Kiko Pangilinan

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan has renewed his call to revitalize the agricultural sector by actively engaging the country’s youth, emphasizing the critical role of young Filipinos in securing the nation’s food future and driving innovation in farming.

A long-time advocate for agricultural development and food security, the senator highlighted the urgent need to reverse the aging demographic of Filipino farmers and make agriculture a viable, attractive career path for the younger generation.

He shared that he has always grappled with how to entice the Filipino youth to farming, especially because the average age of Filipino farmers is now between 56 and 67.

“Some people would say, ‘How do you make farming sexy? So, that the new generation of Filipinos will consider taking a career’,” he said during an interpellation by Senator Loren Legarda of his privilege speech earlier this week. “Ultimately, I think, it’s about income. Why will a farmer—the youth of today—choose agriculture and farming, when you’re actually asking him or her to take a vow of poverty?”

Pangilinan, the chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, lamented that young Filipinos are no longer interested in taking up agricultural courses even if scholarships are available.

“Totoo po iyon, Mr. President,” he told Senator Vicente Sotto III who inquired about the lack of enrollees in his scholarship programs for agriculture and farming courses.

“In some areas, there are no takers despite the fact that there are scholarships. Kahit na libre na ang tuition at may mga scholarships pa for books and allowances and accommodations or lodging ay very few takers, Mr. President,” he added.

The senator said the spirit of the Sagip Saka Act, whose long title is Farmers and Fisherfolk Enterprise Development Program, aims to address this challenge as the law believes moving away from subsistence farming and towards farm enterprise development is the way to go.

Authored by Pangilinan, the Sagip Saka Act was passed in 2019 and allows national government agencies and local government units to buy food directly from farmers and fisherfolk without public bidding.

He explained how the law could increase farmers’ incomes and entice young Filipinos to enter agricultural entrepreneurship.

Pangilinan cited as an example the move of some 13 LGUs to buy rice and other agricultural products from the Camarines Sur Multipurpose Cooperative during the Covid-19 lockdown. It increased the cooperative’s income from P7 million in 2019 to P62 million by the end of 2020.

“And I would stress, therefore, if a farm enterprise, a cooperative, is already selling tens of millions of pesos worth of agricultural products monthly—then that will be an incentive for our young Filipino farmers to go into farm enterprise management and development,” he said.

The senator also added that similar with Thailand, Vietnam, and China, the government should use increasing income as the benchmark of its interventions in the agriculture sector. He pointed out that in China, the average income of farmers in 1979 was 160 yuan but they were able to increase this to over 6,000 yuan a month today.

“Because precisely, they see that unless farming gives you a return in terms of incomes, why should they go farming? So, very clear that unless you benchmark incomes as an indicator of a successful intervention in agriculture, then you will not be able to entice people to go into farming,” he stressed.