QUEZON -- Senator Imee Marcos has urged the young students here to engage in farming and be at the forefront of agriculture in the near future.
The senator noted that the farmers in the present generation are mostly aged 50 to 60 years old who would have all retired eight years from now.
“By the year 2030, they are all aged, at wala na tayong kakainin kundi imported kasi lahat tumanda na,” lamented the senator when asked during a media interview here on Sunday, Dec. 4.
Senator is pushing a program in which young farmers who would show their projects will receive P50,000 each in financial aid.
She said her intention is to change the mindset of young farmers who, she added, shouldn’t be discouraged by little income in farming.
“Ibahin na nila. Meron na tayo na medyo climate sale na agrikultura, tapos i-digitize na nila,” said Marcos.
The lady senator even cited as an example what they have been doing in Ilocos Norte headed by her son, Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc, in which young farmers are transacting online their agri-products.
“Aayaw na nila makipagusap sa mga biyahero at kung sino-sino,” she said, referring to the farmers in Ilocos Norte.
Under the program Senator Marcos is pushing, the young farmers who will be engaged in new agri-fishery enterprises would be given financial grants under the Young Farmers Challenge Fund (YFCF).
The program is open to all interested youth with proposed Agri-fishery enterprises with profitability potential. The grants shall serve as start-up capital for the planned agri-fishery enterprise operated by an individual youth or as a group-managed venture.
Some 500 students in the first batch came from various colleges in Lucena City and received P4000 each, while indigent residents from selected barangays were given gift packs of Noche Buena.
The Ilocano senator made a visit to Quezon and Batangas provinces for a payout of the college students’ educational assistance taken from the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) supervised the distribution of Noche Buena packages.
Marcos distributed educational assistance, and gift packs in the towns of Candelaria, and Sariaya in Quezon, Rosario, Padre Garcia, and Lipa City in Batangas.