Young Pinoys meet the ‘aging agri’ challenge

ERWIN Garcia, 38, grew up in a farming household. He showed potential at an early age, asking farm hands questions on the chores that kept their family’s palm oil plantation running in the province of Sultan Kudarat. But it was not until his father’s death in 2001 that he committed himself to his “calling”—that is, to be a full-time farmer.

Garcia is considered young in Philippine farming terms, with a background that is quite common for farming households: a boy grows up in the farm, studies in the city, but eventually comes back to his hometown to take on the family business.

But Garcia is not quite common in the sense that he is under 40 years old, and thus younger than the average Filipino farmer.

Various studies, including those of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggest that the Philippine agriculture sector is aging as senior and middle-aged farmers find it harder and harder to pass on their work to young people who find farming tedious, unsustainable and unglamorous compared to other jobs. Some peg the average Filipino farmer’s age at 57 years old, while some studies say it is 47 years old.

An international symposium organized by the International Cooperation Center for Agricultural Education based in Nagoya University, Japan found that developing and developed countries alike are experiencing aging, although countries such as Japan have much older farmers at an average age of 70.

Ramon Uy Jr., a high school graduate who has found success in organic farming, said he had engaged young people who wanted to become organic farmers or so-called “agripreneurs.” As such, he knows of what he speaks when he says a university degree in agriculture is farthest from most young people’s minds.

“A lot of students especially children of farmers end up taking up other courses or pursuing other fields which can be seen in the decline of students enrolling in agriculture courses,” Uy said. “At first, most of them don’t want to be engaged in agribusiness or become farmer because of what conventional farming has done—it has not only made our food unhealthy but it also destroyed the environment and the worst part of it all is it has kept our farmers even poorer.”

Although the impact of increasing farmer age has not yet been quantified, this presents yet another risk to food security (which the Philippines has been trying to achieve for many years) on top of climate change, urbanization and growing consumption.

Some agriculturists contest this risk of aging farmer demographic, saying there is always at least one among a farmer’s young family members who will take on the family farm. Still, how quickly we lose young farmers to other professions and what areas are threatened.

The Inquirer’s informal survey of rice farmers in Central Luzon, a major rice producing area, indicated that young farm hands needed for the backbreaking planting and harvesting tasks are being lost to part-time construction and trading jobs. Land conversion to real estate (mostly subdivisions) and commercial use boosts this trend. So does the exodus of educated young people to Metro Manila for employment in office- and factory-based jobs.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala believes there is hope that the Philippines can reverse or at least stop this aging trend. In an interview earlier this year, he said there is an emerging breed of young agri-entrepreneurs who are making farming “sexy” again, so to speak, and this is hoped to draw more young people to the sector.

Uy also believes there is hope yet to revitalize the farming sector in terms of promoting new specialty products, providing training and giving encouragement to would-be farmers.

Support system

“I think the government is on the right track in terms of direction and programs. The DA (Department of Agriculture) has fully promoted a nationwide organic agriculture program, which is now being supported by other gov’t agencies like DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform), DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources), DOST (Department of Science and Technology) and local government units,” Uy said.

One of the DA’s attached agencies, the Philippine Rice Institute, organizes youth camps at its Rice Science Museum at the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Most of the participants are students of agriculture-related courses or are considering a farming career after completing their studies in other fields.

Also among the DA’s many support initiatives is Gawad Saka, the annual search for outstanding or model farmers and fisherfolk. Since 1970, Gawad Saka has been recognizing individuals and institutions who excelled in productivity and incomes, or made other significant contributions to develop the agriculture and fishery sector. The DA said that through the conduct of Gawad Saka, the DA encourages more farmers and fisherfolk to wean themselves from traditional farming methods and adopt modern yet sustainable production technologies, inputs, machinery and facilities.

The government has also linked up with the academe and business sectors to provide farmers new farming methods to enhance farm productivity and offer value-added schemes, like processing their raw products into finished product to increase their market value, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said.

De los Reyes encouraged farmers to join local cooperatives and organizations to access inputs at much lesser cost and gain an instant network of trainers and buyers. Scale gives a farmers’ organization the chance to buy by bulk for its members farm inputs such as seedlings and fertilizers at wholesale prices, which an individual farmer could not avail himself of because he buys only for his own needs.

In Uy’s case, when demand for his products started outpacing his production, he and wife Francine partnered with other organic farmers who were being organized by the provincial government of Negros Occidental for an island-wide organic farming program.

“We’ve become a consolidator of organic products. This also led to having an even more diverse offering to our consumers. The total area of organic farms in Negros Occidental is more than 10,000 hectares (certified, in conversion, in transition) or more than 5 percent of the total agricultural area. I am currently the president of Onopra, the umbrella organization of all organic farming stakeholders in the province,” Uy said.

With that network, Uy was able to grow his small farm stand and vegetable kiosk into Fresh Start Organic & Natural Store-Cafes. He has two branches in his home province (The District Northpoint Ayala and Robinsons Place Bacolod) and distributes products all the way to Metro Manila’s specialty stores, supermarkets, restaurants and hotels.

Palm oil farmer Garcia said the government could help professionalize farming further by looking into the progress of technical working groups in charge of various sectors, including emerging ones.

“All we need is a sincere cost-effective and sustainable inclusive program designed to uplift the industry. The roadmaps have long been there, the infrastructures are supposedly being rehabilitated with Babes (Rogelio) Singson at the helm of DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways),” Garcia said.

