DA Sec. Tiu-Laurel meets with agri youth

AVANT GARDENER

Department of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel Jr., through the efforts of the Agribusiness and Countryside Development Foundation (ABCDF), recently met with some members of the youth to discuss the state of Philippine agriculture. 

ABCDF is a non-profit organization that aims to bring people together for job generation, particularly in rural areas.

In attendance were ABCDF president Julius Barcelona, ABCDF chair Ernesto Ordonez, ABCDF vice president Vicky Wieneke, ABCDF trustee yours truly, and select invitees from the agriculture youth sector including Dennis Hung of Mapalad Integrated Farms, Armand Sazon of fishing social enterprise Tindagat, Raf Dionisio and Jess Infante of sustainable travel agency MAD Travel, and Raffy Tesoro of agricultural logistics company Heneral Merchandise.

The meeting went over an hour, with Sec Tiu-Laurel extending the initial 45-minute window so that he could get a better grasp of the concerns of young agribusiness owners. Here’s a part of what was discussed:

Barcelona, who is also COO of Harbest Agribusiness Corporation, acknowledged that “the attrition is very high… Before the pandemic, we would meet fairly regularly among many young professionals [in the agriculture industry], but after the pandemic, I think more than half of them have essentially ceased operations since then.”

Hung spoke a bit about how he started his farm, saying that while they started from scratch and had to go through a lot of trial and error, he had a bit of leeway because farming wasn’t their main source of income. He cited knowledge transfer as a challenge that new farmers face. “It would have been easier if someone [was] at least guiding us throughout the production stage of our products.”

Barcelona concurred. “Extension services really are fairly lacking… I know the Mandanas [ruling] means that a lot of these extension services are supposed to be the responsibility of the LGUs now, but that seems to be fairly lacking.”

Dionisio, who works with Aetas in Zambales, recounted the impact of environmental calamities on the communities he works with. “We’ve been planting since 2016 we lost 22,000 trees from the wildfire this year, which is why we moved hard into making biochar. But we could turn the flammable grass into carbon powder that we can sell. But across all the communities—we work with water—it's their first time to really lack water… But that said, it looks like if they have enough irrigation funds, they can weather through [lack of rain]...”
Barcelona correlated the hesitation of young people to enter agriculture with not just the inadequate income associated with the industry but also a lack of a safety net, especially given how unpredictable nature can be. “some sort of safety net… or same kind of network for… crop insurance, or improvement on irrigation” [would help encourage young people to stay in the industry].

Secretary Tiu-Laurel said that, “...each plant, each product, is an industry, separate industry…. I don't want to dictate to the industry, because the DA is not a company. You tell us what you need, and we should just meet on a regular basis, and we should give you what you really need.” 

He added in Taglish that what the DA is looking for are projects that it can support. “What I want from you are projects. What are your projects? Ones where you and the farmers make money. Let us know what you need. I think the best thing that the DA can do is create success stories.”

Sec Tiu-Laurel is confident that there are a lot of opportunities for growth in the industry. “There’s only one way but up… There are so many problems and issues but they’re fixable, as long as we have a plan,” he said. “The beauty is so many people are willing to help, so there’s hope. As long as the government listens to you guys, [and] you listen to us, I think we will be okay.”