Skip to main content

06, The More The Merrier – PH DA Wants 800 Youths In Agribiz Mentorship Program

Forward the 800!

Meanwhile, I am seeing Double. As a cockeyed optimist, that’s what I am doing with the launching by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar of the “Mentoring and Attracting Youth in Agribusiness” (MAYA) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

How is that? One:Youth learning agriculture as a business – happily. Two: Adults & Seniors learning agriculture as a way of life – unhappily. How? Seeing is dis/believing!

The news release from the DA says, “Thousands Apply For Youth Agribiz Mentorship Program[1]” (11 February 2021, DA.gov.ph). On 09 February 2021, MAYA had announced the opening of 800 youth scholarships. Immediately, “The online system was deluged with interested individuals, exceeding by four-fold the required number of interns.” Wanted: 800 MAYA scholars. Responded: 3,000 applicants.
(upper image[2] from DA website)

The young would-be farmers connect!

Already, the 800 are winners: Each MAYA scholar is entitled to a monthly allowance of P20,000 (US$400). And that allowance is only a start.

MAYA is accepting and will be mentoring Filipinos 20-30 years old, graduate of any 4- or 5-year degree course, preferably in agriculture, fisheries, and agribusiness. Says Director Vivencio Mamaril, who is head of the Bureau of Agricultural Research, the DA agency in-charge:

MAYA will be conducted through experiential learning, or a learner-centric methodology, that allows the interns to put into immediate use the knowledge and skills that they’ve learned in a relevant fashion.

In short: Now you know it; now you do it!

That is to say, it’s not the books, it’s not the looks – it’s the application. You don’t learn by knowing: you learn by doing.

This is a 6-month internship program, 24 weeks actual. The 800 will be deployed to different DA national (Office of the Secretary) and regional field offices.

After that, what? They may either opt for an agri-fishery business or pursue a career in the DA or any government agency.

For the business, the MAYA scholar may apply for a zero-interest loan with the DA’s Agricultural and Credit Policy Council (ACPC). With a proper proposal, naturally.

That’s the future. We go back to the present: If farming is not a business, what business have our current farmers doing it!?

Why does farming in the Philippines remain a bad business proposition? Because farmers don’t treat it as a business! Instead, they treat it as a way of life – wasteful fertilizing as a way of life, wasteful spraying against pests as a way of life, wasteful transplanting as a way of life, usurious 5-6 loans as a way of life, low farmgate prices as a way of life.

Ipinanganak tayong mahirap, brod! Anak ng magsasaka. Kaya. (We were born poor, brother! Son of a farmer. So.)

If farming is not a business, what business have farmers doing it!?

The problem with the old farmers is that they look at farming as a way of life, not as a way of bettering a life! Now, they will have to learn from the youth.

So? Forward the 800!@517


[1]https://www.da.gov.ph/thousands-apply-for-youth-agribiz-mentorship-program/

[2]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-acpc-unveil-two-loan-programs-for-the-youth/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Secretary William Dar Dreams Of A PH Database On Agriculture, ADING – Perfect Match For OpAPA!

On 27 January 2021, the press release came out from the Department of Agriculture (DA) titled “DA Taps State Schools For Food Security Policy Research Projects [1] , ” data-gathering efforts commonly aiming at creating a regional database for agricultural and rural development, urgently for national food security. The collaboration is another initiative of the DA under its Agriculture Dialogue and Information Network Groups (ADING) Program “that aims to further strengthen and improve public trust and confidence in the Department.” Note: “Ading” in Ilocano means “younger sibling.” Now, not only the aim but the name is perfect – I am thinking of the 17-year old proposal of Mr Dar himself that he called “ Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture” (OpAPA), which he advocated in 2003 when he was still Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) – with ADING and OpAPA 2021, we have a family of science knowledge banks with Mr Dar as fathe
Post a Comment
Read more

Historical PH 1st Holy Mass: Mazaua Or Limasawa? Fr Amalla Vs Maria Serena Diokno Vs Ambeth Ocampo – And The Priest Is Right!

We Filipinos celebrate 500 years of Christianity today Wednesday, 31 March 2021, Christianity brought to pagans by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing the seas for Spain. The historical question is: Where was the first Holy Mass celebrated: “Limasawa” (in Leyte) or “Mazaua” (in Butuan)? Catholic priest Fr Joesilo C Amalla has just published the book (above), An Island They Called Mazaua, that argues the island of “Mazaua” in Butuan is the “true site of first Holy Mass in the Philippines [1] ”  and not “Limasawa” in Leyte (ANN, 07 January 2021, Manila Times ). The declaration and discussion are made by Butuan-based Fr Amalla in his 644-page book. Among other things, he writes: The truth is that the prevailing state- and church-affirmation and multiple reaffirmations of the island of Limasawa as the site of that first Holy Mass have no factual, historical and geographic (bases) whatsoever nor any shred of evidentiary support from cartographic studies, navigational informat
Post a Comment
Read more

UPLB, Where Has All Your Extension Gone? Gone To Flowers Everyone! When Will They Ever Learn?

What do you mean “Extension”? Here is “Dean Umali’s Rule” as his colleagues remember it [1] : “When a farmer visits your office, stop everything you are doing and give him his due attention, for he is the primary commitment of your being in this institution.” What is known as “UPCA’s Golden Age of Extension” is 1959 to 1969, when Dioscoro L Umali was Dean of UPCA – that is according to Louise Sigrid Antonio et al writing 25 May 2014, “Dioscoro L Umali,” in their blog The Heat Ray Of Archimedes ). I was Freshman at UPCA when he became Dean in 1959; later, I remember UPCA agronomists really busy with national extension projects involving rice and corn. (top image [2]  from Philippine Science Heritage Center, Facebook ) On 20 November 1972, through Presidential Decree 58, the UP System was created, with UPLB as one of the universities in the system. Unfortunately, while the college UPCA grew into the university UP Los Baños, the Extension function grew out of the university until
Post a Comment
Read more