Garcia said sample programs and implementing guidelines were readily available from the country’s neighbors in the Asean. “In our case, the long overdue attention and support for the palm oil industry should be undertaken, firstly by creating an agency solely for palm oil and not one under the Philippine Coconut Authority,” he said.

Garcia expressed hope that the country’s leaders would work to eradicate what he called the “Ko-Riyan” (short for Magkano Commission Ko Riyan) practice. Instead, he said, people in the government could boost farm production and exports. “It is better than sending people abroad as overseas Filipino workers amid brain drain and broken homes,” Garcia said.

“The agricultural sector needs to be given a just and ample attention and support in an inclusive, sincere and sustainable sense of being.”

It’s both funny and sad, Garcia said, that the Philippines has fallen behind agriculturally to other Asian countries that used to send their scholars to our country to study such things as rice and fruit farming. It is a challenge that the country must overcome as farmers and their support groups work together, he said.

“Let the dignity of the Filipino farmer and this industry rise up to a globally accepted status through our all-out support,” Garcia said.

The pros’ advice

Learn, and keep learning. Jomar D. Jarvinia, 38 years old, a rice farmer in Isabela province who led the DA-Gawad Saka awardees for 2013, says young farmers should get additional training regularly, just like other professionals.

Farmers, he said, should understand the climatic conditions in their area because it helped them plan their cropping strategies, he said.

Jarvinia has pursued several training programs provided by the DA-Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) and he implements the lessons in his farming practice. Young people who have no access to trainers still have an ace on hand: the Internet. Uy said that with all the information available online, it could not be said that there was no opportunity in agriculture, even specialty sectors like organic farming.

Break free from the norm

“My advice to young farmers is to give yourself a break from the ‘concrete jungle.’ Be close to nature in the fertile farmlands of our country and lead a less stressful slow life by helping give life through a sustainable innovative good farm policy practices,” Garcia said.

“There are so many potential young good farmers around, but they have not given themselves a chance to learn and love farm life,” he said.

Failing is not the end

Uy, whose family’s foundry shop went bankrupt around the time he graduated from high school, did not finish college. When he turned to organic farming, he had to learn through trial and error.

“We will continue to experience problems, challenges, and crisis; it’s how we deal with these that is important. We will continue to make mistakes along the way but for sure we definitely continue to improve more as we continue to grow and reach our goal which is to provide consumers with healthy and safe products while improving the lives of our partners and our people and preserving our environment for future generations,” Uy said.

Diversify

Jarvinia says it is good to diversify crops to get more income and lower the risk of losses from erratic weather patterns caused by climate change.

Uy, for his part, says his agribusiness now operates in almost every step of the niche organic supply chain from organic fertilizer to natural cosmetics and cafe operations.

“I used to work full time with our family business but later on decided to do what what we have been advocating which is turning waste into organic fertilizer. Our own business Fresh Start) was built from scratch, although our families were very supportive in providing a piece of land and equipment to start with,” Uy said.

Work with dignity

Uy said he has adopted the No Tawad Policy in combination with other efforts to professionalize the sector. “We tried out different strategies in selling directly to consumers. The best strategy is to educate one consumer at a time about the benefits of buying organic,” he said. “I am very optimistic that now people, especially the young (millenials) are seeing things differently in organic agriculture, in social enterprise. The younger generation are driven by initiating change and being part of it.”

Have a vision

For Philippine agriculture to move forward, Uy said, young farmers must be engaged by becoming part of a “revolution” in this sector. With value-added products like organic vegetables fetching premium prices, he says, farmers earn well enough in the province such that they would stop squatting in Metro Manila to find work, which is among the many causes of traffic, poverty and social inequality despite the country’s high overall economic growth.

“Some say going organic is going back to basics or the stone age, but the fact it’s moving forward to a more sustainable kind of agriculture, where rural communities thrive because they have important roles in our society as the grower of our food,” Uy said.

Mind the earth

The Philippines being an agricultural country, the soil, water and other natural resources are its biggest hope.

“We must take care of our natural resources. We have suitable weather and rich soils to grow diverse crops, we have a rich environment from the mountain to the sea with 7,107 beautiful island and one of the best people. Each island has its own people who need to eat three times a day. I think it is quite a big market that you can not even think about competition yet,” he said.

Stay focused

“When we were starting, we got a lot of criticisms for starting a unique business of making organic fertilizer using only waste materials as only a few knew what organic was then. But we really believed in its benefits to our health, as well as the well being of the farmers and the environment… Our food system is getting worse with all the chemicals, pesticides and everything processed with preservatives, artificial coloring and flavoring. We also see how unsustainable conventional agriculture is.”

Help others

Being optimistic and grounded in harmony with others, Garcia said, guided him in running the family business in Sultan Kudarat.

“Giving importance and support to all Muslim and Christian farm workers will enable one to gain their loyal assistance,” he said. “I learned that doing it right gives you the expected results and that giving dignity to your farm workers gain not only their respect but also the loyalty that is passed on to their family members.”

Count your blessings

In a way, Uy said, not being as successful in conventional agriculture as its Asian neighbors gives the Philippines an edge because the direction was already gearing toward sustainable agriculture. “We can be ahead in this. But we need more young organic farmers, processors, traders, purveyors, chefs so that in the future, every Filipino would have access to affordable healthy safe food for there families, while we continue to improve the rural areas by providing sustainable livelihoods and helping preserve our environment,” Uy said.