Emphasizing the critical role of the youth in revitalizing the country’s agriculture sector and ensuring food security for future generations, Senator Kiko Pangilinan vowed to make farming “enticing” for young Filipinos by improving incomes and providing sufficient government support.
Speaking on Rappler’s “In The Public Square” recently, Pangilinan expressed renewed hope that young Filipinos will pursue farming if the country moves away from subsistence farming and toward farm enterprise management and farm ecotourism.
Legislation, the veteran legislator added, must be passed “to bring young Filipinos into agriculture and farming.”
“Don’t expect them to take a vow of poverty.”
“The full implementation, actually, of the Sagip Saka Act will entice young people to come into farming,” the Senate Committee on Agriculture chairperson stressed. “How do you make it exciting? Simple. Make it worthwhile, valuable. Don’t expect them to take a vow of poverty.”
Farmers, the seasoned lawmaker explained, must reap the fruits of their labor by becoming the direct beneficiaries of the government’s billions’ worth of food programs.
This is what the Sagip Saka Act, whose long title is “Farmers and Fisherfolk Enterprise Development Program of the Department of Agriculture,” hopes to achieve by allowing national and local governments to purchase food directly from farmers and fishermen without public bidding.
“We’d like to see billions of government funding flowing into the pockets of our farmers and fisherfolk cooperatives.”
“We’d like to see billions of government funding flowing into the pockets of our farmers and fisherfolk cooperatives. We’d like to see increased incomes,” the senator said, citing how the revenue of one farmer cooperative jumped by nine times–from P7 million in 2019 to P62 million in 2020-after 13 local government units bought rice directly from them.
“So, that’s your game changer if it is done right,” he added. “Otherwise, what’s the point of funding all of this when they (farmers) continue to be exploited? You will have better yields, but it’s the middleman who will reap better margins, larger profits, because your farmers are weak and disorganized and are exploited.”
Since Pangilinan’s return to the Senate this month, he has filed resolutions to investigate the implementation of the Sagip Saka Act, the high prices of food, the Rice Tariffication Law, and the impact of commercial fishing inside the 15-kilometer municipal waters on small-scale fishers.
He also filed a bill creating the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and is proposing the passage of the Agricultural Land Conversion Ban and the Post Harvest Facilities Support Act.
