Andanar urges Filipino youth to engage in agricultural activities

By Prince Golez

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he supports the initiative of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to promote the involvement of the youth sector in agriculture.

“I agree that we really should be tapping our youth more in agriculture. It is good that we are giving particular attention to our agriculture students and giving lands for them to till and develop,” Andanar said during a recent episode of the Cabinet Report.

The Presidential Communications Operations Office chief cited the vast opportunity for Filipinos in terms of developing the country, especially the countryside.

Development, he added, should also reach those outside of urban centers.

“We continue to call on everyone to broaden their perspective. We have 7,641 islands of beauty of our opportunity, we have fields of bounty, mountain tops of growth and waters and richness around us. I hope we can see more clearly the need to spread development across these islands,” said Andanar.

“There is more to the Philippines than our city centers, let us appreciate our countryside and invest in it for our own future,” he also said.

In the same program, Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones said agriculture graduates may be eligible for land grant under the agency’s program pursuant to Administrative Order No. 3 issued last 2020.

This, according to him, will help encourage young people to go into agriculture.

“Our farmers are getting older. The average age of Filipino farmers today is 57 years old. And whether we like it or not, most of our citizens, they would like their children to finish college, and thereafter, leave agriculture or farming. They would rather be engineers or accountants, lawyers, etc.,” the secretary said.

Under Administrative Order No. 3, new graduates of agricultural courses may be awarded with not more than 3 hectares of land so long as they meet the qualifications and secure the requirements.

The individual must be landless at the time of his application for the program, and their parents must not be applicants or beneficiaries of other agrarian reform programs, it stated.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)