Agriculture graduates equipped with the knowledge, skills and opportunities are badly needed to address pressing food security challenges, and this can only happen if national government and local agencies work together, the chairman of the Senate agriculture committee said Wednesday.
Senator Francis Pangilinan said the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and local government units (LGUs) must work together to ensure that there are enough agriculture graduates equipped with vital skills needed to restart the ailing farm sector.
He lamented the aging population of farmers in the country and stressed the need for key government agencies and local governments to bridge the gap between academic training and the realities of the agricultural sector.
‘The problem now is that many of our farmers are aging and there are few people in the communities who wish to go into farming, an 8 to 5 job,’ he said in an interview, speaking in Filipino.
‘So, here you have students who need to graduate but before they graduate, they need to do OJT. At this point the CHED, the DA, the LGU, the Bureau of Extension Services and Bureau of Cooperatives should already be on board so that agriculture can be given the right attention right from the start,’ he added. ‘And in that way, the next generation of young farmers will be motivated to go into farming because their career path is clear.’
Pangilinan, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, shared that each year, about 26,000 agriculture students are required to complete 240 to 360 hours of on-the-job training to graduate.
The DA extension services, whose renationalization he has been pushing for through Senate Bill No. 1991, should be supervising agriculture students, he pointed out.
Earlier, Pangilinan noted that many agriculture graduates either pursue careers outside the sector, find employment abroad, or remain underemployed because of the disconnect between academic preparation, available jobs, and the actual needs of farming communities.
He said stronger coordination among government agencies, academic institutions, and LGUs would help create clearer career pathways for graduates while ensuring that the country’s investment in agricultural education translates into better support for farmers and fisherfolk.
recognizing that young graduates would like to pursue more stable income-generating careers than work in the farms, the senator said this is the aim of his 2019 Sagip Saka Act, which establishes the Farmers and Fisherfolk Enterprise Development Program to transition farmers and fishers from subsistence farming to farm enterprise, management, and development.
‘By aligning education, workforce development, and local agricultural needs, we strengthen not only our agricultural sector but also our country’s ability to provide affordable, sufficient, and nutritious food for every Filipino.’