Dr. Cameron Odsey, Department of Agriculture-CAR regional director, said the competition is open to people aged 18 to 30 years old looking for start-up capital for their agricultural projects.
“This is a good program that will encourage our youth. In fact during the pandemic, there were several people who saw the value of going to agriculture, especially when most sources of income stopped and the department had many assistance for people who wants to produce food,” he said.
During the competition, participants have to come up with a brief business proposal which they will have to implement if they get selected to advance all the way to the national level.
Up for grabs are prize money worth PHP50,000 each for 1,276 winners in the provincial level; PHP100,000 each for 48 winners in the regional level; and PHP300,000 each for six national winners. Odsey said that a Cordilleran was among the YFC national awardees in 2021 and received the PHP300,000 prize.
Participants who will hurdle the provincial, regional, and national rounds stand to get a total of around PHP500,000 which they can as capital for their project.
“We thank you for giving the youth nationwide a competitive grant assistance fund. It is a jumpstart of an activity that youth of this nation will strive to do more in agriculture and express themselves in agriventure that will occur from agriculture,” said Harry Osboken, national awardee of the YFC in 2021.
“I encourage the youth to join and let us show that we can again enter in the national and show that we are the source of food, the salad bowl in the country,” he said.
The nationwide tilt is a brainchild of Sen. Imee Marcos, who visited Benguet last week where she highlighted the aging population of farmers in Cordillera who are mostly aged 57 59 years old.
“They are getting old the youth refuses to go to the field and till the land because there is no income with the very low prices of crops. That is the reason the youth leave for other places and pursue other careers but there are many of them interested so we have to move forward and go high-tech in farming and thru digital marketing and selling online of the products and value-adding),” Marcos said.
Marcos said they plan to expand the program to marginalized sector like women and indigenous peoples. “We want them to go back to agriculture by providing them additional funds and allowing them to see that there is income in agriculture,” she said. **Liza Agoot, PNA
