For Youths All Over The Philippines, I Say, “The #Futureofwork Is Farming With Your Mind First.” For “The Young Farmers Challenge,” Please Include Regenerative Agriculture!

You have to make farming exciting, challenging. I’m not young anymore; I’m 81 and you may be 18, but if I had a piece of land and some funds, I would attempt farming my way – Minimum Tillage with Maximum Rewards. That would be exciting!

Above, in his intro, Ramon Yedra encourages more of the Filipino youth aged 18-30 to go into agribusiness. Mr Yedra is Director of the Agribusiness & Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) of the Department Of Agriculture (DA); the AMAS is pursuing the program called Young Farmers Challenge (YFC), also referred to as Kabataang Agribiz.

There, Mr Yedra shares link to Kay Calpo Lugtu’s article, “For Young Filipinos, #Futureofwork Is Farming” (21 April 2022, Manila Times, manilatimes.net). Ms Kay says:

… The pandemic's silver lining was that people started thinking about alternatives to working and earning a living. There's a lot of dialogue about how digital technology has changed the way we work but there should be more stories about how lessons from the pandemic changed the way we think and dream about how to live.

Liza Agoot says in a related story (25 April 2022, “DA ‘Challenges’ Cordilleran Youth To Join Agri Tilt” (Philippine News Agency, PNA.gov.ph), that the YFC is a competition of youth aged 18-30 who must submit “brief business proposals” that they will implement if they get selected at any of the competitive 3 stages-levels: provincial, regional, and national. For provincial winners, the prize is P50,000 each for 1,276 winners; for regional winners, P100,000 each for 48 winners; and P300,000 each for 6 national winners. That is to say, a participant who wins all the way to the national level receives a total of P450,000 towards implementing her/his business proposal.

My recommendation here is for the YFC people to encourage contestants to submit Agribiz proposals on RegenerativeAgriculture (RAg).

This digital 81-year old wishes to entice the digital 18-year olds female & male to explore the world of knowledge of RAg, priorly noting what a great many believers of Organic Agriculture (OA) do not realize – that OA is RAg. This assertion is based on both practical experience mixed with book knowledge accumulated since 56 years ago.

Above, the topmost image is my Windows 10 accidental collage (photo taken 25 April 2018). I choose it to insinuate that via the digital world, while you are standing on Philippine soil, you can travel The Information Superhighway! And yes, OA must be explored much more. I am a dedicated preacher of it because not only that it enriches farmers, but it also enriches our foods and impoverishes climate change!

[The lower image that says, “Dear Young People: (1) Never give up” is from my personal collection (17 May 2017; sorry, I forgot to source it).]

To help Philippine agriculture regenerate the healthy soils, biodiversity, foods, pockets and climate, to the 18-30 year-old daughters and sons of Filipino families, I say:
Help!
Dear young people:
(1) Never give up!”@517