“Agriculture Is The New Sexy” – Ramon Yedra. On Captivating Young Farmers Aged 18-30

“Agriculture is The New Sexy” – Ramon Yedra, on Facebook. Some synonyms of sexy: attractive, beguiling, exciting, winsome looks. When he was 18 years old, our National Hero Jose Rizal called the youth “Bella esperanza de la patria mia” (“Beautiful hope of my fatherland”) in his poem “Ala Juventud Filipina” (“To The Filipino Youth”). That was 142 years ago – what took us so long to cerebrate the youth winning in the business of agriculture?!

Above image shows the 6 national winners in the “Young Farmers Challenge: Kabataang Agribiz” of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Without identifying each image, Kristel Merle says (17 Dec 2021, “DA Hails Top Innovative Agribusiness Models Of Youth Farmers[1]” DA.gov.ph):

Outlasting competitors from other regions, the Top 6 that emerged to have the most Outstanding Youth Agribusiness Models are the “3R's Zero Waste Project” (Region II), “Smartlink” (Region IV-A), “Mac's Bounty Farm” (Region IV-B), “Lapaqueño” (Region XIII), “Agribata Brand: Instant Cereal Powder for Kids” (Region IX), and the “Dalikan Rabbit Meat and Chilli Processing” (CAR).

Personally, I take the search for business-minded youth by the DA with Mr Yedra as Director of DA Agribusiness & Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS), culminating 17 December, as an un/intended tribute to Rizal, whose heroism is celebrated every 30 December (1896) – executed at age 35, an uncelebrated, unknown but outstanding Mindanao farmer himself!

ANN says about this youth-in-agriculture-business program of the AMAS (Author Not Named, 17 May 2021, “Agribusiness And Marketing Assistance Service[2],” DA.gov.ph):

The Young Farmers Challenge Fund (Kabataang Agribiz Competitive Grant Assistance Program) is a competitive financial grant assistance program for the youth who (wish to) engage in (any agri-fishery-based enterprise). The Program (is) open to all interested youth with proposed business ventures with profitability potential (seen). The grants shall serve as start-up capital for the planned innovative agri-based micro-enterprise operated by an individual youth or as joint venture between two or more individual youth.

Kristine Evangelista, DA Assistant Secretary for Agribusiness says, quoted by Rosette Adel (11 June 2021, “DA Seeks Competitive Youth For ‘Young Farmers Challenge’ Agribusiness Grant[3],” PhilStar.com):

The main objective of this initiative is to encourage and motivate the young Filipinos to go back into farming and so we want to ensure that we give them assistance every step of the way.

Note: “To motivate young Filipinos to go back into farming” (my emphasis). Ms Rosette says Ms Kristine says:

The majority of the youth are no longer interested in agriculture. The average age of farmers as of 2018 is 57 years old. The number of farm workers has also declined at around 1.5% per year since 2007. Those employed in agriculture likewise declined to 9.8 million in 2020 from 11.84 million in 2015.

The beautiful hopes of the fatherland are losing courage in farming as a sexy expectation for rich personal lives. That is why we need such stimuli as Kabataang Agribiz, a challenge to the youth to bring out their love of family and country!@517

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[1]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-hails-top-innovative-agribusiness-models-of-youth-farmers/

[2]http://agribusiness.da.gov.ph/2021/05/17/the-young-farmers-challenge-fund-kabataang-agribiz-competitive-grant-assistance-program/

[3]https://www.philstar.com/business/2021/06/11/2104756/da-seeks-competitive-youth-young-farmers-challenge-agribusiness-grant