CONCERNED by the continuous shift out of the younger generations from farming, Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte had filed a bill aimed at incentivising the young farmers in order to ensure future food security and the perpetuity of the agricultural sector.
“The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reports on the employment drop in the agricultural sector accounting for a total employment fall of 24.5 percent or 9.7 million in October 2020, 24.6 percent (10.77 million) in October 2021 and 22.5 percent (10.60 million) in October 2022,” Duterte said.
Duterte noted that according to the 2020 study conducted by former University of the Philippines (UP) Anthropology professor Florencia Palis, the average age of a Filipino farmer is 53, and the study further cited that the country could face a critical shortage of farmers in the next 12 years.
House Bill No. 9329 also known as the Magna Carta of Young Farmers Act of 2023, seeks to codify the Magna Carta, which shall promote and fulfill the rights of young farmers in all aspects including but not limited to their rights to food security, education, and training and access to land.
“Considering the consistent high poverty incidence rates in the agricultural sector, the shift out of the sector will continue and food security will be endangered if recuperation of the sector will not be given utmost priority,” Duterte pointed out.
The Davao lawmaker further said that initiatives in agricultural development shall not only be limited in increasing agricultural production and farming subsidies but also in incentivizing members of the agricultural sector, particularly the youth who are opting out of agriculture for the more profitable profession in the urban areas.
“The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) attributes the long-term movement of workers out of agriculture to the correlation between average daily basic pay and level of education which tends to be stronger in other sectors than agriculture,” Duterte added.
The proposed measure would also establish the National Young Farmers and Fisherfolks Council, which shall be attached to the functioning as an advisory, recommendatory, and consultative body to ensure the success of the programs and activities pertinent to Young Farmers and perform oversight functions to the mentioned Young Farmers programs and activities.
The proposed measure also suggests that the government must ensure equal access to quality education and training of young farmers and encourage partnership and linkage with state universities and colleges (SUCs) on information and technology transfer to young farmer individuals and organizations.
It added that any graduate of Technical and Livelihood Education with specialization on Agriculture and Fisheries under the K to 12 curriculum shall be entitled to scholarship grant incentives to any agricultural and fisheries related courses in any SUC of choice upon compliance of some requirements.
The Act also aims to ensure that young farmers are provided with equal access to farm technologies and mechanization; ensure innovation, development and proliferation of young farmer-friendly technologies and mechanization agricultural production and processing; equal access to formal sources of credit and capital including forms of clean loans and Mortgage, Redemption, and Insurance (MRI); and equitable share to the produce of farms and aquatic resources.
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