BEING the major source of what we eat everyday, the development of the agriculture sector is key into ensuring our food security in the years to come.
However, the agriculture sector in the country is plagued with a lot of challenges that poses a threat to the food security be it poor infrastructure, little access to finance, lack of research and development, land problems, and climate change, among others.
Aside from these, farmers in the country live below the poverty line.
Based on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) 2012, nearly 10 million farmers, including fisherfolk, in the country are either near poor, poor, and food poor.
The notion that going into agriculture would make you poor has somehow deterred some, particularly the younger generation, to start farming.
However, the government, through the passing of Republic Act 10816, also known as the Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016, hopes to alleviate the lives of the farmers and at the same time entice the younger generation to go into farming.
The law seeks to maximize the benefits the farmers can derive from agriculture and tourism combined.
"The reason why we passed this law because we want to add to the income of the farmers because they are among the poorest in the country. Another reason is we want to attract young people also because the average age of the farmers in the country is 57 years old," Senator Cynthia Villar, author of the law, said.
She said through the development of farm tourism, farmers will be able to generate additional income through the creation of value-added products, establishment of farm school, and as a tourism destination.
By providing farmers additional means of incomes, it will empower them in a way that they have more capital to expand their farms, develop new products, conduct research and development, and acquire better technology for their farms.
With a much livelier agriculture industry, we may entice the younger generation to get into farming. As more farms are established, we can be assured that food will continue be on our tables in the generations to come.