap, North Cotabato. It aimed to develop them into future farmers and agripreneurs. With the passion and commitment showed by the youth during the Palay Initiative, there are high hopes in solving poverty and hunger in rural communities – even at the grassroots level.
Her undergraduate thesis entitled, “Key Messages on Climate-Smart Rice Varieties for Farmers of Midsayap, Cotabato” at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao led her to a deeper understanding on the ageing farmers in rural communities. Her study aims ito develop messages based on the socioeconomics, communications needs, and innovations relevant to farming.
Their mission is to enable rural farming communities to be food secure, healthy, and business-minded. Aside from Agripreneurship, their team also applies Faith (Food Always in the Home) Gardening that aims to reduce family’s food expenses by growing vegetables in their backyard. This movement has trained and are working with 300 Bangsamoro, and indigenous peoples, specifically Manobo and Maguindanaon tribe, in rural farming communities in North Cotabato.
Their team conducts an Agripreneurship Learning Camp, which consists of activities such as community vegetable gardening, farm tour exposure, and Food Secure Philippines Summit.
As a food security advocate, Jodloman is a Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Academic Fellow trained at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2015. She is also a trainee of the Hiroshima Essential Training at Hiroshima University in 2018 and the Filipino delegate to the Youth in Agriculture Summit in Brazil in 2019.
Rewarding her efforts on agriculture projects, Jodloman is the first Filipino recipient of the Young Global Changers scholarship in Berlin, Germany in 2017 and the Mindanao Youth Champion by “The 2030 Project” and awarded the Youth Agriculture Champion by Greenpeace Philippines.
Currently, she serves as the Adviser of Food Secure Philippines, and Special Projects Officer of Agrea, an innovative inclusive business founded on fair-trade, sustainable agriculture. Her role is focused on the advancement of youth and women in agriculture, through capacity building programs, sustainable livelihoods, and policy interventions.
“Agriculture is not just about growing food, it also means growing the future. We need a future with a thriving agricultural sector, where people and planet are prioritized. I believe that the youth are willing to be more involved in agriculture when it’s communicated in a positive way,” Jodloman added. Althea Therese Amaga/Contributor