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Sunday, September 15, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 334
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GROWING GREEN HOPE ZAMBALES YOUTH REDISCOVER THE WONDERS OF FARMING
GIVING BACK: Agriculture graduate Jerric
Espinosa shows how correct pruning of grape vines is done at the BCV Farm. HENRY EMPEÑO
B
By Henry Empeño
OTOLAN, Zambales—In this wooded campus of the President Ramon Magsaysay State University (PRMSU) that overlooks the sea at Barangay Porac in this town, hundreds of youngsters are planting the seeds of a sustainable future for Zambales. RED ’N’ RIPE: Chili ready for harvest at BCV Farm. HENRY EMPEÑO LEARNING SITE: Faith Rico welcomes visitors to the LA Farm Agricultural
Learning Center, one of several off-campus learning sites in Zambales. LA FARM
ENTHUSIASTIC LEARNERS: Denise Bea Umiten (left, second row) with her second-year agriculture classmates at PRMSU-Botolan. HENRY EMPEÑO These are the students—all 407 of them—who are taking agricultural courses at PRMSU’s College of Agriculture and Forestry. The number of students here wanting to learn about farming could be a tell-tale sign of a significant shift that may impact food security and sustainability in the province.
In a memorandum circular last year that launched a grants program to encourage youth participation in farming, the Department of Agriculture (DA) noted that with about 45 percent of the Philippine population facing moderate or severe food insecurity—according to the 2023 report on world food security and nutrition by the
FARMING FUN: Youngsters with corn harvest at LA Farm. LA FARM
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)—the national decline in farming becomes an increasing concern. And while experts say that threats to food security include natural disasters, climate change, conflict, and market factors like price fluctuations, the waning interest in farming appeared to pose a critical challenge. Citing figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the DA pointed out that the farming population in the country has been decreasing from 2014 to 2018, with about 9.7 million persons employed in the agricultural sector out of a total population of 110.4 million in 2019. That was less than 9 percent. Meanwhile, the average age
for Filipino farmers now stands at between 57 and 59 years old, because young Filipinos reportedly shunned agriculture in part due to poor income. This “raises concerns about who will carry out the important task of farming in the coming years,” the DA said in its 2023 circular.
Green is ‘in’
EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD Denise Bea Umiten, 19-year-old Lhane Gebrielle Moises, and 34-year-old Ryan Ferrer are among those taking agriculture studies at PRMSU’s Botolan Campus. But this was not their first choice for an education, which they know would ultimately be their occupation. “Initially, I was not inclined to do farming,” Ryan reveals to the BusinessMirror in a recent interview. He says he first studied Psychology at the PRMSU Main Campus in Iba town, but the pandemic Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.0690 n JAPAN 0.3953 n UK 73.5906 n HK 7.1863 n CHINA 7.8779 n SINGAPORE 43.0571 n AUSTRALIA 37.6840 n EU 62.0964 n KOREA 0.0420 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.9414 Source: BSP (September 13, 2024)