Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John Castriciones has directed the expansion of coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to include retirees of the agency "for as long as they are graduates of any agriculture-related courses."

Castriciones made the announcement during the distribution of individual Certificates of Land Ownership Award or CLOA, covering 111.29 hectares of farmland, to 88 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Barangay Baretbet, Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya last January 18.

"This is our way of expressing our gratitude to our retirees for the services they rendered and for sharing their expertise to the Department," Castriciones said.

He explained that the move is intended to preserve the agricultural lands for the country’s food security program as "it gives our soon-to-be retiring DAR officials and staff new avenues to practice their know-how for food production."

He added that the initiative is based on the presumption that "he who takes agricultural courses will embrace farming with all their heart."

Earlier, Castriciones had also made a similar encouraging announcement when he declared that fresh graduates of any agricultural courses are eligible to avail themselves of at least three hectares of farmlots to serve as farm laboratories on which they could apply the theories and best practices that they learned from their schooling.

The DAR chief said the three-hectare to be awarded to CARP beneficiaries applies to all, be they landless farmers, agricultural courses graduates, or DAR retirees, who are themselves graduates of agricultural courses.

Castriciones had pointed out that the country is not lacking in providing educational training to the youth in the fields of agriculture, agricultural engineering, forestry, forest engineering, and related fields.

Citing the CHED's report, the DAR official said there were a total of 26,861 graduates of academic degrees in agriculture from state universities and colleges, other government schools, and local universities and colleges during the academic year 2017-2018.

Despite this, the number of graduates in agriculture and related fields are reportedly decreasing.

"We need to encourage the youth to engage in farming to keep the country’s food security on course," Castriciones said.