Participants to the Negrosanon Agri Youth Congress
Talisay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines, 31 July 2024--The Negrosanon Agri Youth Congress was held on 27 July 2024 to discuss the empowerment of young farmers, rural youth, and youth in agriculture to become effective advocates for change in their communities.
Organized by PAMANA (Pamatan-on nga Mangunguma sang Negros Alliance), the meeting of Negros youth leaders involved in agriculture called, among others, for the enactment of the Magna Carta of Young Farmers.
The Magna Carta of Young Farmers recognizes the invaluable contributions of young men and women farmers to family farming and the food value chain, and their strategic role, by providing a policy framework that will afford them a sense of pride so that they will opt to stay in the farms, make a decent living from agriculture and secure the food sufficiency of the country. Also, it is designed to strengthen existing and state-of-the-art farming activities, and provide incentives that will encourage the young agricultural graduates to venture into agriculture and become "agri-preneurs."
The Magna Carta of Young Farmers was filed yesterday in the Philippine Senate by Senator Risa Hontiveros as Senate Bill 2745.
SEARICE supports the call of PAMANA and youth partners tor the passage of the bill in particular, and for the empowerment of young farmers, in general. Globalization and the lack of substantial opportunities in the agriculture sector, among many factors, have resulted in a decrease in the number of farmers and reduced the interest of younger generations to take up farming. A 2020 study from the University of the Philippines (UP) showed that the average age of Filipino farmers is 53 years old.
The meeting was headlined by a number of speakers including Dra. Dina Genzola, Officer-in-Charge, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist; Honeybunch Lemonade, project officer of CYAN and board president of PAMANA; John Rey Reyes, chairperson of Hugyaw Western Visayas Regional Youth Coalition; Coleen Awit, Advocacy and MEAL manager of the Negrosanon Young Leaders Institute, Inc.; Mayvelyn Madrid, SK Federation President of Negros Occidental; and Ma. Theresa Robles-Pialago, administrative officer and public information officer, of the Provincial Environmental and Natural Resources Officer of Negros Occidental.